Nepali (; , ) is an
Indo-Aryan language native to the
Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...
region of South Asia. It is the official, and most widely spoken,
language of Nepal, where it also serves as a ''
lingua franca''. Nepali has
official status in the Indian state of
Sikkim
Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Sil ...
and in the
Gorkhaland Territorial Administration of
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
. It is spoken by about a quarter of
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...
's population. Nepali also has a significant number of speakers in the states of
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...
,
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
,
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several pea ...
,
Manipur
Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of ...
,
Meghalaya
Meghalaya (, or , meaning "abode of clouds"; from Sanskrit , "cloud" + , "abode") is a state in northeastern India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of Assam: (a) the United Khasi Hills and J ...
,
Mizoram
Mizoram () is a state in Northeast India, with Aizawl as its seat of government and capital city. The name of the state is derived from "Mizo", the self-described name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", which in the Mizo language means "lan ...
and
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...
.
In
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
it is spoken by the
Burmese Gurkhas. The
Nepali diaspora in the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
,
Brunei
Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by th ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
and worldwide also use the language. Nepali is spoken by approximately 16 million
native speakers and another 9 million as a
second language
A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language ( first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a ...
.
Nepali is commonly classified within the Eastern Pahari group of the
Northern zone of Indo-Aryan.
The language originated from the
Sinja Valley,
Karnali Province then the
capital city
A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses t ...
of the
Khasa Kingdom around the 10th and 14th centuries. It developed proximity to a number of Indo-Aryan languages, most significantly to other
Pahari languages. Nepali was originally spoken by the
Khas people
Khas people (; ne, खस) popularly known as Khas Arya are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the Himalayan region of South Asia, what is now present-day Nepal, Indian states of Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Sikkim. Histor ...
, an
Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group
An ethnolinguistic group (or ethno-linguistic group) is a group that is unified by both a common ethnicity and language. Most ethnic groups share a first language. However, "ethnolinguistic" is often used to emphasise that language is a major bas ...
native to the
Himalayan region of South Asia. The earliest inscription in the Nepali language is believed to be an inscription in
Dullu,
Dailekh District which was written around the reign of King Bhupal Damupal around the year 981. The
institutionalisation of the Nepali language arose during the rule of the
Kingdom of Gorkha
Gorkha Kingdom ( ne, गोरखा राज्य) was a member of the Chaubisi rajya, a confederation of 24 states on the Indian subcontinent ruled by Khas people. In 1743 CE, the kingdom began a campaign of military expansion, annexing se ...
(later became known as the
Kingdom of Nepal) in the 16th century. Over the centuries, different dialects of the Nepali language with distinct influences from
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
,
Maithili,
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
, and
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
are believed to have emerged across different regions of the current-day Nepal and Uttarakhand, making Nepali the ''lingua franca''.
Nepali is a highly
fusional language
Fusional languages or inflected languages are a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by their tendency to use a single inflectional morpheme to denote multiple grammatical, syntactic, or semantic features.
...
with relatively free
word order
In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...
, although the dominant arrangement is
subject–object–verb word order (SOV). There are three major levels or gradations of
honorific
An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It ...
: low, medium and high. Low honorific is used where no respect is due, medium honorific is used to signify equal status or neutrality, and high honorific signifies respect. Like all modern Indo-Aryan languages,
Nepali grammar
Nepali grammar is the study of the morphology and syntax of Nepali, an Indo-European language spoken in South Asia.
Phonology
In matters of script, Nepali uses Devanagari. On this grammar page Nepali is written in "standard orientalist" tra ...
has syncretized heavily, losing much of the complex declensional system present in the older languages. Nepali developed significant
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...
within a short period of a hundred years in the 19th century. Around 1830, several Nepali poets wrote on themes from the
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
epics ''
Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...
'' and the ''
Bhagavata Purana
The ''Bhagavata Purana'' ( sa, भागवतपुराण; ), also known as the ''Srimad Bhagavatam'', ''Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana'' or simply ''Bhagavata'', is one of Hinduism's eighteen great Puranas (''Mahapuranas''). Composed in S ...
