The West Himalayish languages, also known as Almora and Kanauric, are a family of Sino-Tibetan languages centered in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and across the border into Nepal. LaPolla (2003) proposes that the West Himalayish languages may be part of a larger "Rung" group.
Languages
Languages include Chitkuli Kinnauri, Kinnauri, Sunam, Jangshung, Shumcho, Pattani (Manchad), Tinan, Gahri (Bunan), Kanashi, Rongpo, Darmiya, Byangsi, Dhuleli, Chaudangsi, Rangas, and perhaps Zhangzhung.
Zhangzhung, the sacred language of the Bon religion, was spoken north of the Himalayas across western Tibet before being replaced by Tibetan. James Matisoff (2001)Matisoff, James. 2001. "The interest of Zhangzhung for comparative Tibeto-Burman." In New Research on Zhangzhung and Related Himalayan Languages (Bon Studies 3). Senri Ethnological Studies no. 19, p.155-180. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology 国立民族学博物館. provides lexical and phonological evidence for the classification of Zhangzhung within West Himalayish.
Classification Widmer (2014:47)Widmer, Manuel. 2014. "A tentative classification of West Himalayish." In A descriptive grammar of Bunan, 33-56. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Bern. classifies the West Himalayish languages as follows. The recently discovered Dhuleli language has been added from Regmi & Prasain (2017).Regmi, Dan Raj; Prasain, Balaram. 2017. A sociolinguistic survey of Dhuleli. Linguistic Survey of Nepal (LinSuN), Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal.
West Himalayish Western Lahaul: Pattani, Tinani Kinnaur: Kanashi, Kinnauri, Chitkhuli, Shumcho, Jangshung Eastern Central: Bunan, Sunam, Rongpo; possibly Zhangzhung Almora: Rangas, Darmiya, Chaudangsi, Byangsi, Dhuleli
Widmer (2014:53–56) classifies Zhangzhung within the Eastern branch of West Himalayish, and notes that it appears particularly close to languages of the Central subgroup (Bunan, Sunnami, and Rongpo).
Widmer (2017)Widmer, Manuel. 2017. The linguistic prehistory of the western Himalayas: endangered minority languages as a window to the past. Presented at Panel on Endangered Languages and Historical Linguistics, 23rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL 23), San Antonio, Texas. notes that many Tibetan varieties in the western Tibetan Plateau have been influenced by West Himalayish languages.
Widmer (2025)Widmer, Manuel. 2025. The genetic position of West Himalayish among the Sino-Tibetan languages of the Himalayas. 58th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics (ICSTLL 58), 3–5 September 2025, University of Bern. considers the West Himalayish languages to be peripheral members of Bodish, based on shared lexical and morphoological isoglosses between Proto-West Himalayish and various Bodish groups such as Tibetan, Tamangic, East Bodish, and Tshangla.
Vocabulary Widmer (2017) lists the following lexical items that differ in the Eastern and Western branches of West Himalayish. Language ‘one’ ‘hand’ ‘cry’ ‘black’ Proto-Eastern West Himalayish *it *gut *krap- *rok- Manchad itsa gùṛa krap- roki Kanashi idh guḍ kərop- roko Kinnauri (Southern) id gŭd' krap- rŏkh Proto-Western West Himalayish *tik *lak *tjo- *kʰaj/*wom Bunan tiki lak tjo- kʰaj Rongpo tig lag tyõ- kʰasyũ Byangsi tigɛ là tye- wamdɛ
Widmer (2014:53-56) classifies Zhangzhung within the eastern branch of West Himalayish, and lists the following cognates between Zhangzhung and Proto-West Himalayish.
Gloss Zhangzhung Proto-West Himalayish barley zad *zat blue ting *tiŋ- diminutive suffix -tse *-tse ~ *-tsi ear ra tse *re fat tsʰas *tsʰos girl tsa med *tsamet god sad *sat gold ? zang *zaŋ heart she *ɕe old (person) shang ze *ɕ(j)aŋ red mang *maŋ white shi nom *ɕi
Footnotes
References George van Driem (2001) Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill. LaPolla, Randy. 2001. The Tibeto-Burman Languages of Uttar Pradesh . Widmer, Manuel. 2017. The linguistic prehistory of the western Himalayas: endangered minority languages as a window to the past. Presented at Panel on Endangered Languages and Historical Linguistics, 23rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL 23), San Antonio, Texas. Widmer, Manuel. 2018. The linguistic prehistory of the western Himalayas. Proceedings of the 51st International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics (2018). Kyoto: Kyoto University. Widmer, Manuel. 2025. The genetic position of West Himalayish among the Sino-Tibetan languages of the Himalayas. 58th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics (ICSTLL 58), 3–5 September 2025, University of Bern.