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Nepal Bhasa

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Nepal Bhasa (नेपाल भाषा also known as Newah Bhaye) is one of the major languages of Nepal. It is one of the roughly five hundred Sino-Tibetan languages in the world, and belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of this family. It is the only Tibeto-Burman language to be written in the Devanāgarī script. It is spoken by the Newars (and may be referred to as Newari), who chiefly inhabit the towns of the Kathmandu Valley.

Contents

Classification

Nepal Bhasa (Newah Bhaye)is classified as a language of Sino-Tibetan family of languages. It falls under Tibeto-Burman group of languages.

Phonology and writing system 1

It is largely derived from Sanskrit. The sounds are traditionally listed in the order vowels, diphthongs, anusvara and visarga, stops and nasals (starting in the back of the mouth and moving forward), and finally the liquids and fricatives, written in IAST as follows (see the tables below for details):

a ā i ī u ū ṛ ṝ ḷ ḹ; e ai o au
ṃ ḥ
k kh g gh ṅ; c ch j jh ñ; ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ; t th d dh n; p ph b bh m
y r l v; ś ṣ s h
An alternate traditional ordering is that of the Shiva Sutra of Pāṇini.

Vowels

Devanagari script is the one most popularly associated with Nepal Bhasa, although many other scripts have been used to write it. Devanagari, being an abugida script, non-word-initial vowels are expressed by diacritics; see Devanagari for details. The vowels of Nepal Bhasa with their word-initial devanagari symbol, diacritical mark with the consonant प् (/p/), pronunciation (of the vowel alone and of /p/+vowel) in IPA, equivalent in IAST and ITRANS and (approximate) equivalents in Standard English are listed below:
Alphabet Diacritical mark with “” Pronunciation Pronunciation with /p/ IAST equiv.''' '''ITRANS equiv. Approximate English eqivalent
/ä/ (two sounds are represented by the same letter) /pä/ a a short Schwa: as the a in above or sometimes like the u in under.
ā A long Open central unrounded vowel: as the a in father
i i short close front unrounded vowel: as i in bit
ī I long close front unrounded vowel: as i in machine
u u short close back rounded vowel: as u in put
ū U long close back rounded vowel: as oo in school
e e long close-mid front unrounded vowel: as a in game (not a diphthong), or é in café
ai ai a long diphthong: approx. as ei in height
o o long close-mid back rounded vowel: as o in tone (not a diphthong)
au au a long diphthong: approx. as ou in house
R short syllabic vowel-like retroflex approximant: approx. as American Eng. bird or meter
RR retroflex approximant: a longer version of
LR short syllabic vowel-like retroflex-lateral approximant: approx. as handle
LRR

The long vowels are held about twice as long as their short counterparts. Also, there exists a third, extra-long length for most vowels, called pluti, which is used in various cases, but particularly in the vocative. The pluti is not accepted by all grammarians.

The vowels e and o continue as allophonic variants of Proto-Indo-Iranian /ai/, /au/, and they are phonologically (conceptually) /ai/ and /au/ still in Sanskrit (hence in Nepal Bhasa) , and are categorized as diphthongs by Sanskrit grammarians even though they are realized phonetically as simple long vowels.

Additional points:

Consonants

Devanagari and IAST notation is given, with approximate IPA values in square brackets.

Labial Labiodental Dental Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop Unaspirated प [p] ब [b] त [t] द [d] ट [ʈ] ड [ɖ] च [c] ज [ɟ] क [k] ग [g]
Aspirated फ [pʰ] भ [bʱ] थ [tʰ] ध [dʱ] ठ [ʈʰ] ढ [ɖʱ] छ [cʰ] झ [ɟʱ] ख [kʰ] घ [gʱ]
Nasal m म [m] n न [n] ṇ ण [ɳ] ñ ञ [ɲ] ṅ ङ [ŋ]
Semivowel v व [ʋ] y य [j]
Liquid l ल [l] r र [r]
Fricative s स [s] ṣ ष [ʂ] ś श [ɕ] ḥ ः [h] h ह [ɦ]

The table below shows the traditional listing of the Sanskrit/Nepal Bhasa consonants with the (nearest) equivalents in English/Spanish. Each consonant shown below is deemed to be followed by the neutral vowel schwa (/ə/), and is named in the table as such.

Plosives
Unaspirated
Voiceless 		Aspirated
Voiceless 		Unaspirated
Voiced 		Aspirated
Voiced 		Nasal
Velar /kə/; English: skip /kʰə/; English: cat /gə/; English: game /gʱə/; Aspirated /g/ /ŋə/; English: ring
Palatal /cə/; ≈English: chat /cʰə/; Aspirated /c/ /ɟə/; ≈English: jam /ɟʱə/; Aspirated /ɟ/ /ɲə/; English: finch
Retroflex /ʈə/; American Eng: hurting /ʈʰə/; Aspirated /ʈ/ /ɖə/; American Eng: murder /ɖʱə/; Aspirated /ɖ/ /ɳə/; American Eng: hunter
Apico-Dental /t̪ə/; Spanish: tomate /t̪ʰə/; Aspirated /t̪/ /d̪ə/; Spanish: donde /d̪ʱə/; Aspirated /d̪/ न
/nə/; English: name
Labial /pə/; English: spin /pʰə/; English: pit /bə/; English: bone /bʱə/; Aspirated /b/ /mə/; English: mine

