ᤕᤰᤌᤢᤱ ᤐᤠᤴ

Limbu

Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman, Kiranti, Eastern)

FamilySino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman, Kiranti, Eastern) Speakers~340K ScriptLimbu (Sirijanga, native; Unicode 5.1) / Devanagari CountriesNepal (Eastern), India (Sikkim, Darjeeling) Official inSikkim (recognized regional) Vitalitysafe ISO 639-3lif

Limbu (Yakthung Pan) is an Eastern Kiranti language of eastern Nepal and adjacent Sikkim/Darjeeling. It is one of the few South Asian languages with its own indigenous script — the Limbu (Sirijanga) script, said to have been devised in the 18th century by Te-ongsi Sirijunga Xin Thebe based on earlier Brahmic models, formally encoded in Unicode 5.1 (2008). Limbu has agglutinative verb morphology with biactantial agreement (subject + object/recipient marked).

Where it is spoken

Wear this language Pick the words you like, printed in the same typeface the map uses. Make a T-shirt from Limbu words →

87 core words in Limbu

Water

ᤆᤫᤠ᤺ᤳ

tʃwaːt

Fire

ᤔᤡ

mi

Sun

ᤏᤠᤶ

nam

Moon

ᤗᤠᤒᤠ

laːba

Star

ᤂᤣ᤺ᤶᤛᤡᤰᤐᤠ

kʰeːmsikpa

Night

ᤛᤧᤴᤍᤡᤰ

sɛndik

Rain

ᤘᤠᤜᤡ᤺ᤳ

waːhiːt

Snow

ᤏᤠ᤺ᤱ

naːŋ

Wind

ᤛᤢᤖᤡᤳ

surit

Earth

ᤂᤠᤶ

kʰam

Stone

ᤗᤢᤱ

luŋ

Mountain

ᤁᤥ᤺ᤰᤔᤠ

koːkmaː

Sea

ᤘᤖ᤺ᤱ

waraːŋ

Mother

ᤀᤠᤶᤔᤠ

amma

Father

ᤀᤠᤶᤒᤠ

amba

I

ᤀᤡᤱᤃᤠ᤹

iŋɡaʔ

You

ᤂᤧᤏᤧ᤹

kʰɛnɛʔ

We

ᤀᤠᤏᤡ᤹ / ᤀᤠᤏᤡᤃᤧ

aniʔ / aniɡɛ

Name

ᤔᤡᤱ

miŋ

Person

ᤔᤏᤠ

manaː

Head

ᤌᤧᤃᤣ᤺ᤰ

tʰɛɡeːk

Eye

ᤔᤡᤰ

mik

Ear

ᤏᤧᤰᤂᤥ᤹

nɛkkʰoʔ

Mouth

ᤔᤢᤖᤠ

muraː

Tooth

ᤜᤠᤒᤥ᤹

haboʔ

Tongue

ᤗᤧᤛᤥ᤺ᤵᤐᤠ

lɛsoːppa

Hand

ᤜᤢᤰ

huk

Foot

ᤗᤠᤱ

laŋ

Heart

ᤛᤡᤰᤗᤢᤱ

sikluŋ

Bone

ᤕᤧ᤺ᤵᤐᤠ

jɛːppa

Blood

ᤔᤠᤰᤂᤡ᤹

makkʰiʔ

Love

ᤗᤢᤱᤔᤠ᤹ ᤋᤢᤰᤔᤠ

luŋmaʔ tukmaː

Tree

ᤛᤡᤱᤒᤢᤱ

siŋbuŋ

Dog

ᤁᤥ᤺ᤳᤆᤥ

koːttʃo

Cat

ᤐᤡᤛᤡ

pisi

Fish

ᤅᤠ

ŋaː

Bird

ᤐᤢᤛᤠ

pusaː

Egg

ᤘᤠᤎᤡ᤺

waːdiː

Bear

ᤔᤠ᤹᤺ᤕᤢᤒᤠ

maːʔjuba

Horse

ᤀᤴ

an

House

ᤜᤡᤶ

