Dura () is an extinct language of Nepal. It has been classified in the West Bodish branch of Tibetan languages, though more recent work separates it out as an independent branch of Sino-Tibetan.Kraayenbrink et al., "Language and Genes of the Greater Himalayan Region", preprint, http://www.le.ac.uk/genetics/maj4/Himalayan_OMLLreport.pdf , retrieved September 12, 2007 Many of the Dura have switched to speaking Nepali, and the Dura language has sometimes been thought to be extinct. Some of the people who have switched to Nepali for their daily speech still use Dura for prayer.

The Himalayan Languages Project is working on recording additional knowledge of Dura.Programme Description | Himalayan Languages Project Around 1,500 words and 250 sentences in Dura have been recorded. The last known speaker of the language was supposedly the 82-year-old Soma Devi Dura (Soma Maya Dura), although professor Madhav Pokharel claims she did not speak Dura, but rather a Nepali-based "argot". A second-language speaker named Muktinath Ghimire has also been reported.

Classification Schorer (2016:293) classifies Dura as part of his newly proposed Greater Magaric branch.

Distribution The ethnic Dura people mostly live in Lamjung District, with some in neighboring Tanahu District of Gandaki Province in central Nepal.Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) - Dura They mostly live on farms in the hilly countryside. Different recent census counts have reported the number of Dura people anywhere from 3,397 to 5,676.

Dura villages include:

बाँग्रे Bāṅgre बेसी बाँग्रे Besī Bāṅgre बेसी फाँट Besī Phā̃ṫ सिन्दुरे Sindure धुसेनी Dhusenī नस्के Naske (Dura majority) नेटा Neṭā चन्दि गाउँ Candigāũ भाँगु Bhāṅgu मालिङ Māliṅ आरीकोसे Ārīkose ठूलो स्वाँरा Ṭhūlo Svā̃rā (Dura majority) खजे गाउँ Khaje Gāũ तुर्लुङ Turluṅ (Dura majority) तान्द्राङ्कोट Tāndrāṅkoṫ Kunchha Bhorletar

Other ethnic groups in the Dura region include the Gurung, Brahmins, Chetrīs, Kāmī, and Damāi.

Tandrange A closely related language variety called Tandrange (Nepali: तानद्राङे Tāndrāṅe; IPA: tandraŋe) is spoken in a few Gurung villages. Tandrange is spoken in the villages of Tāndrāṅ (तान्द्राङ), Pokharī Thok (पोखरी थोक), and Jītā (जीता). However, Tandrange speakers adamantly consider themselves as not related to the stigmatized Dura people.

Vocabulary Schorer (2016:126-127) provides the following 125-word Swadesh list of Dura.

No. Gloss Dura 1. I () ŋi ~ ŋe 2. you () no 3. we (inclusive) ŋyāro 4. this ī 5. that huī 6. Who? su 7. What? hāde 8. not ma-, ta- (prohibitive) 9. all (of a number) dhāī 10. many bhāī 11. one kyau, nām, di- 12. two jʰim, ŋe- 13. big kātʰe 14. long kānu, remo ~ hreŋo 15. small ācʰirī 16. woman (adult) misā 17. man (adult) kalārā, bro 18. person bro 19. fish (n) ɖisyā, nāh ~ nāhõ ~ nāhũ ~ nāi 20. bird; chicken o 21. dog nākyu ~ nakyu ~ nakī, koka 22. louse syā 23. tree kepo ~ kemo 24. seed (n) ʈisro, hulu 25. leaf lyoī, lho 26. root - 27. bark (of tree) - 28. skin ke 29. flesh syo 30. blood hāyu 31. bone - 32. grease, fat duccʰu 33. egg odī, onī 34. horn (of bull etc.) soglo, sono 35. tail - 36. feather phya 37. hair (human) kra 38. head padʰe 39. ear naya, muni, rānu 40. eye mi 41. nose nu 42. mouth māsi, sũ 43. tooth sa ~ se 44. tongue li 45. nail se 46. foot sepe 47. knee - 48. hand kuru 49. belly kyu 50. neck kʰalī, po ~ põ 51. breasts nāmlo 52. heart māu 53. liver ciŋ 54. to drink kiu- 55. to eat co- 56. to bite - 57. to see do- ~ dõ-, mātā- 58. to hear tās-, tāu-, tānu- 59. to know syo- 60. to sleep tānu- 61. to die si- 62. to kill sā-, kāne-, kāde 63. to swim - 64. to fly ŋyau, hāsu- 65. to walk so- 66. to come hro 67. to lie - 68. to sit huni- 69. to stand decʰe- 70. to give hyo- 71. to say cʰi- 72. sun mamī 73. moon tālā 74. star -so (in compound) 75. water ti ~ ʈi 76. rain (n) ti ~ ʈi 77. stone thũ ~ tũ, kāno ~ kānu 78. sand - 79. earth, soil kācʰo, cʰuu 80. cloud - 81. smoke (n) ma-kʰu 82. fire mi 83. ash(es) ma-pʰu 84. to burn (vi) bani- 85. path lāutʰyo 86. mountain lgẽwarapʰa [sic] 87. red cʰāblī 88. green - 89. yellow kẽlo 90. white bintʰā 91. black keplo 92. night yāku 93. hot - 94. cold cʰiũ 95. full ʈʰyāmmay 96. new kācʰā 97. good cʰyāu- (v), cʰāblī (also ‘red’) 98. round burluŋ 99. dry - 100. name rāmī 101. he () hui 102. he₂ () ŋo ~ no 103. you () nāro(-nī) 104. they () hyāro 105. three sām 106. four pim 107. five kum (<‘hand’) 108. where? kālā 109. when? komo 110. how? kudinī 111. other agyu, rijā 112. few ācitī 113. fruit pokimuni 114. flower ŋepʰu ~ nepʰu 115. grass cʰĩ 116. snake kāuī 117. worm kʰātalī 118. rope rasarī 119. river kloi ~ klou 120. to warm (vt) tāle-u 121. old ʈe 122. straight (not curved) hopay 123. sharp mhyā- (v) 124. wet tʰo- (v) 125. happy kru- (v)

Numerals Dura numerals are (Schorer 2016:146-147): 0. liŋa 1. nām, kyau, di- 2. jʰim 3. sām 4. pim 5. kum 6. cyām (Indo-Aryan loanword) 7. syām (Indo-Aryan loanword) 8. him 9. tum 10. tʰim 20. jʰim-tʰī 30. sām-tʰī 100. tʰiŋganā, kātʰerāgo 1,000. jena

Reconstruction of Proto-Dura Schorer (2016:286-287) reconstructs the following Proto-Dura words. *hāyu ‘blood’ *cʰiũŋ ‘cold’ *kim ‘house’ *ti ‘water’ *krut ‘hand’ *kyu ‘stomach’ *yāku ‘night’ *mamī ‘sun’ *lām- ‘path’ *luŋ ‘stone’ *daŋ- ‘to see’ *rā- ‘to come’ *khāC- ‘to go’ *yʱā ‘to give’ *cʰi- ‘to say’

See also Dura word list (Wiktionary) Schorer, Nicolas. 2016. The Dura Language: Grammar and Phylogeny. Leiden: Brill. https://brill.com/view/title/33670 Pons, Marie-Caroline. 2021. Review: The Dura language: Grammar and phylogeny. Himalayan Linguistics, 20(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.5070/H920155279

References

External links The last of Nepal's Dura speakers BBC news story