Non-Plosives/Sonorants
Palatal Retroflex Dental/
Alveolar 		Labial/
Glottal
Approximant /jə/; English: you /rə/; American Eng: tearing /lə/; English: love व (labio-dental)
/ʋə/; English: vase
Sibilant/
Fricative 		/ɕə/; English: ship /ʂə/; Retroflex form of /ʃ/ /sə/; English: same /ɦə/; English behind

Script

Nepal Bhasa is written in many scripts. The main scripts are Ranjana script, Prachalit, Brahmi, Golmol etc. These days Devanāgarī is often used. All the scripts proceed from left to right. All the scripts consist of two separate sets of alphabets- one vowels and the other consonants.

Brahmi is the oldest of the scripts. All other scripts are derived from Brahmi. Devanagari script is the most used font at the present because it is the official script of Nepal as well as is used widely in neighbouring India. Ranjana script was the most used script in ancient times. It is making a revival due to the recent cultural awareness. Prachalit script being similar to Devanagari is also in use. The Brahmi and Golmol scripts are rarely used in present.

Dialects

The main dialects are 2:- In addition to these dialects, there are few sub-dialects spoken in Kathmandu valley and other parts of Nepal. These sub-dialects are spoken in surrounding villages of Kathmandu, Patan, Bhaktapur, Chitlang and Dolakha.The dialect spoken in Bandipur is the oldest form of Khwapa Bhaaye. The dialect spoken in Chainpur, Bhojpur, Terathum, Palapa is related to Kathmandu and Patan. The dialect spoken in Ridi, Baglung, Arughat is closer to Bhaktapur.

Literature

Main article: Nepal Bhasa literature

Nepal Bhasa literature has a long history. It has the fourth-oldest literature of the Sino-Tibetan languages (the first, second and third being Chinese, Tibetan and Burmese respectively).

Drama

Dramas are traditionally performed in open Dabu (stage). Most of the traditional dramas are related to deities and demons. Masked characters are central to such dramas. Music forms an important part of drama. Most of them are narrated with the help of songs sang at intervals. The drama as such resembles dance in many cases. The theme of most of the drama is to create a social wellbeing with morals illustrating the rise, turbulence and fall of evil. There are fixed dates in the Nepal Sambat (Nepal Era) calendar for performance of specific drama. Most of the dramas are carried out by specific Guthis.

Poetry

Poetry writing constituted a pompous part of medieval Malla aristrocracy. Many of the kings were well renouned poets. Siddhidas Mahaju and Chittadhar Hridaya are two great poets in the language.

Prose Fiction

Story

The art of verbal story telling is very old in Nepal Bhasa. There are a variety of mythical and social stories that have aided in establishing the norm of Kathmandu valley. Stories ranging from the origin of Kathmandu valley to the temples of the valley and the important monuments have been passed down verbally in Nepal Bhasa. Very few of them were in written form initially. Howvever, with an increase in literacy rate and an awareness amongst the people, those stories have been penned down. Stories on other topics have also taken root.

Facts and Figures

Area

Number of speakers

Roughly 1,000,000 in Nepal according to 1991 census plus a few thousands outside Nepal.

History

Classical Newari is the name for the pre-1850 literary form of the language. It is no longer spoken or written, but it is an important source language for historians and philologists.

Development

Nepal Bhasa is the most Indianized of the Tibeto-Burman languages, and has had so many centuries of contact with neighboring Indo-Iranian languages that it has even developed noun inflection, a trait typical of the Indo-European family but extremely rare in Sino-Tibetan. It has absorbed other features of grammar as well, such as verb tenses. These influences are outstanding examples of fundamental traits of a language being passed on through language contact.

Some common phrases and terms

English Devanagari Roman script

Hello ज्वजलपा Jwajalapa

What is your name? छिगु नां छु खः ? Chhigu naa chhu kha?

My name is ___ जिगु नां ___ खः Jigu naa ___ kha

Happy New Year न्हूदँया भितुना Nhugu dan yaa bhintunaa 

Mother
मां
Maa




Father
अबु 
Abu




Grandmother
अजी 
Ajee




Grandfather
अजा 
Ajaa




Friend
पासा 
Paasaa




Organization
गुठी 
Guthi




House
छें 
Chhen




Person
मनु 
Manu




Medicine
वास 
Waasa




News
बुखं
Bukhan




Dance
प्याखं
Pyakhan




Stage
दबली 
Dabalee




Palace
लायकू
Layaku




Office
ज्यास 
Jyaasa




Shop
पसल 
Pasa/Pasal


Courtyard
चूक
Chooka




Brain
न्ह्यपु
Nhepu




Heart
नुगः
Nugah




Water
लः / ना 
Lah / Naa





Reference



External links








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