'', which was followed by
Bhanubhakta Acharya translating the
''Ramayana'' in Nepali which received "great popularity for the colloquial flavour of its language, its religious sincerity, and its realistic natural descriptions".
Etymology
The initial name of Nepali language was ''Khas Kura''. An archaic dialect of the language is spoken in
Karnali.
During the
Shah dynasty the language was also referred to as ''Gorakhā bhāṣā'' ( ne, गोरखा भाषा), meaning ''language of the Gorkhas''.
[Lienhard, Siegfried (1992). ''Songs of Nepal: An Anthology of Nevar Folksongs and Hymns.'' New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas. . Page 3.][आजभन्दा करिब नौ दशकअघि मात्रै देशको नाम ‘नेपाल’ का रूपमा स्विकारिएको हो भने, पहिले खस–पर्वते–गोर्खाली भनिने भाषालाई ‘नेपाली’ नामकरण गरिएको हो ।] ''Gorkha Bhasa Prakashini Samiti'' (Gorkha Language Publishing Committee), a government institution established in 1913 (B.S. 1970) for advancement of Gorkha Bhasa, renamed itself as ''Nepali Bhasa Prakashini Samiti'' (Nepali Language Publishing Committee) in 1933 (B.S. 1990), and is currently known as ''Sajha Prakashan''.
The language is also called ''Parvate Kurā'' ( ne, पर्वते कुरा), which literally means ''talks of the hills''.
The name ''Pāṣyā Bolī'' ( ne, पाष्या बोली) was also briefly used during the regime of
Jung Bahadur Rana. The Tibetan nationalities refer to the language as ''Khasa Bhāṣā''.
[ नेवाः समुदायमा "खे भाये" वा "पर्त्या भाये", तामाङ भाषामा "ज्यार्दी ग्योइ" वा "ज्यार्ती ग्योत्", चेपाङ भाषामा "खस्अन्त", ल्होवा भाषामा "रोङकेक", इत्यादि ।] Nepali language is known as ''Khae Bhāe'' (
Nepal Bhasa
Newar (), or Newari and known officially in Nepal as Nepal Bhasa, is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Newar people, the indigenous inhabitants of Nepal Mandala, which consists of the Kathmandu Valley and surrounding regions in Nep ...
: , ) in the Newar community, ''Jyārdī Gyoī'' (
Tamang: ) or ''Jyārtī Gyot'' (
Tamang: ) in the Tamang community, ''Khasanta'' (
Chepang: ) in the Chepang community, ''Roṅakeka'' (
Lhowa: ) in the Lhowa community and ''Khase Puka'' (
Dungmali: ) in Dungmali community.
In Bhutan, the language is known as Lhotshamkha in
Dzongkha
Dzongkha (; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script.
The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language". , Dzongkha had 171,080 ...
.
History
Early Nepali
The earliest evidence and inscriptions of dialects related to the Nepali language support the theory of a linguistic intrusion from the West or Northwest Himalayas into the Central Himalayas in the present-day regions of Western Nepal during the rule of
Khasas, an Indo-Aryan speaking group, who migrated from the northwest. The oldest discovered inscription in the Nepali language is believed to be the Dullu Inscription, believed to have been written around the reign of King Bhupal Damupal around the year 981. Changes of phonological patterns indicate that Nepali is related to other
Northwest Indian languages, including
Sindhi
Sindhi may refer to:
*something from, or related to Sindh, a province of Pakistan
* Sindhi people, an ethnic group from the Sindh region
* Sindhi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them
People with the name
* Sarkash Sindhi (1940–2012 ...
,
Punjabi
Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan
* Punjabi language
* Punjabi people
* Punjabi dialects and languages
Punjabi may also refer to:
* Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
, and
Lahnda. Comparative reconstructions based on vocabulary have substantiated the relations of the Nepali language to proto-
Dardic, Pahari, Sindhi, Lahnda, and Punjabi.
