Lepcha People - Language

Language

The Lepcha have their own language, also called Lepcha. It belongs to the Bodish–Himalayish group of Tibeto-Burman languages. The Lepcha write their language in their own script, called Róng or Lepcha script, which is derived from the Tibetan script. It was developed between the 17th and 18th centuries, possibly by a Lepcha scholar named Thikúng Mensalóng, during the reign of the third Chogyal (Tibetan king) of Sikkim. The world's largest collection of old Lepcha manuscripts is found with the Himalayan Languages Project in Leiden, Netherlands, with over 180 Lepcha books.

Regarding the specific features of Lepcha language, Sailen Debnath writes:

The important characteristics of Lepcha language are as follows:

1. Prefixes determine the initial names of all genre and species often and thereby the categories of words indicating the names of nouns have been systematized. This system in one hand has maintained categorical rules of classifications as well as simplifications. Moreover this process has laid the ground of attuning the sounds of different words in sets of harmony in times of speech.

2. Most of the Lepcha words are monosyllabic; but, of course, there are words of more than one or two syllables. The monosyllability of words along with categories of prefixes used in naming genre and species have set proper harmonization in the use of the language. Thus, Lepcha language has taken its grammatical position far ahead of the other minor languages of the region.

3. For the reason of its being relatively monosyllabic, there are discernible musical elements in Lepcha language.

4. Lepcha words are simple and soft, and according to most of the linguists dealing with the language, Lepcha is euphonic in sound and pronunciation.

5. The scripts are relatively developed. It is believed that either Chagdor Namgyal invented the Lepcha scripts sometimes in the eighteenth century or one Thikung Men Salong at the time of Turve Panu, of whom mention has been made above, in the fifteenth century, invented the scripts. Majority of the Lepchas rely more on the latter view but scholars have problems in believing it for the reason that most probably the Lepcha scripts have not been in use for a very long period of time in history. Had it been in vogue in the remote past, the Lepchas could have at least written the Lungten Sung or the Lepcha legends and folklores or even the Namthars in Lepcha language; but regrettably that was not done. There might have been the scripts for even long time but were not in much use. But the folk lore and historical records on the Lepcha language and culture as found in Nepal take the antiquity of the Lepcha script further deep in the past.