The Nar-Phu Language & People

The Nar-Phu language is spoken by the 800 people of the villages of Nar and Phu, located in the Valley of the Nar Khola in the Manang District of Nepal. The territory they inhabit is very high [the lowest point in their territory is approximately 3500 meters in altitude] and their main occupations are yak herding and small scale farming.

By the standards of other languages in Nepal, the influence of Nepali on the Nar-Phu language has been relatively small. However, contact with Tibet and Tibetans has been fairly extensive over the years -- there is a large monastery in Nar which houses a number of Tibetans -- and as a result there are a large number of Tibetan borrowings in Nar-Phu. Contact with Tibetans continues and there is some literacy in Tibetan: the people of the Nar and Phu villages are adherents of a version of Tibetan Buddhism and literacy in Tibetan is mainly achieved for the purpose of reading religious texts. The influence of Nepali is growing, however, as the school established twelve years ago and operated intermittently since introduces Nepali literacy to the population. Further, increasing numbers of people spend at least part of the year in Nepali speaking areas and the association of competency in Nepali and economic betterment has grown in the minds of the people.

The Nar-Phu language is a member of the Tamangic group [along with Chantyal, Gurung, Manangba, Tamang, and Thakali]. There are a number of phonological and lexical differences between the dialects of Nar and Phu. This paper describes the Nar dialect only. The dialects of the two villages are part of a dialect continuum with the dialects of the Manangba language and from a purely linguistic perspective it is not obvious that the dialects of Nar and Phu should be accorded the status of a separate language. The primary justifications for doing so are sociological: the people of the two villages see themselves as being a group apart from the Manangis [and the local Gurungs as well]. They even share a 'secret language', the point of which is to confound Manangis and Gurungs who might otherwise understand their conversations. The Manangis, apparently, share the view that the people of Nar and Phu are not Manangis, so in deference to local feelings I will consider the speech of the villages of Nar and Phu as an independent language. The decision to call the language Nar-Phu [as opposed to 'Narpa', which is perceived as the Manangba designation] was made in consultation with native speakers.

I've been working on Nar-Phu since 1996, mostly with Ritar Lakpa Lama. The work has been supported by the National Science Foundation.

Follow the links below to some additional pictures of the Nar-Phu people and their territory. Some of these pictures are rather large so as to show detail.

A view of the village of Nar

A view of the village of Phu

Some men drinking

A child mounted on a pony

Some mounted Nar people beside a temple

A view inside a house

Nar men dressed for a religious festival

A procession through Nar

Another picture of the procession

Another picture from the festival

A group of old people

An old woman

A picture of three generations of Nar males

A picture of yaks crossing a river

Mane: reliquary stone structures