Newar language

"Newari" redirects here. For other uses, see Newari (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Nepali language.

Nepal Bhasa
नेपालभाषा
Native to	Nepal, India, Bhutan
Region	South Asia
Native speakers	0.8 million approx.
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Himalayish Mahakiranti Nepal Bhasa
Writing system	Devanagari script, Ranjana script, Prachalit script, Brahmi script, Gupta script, Bhujimol script, Golmol script
Official status
Official language in	Nepal
Regulated by	Nepal Bhasa Academy, Nepal Bhasa Parishad
Language codes
ISO 639-2	new
ISO 639-3	new

Nepal Bhasa (नेपाल भाषा, also known as Newah Bhaye and Newari) is one of the major languages of Nepal. It is one of roughly five hundred Sino-Tibetan languages, 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 mainly by the Newars, who chiefly inhabit the towns of the Kathmandu Valley. Although Nepal Bhasa is classified as a Sino-Tibetan language, it has been greatly influenced by the Indo-Aryan languages.

Geographic distribution

The language is spoken by roughly around a million people in Nepal according to 2001 census; a few thousand people outside Nepal also speak the language.

• In Nepal: Kathmandu valley i.e. (Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Lalitpur Sub Metropolitan City, Bhaktapur Municipality, Kirtipur Municipality, Thimi Municipality), Dolakha, Banepa, Dhulikhel, Bhimphedi (Makwanpur), Panauti, Palpa, Trishuli, Nuwakot, Bhojpur, Biratnagar, Baglung, Bandipur, Birgunj, Hetaunda and other chief cities.
• In India: Sikkim, West Bengal,
• In Tibet: Khasa

With an increase in emigration, various bodies and societies of Nepal Bhasa-speaking people have emerged in countries like the US, the UK and Japan.

History and development

[[Image:Prachalit.JPG|thumb|right|250x|A historical inscription in Bhaktapur Durbar Square in Nade Nepali language, the state language. The continued enforcement of the language over 30 years made Khas language or Nepali the lingua franca as well. Oher languages including Nepal Bhasa were cast aside as the population could not use it for official, educational or for legal activities.

Renaissance era

The era between B.S.1965 to B.S. 1997 is considered as the renaissance era of Nepal Bhasa. During this era, people like Pandit Nisthananda Bajracharya, Siddhidas Mahaju, Jagatsundar Malla, Yogbir Singh Kansakar, Shukraraj Shastri, Dharmaditya Dharmacharya started writing, translating, educating, and restructuring the language.

The publication of a modern grammar, reader, and children's story books by Shukraraj Shastri, translation of the ancient epic Ramayan, writing about the morals and ethics by Siddhidas Mahaju, "education in mother tongue" movement by Jagatsundar Malla and other literary activities in the era marked the renaissance. Also, research on the language began in this period. It was proven that this language was a Sino-Tibetan language and not Indo-Aryan language (as was believed) in this era. Also, the renaissance marked the revival of the word "Nepal Bhasa" to name the language rather than the Khas imposed term "Newari".

Some of the lines of Siddhidas Mahaju(N.S.987-N.S.1050) read as follows

सज्जन मनुष्यSFGSा संगASDतनं मूर्ख नापं भिनASDGा वै

पलASDGेलASDGा लपते लSDGSG वंसा मSADHG्वति थें ल सना वै

which state that even a moron can improve with the company of good people just like even a drop of water appears like a pearl when it descends upon the leaves of a lotus plant.

Modern Nepal Bhasa

A lot of writers and thinkers have contributed to the modern form of Nepal Bhasa. These include Chittadhar "Hridaya", Durga Lal Shrestha etc..

During the Panchayat era, under the slogan of "एक देश, एक भाषा नीति" (one nation, one language), Nepal Bhasa (and other languages of Nepal) was prevented from being broadcasted in Radio Nepal or other government media. As the Government did not allow private broadcasting in Nepal, this prevented the language from mass media. Also, the term Newari was used to address the language instead ines from the famous poet Durga Lal Shrestha of this era are as follows-

घाः जुयाः जक ख्वइगु खः झी

स्याःगुलिं सः तइगु खः

झी मसीनि ! झी मसीनि !

