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The Bantawa Language (also referred to as An Yüng, Bantaba, Bantawa Dum, Bantawa Yong, Bantawa Yüng, Bontawa, Kirawa Yüng), is a Kiranti language spoken in the eastern Himalayan hills of eastern Nepal by Kirati Bantawa ethnic groups. They use a syllabic alphabet system known as Kirat Rai. Among the Khambu or Rai people of Koshi Province in Nepal, Sikkim, Darjeeling and Kalimpong in India, Bantawa is the most extensively spoken language. According to the 2001 National Census, at least 1.63% of the Nepal's total population speaks Bantawa. About 370,000 speak Bantawa language mostly in eastern hilly regions of Nepal (2001). Although Bantawa is among the more widely used variety of the Bantawa language, it falls in the below-100,000 category of endangered languages. It is experiencing language shift to Nepali language, especially in the northern region.
Bantawa is spoken in subject-object-verb order, and has no noun classes or genders.
Bantawa is also considered as a superior clan in the Kiranti family. Bantawa is also reportedly in use as a lingua franca among Rai minorities in Himalayan Sikkim, Darjeeling Kalimpong In India and Bhutan. Meanwhile, the language is just being introduced in a few schools at the primary level (Year 1- Year 5) using Devanagari script.
The extinct Waling language attested from the late 19th century may have been a variety of Bantawa, or a closely related language, if not the Hatuwali dialect the Waling people speak today.
| Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening, |
| Food, Rice |
| Curry |
| People |
| Grandfather |
| Grandmother |
| Father |
| Mother |
| Elder-sister |
| Little-Sister |
| Uncle elder to dad |
| Aunt Elder to Dad/ Dad's elder sister-in-law |
| Uncle younger to Dad |
| Younger uncle wife |
| Elder Brother |
| Younger Brother |
| Brothers' or sisters' children |
| Mother's younger Brother |
| Money |
| Cloths |
| Water |
| Fire |
| Flour |
| Millet |
| Locally brew wine |
| Rum/Whisky/Brandy |
| Meat |
| Aunt (Father's sister) |
| Grandfather, Grandmother |
| Here |
| There |
| Where |
| How |
| This much |
| to Eat |
| Do you want to eat? |
| Do you eat rice? |
| teeth |
| bad |
| Cat |
| + Vowel phonemes ! rowspan=2 | !Front vowel ! | Central vowel ! rowspan="2" | Back vowel |
| +Bantawa consonant phonemes ! colspan="3" | ! Bilabial
! Dental consonant
! Apical consonant- alveolar ! Lamino- Dental consonant ! Palatal ! Velar consonant ! Glottal |
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