Archaeological and historical investigations show that modern Nepali descends from the language spoken by the ancient
Khasha people. There is some mention of the word ''khasha'' in Sanskrit legal, historical, and literary texts like
Manusmriti
The ''Manusmṛiti'' ( sa, मनुस्मृति), also known as the ''Mānava-Dharmaśāstra'' or Laws of Manu, is one of the many legal texts and constitution among the many ' of Hinduism. In ancient India, the sages often wrote the ...
(circa 100 CE),
Puranas
Purana (; sa, , '; literally meaning "ancient, old"Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature (1995 Edition), Article on Puranas, , page 915) is a vast genre of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about legends an ...
(350–1500), and the
Rajatarangini (1148).
The Khashas are documented to have ruled over a vast territory comprising what is now western Nepal, parts of Garhwal and Kumaon in northern India, and some parts of southwestern Tibet. King Ashoka Challa (1255–1278) is believed to have proclaimed himself Khasha-Rajadhiraja (emperor of the Khashas) in a copper-plate inscription found in
Bodh Gaya
Bodh Gaya is a religious site and place of pilgrimage associated with the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Gaya district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is famous as it is the place where Gautama Buddha is said to have attained Enlightenment ( ...
, and several other copper plates in ancient Nepali have been traced back to the king's descendants.
Middle Nepali
The Ashoka Challa inscription of 1255 is the earliest example of modern Nepali. The languages of these early inscriptions are considered to be a dialect of Jumla and West Nepal, rather than a predecessor of the dialect of Gorkha, which became the modern Nepali language.
The earliest example of modern Nepali is the literary manuscript ''Svastanivratakatha,'' dated 1648. Other such early literary texts in modern Nepali are the anonymous version of the "Khandakhadya" (dated 1649), the "Bajapariksha" (1700) and "Jvarotpatticikitsa" written by Banivilas Jytoirvid (1773) and "Prayascittapradipa" written by Premnidhi Pant (1780). The 1670 Rani Pokhari inscription of King
Pratap Malla
Pratap Malla (1624–74 A.D.) was King of Kantipur from 1641 until his death in 1674. He attempted to unify Kathmandu Valley by conquering Lalitpur and Bhaktapur, but failed in the effort. He was successful in extending and securing the borders ...
, another early example of modern Nepali, indicates the significant increment of Nepali speakers in Kathmandu valley. The currently popular variant of Nepali is believed to have originated around 500 years ago with the mass migration of a branch of
Khas people
Khas people (; ne, खस) popularly known as Khas Arya are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the Himalayan region of South Asia, what is now present-day Nepal, Indian states of Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Sikkim. Histor ...
from the
Karnali-
Bheri-
Seti eastward to settle in lower valleys of the
Karnali and the
Gandaki basin that were well-suited to
rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...
cultivation. Over the centuries, different dialects of the Nepali language with distinct influences from Sanskrit, Maithili,
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
, and
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
are believed to have emerged across different regions of the current-day Nepal and Uttarakhand, making Khasa the
lingua franca.
The institutionalisation of the Nepali language is believed to have started with the Shah kings of
Gorkha Kingdom
Gorkha Kingdom ( ne, गोरखा राज्य) was a member of the Chaubisi rajya, a confederation of 24 states on the Indian subcontinent ruled by Khas people. In 1743 CE, the kingdom began a campaign of military expansion, annexing s ...
, in the modern day
Gorkha District of Nepal. In 1559, a prince of Lamjung,
Dravya Shah
Dravya Shah ( ne, द्रव्य शाह; 1559–1570) was the king of the Gorkha Kingdom in Nepal. He was the father of Purna Shah, king of Gorkha.
Dravya Shah's accomplices were Bhagirath Panta, Ganesh Pandey, Narayan Arjyal, Sarveshwar Kha ...
established himself on the throne of Gorkha with the help of local Khas and
Magars. He raised an army of Khas people under the command of Bhagirath Panta. Later, in the late 18th century, his descendant,
Prithvi Narayan Shah
Maharajadhiraj Prithvi Narayan Shah (1723–1775) ( ne, श्री ५ बडामहाराजाधिराज पृथ्वीनारायण शाह देव) was the last ruler of the Gorkha Kingdom and first monarch of the ...
