- Also called:
- Gurkha, Gorkhali, Gurkhali, or Khaskura
Nepali language
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What is the Nepali language?
Nepali is the official language of Nepal and is spoken by over 17 million people, mainly in Nepal and neighboring parts of India. There are also smaller communities who speak Nepali in Bhutan, Brunei, and Myanmar. Nepali is part of the Pahari subgroup of Indo-European languages. It is related to languages from northwestern India, such as Sindhi, Lahnda, and Punjabi. Modern Nepali comes from the language of the ancient Khasha people. The vocabulary and writing style of Nepali are influenced by Sanskrit and use the Devanagari script.
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Where is Nepali spoken?
Nepali is primarily spoken in Nepal and neighboring parts of India by over 17 million people. There are also smaller communities who speak Nepali in Bhutan, Brunei, and Myanmar.
Nepali is Nepal's principal and official language and is spoken in the Tarai and mid-mountain regions. It belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. There are three regional dialect groups: western, central, and eastern Nepali. A distinct dialect is also used by the royal family and upper classes.
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What script is used to write Nepali?
Nepali is written using the Devanagari script, which evolved from the Gupta script and ultimately from the Brahmi alphabet. This writing system is a combination of syllabary and alphabet with the convention that a consonantal symbol lacking diacritics is read as the consonant followed by the letter a. The vocabulary and style of written Nepali are influenced by Sanskrit and recorded with the Devanagari script. Devanagari is also used to write Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi, Marathi, and Konkani languages.
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What language family does Nepali belong to?
Nepali is a member of the Pahari subgroup of the Indo-Aryan group of the Indo-European languages. More than 17 million people speak Nepali, mainly in Nepal and neighboring parts of India. There are also smaller speech communities in Bhutan, Brunei, and Myanmar. The principal and official language of Nepal is Nepali, also known as Gorkhali.
Patterns of phonological change suggest that Nepali relates to the languages of northwestern India, especially Sindhi, Lahnda, and Punjabi. Modern Nepali is a descendant of the language spoken by the ancient Khasha people.
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How is Nepali different from other languages spoken in Nepal?
Nepali, the official language of Nepal, is distinct from other languages spoken in the country due to its origins and linguistic affiliations. Nepali belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family, sharing similarities with languages of northwestern India like Sindhi, Lahnda, and Punjabi. In contrast, many languages spoken in northern and eastern Nepal belong to the Tibeto-Burman family, including Magar, Gurung, Rai, Limbu, and Tamang.
Nepali originated from the language of the ancient Khasha people and was later influenced by Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and English. It has three regional dialect groups: western, central, and eastern, with a distinct dialect used by the upper classes featuring a special lexicon and honorific system. Due to contact with Tibeto-Burman languages, Nepali has also borrowed many idioms.
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What are some important features of Nepali grammar and vocabulary?
Nepali, the official language of Nepal, is part of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family. It features three regional dialect groups: western, central, and eastern. A distinct dialect with a special lexicon and a four-level honorific system is used by the royal family, upper classes, educated middle class, and the newly wealthy.
Written Nepali's vocabulary and style are influenced by Sanskrit and recorded in the Devanagari script. Legal Nepali incorporates Persian and Arabic words, while modern spoken Nepali borrows from Hindi, Sanskrit, and English. Nepali has a rich oral and written literature developed over the last two and a half centuries.
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Nepali language, member of the Pahari subgroup of the Indo-Aryan group of the Indo-Iranian division of the Indo-European languages. Nepali is spoken by more than 17 million people, mostly in Nepal and neighbouring parts of India. Smaller speech communities exist in Bhutan, Brunei, and Myanmar.
History
Patterns of phonological change suggest that Nepali is related to the languages of northwestern India, and particularly to Sindhi, Lahnda, and Punjabi. Comparative reconstructions of vocabulary have supported this appraisal, relating Nepali to proto-Dardic, Pahari, Sindhi, Lahnda, and Punjabi.
Investigations of archaeology and history indicate that modern Nepali is a descendant of the language spoken by the ancient Khasha people. The word Khasha appears in Sanskrit legal, historical, and literary texts such as the Manu-smriti (c. 100 ce), Kalhana’s Rajatarangini (1148 ce), and the Puranas (350–1500 ce). The Khashas ruled over a vast territory comprising what are now western Nepal, parts of Garhwal and Kumaon (India), and parts of southwestern Tibet. Ashoka Challa (1255–78 ce) called himself khasha-rajadhiraja (“emperor of the Khashas”) in a copperplate inscription found in Bodh Gaya. His descendants used old Nepali to inscribe numerous copperplates during the 14th century.
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After the Muslim conquest, the Rajputs of Chittaurgarh, the Brahmans of Kannauj, and many others fled to the foothills of the Himalayas for shelter. The pressure of the migrants and the rising ambition of the local powers caused the Khasha kingdom to fissure into smaller principalities. Some Khasha moved to the eastern parts of present-day Nepal, where their language became a lingua franca for the region’s linguistically diverse ethnic groups.
Eventually Prithvi Narayan Shah (1723?–75) unified the smaller principalities. During and after unification, the Nepalese were identified as Gurkha or Ghurkhalis, while their language was referred to by the singular forms of those names. With the growth of linguistic nationalism, the name Nepali became increasingly popular among the Nepalese living in Nepal and India.
Varieties and lexicon
Nepali includes three regional dialect groups: the western, the central, and the eastern. There is also a distinct dialect used by the members of the royal family and the upper classes. This dialect has a special lexicon and a four-level honorific system, and it is increasingly being adopted by the educated middle class and the newly wealthy.
Nepali has a rich heritage of oral literature as well as a body of written literature that has been developed during last two and half centuries. The vocabulary and style of written Nepali are influenced by Sanskrit and recorded with the Devanagari script.
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As a medium of law and administration, the register of legal Nepali has been developed and enriched with Persian and Arabic words. Technical terms for the various administrative branches of government have been devised and borrowed from Sanskrit and English as needed. Modern spoken Nepali has borrowed vocabulary from Hindi, Sanskrit, and English.