धइगु चिं जक ब्वैगु खः

which translate as "We are crying because we are wounded, we are shouting because of the pain, all in all we are demonstrating signs that we are not dead yet".

The restoration of democracy marked the privatization of media. Various concerned people and organizations are working on the development of Nepal Bhasa by themselves. Nepal Bhasa has several newspapers, a primary level curriculum, several schools, several F.M. stations (selected time for Nepal Bhasa programs), regular TV programs and News (in Image TV Channel), Nepal Bhasa Music Award (a part of Image Award), several websites (including Nepal Bhasa wikipedia) etc.

Even after the restoration of democracy and the Loktantra revolution, the state owned media address the language as Newari. Also, after the Supreme court banned the use of Nepal Bhasa and any other language of Nepal in any administrative activities, Nepal Bhasa movement merged with other languages movements to fight for the right of language.

Dialects

The main dialects are :-

Dolkhali (Dolakha)

This is the most preserved form of language and resembles the old Nepal Bhasa.

Sindhupalchowk Pahri (Pahri, Pahari)

This dialect has similar vocabulary as the Yala subdialect of Yen-Yala-Kyepu dialect. However, the language is spoken with a Tamang language tone.

Chitlang

This dialect is used in Chitlang, a place south of Kathmandu valley in Makawanpur district.

Kathmandu-Patan-Kirtipur

Also known as Ye-Yala-K-pu Bhaaye (ञ - यल - क्येपु भाय्), this is the most dominant form of language. It is the most evolved form of language and is very close to the standard form of language used in academics and media. This is also the most widely used dialect. Variations are seen in the use of the words, specially nouns, amongst the Buddhists and Hindus. The pronunciation also differ from place to place. Eg: the people in Kathmandu Say La (ल) for water while the people in bhaktapur says Na which means muddy water for the people of kathmandu.

Bhaktapur

Also known as Khwapa Bhaaye (ख्वप: भाय्), this form of language is more close to the old form than the standard form. Variations exist in the use of this form of language in Bhaktapur, Banepa, Panauti and Dhulikhel.

Other dialects

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, Palpa is related to Kathmandu and Patan. The dialect spoken in Ridi, Baglung, Arughat (Gorkha) is closer to Bhaktapur.

Sounds

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

Writing systems and grammar

Shukraraj Shastri's Grammar book

Main articles: Writing system of Nepal Bhasa and Nepal Bhasa grammar

Nepal Bhasa has been written in a variety of abugida scripts. The scripts which have been used to write this language are:

• Brahmi script
• Gupta script
• Prachalit script
• Ranjana script
• Bhujimol
• Devanagari script

Over the centuries, Nepal Bhasa has been written in many scripts, all of which are descended from the Brahmi script. All the scripts proceed from left to right, and include two separate sets of characters - a vowel set and a consonant set. Devanagari is the most widely-used script at the present, as it is the official script of Nepal as well as is used widely in neighbouring India. Ranjana script was the most widely-used script for Nepal Bhasa in ancient times, and is experiencing a sort of a revival due to recent cultural awareness. The Prachalit script, being similar to Devanagari, is also in use. The Brahmi and Golmol scripts are rarely used in present.

In overall writing system of Nepal Bhasa, there are four form of alphabets:

• Vowels called Ma Akha
• Consonants called Ba Akha
• Complex consonants called China Akha
• Numericals called Lyaa Akha

Vowels

The vowels, called MaAkha (माआखः) used in Nepal Bhasa are

Orthography	अ	आ	इ	ई	उ	ऊ	ए	ऐ	ओ	औ	अं	अः	ऋ	ॠ	ऌ	ॡ
Roman	a	aa	i	ii	u	uu	e	ai	o	au	am	aha	ru	Ru	lru	lRuu
IPA	/ə/	/ɑː/	/i/	/iː/	/u/	/uː/	/eː/	/əi/	/oː/	/əu/	/əⁿ/	/əʰ/	/ru/	/ruː/	/lru/	/lruː/

Even though ऋ, ॠ, ऌ, ॡ are present in Nepal Bhasa, they are rarely used. Instead, some of the experts are suggesting to include अय्(aya)and आय्(aaya) in the list of vowels .