, raised and modernized an army of
Chhetri, Thakuri, Magars,
Gurung people, and others and set out to conquer and consolidate dozens of small principalities in the Himalayas. Since Gorkha had replaced the original Khas homeland, Khaskura was redubbed ''Gorkhali'' "language of the Gorkhas".
Modern Nepali
One of the most notable military achievements of Prithvi Narayan Shah was the conquest of
Kathmandu Valley, a region called Nepal at the time. After the overthrowing of the Malla rulers, Kathmandu was established as Prithvi Narayan's new capital. The
Khas people
Khas people (; ne, खस) popularly known as Khas Arya are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the Himalayan region of South Asia, what is now present-day Nepal, Indian states of Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Sikkim. Histor ...
originally referred to their language as ''Khas kurā'' ("Khas speech"), which was also known as ''Parbatiya'' (or ''Parbattia'' or ''Paharia'', meaning language of the hill country). The Newar people used the term "
Gorkhali" as a name for this language, as they identified it with the Gorkhali conquerors. The Gorkhalis themselves started using this term to refer to their language at a later stage. The census of India prior to independence used the term ''Naipali'' at least from 1901 to 1951, the 1961 census replacing it with ''Nepali''.
Historically,
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
has been a significant source of vocabulary for the Nepali language. According to exclusive phonological evidences observed by lexicographer Sir
Ralph Turner, Nepali language is closely related to
Punjabi
Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan
* Punjabi language
* Punjabi people
* Punjabi dialects and languages
Punjabi may also refer to:
* Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
,
Lahnda,
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
and
Kumaoni while it appears to share some distinguishing features with the other Indo-Aryan languages like
Rajasthani,
Gujarati
Gujarati may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India
* Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat
* Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them
* Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...
and
Bangla
Bangla (Bengali: বাংলা) may refer to:
*Bengali language, an eastern Indo-Aryan language
*The endonym of Bengal, a geographical and ethno-linguistic region in South Asia
*''Bangla-'', a prefix indicating Bangladesh
Businesses and organ ...
. Ethnologist
Brian Houghton Hodgson stated that the Khas or Parbattia language is an "Indian
Prakrit
The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usu ...
" brought by colonies from south of the Nepalese hills, and the whole structure including the eighth-tenth portion of the vocabulary of it is "substantially
Hindee" due to the influences and loanwords it shares with Arabic and Farsi.
Contemporary Nepali
Expansion – particularly to the north, west, and south – brought the growing state into conflict with the British and the Chinese. This led to wars that trimmed back the territory to an area roughly corresponding to Nepal's present borders. After the Gorkha conquests, the Kathmandu valley or ''Nepal'' became the new center of politics. As the entire conquered territory of the Gorkhas ultimately became ''Nepal'', in the early decades of the 20th century, Gorkha language activists in India, especially
Darjeeling
Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nep ...
and
Varanasi
Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.
*
*
*
* The city has a syncretic t ...
, began petitioning Indian universities to adopt the name 'Nepali' for the language. Also in an attempt to disassociate himself with his Khas background, the Rana monarch
Jung Bahadur Rana decreed that the term Gorkhali be used instead of ''Khas kurā'' to describe the language. Meanwhile, the
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
n administrators had started using the term "Nepal" to refer to the Gorkha kingdom. In the 1930s, Nepal government also adopted this term fully. Subsequently, the Khas language came to be known as "Nepali language".
The earliest Nepali grammar to have survived was written by Veerendra Keshari Aryal entitled "Nepali Vyakaran" and it is dated around 1891 to 1905. The grammar is based on
Panini model and it equates Nepali with
Prakrit
The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usu ...
and labels it as "the mountain Prakrit". However, later the official institution established in 1912 for formalizing Nepali language, the "Gorkha Bhasha Prakashini Samiti", accepted the 1920 grammar text entitled ''Candrika Gorkha Bhasha Vyakaran'' by
Pandit Hemraj Pandey as the official grammar of the Nepali language. Nepali is spoken indigenously over most of Nepal west of the
Gandaki River, then progressively less further to the east.
