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Kochila Tharu
Native to	Nepal
Ethnicity	Tharu
Native speakers	258,000 in Nepal (2003)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Tharu Kochila Tharu
Dialects	Western Kochila Saptari Morangia
Writing system	Devanagari
Official status
Official language in	Tharuban of Nepal
Language codes
ISO 639-3	thq
Glottolog	koch1247

Kochila Tharu (Nepali: काेचिला थारु), also called Morangiya, Saptari or Saptariya Tharu, Madhya-Purbiya Tharu, and Mid-Eastern Tharu, is a diverse group of language varieties in the Tharu group of the Indo-Aryan languages. The several names of the varieties refer to the regions where they dominate. It is one of the largest subgroupings of Tharu. It is spoken mainly in Nepal with approximately 250,000 speakers as of 2003. In addition to language, cultural markers around attire and customs connect individuals into the ethnic identity Kochila.

Heavily concentrated in the Eastern Terai of Nepal,speakers of Kochila Tharu live in linguistically diverse regions and are generally multilingual (with the exception of some elderly female speakers). The language is widely utilized by all members of the community and coexists with the use of Nepali.

Kochila Tharu communities are not found in isolation, but live in districts intermixed with speakers of other languages. Kochila Tharu have superficial similarities with neighbouring languages such as Bhojpuri, Maithili, Bengali and Rajbanshi due to their close proximity with these various ethnicities depending upon the districts that they are present.

A 2013 survey by SIL International found that the language was being taught to children as their first language and used conversationally between multiple generations of speakers, characteristics of a "vigorous" language as defined by Ethnologue Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS).

Tharu Bhasa Sahitya Kendra is a group dedicated to promoting Kochila Tharu language.

Dialects and distributions

There are 3 main dialects of Kochila Tharu spoken throughout mid-central and eastern Nepal which are into the following varieties due to their intelligibility:

Western Kochila: 65,000 speakers in Mid eastern Nepal

• Madhesh Province: Bara district, Parsa district, Rautahat district and Sarlahi district

Central Kochila (Saptari or Saptariya Tharu): 140,000 speakers in Eastern Nepal

• Madhesh Province: Saptari district, Siraha district, Mahottari district
• Koshi Province: Udayapur district

Eastern Kochila (Morangiya Tharu): 160,000 speakers in Eastern Nepal

• Koshi Province: Sunsari district, Morang district and Jhapa district

The lexical similarity percentages among the three Kochila Tharu varieties show that the lexical similarity percentages vary from 65% to 73%. Lexical similarity follows a geographic pattern of the central variety having similar results for the eastern and western varieties, while the similarity percentage between the eastern and western varieties is slightly lower.

See Also

• Tharu People

External links

• Transformation over time in Kochila/Saptariya Tharu Architecture

References

1. Kochila Tharu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. "THE ANTROPOLOGY OF THE THARUS".
3. ^ "Tharu, Madhya-Purbiya". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
4. Carl., Skutsch (2013). Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 9781135193959. OCLC 863823479.
5. ^ International encyclopedia of linguistics. Frawley, William, 1953- (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2003. p. 484. ISBN 0195139771. OCLC 51478240.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
6. ^ Eichentopf, Stephanie R.; Mitchell, Jessica R. "A Sociolinguistic Study of Kochila Tharu in Southeast Nepal" (PDF). www.sil.org. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
7. "How the COVID-19 pandemic drove more Tharu speakers online, leading to more online vulnerability". Rising Voices. 2023-01-22. Retrieved 2024-09-23.

• Bihari languages
• Languages of Nepal
• Languages written in Devanagari
• Tharu culture