Voice quality and pitch features in Chepang and Bhujel:
What is it about?
Chepang and Bhujel are two very closely related languages situated in south-central Nepal. They belong to the very large family of languages (Sino-Tibetan) that includes Chinese, Tibetan and many languages south of the Himalayas. These two are usually classified as belonging to the Tibeto-Burman branch of Sino-Tibetan, along with many other indigenous Nepalese languages. Both the Chepang and the Bhujel languages have certain pairs of words that are distinguished in meaning and in sound by suprasegmental features – features such as pitch and voice quality. The latter are termed ‘glottalic ‘glottalic’ as they originate at the glottis (or voice-box) This paper examines these features, with the help of instrumental read-outs, and seeks to identify which of these features are the most significant and relevant to each language, to enable a transcription of these sounds. As well as this discussion there is a consideration of possible origins of the features and whether they might be, or become tonal languages, where pitch is the relevant distinguishing feature. Also mentioned is a whistled form of speech of a more unusual type, and its relation to these features.
Why is it important?
An understanding of the significance of glottal aand pitch features in Chepang and Bhujel is important for making both technical and practical orthographies.