The Yamphu Kirat Samaj Society is one such organization. The society was formed in 2003, and has branches in Num, Dhankuta, Lalitpur, and elsewhere. The primary objectives of the Yamphu Kirat
Society are “preserving, protecting and conserving Yamphu culture, language, and religion.” They also state that “this organization advocates against any forms of discrimination based on ethnicity and
advocates for identity-based rights of the Yamphu community and others ethnic groups .”
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2.4 Language
Among the Rai a well-known saying is jati rai uti kura, i.e. ‘there are as many languages as there are Rai’ Gaenszle 2000:18. The exact number and names of all the groups included under Rai is unclear. Bista’s
The People of Nepal lists 18 different Rai “segments” Bista 2000. The International Organization for
Standardization ISO 639-3 now lists designations for 31 living languages that could fall under the
category “Rai.” The general consensus among most scholars is that the number of Rai languages lies
somewhere between 20 and 30.
2.4.1 Genetic relationships
The Yamphu and Lohorung languages have been classified as Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman Bodic, Hi
malayan, Kiranti Bradley 1997:16, 19; 2002:81–82. Over the years different theories of classification have arisen. Rutgers 1998:6 simply classifies Yamphu as belonging “to the group of complex-
pronominalising languages of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The complex-pronominalising languages of eastern Nepal, also known as Kirati languages, comprise
Benedict’s Bahing-Vayu group, which, among others, consists of the languages Limbu, Belhare, the more than thirty Rai languages, S
unwar, and Hayu Benedict 1972:4–6,” 1998:6. In Lohorung-Nepali-English: A basic dictionary, Lohorung, Yamphu, and Mewahang occupy their own branch under Sino-Tibetan,
Tibetan, Bodic, Himalayish, East Himalayish Yadav 2004: no page number.
2.4.2 Yamphu linguistics
Dr. Roland Rutgers’ Yamphu: Grammar, texts lexicon was published in 1998, providing a complete
grammar of the language. In the introduction of his book he d escribes Yamphu as “an extensively
suffixing language with a basic subject-object-verb word order for simple clauses” Rutgers 1998:8.
Rutgers provides an exhaustive linguistic picture of the Yamphu variety spoken in Hedangna. He does not, however, cover the sociolinguistic situation of the broader Yamphu community. His grammar
focuses on Yamphu as it is spoken in Hedangna. The Hedangna variety is known to also be spoken in the Yamphu communities east of Kasuwa Khola Uva, Pepuwa, Mansima, Ala, and Ulin. On the west side of
Kasuwa Khola lays Makalu. Less is known about the variety of Yamphu spoken in Makalu and the surrounding communities Roland Rutgers p.c., 2011. He describes the dialects spoken in Seduwa,
Valun, and Num as differing from the Hedangna variety phonologically and morphologically Rutgers
1998:7. Additionally, Hanβon describes Yamphu as a “marginal dialect of ‘Southern’ Lorung.” He suggests
that the locations and relationships between Yamphu, Yamphe, Northern Lohorung, and Southern Lohorung indicate relatively modern migrations. He proposed that these four varieties could represent a
“Lohorung-Yamphe” unit, a subgroup of Eastern Kirati Hanβon 1991:109.
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2.4.3 Language contact and multilingualism
