1. INTRODUCTION

Background

“We are the Kirati Kulung Community and have self-declared (ref. ILO Convention 169, Article 1) as indigenous peoples of Nepal belonging to the descent of four forefathers – Khapdulu, Ratapkhu, Tamsi, and Chhemsi rooted in the ancient Kirati heritage. According to the national census of 2021, the Kulung population by ethnicity is 33,388, with 37,912 Kulung language speakers. Moreover, 40,749 individuals believe that their ancestral language is Kulung. Despite the fact that the Kulung community’s own internal survey indicates that the Kulungs number more than 100,000.”

We have a separate language called Kulu Ring or Iring. Iring referse to our language in Kulung language. Kulu Ring has been categorized as Tibeto-Burmese language. It is phonetically and semantically represented by Devanagari scripts. However, Kirati Sirijanga Scripts are adopted as their identical scripts. Phonologist Dr. Madhav Pokhrel and linguist Mr. Amrit Yongen Tamang have identified  21 consonants and 12 vowels after discussing with the Kulung language experts. While transcribing in kulung language, the system is to use only a long vowel symbol for norma sound and add a colon (:) for too long vowel symbol sound. We ourselve called as ‘Kulu Rodu’ in our language. ‘Kulung’ is in fact is a word in a changed form of ‘Kulu’ and is used/called by non-kulung speakers.