Official status
Nepal
Part 1 of the
Nepali Constitution deals with the official language of the
Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
Under Article 6, the official "language of the
nation
A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by th ...
" will be "all languages spoken as the
mother tongues
A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...
in Nepal".
In Article 7, the official language of Nepal have been written, which includes Nepali in
Devanagari script:
# The Nepali language in the Devanagari script shall be the official language of Nepal.
# A Province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...
may, by a provincial law, determine one or more than one languages of the nation spoken by a majority of people within the Province as its official language or languages, in addition to the Nepali language.
# Other matters relating to language shall be as decided by the Government of Nepal on recommendation of the Language Commission.
India
On August 31, 1992, the
Parliament of India
The Parliament of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of ...
passed a bill to amend the
Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India
The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India lists the official languages of the Republic of India. At the time when the Constitution was enacted, inclusion in this list meant that the language was entitled to representation on the Official ...
to give
Konkani,
Manipuri, and Nepali as a
languages with official status in India
There is no national language in India. However, article 343(1) of the Indian constitution specifically mentions that, "The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official p ...
. Nepali has official status in the Indian state of
Sikkim
Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Sil ...
and in the
Gorkhaland Territorial Administration of
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
.
Nepali also has a significant number of speakers in the states of
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...
,
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
,
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several pea ...
,
Manipur
Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of ...
,
Meghalaya
Meghalaya (, or , meaning "abode of clouds"; from Sanskrit , "cloud" + , "abode") is a state in northeastern India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of Assam: (a) the United Khasi Hills and J ...
,
Mizoram
Mizoram () is a state in Northeast India, with Aizawl as its seat of government and capital city. The name of the state is derived from "Mizo", the self-described name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", which in the Mizo language means "lan ...
and
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...
.
Bhutan
Despite Nepali language being spoken by about a quarter of population in
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...
.
It has no official status in Bhutan, the native speakers of Nepali are known as ''
Lhotshampa'' ("southerners").
Many of Nepali-language speaking
Bhutanese people were
displaced by various laws enacted by the
Bhutanese government.
Geographical distribution
According to the 2011 national census, 44.6% of the population of Nepal speaks Nepali as its
first language
A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother to ...
. and 32.8% speak Nepali as a second language.
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensi ...
reports 12,300,000 speakers within Nepal (from the 2011 census).
Nepali is traditionally spoken in the
hilly regions of Nepal. The language is prominently used by the government of Nepal and is the everyday language of the local population. The exclusive use of Nepali in the court system and by the government of Nepal, however, is being challenged. Gaining recognition for other
languages of Nepal was one of the goals of the decades-long Maoist insurgency.
In
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...
, native Nepali speakers, known as ''Lhotshampa'', are estimated at 35%
of the population. This number includes displaced
Bhutanese refugees, with unofficial estimates of the ethnic Bhutanese refugee population as high as 30 to 40%, constituting a majority in the south (about 242,000 people).
According to the
2011 Census of India
The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Informatio ...
, there were a total of 2,926,168 Nepali language speakers in India.
Nepali is the third-most spoken language in the Australian territory of
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
, where it is spoken by 1.3% of its population,
and fifth-most spoken language in the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...
, Australia, spoken by 1.3% of its population.
Literature
Nepali developed significant literature within a short period of a hundred years in the 19th century. This literary explosion was fuelled by
Adhyatma Ramayana
''Adhyatma Ramayana'' ( Devanāgarī: अध्यात्म रामायण, IAST: ''Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇa'', ) is a 13th- to 15th-century Sanskrit text that allegorically interprets the story of Hindu epic '' Ramayana'' in the Advaita Ved ...
; Sundarananda Bara (1833); Birsikka, an anonymous collection of folk tales; and a version of the
ancient India
According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by ...
n epic ''
Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...
'' by
Bhanubhakta Acharya (d. 1868). The contribution of trio-laureates
Lekhnath Paudyal
Lekhnath Paudyal ( ne, लेखनाथ पौड्याल; 1885–1966) is regarded as the founding father of modern Nepali poetry literature (Kabi Shiromani) in the twentieth-century. His most important contribution is believed to be to ...
