Figure 11. Nepali language use. As you look at
Figure 11 from the left to the right, you can see that the use of Nepali is highest in Rajarani 85 responded “Every day” and Khoktak 83 responded “Every day” and lowest in
Hedangna 38 reported using Nepali every day. We also looked at the data by age for Nepali use but there was no significant difference between the frequency of Nepali use among older and younger
people. Sixty-seven percent of young people reported using Nepali every day and 33 reported sometimes. Sixty-five percent of older people reported using Nepali every day and 35 reported
sometimes. It is interested to note that the highest percentage of respondents that reported using Yamphu ev
ery day 92 and Nepali every day 85 was in Rajarani. Possibly this indicates a stable bilingualism.
Based on the overall descriptions of language use among respondents in the villages by domain, we can conclude that Hedangna has the strongest use of Yamphu. Devitar, Seduwa, and Rajarani have
moderate to high levels of Yamphu language use, with Devitar being slightly stronger than the other two. Respondents in Khoktak have the lowest level of Yamphu use.
5.1 Domains of language use
A study of language use patterns attempts to describe which languages or speech varieties members of a community use in different social situations or contexts, referred to as domains. The following sections
will explore Yamphu language use in various domains.
5.1.1 Domains of language use overall
During the informal interviews, we asked respondents which language they most frequently use in thirteen domains of life. In Table 1 the domains of use are listed with the languages used in each
domain. The domains are ordered with the higher percentages of Yamphu use at the top of the table. In some situations, respondents said that they use both Yamphu and Nepali equally.
Table 1. Domains of language use overall Domain
n= Yamphu
Both Y N Nepali
Family gatherings 64
78 3
19 PujaPrayer
62 60
3 35
Joking 62
41 24
35 Scolding children
64 41
14 45
Telling stories to children 62 32
18 49
Quarreling 63
29 25
46 Debate
64 28
16 56
Village meetings 64
20 13
67 Counting
64 20
6 73
Telling stories 63
20 14
67 Singing at home
55 22
12 66
Shopping 63
13 15
73 Singing
62 5
4 91
Looking at all the villages together, Yamphu is used most frequently in three primary domains among the respondents: family gatherings, pujaprayer, and joking. We can also see that Nepali is used
most heavily in the domains of singing, counting, and shopping. The most common domain for the use of Yamphu 78 is family gatherings. Even though Nepali is
used more frequently in most of the domains, the vitality of Yamphu is seen in the fact that for family gatherings, a high percentage of respondents use Yamphu. Traditionally, the home is thought to be the
primary domain to observe in relation to vitality. After family gatherings, Yamphu is used the second-most in the domain of pujaprayer 60. Part
of the reason for this may be the strong correlation between the Yamphu language and traditional Kirat religion. Even if Yamphu is not used frequently in some domains, it is necessary to use it while
performing puja because the rituals are dependent on the language. When respondents joke, 41 of them use Yamphu, 24 of them use both Yamphu and Nepali, and
35 of them use Nepali. Joking may be at the top of the list of domains for Yamphu language use because humor is best expressed in the language one knows best.
There were three domains where Nepali use in specific domains exceeded 70 of respondents: singing, counting, and shopping.
The domain with the highest Nepali use among respondents is singing. Ninety-one percent of respondents said they sing in Nepali. A possible explanation for this high percentage is that there is a
lack of songs in Yamphu, leaving people with little choice but to sing in Nepali. The domain with the second highest Nepali use is counting 73. During the course of eliciting
wordlists, we asked respondents for Yamphu numbers up to five. Often, people had difficulty thinking of the numbers beyond three because they reported using Nepali most of the time to count.
The third most common domain where Nepali is most frequently used is shopping 73. Often shopping is done in a nearby village with a bazaar where there are people of other ethnicities, requiring
one to speak Nepali for shopping. In looking at language use by village in different domains,
Figure 12 and Figure 13 show the distribution between languages in each village in these two domains.
Figure 12. Language use in the domain of family gatherings. Yamphu language use is higher than Nepali during family gatherings in every village but Khoktak
50 reported Nepali use. Especially notable is that 100 of respondents in Hedangna said that they use Yamphu during family gatherings.
Figure 13 displays the language use by village in the domain of pujaprayer.
Figure 13. Language use by village in the domain of prayerpuja. In the domain of pujaprayer, all the villages but Seduwa had a higher reported Yamphu use than
Nepali. The reason that 79 of respondents in Seduwa reported using Nepali for pujaprayer is probably because the Christian population Seduwa is quite high, possibly a majority of the village. Because the
church is made up not only of Yamphu people, but also of speakers of other languages, they use Nepali
for prayer. Yamphu language use is high in this domain because of the strong relationship with Yamphu and the Kirat religion which is dominant in the other villages.
5.1.2 Language use in the home
