Jirel language

Jirel is a Southern Tibetic language of Nepal. It is spoken in Jiri, in Tshetrapa village, Jungu village, and Cheppu village of Dolakha District and Sindhupalchok and different parts of Nepal.

Jirel
Native to	Nepal
Ethnicity	Jirel
Native speakers	4,800 (2011 census)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Tibeto-Kanauri (?) Bodish Tibetic Sherpa–Jirel Jirel
Language codes
ISO 639-3	jul
Glottolog	jire1238
ELP	Jirel

It has long been in discussion that the Jirels are the Kirats as other Tibeto-Burmans. But further research is required to prove that they come from Kirats. Very weak literature without evidence is presented by some authors until now claiming that they are the Kirats. They have claimed that they are animists so they are Kirats. They adopted some cultural and religious practice from Sunuwars and Sherpas when they began to live and share with them. The language they use is the most powerful evidence that they come from a Tibetan ethnic tribe. Their physical appearance and family name are also supporting evidence for Tibetan origin.

They mainly practice Buddhism. Lamas are their priests. They also have Shamans who are called Phombo, which is derived from the word, Boo, the Tibetan Tantric philosophy.

Jirel Uchen, which is also called Sambhota Script, is their script or calligraphy. This can be found at religious monuments like chautaras, chortens, and monasteries. Jirel Lamas use this script. The script is shown below:

ཀ ka [ká] ཁ kha [kʰá] ག ga [ɡà/kʰːà] ང nga [ŋà] ཅ ca [tɕá] ཆ cha [tɕʰá] ཇ ja [dʑà/tɕʰːà] ཉ nya [ɲà] ཏ ta [tá] ཐ tha [tʰá] ད da [dà/tʰːà] ན na [nà] པ pa [pá] ཕ pha [pʰá] བ ba [bà/pʰːà] མ ma [mà] ཙ tsa [tsá] ཚ tsha [tsʰá] ཛ dza [dzà/tsʰːà] ཝ wa [wà] ཞ zha [ʑà] ཟ za [zà] འ 'a [ʔà] ཡ ya [jà] ར ra [rà] ལ la [là] ཤ sha [ɕá] ས sa [sá] ཧ ha [há] ཨ a [ʔá]

The similarity of Jirel language that with the language used in Buddhist holy books is the powerful evidence to claim and believe that they are of Tibetan origin. It is believed that more than 80 percent of Jirel diction goes with Tibetan language where only 35–40 percent of diction is found to be close to pure Tibetan diction.

Phonology

Consonants

			Bilabial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
				plain	sibilant
Nasal			m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	plain	p	t	t͡s	t͡ʃ	k
		prenasalized	ᵐp	ⁿt	ⁿt͡s	ⁿt͡ʃ	ᵑk
	voiced	plain	b	d	d͡z	d͡ʒ	ɡ
		prenasalized	ᵐb	ⁿd	ⁿd͡z	ⁿd͡ʒ	ᵑɡ
Fricative	voiceless				s	ʃ		h
	voiced				z	ʒ
Tap				ɾ
Lateral				l
Approximant			w			j

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		ä

Further reading

• Strahm, Esther; Maibaum, Anita (1999). "Verb Pairs in Jirel". Notes on Tibeto-Burman. 4: 1–24. Archived from the original on 2024-01-26.