Sherpa language

Spoken in

• Sino Tibetan languages Tibeto-Burman languages Bodische languages Tibetan languages Tibetan

Xsr

Sherpa ( ཤེརཔཱ, Devanagari: शेर्पा, also Sharpa, Sharpa Bhotia, Xiaerba, Serwa, ISO 639-3 xsr ) is a language, which in the central and southern Himalayas - there in parts of Nepal and the border regions of China and India - is mainly spoken by the Sherpa.

It goes back to a Tibetan dialect that was spoken in the 15th century in the Tibetan province of Kham. From then on, it has evolved independently for about 500 years. In more modern times, under external influence of the Nepali and English language, of which she has taken a series of words.

Data on numbers of speakers vary considerably. Ethnologue lists a total of 86,200 speakers worldwide, including 50,000 in Nepal (2000 ), 30,700 in India (as of 1994) and 800 in China (as of 2000). In contrast, resulted in a census that in 2001 nearly 130,000 people in Nepal Sherpa speak alone as their mother tongue. Indian censuses determined in the same year about 18,300 speakers in India, of which about 14,000 in the state of Sikkim and 2,900 in the state of West Bengal; in all cases Sherpa was the mother tongue. Based on the census data, the number of speakers has developed unevenly in Nepal: 1952/54 were counted about 70,100 speakers in 1961 there were about 84,200, about 79,200 in 1971 and 1981 of approximately 73,500. In the next acquisition in 1991 the number jumped again to around 121,800 in 2001 to 129,800. In India, the group of speakers is larger than in the censuses of 1981 and 1991 by around 2,000.

Sherpa is an unwritten language. A generally accepted convention is actually for does not exist. Therefore there is no possibility for transcription into Latin alphabet. The spelling is usually formed by replicating the spoken sounds and may therefore differ from other writing styles. There are efforts to develop a written form of Sherpa. One of the proposals is, it is to use the Tibetan script, as in Tibetan Sherpa has its origin. However, very few Sherpas master this font. Especially among younger tendency is to identify, fix Sherpa in Devanagari. However, as the Latin alphabet has this sign system has the disadvantage that it can not represent all the sounds of the language.