Like some other Tibeto-Burman languages, Raji–Raute languages have voicelesssonorants.[1]
Classification
Raute and Rawat are closely related; Raji is more distantly related.[1] Fortier classifies the Raji–Raute languages as follows.[1] Note that language varieties that classify within the Rawat subgroup are known by various names; Raute of Dadeldhura/Darchula is taxonomically a Rawat language, and is not to be confused with Raute proper.
A database of 700 words for items from households of Raute and Ban Rawat speakers (Fortier 2012) indicates a largely Sino-Tibetan language ancestry. Deep Root[clarification needed] items include 58 words of Sino-Tibetan origin and 7 of Austroasiatic origin. Proto-family[clarification needed] items include 281 morphemes of Proto-Tibeto-Burman origin. Meso-root,[clarification needed] or subfamily items include 34 words of Proto-Kuki-Chin origin, 23 of Proto-Tani origin, 6 of Proto-Tangkulic origin, and 1 of Northern Chin origin. The database omits most loans of Indo-Aryan origin although 43 items were of Sanskrit origin. Work remains on identifying etymologies of the remaining 247 items in the Raute–Rawat database.
Distribution
Raji-Raute varieties are spoken in the following areas of Nepal and India.[1]
The comparative vocabulary lists of Raji and Raute below are from Rastogi & Fortier (2005). Rastogi & Fortier (2005) also provide Purbia Raji and Janggali Raute forms.
Swadesh list
The following is a 100-word Swadesh list from Rastogi & Fortier (2005).
^Schorer, Nicolas. 2016. The Dura Language: Grammar and Phylogeny. Leiden: Brill.
References
George van Driem (2001) Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill.
Fortier, Jana (2012) "Annotated Dictionary of Raute and Rawat Languages" [1]
Rastogi, Kavita and Jana Fortier. 2005. Daa, Nii, Sum/Khung: Comparative Vocabulary of the West-Central Himalayan Languages Rawati (Raji) and Khamci (Raute). Indian Linguistics 66. 105–115.