him

Milk

ᤏᤢ

nu

Honey

ᤛᤰᤘᤠᤄᤢ

sakwaːɡu

Salt

ᤕᤢᤶ

jum

Wine

ᤆᤧᤸᤗᤧᤰᤛᤣ᤹ ᤌᤡ᤺

tʃɛllɛkseʔ tʰiː

Iron

ᤑᤧᤴᤈᤣ᤹

pʰɛndʒɛʔ

Wheel

ᤁᤠᤵᤗᤥ᤺ᤰ

kaploːk

Book

ᤛᤠᤵᤐᤴ

sappan

Eat

ᤆᤠᤔᤠ

tʃaːmaː

Drink

ᤌᤢᤱᤔᤠ

tʰuŋmaː

Sleep

ᤀᤡᤵᤔᤠ

ipmaː

One

ᤌᤡᤰ

tʰik

Two

ᤏᤧᤳᤇᤡ

nɛtɕːi

Three

ᤛᤢᤶᤛᤡ

sumsi

Four

ᤗᤡᤛᤡ

lisi

Five

ᤅᤠᤛᤡ

ŋaːsi

Hundred

ᤁᤡᤵ

kip

Hello

ᤐᤣᤜᤢᤙᤣ

peːhuːje

Thank you

ᤐᤡᤍᤠᤱ

pidaːŋ

Good

ᤏᤢᤒᤠ

nuba

New

ᤁᤢᤛᤱ

kusaŋ

Red

ᤜᤧ᤺ᤳᤋᤠᤱᤒᤠ

hɛːttaŋba

White

ᤑᤍᤠᤱᤒᤠ

pʰadaŋba

Black

ᤔᤠᤰᤋᤠᤱᤒᤠ

maktaŋba

Sources

Words compared

Compared with languages in the same classification: Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman, Kiranti, Eastern)

Meaning LimbuSikkimeseSherpaLadakhiTshanglaBaltiLiturgical Classical Tibetan
Water ᤆᤫᤠ᤺ᤳ /tʃwaːt/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/ ri /ɾi/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/
Fire ᤔᤡ /mi/ མེ /me/ མེ /me/ མེ /me/ mi /mi/ མེ /me/ མེ /me/
Sun ᤏᤠᤶ /nam/ ཉི་མ /ɲima/ ཉི་མ /ɲima/ ཉི་མ /ɲima/ ngam /ŋam/ ཉི་མ /ɲima/ ཉི་མ /ɲimə/
Moon ᤗᤠᤒᤠ /laːba/ ཟླ་བ /dawa/ ཟླ་བ /dawa/ ཟླ་བ /lzawa/ lanyingam /laɲiŋam/ ཟླ་བ /dawa/ ཟླ་བ /tawa/
Star ᤂᤣ᤺ᤶᤛᤡᤰᤐᤠ /kʰeːmsikpa/ སྐར་མ་ /kaːma/ སྐར་མ /karma/ སྐར་མ /skarma/ karma /kaɾma/ སྐར་མ /skarma/ སྐར་མ /kaːma/
Night ᤛᤧᤴᤍᤡᤰ /sɛndik/ ཕྱི་རུ /pʰiru/ ནུབ /nup/ མཚན /tsʰen/ binang /binaŋ/ མཚན /tsʰan/ མཚན་མོ /tsʰɛ̃mo/
Rain ᤘᤠᤜᤡ᤺ᤳ /waːhiːt/ ཆར་པོ /tɕʰaːp/ ཆར་པ /tɕʰarwa/ ཆར་པ /tʃʰarpa/ ngamsu /ŋamsu/ ཆར་པ /tʃʰarpa/ ཆར་པ /tɕʰaːpa/
Snow ᤏᤠ᤺ᤱ /naːŋ/ ཁ་བོ /kʰau/ ཁ་བ /kʰawa/ ཁ /kʰa/ phom /pʰom/ ཁ་བ /kʰawa/ ཁ་བ /kʰawa/
Page 1/8

Open the interactive map: Word Map · HanMap · Name Map · Word Order · Tree

Part of LangMap — a linguistic visualization project. This is a static, crawlable summary; the interactive maps offer pronunciation audio, filters, and a globe view.

Made by Heuron Inc. · GitHub · cho@heuron.com · LangMap home