Rongpo (also known as Rangpo and Rang Po Bhasa ) is a West Himalayish language spoken in Uttarakhand, India. It is the historic native language of the Rongpa people. George Abraham Grierson originally called the language as one of the Tibetic languages, but is now considered as an independent language.
Geographical distribution Rongpo is spoken in the following locations of Uttarakhand, India (Ethnologue). Niti Valley, Joshimath tehsil, Chamoli District, Garhwal Division, Uttarakhand (in Niti, Gamshali, Bampa, and Malari villages) Mana valley, Joshimath tehsil Chamoli District, Garhwal Division, Uttarakhand: Mana, Indradhara, Gajkoti, Pathiya-Dhantoli, Hanuman Chatti, Benakuli, and Aut.
Dialects
The two different dialects of Rongpo are called the Marcha (Marchha) and the Tolcha (Tolchha) dialect, Both dialects only have a difference in the phonetic level and are written in the same way.
Marcha Marcha dialect is spoken in Mana and Niti valleys.
Tolcha
There are a few Tolchha dialect speakers in Niti valley. Tolcha is usually considered its own independent and separate language from Rongpo. Tolcha has been considered extinct by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger since the 1950s.
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