THE PEOPLE
The Gurungs are one of the communities of India found mainly in Sikkim and North Bengal region in India and in Nepal. On the derivation of the word Gurung, one theory suggests that the word ‘Gurung’ is derived from the word ‘guru‘ meaning teacher. Gurungs are believed to be descendants of a teacher. Locally, they are known as ‘Tamu’. The Gurungs are people who have their own oral tradition, culture and myth.
The Sikkim State Economic Census (2006) report states that the Gurung population in Sikkim is 34,344. In Sikkim, the Gurung population is scattered in many villages of all three districts of Sikkim namely, South, West and East districts. Some of the villages that notably have a large size of Gurung population in Sikkim are Pathing, Upper Yangyang and Chuba in South district, Buriakhop and Begha in West district and Parkha in East district. The Gurung people are also settled in Doars, Kalimpong and Darjeeling districts in North Bengal, and in the state of Assam, Arunchal Pradesh, Manipur, and Punjab. Over all population of Gurungs in India is not known.
The present work is based largely on the Gurung language spoken in Sikkim and North Bengal.
LANGUAGE
Gurung belongs to Bodish group within the Tibeto-Burman lanuguage family. Gurung was recognized as one of the state languages by Government of Sikkin in 1997. No previous linguistic study on Gurung of Sikkim region has been done except the scientific study of Gurung done by R. Nakkeerar under the national project of Linguistic Study of India in 2013. A sketch of phonology and grammar of Gurung is reported in this survey.
As a matter of fact, we found that Gurung is virtually no longer transmitted from older generation to younger generation in Sikkim. Nepali is the language used by the community members in almost every domain. Only grandparents can remember Gurung. A few people can remember only some Gurung vocabulary items such as kinship terms, kitchen items and some phatic words like tʃʰiazelo ‘hello‘, giaʃaze ‘thank you’. However, the revitalization process that is being undertaken by the community members since early 2000 is strong and worthy to be supported. Gurung is currently studied as a language subject in a few government schools in Sikkim.
Currently, the Centre is preparing multilingual dictionary, grammar of Gurung, and digital documentation of Gurung linguistic materials and resources.