Nepali language
Nepali is the official and most-widely spoken language of Nepal, where it also serves as a lingua franca. It is an Indo-Aryan language, belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family, native to the Himalayan region of South Asia.
Nepali has official status in the Indian state of Sikkim and in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration semi-autonomous region of West Bengal, where it is the majority language. It is also spoken by about a quarter of Bhutan's population. Nepali also has a significant number of speakers in the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Uttarakhand. In Myanmar it is spoken by the Burmese Gurkhas. The Nepali diaspora in the Middle East, Brunei, Australia and worldwide also use the language. Nepali is spoken by approximately 19 million native speakers and another 14 million as a second language.
Nepali is commonly classified within the Eastern Pahari group of the Northern zone of Indo-Aryan.
The language originated from the Sinja Valley, Karnali Province, which was the capital city of the Khasa Kingdom around the 10th and 14th centuries. It developed proximity to a number of Indo-Aryan languages, most significantly to other Pahari languages. Nepali was originally spoken by the Khas people, an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the Himalayan region of South Asia. The earliest inscription in the Nepali language is believed to be an inscription in Dullu, Dailekh District, which was written around the reign of King Bhupal Damupal, around the year 981. The institutionalisation of the Nepali language arose during the rule of the Kingdom of Gorkha in the 16th century. Over the centuries, different dialects of the Nepali language with distinct influences from Sanskrit, Maithili, Hindi and Bengali are believed to have emerged across different regions of the current-day Nepal and Uttarakhand and to have made Nepali the lingua franca.
Nepali is a highly-fusional language with a moderately free word order although its dominant arrangement is subject–object–verb word order. There are three major levels or gradations of honorific, as well as two that are more based on dialect and socio-economic class: low, medium, high, very high and royal. Low honorific is used where no respect is due, medium honorific is used to signify equal status or neutrality, and high or very high honorific signifies respect. The last, royal form was used to refer exclusively to and by the royal family. Like all modern Indo-Aryan languages, Nepali grammar has syncretised heavily and lost much of the complex declensional system present in the older languages. Nepali developed a significant literature during the 19th century. Around 1830, several Nepali poets wrote on themes from the Sanskrit epics Ramayana and the Bhagavata Purana, which was followed by Bhanubhakta Acharya translating the Ramayana into Nepali, which received a "great popularity for the colloquial flavour of its language, its religious sincerity, and its realistic natural descriptions".
Etymology
The term Nepali derived from Nepal was officially adopted by the Government of Nepal in 1933, when Gorkha Bhasa Prakashini Samiti, a government institution established in 1913 for advancement of Gorkha Bhasa, renamed itself as Nepali Bhasa Prakashini Samiti in 1933, which is currently known as Sajha Prakashan. Conversely, the term Gorkhali in the former national anthem entitled "Shriman Gambhir" was changed to Nepali in 1951. However, the term Nepali was used before the official adoption notably by Jaya Prithvi Bahadur Singh, now considered one of the national heroes of Nepal, who advocated for the embracement of the term.The initial name of Nepali language was "Khas Kura", meaning language or speech of the Khas people, who are descended from the ancient Khasas of Mahabharata, as the language developed during the rule of the Khasa Kingdom in the western Nepal. Following the Unification of Nepal led by Shah dynasty's Prithvi Narayan Shah, Nepali language became known as Gorakhā Bhāṣā as it was spoken by Gorkhas. The people living in the Pahad or the hilly region, where it does not generally contain snow, called the language Parvate Kurā, meaning "the speech of the hills".
