LANGUAGE

Nepali, an Indo-Arian language, belongs to the Indo-European language family and it has a long tradition of writing. It is said to have developed from Sanskrit, one of the major classical languages of South Asia. It is written in the Devanagari script, like many other languages of South Asia.

Nepali is spoken by about 50.3 % of the total Nepali population as the mother tongue (1991 Census of Nepal), and is the national language of Nepal. It is lingua franca for more than sixty languages or dialects spoken in the region that comprises present-day Nepal.

Nepali is the official language of Nepal. Written Nepali, in particular, departs from spoken Nepali in some respects. To function well in Nepal one needs to be familiar with both, the everyday spoken Nepali, as well as official, literate Nepali. As a medium of administration, education, radio, television, press and mass communication, the role of Nepali is unchallenged in Nepal. Nepali is also a second language to as many as 30% of Nepali. Nepali is spoken by a large number of people outside of Nepal.

Nepali is written in the phonetically based Devanagari script using the Sanskrit sound system. This means that Nepali is a “what you see is what you read” language. Nepali words do not have any hidden or implied sounds; for the most part, if a sound is written it is pronounced, if it is not written it is not pronounced. This makes reading Nepali relatively straightforward once the alphabets and writing or phonetic conventions are understood.

Nepali is a Subject-Object-Verb language.

Example: म नेपाली बोल्छु।

               ma nepali bolchhu. Literally: I Nepali speak.

               I speak Nepali.

There are singular and plural forms. There are tenses as well, like English.

In Nepali we do not have prepositions, we have post position. In English we say on the table, in Nepali we say table on. “Tebulmaa”

Due to the socio-cultural reasons there are free, borrowed words from Nepali to other languages, and vice-versa. There are many loan words from English, as well as scientific, technical and foreign cultural terms that have been worked into Nepali exactly as they are used in other countries. There are many more borrowed words from Sanskrit. 

Nepali Vowels 

Pure Vowels: Table 1

Dipthongs: Table 2

Nepali vowels are made up of eight pure vowels sounds, अ, आ, इ, ई, उ, ऊ, ए, ऐ, and two dipthongs “o” ओ, and “au”औ.

In Nepali there are two “I,” short “I” इ, and long “I” ई, also two u, short “u” उ, and long “u” ऊ only distinguished in writing. In speaking, both are pronounced with the same caveat as above applies. 

Consonants Sound: Table 3

Velar consonants  क, ख, ग, घ, ङ (ka, kha, ga, gha, nga)

Palatal consonants  च, छ, ज, झ, ञ ( cha, chha, ja, jha, yna)

Retroflex consonants ट, ठ,ड, ढ, ण (Ta, Tha, Da, Dha, Na)

Dental consonants त, थ, द, ध,न (ta, tha, da, dha, na) 

In this consonant chart, aspirated consonants are indicated by the addition of “h” after the consonant sound.

pha- फ is pronounced as F in English.

And bha – भ is pronounced as V in English.

( य ya, र ra, ल la and व wa) are  considered “semi-vowels”

( श sha, ष sha and स sa) are three “s” in Nepali

( क्ष kchha, त्र tra and ज्ञ gya ) are two letters combinations, contains special conjunct consonants characters mostly used in spelling words derived from Saskrit.

ka+sha= kchha क्ष ( is a combination of ka sha)

ta+ra=tra  त्र  ( is a combination of ta and ra)

ga+ya=gya ज्ञ ( is a combination of gya and na)

Combining Vowels and Consonants to make words:

All consonants in the Nepali alphabet are distinct syllables which have an “a” Sound built in at the end.

For example: क ka , ख kha, ग ga already have “a” sound built in .

For any other vowels, other than “a” अ a vowel sign is applied to the consonant to make a composite syllable. For example, the vowel sign ई is combined with consonants “ka” to make a separate consonant “ki” की.

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Vowel signs in Table 4 

Conjuncts in Nepali:

A conjunct is formed when two consonants are joined, with the first consonant losing the embedded अ sound in the process. It is very important in Nepali language to understand how they are formed. One way to from conjuncts is to add a backward slash (called halant in Nepali). For example क (ka) is converted into क्.

ख्, ग्, घ्, च् छ्, ज्, झ्,  ट्, ठ् ड्, ढ्, प्, फ्,

Another way to form conjuncts is to write half consonants and join with another consonant like this chart:

These consonants are marked by the halant at the base.

ट् (Ta)    Butter बट्‍टर

ठ् ( Tha) 

ड् ( Da)  Fodder  फड्‍डर

ढ् (Dha)   

Conjuncts involving “ra” र are created four different ways. Some examples are as follows: