Folk tale
Yuma Sammang and the first harvest
The grandmother goddess Yuma teaches the first Yakthung family to sow millet, brew jaand and share the first cup with the ancestors before drinking.
Language profile
Limbu
ᤛᤡᤖᤡᤈᤞᤠ᤺ᤴ / याक्थुङ पान्
Limbu, self-named Yakthung Pan, is a Kiranti language of far-eastern Nepal written in the Sirijanga script, revived in the 18th century by Te-ongsi Sirijanga. It carries the Mundhum, a vast oral scripture recited by phedangma priests, and remains a language of ritual, song and everyday village life across the Limbuwan hills.
- Language family
- Sino-Tibetan › Kiranti
- Script
- Sirijanga (Limbu)
- Speakers
- ≈ 340,000
- Status
- Vulnerable
- Also called
- Yakthung Pan, Subba
- Greeting
- ᤛᤣᤘᤠᤖᤥ — Sewaro
Where Limbu is spoken
Where it is spoken
Geographic distribution
PanchtharTaplejungIlamDhankutaTerhathumSankhuwasabha
Script
Sirijanga (Limbu)
Writing sample
ᤛᤡᤖᤡᤈᤞᤠ ᤀᤠᤛᤡᤰ ᤛᤣᤘᤠᤖᤥ ᤁᤡᤖᤠᤳ
Scripts carry more than sound: letterforms, numerals and orthographic conventions record centuries of contact, patronage and revival.
Numbers 1–5
- 1thik
- 2netchi
- 3sumsi
- 4lisi
- 5ngasi
Words & expressions
Everyday speech
ᤛᤣᤘᤠᤖᤥ
Sewaro
Greetings / respect to you
ᤏᤠ᤺ᤖᤠ ᤏᤡᤱᤛᤠᤱ
Nara ningsang
Good day
ᤁᤣ ᤍᤠᤱᤛᤠ?
Ke dangsa?
How are you?
ᤔᤡᤛᤠ
Misa
Thank you
Alphabet
Letters and numerals
Sirijanga (Limbu)
Script attributed to Sirijanga Thebe and revived in the 18th century; taught today in Limbuwan schools.
Vowels
ᤀᤁᤂᤠᤡᤢᤣᤤᤥᤦ
Consonants
ᤁᤂᤃᤄᤅᤆᤇᤈᤉᤊᤋᤌᤍᤎᤏᤐᤑᤒᤓᤔᤕᤖᤗᤘᤙᤚᤛᤜ
Numerals
᥆᥇᥈᥉᥊᥋᥌᥍᥎᥏
Devanagari
Official script of Nepal, used for Nepali and most Indo-Aryan and many Tibeto-Burman languages of the country.
Vowels
अआइईउऊऋएऐओऔअंअः
Consonants
कखगघङचछजझञटठडढणतथदधनपफबभमयरलवशषसहक्षत्रज्ञ
Numerals
०१२३४५६७८९
Words
Core vocabulary
ᤠᤔᤠ
amma
mother
ᤀᤠᤱᤛᤡ
angsi
child
ᤗᤠᤈᤦ
laju
friend
ᤁᤠᤰ
kak
water
ᤔᤠᤱ
mang
spirit / deity
ᤁᤡᤖᤠᤳ
Kirat
the Kirat people
ᤀᤠᤰᤗ
yakthung
Limbu (self-name)
ᤛᤣᤘᤠ
sewa
respectful greeting
Idioms & sayings
How the language thinks
मुन्धुम भुल्नु
Mundhum bhulnu
To forget the Mundhum — to lose one's roots.
च्याब्रुङ बज्दा पाइला आफै उठ्छ
Chyabrung bajda paila aafai uthchha
When the drum sounds, the feet rise by themselves: community pulls you in.
History
How Limbu came to be written and spoken
Antiquity
Kirat rule in the eastern hills; Mundhum recited as oral scripture by phedangma priests.
18th century
Te-ongsi Sirijanga revives the Limbu script; manuscripts spread through Limbuwan.
1774–present
Kipat land tenure, migration to Sikkim and Darjeeling, then constitutional recognition and school teaching of Sirijanga.
Tales
Told and retold
Indigenous knowledge
Knowledge carried in the language, not in books
Millet and jaand fermentation
Seasonal reading of temperature and moisture decides when marcha starter is added — an unwritten calendar of fermentation.
Forest tenure by clan
Kipat memory assigns ridges, water sources and grazing to named clans, still recited in disputes.
AI preparedness index
How ready is Limbu for language technology?
Overall readiness
0.49%
readiness score from the global index of 6,000+ world languages
AI resource readiness0.00%
Infrastructural readiness45.97%
Socioeconomic readiness1.66%
ISO 639-3
lif
Speakers (index)
380,000
Endangerment
Definitely endangered
Open datasets
10
Published models
6
Wikipedia articles
0
Dictionary exists
Yes
Full text corpus
Yes
These figures place Limbu on the readiness index: how much machine-readable text, speech and model work already exists, and how far the digital and socioeconomic conditions around its speakers support building them. A low AI resource score is exactly where corpus collection changes the outcome.
Source: global language readiness index (Limbu, lif). Scores are readiness percentages across the full index of 6,000+ languages.
Stories
Oral tradition
Oral scripture
Mundhum: the making of the world
Recited by the phedangma, the Mundhum tells of Tagera Ningwaphuma, the supreme knowledge, breathing the first mist into the Himalaya, and of Sawa Yethang, the assembly of ten ancestors who set the laws of land, marriage and mourning.
Legend
Sirijanga and the lost letters
Te-ongsi Sirijanga is said to have walked from Sinam to Sikkim carrying palm-leaf alphabets, teaching Limbu children under trees until he was bound and shot with arrows — the script survived in the hands of his pupils.
Songs & music
Sung heritage
♪
Palam
Courtship song
Sung in call-and-response at Dhan Nach harvest circles.
Recording being catalogued
♪
Ke Ke Ram
Chyabrung dance
Drum-led round dance performed at weddings and Chasok Tangnam.
Recording being catalogued
Culture & traditions
Festivals, dress, food, craft
Festivals
Chasok TangnamYakwaSisekpa Tangnam
Dress
Mekhli and taga for women, phaga turban and daura for men, with silver Samyangfung ornaments.
Food
Kinema fermented soybean, yangben lichen curry, and tongba millet beer served hot in a wooden vessel.
Crafts
Chyabrung drum making, bamboo weaving, silver jewellery of the Yakthung smiths.
People & community
The people who keep Limbu alive
The Yakthung (Limbu) people, one of the Kirat nations, organised historically through the kipat communal land system and the Chumlung social assembly.
Language → People → Place → Culture → Heritage
Limbu → The Yakthung (Limbu) people → Panchthar, Taplejung, Ilam → Chasok Tangnam → audio, video, text and images held with community consent.
Related languages
Bantawa Rai
बान्तावा
Sino-Tibetan › Kiranti
Yakkha
याक्खा
Sino-Tibetan › Kiranti
Sherpa
ཤར་པ་སྐད། / शेर्पा
Sino-Tibetan › Tibetic
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