,
Laxmi Prasad Devkota
Laxmi Prasad Devkota ( ne, लक्ष्मीप्रसाद देवकोटा) (1909-1959) was a Nepali poet, playwright, and novelist. Honored with the title of Mahakabi ( ne, माहाकवि) in Nepali literature, he was kno ...
, and
Balkrishna Sama
Balkrishna Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana or Bala Krishna Sama ( ne, बालकृष्ण सम; 8 February 1903 - 20 June 1981) was a Nepalese dramatist. For his great contributions to Nepali literature, he was awarded the title ''Natya Siroma ...
took Nepali to the level of other world languages. The contribution of expatriate writers outside Nepal, especially in
Darjeeling
Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nep ...
and
Varanasi
Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.
*
*
*
* The city has a syncretic t ...
in India, is also notable.
Dialects
Dialects of Nepali include Acchami, Baitadeli, Bajhangi, Bajurali, Bheri, Dadeldhuri, Dailekhi, Darchulali, Darchuli, Gandakeli, Humli, Purbeli, and Soradi.
These dialects can be distinct from Standard Nepali. Mutual intelligibility between Baitadeli, Bajhangi, Bajurali (Bajura), Humli, and Acchami is low.
The dialect of Nepali language spoken in
Karnali Province is not mutually intelligible with Standard Nepali. The language is known with its old name as ''
Khas Bhasa'' in Karnali.
Phonology
Vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...
s and
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced w ...
s are outlined in the tables below.
Vowels
Nepali distinguishes six oral vowels and five
nasal vowels. /o/ does not have a phonemic nasal counterpart, although it is often in
free variation with
�
Nepali has ten
diphthongs: /ui̯/, /iu̯/, /ei̯/, /eu̯/, /oi̯/, /ou̯/, /ʌi̯/, /ʌu̯/, /ai̯/, and /au̯/.
Consonants
and
are nonsyllabic
allophones of
and
respectively. Every consonant except
and /ɦ/ has a
geminate counterpart between vowels. /ɳ/ and /ʃ/ also exist in some loanwords such as /baɳ/ "arrow" and /nareʃ/ "king", but these sounds are sometimes replaced with native Nepali phonemes.
Final schwas
may or may not be preserved in speech. The following rules can be followed to figure out whether or not Nepali words retain the final schwa.
# Schwa is retained if the final syllable is a conjunct consonant. (, 'end'), (, 'relation'), (, 'greatest'/a last name).
Exceptions: conjuncts such as in (, 'stage') (, 'city') and occasionally the last name (/).
# For any verb form the final schwa is always retained unless the schwa-cancelling halanta is present. (, 'it happens'), (, 'in happening so; therefore'), (, 'he apparently went'), but (, 'they are'), (, 'she went'). Meanings may change with the wrong orthography: (, 'she didn't go') vs (, 'she went').
# Adverbs, onomatopoeia and postpositions usually maintain the schwa and if they don't, halanta is acquired: ( 'now'), (, 'towards'), (, 'today') ( 'drizzle') vs (, 'more').
# Few exceptional nouns retain the schwa such as: (, 'suffering'), (, 'pleasure').
Note: Schwas are often retained in music and poetry to facilitate singing and recitation.
Grammar
Nepali is a highly
fusional language
Fusional languages or inflected languages are a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by their tendency to use a single inflectional morpheme to denote multiple grammatical, syntactic, or semantic features.
...
with relatively free
word order
In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...
, although the dominant arrangement is
SOV (subject–object–verb). There are three major levels or gradations of
honorifics: low, medium and high. Low honorific is used where no respect is due, medium honorific is used to signify equal status or neutrality, and high honorific signifies respect. There is also a separate highest level honorific, which was used to refer to members of the royal family, and by the royals among themselves. Like all modern Indo-Aryan languages, Nepali grammar has syncretized heavily, losing much of the complex declensional system present in the older languages. Instead, it relies heavily on periphrasis, a marginal verbal feature of older Indo-Aryan languages.
Writing system
Nepali is written in
Devanagari
Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ...
script.
