167 km away
An Indo-Aryan language and the official language of Nepal. Also a scheduled language of India, with substantial communities in Sikkim, West Bengal, and Bhutan.
Kusunda
Also known as: Ban Raja
A language isolate of mid-western Nepal, historically spoken by forest-dwelling hunter-gatherers of the Dang valley and southern Rolpa. One fully fluent speaker remains; the language has no words for yes or no, expressing polarity through verb modification instead. Community revitalisation classes are ongoing.
Shareable facts
Want a Kusunda app?
Vote and we'll prioritise it. Top-voted dialects move up the roadmap. One vote per email.
Frequently asked questions
What language is Kusunda?
Kusunda is a dialect of the Kusunda language.
Where is Kusunda spoken?
Kusunda is primarily spoken in Nepal.
Which region is Kusunda associated with?
Kusunda is part of the South Asia region on DialectAtlas.
Is Kusunda known by other names?
Yes — Kusunda is also referred to as Ban Raja.
Is Kusunda endangered?
Kusunda is critically endangered. Only a small number of mostly elderly speakers remain, and the variety is at imminent risk of being lost.
Nearby dialects
See on the atlas →185 km away
Spoken across the Awadh region of central Uttar Pradesh. Carries a major literary tradition through Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas.
185 km away
A Tamangic (Tibeto-Burman) language of five villages in Upper Mustang, Nepal, with roughly 700 speakers worldwide. A sizeable share of the community now lives in New York City, where about half of the diaspora speakers are concentrated in a single Brooklyn apartment building.
299 km away
A Tibeto-Burman language of the Newar people of the Kathmandu valley. The historical lingua franca of medieval Nepal, with an extensive literary tradition.
389 km away
Spoken across eastern Uttar Pradesh, western Bihar, and parts of southern Nepal. Carried abroad by indenture-era diasporas to Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, and Trinidad.
459 km away
The variety of the Braj region around Mathura and Vrindavan. A major literary medium of medieval Hindi devotional poetry, especially the bhakti tradition.