History
Origin and development
Early forms of present-day Nepali developed from the Middle Indo-Aryan apabhraṃśa Vernaculars of present-day western Nepal in the 10th–14th centuries, during the times of the Khasa Kingdom. The language evolved from Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Apabhraṃśa. Following the decline of the Khasa Kingdom, it was divided into Baise Rajya in Karnali-Bheri region and Chaubise rajya in Gandaki region. The currently popular variant of Nepali is believed to have originated around 500 years ago with the mass migration of a branch of Khas people from the Karnali-Bheri-Seti eastward to settle in lower valleys of the Karnali and the Gandaki basin.During the times of Sena dynasty, who ruled a vast area in Terai and central hills of Nepal, Nepali language became influenced by the Indian languages including Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Braj Bhasha and Maithili. Nepali speakers and Senas had a close connect, subsequently, the language became the lingua franca in the area. As a result, the grammar became simplified, vocabulary was expanded, and its phonology was softened, after it was syncretised, Nepali lost much of the complex declensional system present in the older languages. In the Kathmandu Valley, Nepali language inscriptions can be seen during the reigns of Lakshmi Narasimha Malla and Pratap Malla, which indicates the significant increment of Nepali speakers in Kathmandu Valley.
Middle Nepali
The institutionalisation of the Nepali language is believed to have started with the Shah kings of Gorkha Kingdom, in the modern day Gorkha District of Nepal. Following the Unification of Nepal, the language moved to the court of the Kingdom of Nepal in the 18th century, where it became the state language. One of the earliest works in the Middle Nepali was written during the reign of Ram Shah, King of Gorkha, a book by unknown writer called Ram Shah ko Jivani. Prithvi Narayan Shah's Divyopadesh, written toward the end of his life, around 1774–75, contains old Nepali dialect of the era, is considered as the first work of essay of Nepali literature.File:Bhanubhakta Ramayana manuscript.png|upright=1.13|thumb|left|Manuscript of Bhanubhakta Acharya's Bhanubhakta Ramayana led to "cultural, emotional and linguistic unification" of Nepal.
During this time Nepali developed a standardised prose in the Lal mohar —documents related to the Nepalese Kingdom dealing with diplomatic writings, tax, and administrative records. The language of the Lal mohar is nearly modern with some minor differences in grammar and with a pre-modern orthography. Few changes including changing Kari to Gari and merging Hunu with cha to create huncha were done. The most prominent work written during this time was Bhanubhakta Acharya's Bhanubhakta Ramayana, a translation of the epic Ramayana from Sanskrit to Nepali for the first time. Acharya's work led to which some describe as "cultural, emotional and linguistic unification" of Nepal, comparatively to Prithvi Narayan Shah who unified Nepal.
Modern Nepali
The modern period of Nepali begins in the early 20th century. During this time the ruling Rana dynasty made various attempts to make Nepali the language of education, notably, by Dev Shumsher and Chandra Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, who established Gorkhapatra, and the Gorkha Bhasa Prakashini Samiti respectively. At this time, Nepali had limited literature compared to Hindi and Bengali languages, a movement notably in Varanasi, and Darjeeling was started to create uniformed Nepali identity, which was later adopted in Nepal following the 1951 Nepalese revolution and during the Panchayat system. In 1957, Royal Nepal Academy was established with the objectives of developing and promoting Nepali literature, culture, art and science. During Panchayat, Nepal adopted a "One King, One Dress, One Language, One Nation" ideology, which promoted Nepali language as basis for Nepali nationalism. This time is considered to be a Golden Age for the language.File:Bhanubhakta Acharya Darjeeling 202401.jpg|thumb|A statue of Bhanubhakta Acharya at Chowrasta, Darjeeling
In West Bengal, Nepali language was recognised by West Bengal Government in 1961 as the official language for the Darjeeling district, and Kalimpong and Kurseong. The Nepali Language Movement took place in India around the 1980s to include Nepali language in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India. In 1977, Nepali was officially accepted by Sahitya Academy, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of Indian literature. After Sikkim was annexed by India, the Sikkim Official Languages Act, 1977, made Nepali as one of the official languages of state. On 20 August 1992, the Lok Sabha passed a motion to add the Nepali language to the Eighth Schedule.
Official status
Nepali written in the Devanagari script is the official language of Nepal.On 31 August 1992, Nepali was added to the list of scheduled languages of India. Nepali is the official language of the state of Sikkim and Gorkhaland of West Bengal.
Despite being spoken by about a quarter of the population, Nepali has no official status in Bhutan.