Consonants

The consonants, called BaAkha(बाआखः), used in Nepal Bhasa are:

क	ख	ग	घ	ङ
k /k/	kha /kʰ/	g /g/	gh /gʰ/	gn /ŋ/
च	छ	ज	झ	ञ
ch /cɕ/ or /ts/	chh /cɕʰ/	j or z /ɟʝ/ or /z/	jh or zh /ɟʝʰ/ or /zʰ/	tra /ɲ/
ट	ठ	ड	ढ	ण
t /ʈ/	th /ʈʰ/	d /ɖ/	dh /ɖʰ/	n /ɳ/
त	थ	द	ध	न
t /t̪/	th /t̪ʰ/	d /d̪/	dh /d̪ʰ/	n /n̪/
प	फ	ब	भ	म
p /p/	f /f/	b /b/	bh /bʰ/	m /m/
य	र	ल	व
y /j/	r /r/	l /l/	v /v/
श	ष	स	ह
sh /ʃ/	sh /ʃ/	s /s/	h /h/
क्ष	त्र	ज्ञ
ksh /ɭ/	tra /kʃ/	gny /d̪n/

The use of ङ and ञ was very common in the old form of language. However, in the new form, specially in written, the use of these characters has diminished. The use of ण, त, थ, द, ध, न, श, ष, क्ष, त्र, ज्ञ are limited by the new Grammar books to the loan words only.

Complex/compound consonants

Besides the consonants mentioned above, some complex consonants called China Akha (चिना आखः) are also used. These China Akha represent the Sino-Tibetan characteristics of the language. The most used of these complex consonants, which by some are considered individual letters, are :

• न्ह
• म्ह
• ल्ह
• ह्र

Numericals

The numericals used in Nepal Bhasa have ten digits from 0-9. The numericals used in Ranjana script are as follows (from 0 to 9)

Numbers in Ranjana script

The same numericals in Devnagari are:

In Devanāgarī

०	१	२	३	४	५	६	७	८	९
0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

The earliest form of written grammar were developed by Shukraj Shastri and Nisthananda Bajracharya. Shukraraj Shastri's grammar is very similar to Sanskrit. He had studied Sanskrit, English and Hindi grammar before creating his masterpiece called Nepal Bhasa Wyakarana which is based largely on Sanskrit but with great study of Nepal Bhasa as well.

Literature

Books in Nepal Bhasa

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 renowned poets. Siddhidas Mahaju and Chittadhar Hridaya are two great poets in the language.

Prose fiction

This is a relatively new field of literature compared to other fields. Most of the fiction were written in poetry form till the medieval era. So, almost all of prose fiction belong to the modern Nepal Bhasa. Collective short stories in Nepal Bhasa are more popular than novels.

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 and very few are present in written form. However, 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.

Nepal Bhasa and Newar community

A wall slogan of Maoists using Nepal Bhasa

Nepal Bhasa is the mother tongue of Newars. Newars form a very diverse community with people from the Mongolian, Aryan and—according to some—even Dravidian races. Newars follow Hinduism and Buddhism, and are subdivided into 64 castes. The language therefore plays a central unifying role in the existence and perpetuation of Newar community. The poet Siddhidas Mahaju concluded that the Newar community and its rich culture can only survive if Nepal Bhasa survives (भाषा म्वासा जाति म्वाइ).

