The Linguistic Communities to be studied
– speakers of Byangsi, Lapcha, and RanaTharu

The linguistic communities to be studied are summarised in the following table. Further details of the languages and communities concerned can be found by following the links into the relevant Ethnolgue pages.
Language Byangsi Lapcha RanaTharu
Type Tibeto-Burman Tibeto-Burman Indo-European
Location in Nepal Western Hills, Darchula Eastern Hills, Ilim Eastern Hills, Ilim
Number in Nepal 1,734 2,000 336,000
Location in India Uttarakhand Sikkim Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand
Number in India 3,300 48,000 150,000
Ethnologue link http://www.ethnologue.com/
show_language.asp?code=bee 		http://www.ethnologue.com/
show_language.asp?code=lep		 http://www.ethnologue.com/
show_language.asp?code=thr
The locations of these linguistic communities in Nepal and India is shown on the map below
Source: Google maps