In the section below Nepali is represented in Latin transliteration using the
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...
scheme and
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners A ...
. The chief features are:
subscript
A subscript or superscript is a character (such as a number or letter) that is set slightly below or above the normal line of type, respectively. It is usually smaller than the rest of the text. Subscripts appear at or below the baseline, whil ...
dots for
retroflex consonant
A retroflex ( /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal ( /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the h ...
s;
macrons for etymologically, contrastively
long vowel
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, ...
s; ''h'' denoting
aspirated plosive
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases.
The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lip ...
s.
Tildes denote
nasalised vowels.
Consonants
Vowels
Sample text
The following is a sample text in Nepali, of Article 1 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt ...
, with a transliteration (IAST) and transcription (
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners A ...
).
; Nepali in Devanagari Script
: धारा १. सबै व्यक्तिहरू जन्मजात स्वतन्त्र हुन् ती सबैको समान अधिकार र महत्व छ। निजहरूमा विचार शक्ति र सद्विचार भएकोले निजहरूले आपसमा भातृत्वको भावनाबाट व्यवहार गर्नु पर्छ।
; Transliteration (
ISO)
: Dhārā 1. Sabai vyaktiharū janmajāt svatantra hun tī sabaiko samān adhikār ra mahatva cha. Nijharūmā vicār śakti ra sadvicār bhaekole nijharūle āpasmā bhatṛtvako bhāvanabāṭa vyavahār garnu parcha.
; Transcription (
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners A ...
)
: [dʱaɾa ek sʌbʌi̯ bektiɦʌɾu d͡zʌnmʌd͡zat sotʌntɾʌ ɦun ti sʌbʌi̯ko sʌman ʌd(ʱ)ikaɾ rʌ mʌːtːo t͡sʰʌ nid͡zɦʌɾuma bit͡saɾ sʌkti ɾʌ sʌdbit͡sar bʱʌekole nid͡zɦʌɾule apʌsma bʱatɾitːoko bʱawʌnabaʈʌ bebaːr ɡʌɾnu pʌɾt͡sʰʌ]
; Gloss (word-to-word)
: Article 1. All human-beings from-birth independent are their all equal right and importance is. In themselves, intellect and conscience they brotherhood's spirit do must.
; Translation (grammatical)
: Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
See also
*
Nepal Sambat
*
Nepali language movement
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
*
*
*
Further reading
* , . . (2000), , , ।
* Schmidt, R. L. (1993
''A Practical Dictionary of Modern Nepali.''*
Turner, R. L. (1931
''A Comparative and Etymological Dictionary of the Nepali Language.''* Clements, G.N. & Khatiwada, R. (2007). "Phonetic realization of contrastively aspirated affricates in Nepali." In ''Proceedings of ICPhS XVI'' (Saarbrücken, 6–10 August 2007), 629- 632
* Hutt, M. & Subedi, A. (2003) ''Teach Yourself Nepali.''
*
* Manders, C. J. (2007) '' A Foundation in Nepali Grammar.''
* Dr. Dashrath Kharel, "Nepali linguistics spoken in Darjeeling-Sikkim"
External links
*
wikt:Nepali lemmas, List of Nepali words at
Wiktionary
Wiktionary ( , , rhyming with "dictionary") is a multilingual, web-based project to create a free content dictionary of terms (including words, phrases, proverbs, linguistic reconstructions, etc.) in all natural languages and in a num ...
, the free dictionary
Omniglot – Nepali LanguageBarala – Easy Nepali Typing* , Nepali Brihat Shabdakosh (Comprehensive Nepali Dictionary)
"Nepal Academy"* , Nepali Brihat Shabdakosh – Nepali Dictionar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nepali Language
Indo-Aryan languages
Languages of Assam
Languages of Bhutan
Languages of Nepal
Languages of Sikkim
Languages of West Bengal
Languages officially written in Indic scripts
Languages written in Devanagari
National symbols of Nepal
Official languages of India
Official languages of Nepal
Sahitya Akademi recognised languages
Lingua francas
Fusional languages
Standard languages
Subject–object–verb languages
Northern Indo-Aryan languages