The different varieties share as little as 58 percent lexical similarity. Among these, there are four subgroups that arise from the study of the wordlists: 1 Buksa, 2 Rana, 3 Kathoriya and Sunha, and 4
Dangora from west to east. These four subgroups form a dialect chain in which similarity decreases with distance. From the wordlists, Kathoriya Tharu KkP
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appears to be a potential center point in the chain, a variety which even the ends of the chain might understand.
Recorded text testing confirms the suspicion that Kathoriya Tharu is a center point in a dialect chain. Of those varieties tested on their understanding of Kathoriya Tharu KkP, subjects averaged 90
percent or better. At the ends of the dialect chain, however, Rana Tharu RNs understood the Dang Tharu DDK text at an average of only 51 percent DDK understood the RNs text at an average of 68
percent.
Besides Kathoriya KkP, no other reference point was understood well at all of the other test points. Interestingly, not only is KkP understood well at the other test points, but also subjects in KkP
understood the other reference points better than any other test point. Only four of six possible test points were tested on the Kathoriya recorded text test RTT. Neither
Rana RNs nor Buksa BNM both in Nainital District were tested on the Kathoriya RTT. Because RNs, BNM, and RKB had such uniformly high scores among themselves, it is expected that results from RKB
would be fairly representative of results from RNs and BNM. Final verification of the suspected high intelligibility at these two points needs further testing.
From lexical similarity results, it appears that Chitwan Tharu, to the east of this survey area, is quite different from the varieties studied here, and should be thought of as a separate language.
3.2 Tharu’s relationship to Hindi
Hindi is closely related to the Tharu varieties in this survey. Lexically, it is closest to the Buksa and Rana varieties, and somewhat less similar to Kathoriya and Dangora varieties. Understanding of a simple Hindi
text appears to be quite high among Tharu speakers in India; however, it is likely that these results show an overlay of learned ability in Hindi, an ability that is not shared by all segments in Tharu communities.
In the one village in Nepal where the Hindi text was tested, understanding was quite low, showing that the results from the test points in India may be showing the effect of learning and not just the result of
Tharu’s inherent closeness to Hindi.
3.3 Bilingualism in Hindi
Results of testing Hindi bilingualism among the Tharu show a typical pattern of second-language acquisition: those who are educated score significantly better than those who are uneducated. Among
those who have received at least one year of education, there is “very good, general proficiency” in Hindi. This educated group comprises approximately 10–30 percent of the population. Among the 70–90
percent who are uneducated, proficiency in Hindi is only at a basic level. Such results indicate that these people would have great difficulty understanding or communicating any complex subject matter in
Hindi.
3.4 Language use and language attitudes
Tharu is nearly always used in the home. There is no indication that Tharu is being replaced by Hindi in the critical domains of home and religion. The use of the Tharu language continues to be important for
in-group communication.
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Note that this report uses its own codes rather than standard ISO 639-3 codes. The important ISO codes for this report are: Buksa [tkb]; Sonha [soi]; Tharu Chitwania [the]; Tharu Dangaura [thl]; Tharu Kathariya [tkt];
Tharu Rana [thr]; and Tharu Kochila [thq].
Attitudes towards the use of Tharu are consistently strong and positive. All indications are that Tharu will remain in use as a mother tongue for the foreseeable future. Attitudes are tentatively positive
towards literature in Tharu; however, attitudes towards literature in Kathoriya Tharu are somewhat negative, though this assessment is very preliminary.
3.5 Tharu culture
