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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 and in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration of West Bengal. It is spoken by about a quarter of Bhutan's population.
Nepali is spoken by approximately 19 million native speakers and another 14 million as a second language. Nepali is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Himalayas region of South Asia. It is the official, and most widely spoken, language of Nepal, where it also serves as a lingua franca.
The national language of Nepal is known as "Nepali". According to the most recent official census, conducted by the Government of Nepal in 2001, Nepal is home to around 20 million speakers of Nepali. Nepali is the mother tongue for 11 million people, and a lingua franca for many more. Outside of Nepal, Nepali is also spoken in northeast India ...
- A Language Of Many Names. The Nepali language originated among the ancient Khas people in western Nepal and parts of northern India. Initially known as the Khas language, it evolved into Khas Kura and Gorkhali before acquiring its current moniker, Nepali.
- Tale Of The Khas People. As the Khas people migrated from western Nepal to eastern parts, the Khas language, carried in the hearts and voices of these hill tribesmen, moved along with them.
- The Kingdom And The Language. With the establishment of the Gorkha Kingdom, the language experienced a turning point. Prithvi Narayan Shah, the first King of unified Nepal, adopted Gorkhali as the lingua franca, promoting it as a tool for political and cultural unity.
- Impact Of The Declaration Of Nepali Language. During the modern period, the Shah dynasty officially declared Nepali as the national language. This bestowed an official status upon the language, further strengthening its role in nation-building and solidifying Nepal as a country where Nepali is the widely spoken language.
- Overview
- History
- Varieties and lexicon
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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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.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Nepali, also known as Nepalese or Gorkhali, is the official language of Nepal and serves as a lingua franca across various communities in the Indian subcontinent. It is spoken by around 25 million people globally and has an official status in the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal.
The national language of Nepal is known as “Nepali”. According to the most recent official census, conducted by the Government of Nepal in 2001, Nepal is home to around 20 million speakers of Nepali. Nepali is the mother tongue for 11 million people, and a lingua franca for many more.
