Tamang (Devanagari: तामाङ; tāmāng) is a term used to collectively refer to a dialect cluster spoken mainly in Nepal, Sikkim, West Bengal (Darjeeling) and North-Eastern India. It comprises Eastern Tamang, Northwestern Tamang, Southwestern Tamang, Eastern Gorkha Tamang, and Western Tamang. Lexical similarity between Eastern Tamang (which is regarded as the most prominent) and other Tamang languages varies between 81% and 63%. For comparison, the lexical similarity between Spanish and Portuguese is estimated at 89%.

Dialects

Ethnologue divides Tamang into the following varieties due to mutual unintelligibility. The Tamang language is the most widely spoken Sino-Tibetan language in Nepal.

Geographical distribution

Ethnologue gives the following location information for the varieties of Tamang. Eastern Tamang Southwestern Tamang Western Tamang Eastern Tamang

Grammar

Some grammatical features of the Tamang languages include: Phonetically Tamang languages are tonal.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Nasality only marginally occurs, and is typically transcribed with a mark.

Tones

Four tones occur as high falling, mid-high level , mid-low level , very low.

Writing system

Tamang language is written in prakriti.