Kham Language

Kham Language

Kham (Nepali:खाम) (also Khamkura खामकुरा or Kamkura कामकुरा) -- narrowly defined—is a complex of Tibeto-Burman Magaric languages spoken natively in isolated highlands of Rolpa and Rukum districts of Rapti and the westernmost part of Baglung district in Dhaulagiri Zone by western clans of the Magar tribe, called collectively Kham Magar or Northern Magars. Randy LaPolla (2003) proposes that Kham may be part of a larger "Rung" group.

More loosely, Nepali speakers west of the Kaligandaki use Kham (etc.) for non-Indic languages indigenous to the Middle Hills and southern parts of the Himalayas. Thus Nepali speakers also subsume with Kham the separate languages Kaike -- spoken to the northwest in lower Dolpo—and Chantyal -- spoken to the northeast in Baglung and Myagdi Districts, when in fact these are only distantly related. The Nepali speakers then use the term Bhote (भोटे) for Tibetan dialects spoken in culturally Tibetan borderlands such as upper Dolpo and northern Humla.