Nepal Bhasa faced a decline during the Shah era when this language was replaced by Khas Kura (later renamed Nepali) as the national language and after the introduction of the "One nation, one language" policy of King Mahendra. The then Royal Nepalese Government spent a lot for Sanskrit education and a Sanskrit University was approved during those times—although Sanskrit is virtually not spoken by anyone in Nepal—because Khas Kura's roots lie in Sanskrit. There were very few resources available then for even primary-level education in Nepal Bhasa. There were no programs broadcast in Nepal Bhasa in the state radio, Radio Nepal. Even after programs in Nepal Bhasa began to be broadcast, the language was referred to as "Newari", a term considered derogatory by Newars. Even today, there are no programs in Nepal Bhasa in the state television, Nepal Television, although it broadcasts a Bollywood Hindi movie every Saturday (although it is used as lingua franca in Terai, Hindi is mother tongue of less than 1% population in Nepal) and often Pakistani serials (in Urdu) as well. The Supreme Court of Nepal has also banned any use of Nepal Bhasa even for trivial matters in official purposes of any part of Nepal. These factors have led to a resentment among Newar community and a feeling of "second class" citizen in one's own state.

This fact has been used for political advantages by many parties of Nepal. Many slogans are translated into Nepal Bhasa, although very few important documents of political parties are ever translated into Nepal Bhasa.

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: ___ ख:	Jigu naa___ kha
Happy New Year	न्हूदँया भिंतुना	Nhugu dan yaa bhintunaa
Thank You	शुभाय्	Subhaaye
Welcome	लसकुस	LasaKusa
Yes	खः	Kha
No	मखु	Makhu
Mother	मां	Maa
Father	अबु	Abu
Grandmother	अजी	Ajee
Grandfather	अजा	Ajaa
Friend	पासा	Paasaa
Organization	गुथि	Guthi
House	छें	Chhen
Person	मनु	Manu
Medicine	वास:	Waasa
News	बुखं	Bukhan
Dance	प्याखं	Pyakhan
Song	म्ये	Mey
Stage	दबली / दबू:	Dabalee / Daboo
Palace	लाय्‌कू	Layaku
Office	ज्यास:	Jyaasa
Shop	पस:	Pasa/Pasal
Courtyard	चूक	Chooka
Brain	न्ह्यपु	Nhepu
Heart	नुगः	Nugah
Water	लः / ना / वा	Lah / Naa / Waa (Raining Water)
I don't understand Nepal Bhasa	जित: नेपाल भाषा मवः	Jita Nepal Bhasa mawa

Few words--origin--meaning

(From the review article on "Dictionary of classical Newari compiled from manuscript sources. Nepal Bhasa Dictionary Committee. Cwasā Pāsā. Kathmandu: Modern Printing Press, Jamal 2000, pp. XXXV, 530. ISBN 99933-316-0-0" by Siegfried Lienhard (SpringerLink),for the full list)

Words	Origin (orig. word)	Meaning
La:h	Pali (Jala:h)	Water
Kaa:sa	Pali	Bronze
Kaji	Arabic	leader
Khaapaa	Pali	Door (Original meaning in Pali was "door panel")
Kimi	Sanskrit (Krmi)	Hookworm
Adha:vata	Persian	Malice
Ka:h	Pali (Kana)	Blind (Original meaning in Pali was "one-eyed")
Dya:h	Pali (Dev)	Deity
Nhya:h	Pali (Na:sika)	Nose
Mhu:tu	Pali (Mukhena)	Mouth
Khicha:	Pali (Kukkura)	Dog

External links

• Ethnologue
• Nepalese Supreme leader (सर्वमान्य नेता) Late Ganesh Man Singh's speech in Nepal Bhasa
• Michael Noonan, Recent Language Contact in the Nepal Himalaya (PDF).
• [1], http://www.jwajalapa.com ज्वजलपा डट कम a window to Newar culture
• [2]
• Newari/Ranjana script page on Omniglot
• Proposal for encoding Newari in Unicode
• Sandhya Times, Nepal Bhasa daily newspaper
• Online Nepal Bhasa dictionary
• Editable Online Nepal Bhasa dictionary
• Collection of Nepal Bhasa Idioms & Phrases
• Nepal Bhasa (Newari) Fonts
• The Newar Community Network.