THOL

Mewahang is a Trans-Himalayan language spoken in the Arun and Sankhuwa river valleys in Sankhuwasabha district in eastern Nepal. The language has been assigned to the Upper Arun subgroup of the Kiranti branch of Trans-Himalayan, but this proposition needs to be tested in historical-comparative research.

 

Although Mewahang is still learnt by children and is not immediately threatened, its vitality is relativised by a high degree of Nepalisation as well as the progressive dwindling of the speaking area in recent times.  The two main dialects correspond roughly to the two river valleys, the western variety being spoken mainly in Bala in the Sankhuwa valley, whereas the eastern variety is spoken in the villages Mangtewa, Yaphu or Choyeng in the Arun valley.

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The Mewahang speakers preserve a rich oral literature, including a detailed account on the creation of the world and mankind, stories on the life and adventures of the pan-Kiranti cultural hero Khakcɯlɯkpa or mythological-historical accounts on the ethnolinguistic origin and prehistorical migrations of the Mewahang.