- Official language in
- Nepal
- Script
- Devanagari
Where it's spoken
Nepali is named in Nepal's constitution as the language of official business in the country, written in the Devanagari script. The constitution also calls every mother tongue spoken in Nepal a national language, and lets each province additionally choose, under provincial law, one or more other national languages spoken by a majority of people in that province as further languages of official business there.
Sources
- Constitution of Nepal (unofficial translation by Nepal Law Society, International IDEA, and UNDP), Articles 6–7 — hosted by Constitute Project — Art. 6 (national language), Art. 7 (Nepali as language of official business; provincial languages)
Script & pronunciation
Nepali is written in the Devanagari script, the same script used for Sanskrit and Hindi and extended with further letters for other related languages of Nepal and India. Each Devanagari consonant letter carries an inherent vowel sound unless a vowel sign attached to the consonant overrides it, or a mark called a virama is added to suppress the vowel entirely; consonants written next to each other are also often joined into a single ligature called a conjunct. This app's cards give a Latin-alphabet respelling next to the Devanagari text, as in नमस्ते (Na-mas-te).
Sources
- The Unicode Standard, Version 16.0.0 — Core Specification, Chapter 12: South Asian Scripts I — Devanagari — Devanagari script: languages, inherent vowel, virama, conjuncts
- Constitution of Nepal (unofficial translation by Nepal Law Society, International IDEA, and UNDP), Articles 6–7 — hosted by Constitute Project — Art. 7(1): Nepali written in Devanagari script
Grammar essentials
Nepali word order places the verb at the end of the clause: an early grammar of Nepali, analysing a sample sentence, describes its prepositions as following the noun they govern, its relative clauses as formed participially, and its predicate verbs as placed at the end of their own clauses — an order it calls organic rather than mechanical, unlike English. This app's cards show the same verb-final pattern, as in यो के हो? — literally "this what is," translated "What is this?" This app's cards show negation as a suffix in the present tense, as in हुँदैन ("does not happen"), and as the prefix न- on the polite imperative, as in नल्याउनुहोस् ("please don't bring").
Sources
- Turnbull, A. (1887). "A Nepali Grammar." (digitized, Digital Library of India / Internet Archive) — §52, p.48: word order (analysis of a sample sentence)
Politeness & etiquette
Nepali marks respect toward the person addressed through the choice of second-person pronoun and a matching verb ending. An early grammar of Nepali describes using the plural pronoun for singular address as respectful and usual, and the singular form as familiar or disrespectful depending on the case. This app's cards keep that same distinction between today's second-person pronouns: तपाईं (tapaain) is used with strangers, and तिमी only with people the speaker already knows, as in तपाईं अङ्ग्रेजी बोल्नुहुन्छ? ("Do you speak English?"). The same respectful register also appears on other verbs as the ending -नुहोस् in polite requests, as in दिनुहोस् ("please give") and फोन गर्नुहोस् ("please call").
Sources
- Turnbull, A. (1887). "A Nepali Grammar." (digitized, Digital Library of India / Internet Archive) — §27, p.13: personal pronouns (plural for singular is respectful)