1 Purpose and goals
The purpose of this research is to provide sociolinguistic information to Tribhuvan University as part of the Linguistic Survey of Nepal. This information will inform and support language policy and planning as
well as language development in the Yamphu communities. Additionally, the data will clarify the relationships between Yamphu [ybi], Yamphe [yma], Northern Lohorung [lbr], and Southern Lohorung
[lrr].
The four goals of this research are as follows: • Understand the Yamphu community’s desires for language development.
• Investigate vitality of the Yamphu language. • Understand lexical similarity, comprehension, and attitudes between Yamphu [ybi], Yamphe
[yma], Northern Lohorung [lbr], and Southern Lohorung [lrr] communities. • Investigate variation among Yamphu varieties.
2 Introduction
Certain members of the Yamphu community have expressed interest in Yamphu language development and are ready to move forward. Given the unclear linguistic relationships and attitudes between
Yamphu, Yamphe, Northern Lohorung, and Southern Lohorung, a better understanding of the language situation is necessary before proceeding with development programs.
2.1 Terms of reference
Yamphu is known by several names, both inside and outside the language community. Internally, Yamphu refer to themselves as Yakkhaba and their language as Yakkhaba khap, but when speaking
Nepali, they call themselves Yamphu or Yamphu Rai. Both Rutgers 1998:4 and Hanβon 1988:9 use the term Yamphe to refer to the Yamphu. In Hanβon 1991:107, Yamphe is listed as Yamphu,
Newahang Yamphe, Yakkhaba, Yakkha, Yamphe Kha, Yamphu Kha, Yakkaba Kha, and Yakkhaba Khate. Interestingly, he specifies Yamphe as a linguistic label for speakers in Makalu Village Development
Committee VDC.
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Next, Hanβon proceeds to define the geographic boundaries of Yamphe much like Rutgers’ description of the Yamphu area. We will show in section 6.1 that
“Yamphe” is a term that the Yamphu find offensive, and that
only outsiders use. For this reason, throughout this report we will use the term Yamphu.
In addition to the term Yamphu, we will discuss the terms “Northern Lohorung” and “Southern
Lohorung. ” The Northern Lohorung live primarily to the north of Khandbari, the headquarters of
Sankhuwasabha district and closely identify with Yamphu people. There are obvious language differences, which we will discuss in chapter seven, but ethnically they consider themselves descendants
of the same peoples. Hanβon 1991 first used the term Southern Lohorung to describe the group of people living south and east in Dhankuta district of the Northern Lohorung and Yamphu speakers. The
linguistic relationships between these groups will be described further in chapters six and seven. Based on our research, the group termed Southern Lohorung identifies most closely with the Yamphu. They do
not use the term Southern Lohorung to identify themselves, but rather, use the term Yamphu. For this reason, we will refer to the current ISO code of Southern Lohorung [lrr] as Yamphu. Additionally,
because we discovered that the Lohorung language is relatively uniform, it will be henceforth referred to as Lohorung rather than Northern Lohorung.
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Each of the 75 districts in Nepal is divided up into VDCs which act as local units of governance.
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2.2 Geography
