If you are planning a trip to the fabulous Nepal, studying the culture of South Asia or are fond of the culture of the East, it is useful for you to understand what Nepali language is. This article briefly talks about this interesting language, presents its history and demonstrates some of its distinctive features.
Briefly about Nepal
Nepal is a small mountainous state in South Asia, located between the northern part of India and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It is no coincidence that it is called the "roof of the world", because on the territory of this small country there are more than half of all the mountains of the planet whose peaks are located above the mark of 8,000 meters above sea level. Among them is the famous Chomolungma, it is Everest.
In addition to the opportunity to conquer the top of the world, the country gives tourists stunning landscapes and a rich heritage of centuries-old culture.
What language is in Nepal? Here you can hear many languages: Maithili, Bhojpuri, Tharu and others, but the main one is Nepali. Despite the fact that English is quite widespread in the state, and you will not disappear even with its minimal knowledge, you can truly immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the state and penetrate its culture only with understanding Nepali.
What is a
Nepali is the official and most numerous language of the Republic of Nepal. It is also spoken in India, Bhutan and Sikkim. In addition to Nepal, state status is assigned to Nepal in the Indian state of Sikkim and in Darjeeling County, West Bengal. Nepali language belongs to a subgroup of mountain dialects called Pahari, and it comes from the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. Due to the influence of Hindi and Sanskrit, much in common is traced between them.
Sometimes the Nepali language is mistakenly called Nevar. Despite the fact that Kathmandu is currently the capital of the state, historically it formed its own language, belonging to the Tibetan-Burmese group.
Due to the diversity of ethnic groups living in Nepal, several names can be heard in different parts of the country:
- gurkhali;
- khas-kura;
- mumbo jumbo;
- lhotshammikha;
- Oriental plowman, which is found only in linguistic literature.
Differences can be traced not only in the names, but also in its content: the Nepali language has a number of dialects. The closer to the depths of the country, the language becomes more complex and richer. On the outskirts of Nepal, in places close to tourist, it is greatly simplified and becomes more understandable to guests of the country.
In ancient times, writing used its own writing system - Bhujimol, but over time it was replaced by Indian writing or Devanagari ("divine writing"), also characteristic of Hindi and Marathi. The first written monument of Nepalese language dates from 1337. As for the literary language, it is relatively young and originates in the early decades of the 19th century.
Morphological features of Nepal
The lexical basis of the Nepalese language is made up of words borrowed from Sanskrit. This alphabet consists of only 38 letters: 11 vowels and 27 consonants. Vowels form diphthongs.
Nepalese nouns are feminine or masculine if singular. Unlike most languages, changing nouns by numbers is optional and is often omitted if there is another attribute indicating the number.
Pronouns, unlike nouns, have no gender. It is also worth paying attention to the division of third person pronouns into those located near and far from the speaker. In addition, for the Nepali pronouns, there are three degrees of formality: low dignity, middle dignity and high dignity.
Nepali verbs vary in number, gender, dignity and face, and also conjugate according to time, subspecies and one of the five moods.
As for adjectives, they can be either declined or non-declined. An interesting trend is the widespread use of female endings, justified by the influence of Hindi on the written language.
How to start chatting
Even a person unfamiliar with the Nepali language, at least once in his life heard the famous "namaste." Literally from Nepali, the expression is translated into Russian as “I salute God in you”, the expression is used in everyday speech to greet, say goodbye, or instead of the question “How are you?” For "namaste" the setting of hands is characteristic, as for prayer. This gesture is an analogy of a West European handshake.
Despite all its features, Nepali is easy to learn. In order to introduce oneself, one must say: “Mero us Shiva ho” (“My name is Shiva”). To find out the name of the interlocutor, just ask "Tapayko us ke ho?"
If you don’t understand or don’t know something, ask the question "Yo ke ho?" ("What is this?") Or "ke byo?" ("What's happening?").