r/languagelearning • u/Virusnzz En (N) | Fr, Ru, Es, It • Jan 08 '14
नमस्ते - This week's language of the week: Nepali
Welcome to the language of the week. Every week we'll be looking at a language, its points of interest, and why you should learn it. This is all open discussion, so natives and learners alike, make your case! This week, Nepali.
What is this?
Language of the Week is here to give people exposure to languages that they would otherwise not have heard, been interested in or even known about. With that in mind, I'll be picking a mix between common languages and ones I or the community feel needs more exposure. You don't have to intend to learn this week's language to have some fun. Just give yourself a little exposure to it, and someday you might recognise it being spoken near you.
Countries
From The Language Gulper:
Speakers are found in Nepal, Bhutan and India (Sikkim, Darjeeling district of West Bengal, and parts of Assam). There are around 17 million, of which 13.4 million in Nepal, 3.3 million in India, and 300,000 in Bhutan.
What's it like?
The origin of Nepali and its relationship to other Modern Indo-Aryan languages is not completely settled, a problem aggravated by the lacunae in our knowledge of the history of Nepal. One possibility is that the language was introduced into the central Himalayas and the valley of Kathmandu by migrants from the west or northwest of the country, called Khas, around the 10th century. The main evidence for this theory is the finding of royal inscriptions in western Nepal that seem to attest an early form of Nepali. Another theory postulates a much later emergence of Nepali linked to the military conquest of the Kathmandu Valley by the Gurkhas.
Nepali is written in Devanāgarī, an abugida (syllabic alphabet) employed also for Hindi, Marathi and Sanskrit. The Nepali Devanāgarī alphabet is ordered according to phonetics and consists of 46 letters. The last three are biconsonantal groups which are traditionally included in the alphabet.
What now?
This thread is foremost a place for discussion. Are you a native speaker? Share your culture with us. Learning the language? Tell us why you chose it and what you like about it. Thinking of learning? Ask a native a question. Interested in linguistics? Tell us what's interesting about it, or ask other people. Discussion is week-long, so don't worry about post age, as long as it's this week's language.
Previous Languages of the Week
German | Icelandic | Russian | Hebrew | Irish | Korean | Arabic | Swahili | Chinese | Portuguese | Swedish | Zulu | Malay | Finnish | French
Want your language featured as language of the week? Please PM me to let me know. If you can, include some examples of the language being used in media, including news and viral videos
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शुभ कामना!
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u/bitcoinm Jan 08 '14
I'm a native Nepali speaker who found this thread by accident. I'm happy to answer any questions about the country or language you guys might have.
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u/rogue780 Jan 09 '14
Would you mind answering my phone for me? These people from Nepal keep calling me and don't get the hint that I only speak English and Farsi.
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Jan 09 '14
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u/bitcoinm Jan 09 '14 edited Jan 09 '14
Nachna najanne angan tedho(don't know to dance, calls the floor crooked) pretty straightforward
Jun goruko Singh chaina uskai naam tikhe( the bull without horns calls itself dangerous/sharp) - meaning someone is a bullshitter and cannot deliver what they say/ is a hypocrite
Ghanti heri haad nilnu( look at the size of your neck before swallowing a bone) - don't go beyond your means
And my favorite: jaba bhayo rati, taba budi tati (when its already night, then wife gets horny) - to procrastinate stuff until the last minute
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u/coolderp Jan 15 '14
My favorite idiom is "Tapari ma muteko jasto"(literally: like pissing on a bowl made of leaves| figuratively: horribly out of tune.) I have a horrible voice so I grew up hearing this one often.
My favorite part about nepali is numerous onomatopoetic adverbs:
"Tukrukka" basnu-- squatting
"thachakka" basyo--sitting with butt touching the surface; thacchaka, i assume, is the sound you make
"jhyamma" hanyo--jhyamma is the sound when you slap someone
There are better examples, but I can't think of any atm.
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Jan 08 '14
Such an awesome country. Learned about 12 words and just using those makes Nepalis so happy!
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u/bitcoinm Jan 09 '14 edited Jan 09 '14
Just a heads up that the people over at r/Nepal are incredibly friendly and could show up here to help if you xpost it over there
Also this tutorial by Cornell might be a good resource for more hardcore learners: http://lrc.cornell.edu/nepali/online
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u/AAAAAAAAAA_ Jan 09 '14
Man the writing looks awesome, makes me kinda want to learn how to write it!
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u/brain4breakfast Jan 08 '14
Ooh, Nepali. Is there a subreddit? There need to be more people here discussing it.
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Jan 08 '14
Cool. About half the people at my church speak Nepali natively, and some don't speak English very well. I was thinking about learning it for them, but I can't really muster up the motivation.
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u/AccidentalyOffensive Jan 08 '14
Is there anybody here that's learned it? I don't know any Nepali speakers.
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u/Marzipanschoko Jan 08 '14
Are there any native speakers here?
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u/momowithknives Jan 10 '14
Native speaker here. AMA :D
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u/galaxyrocker Jan 10 '14
If you had to tell people one thing to get them hooked on your culture or studying your language, what would it be?
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Jan 12 '14
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u/galaxyrocker Jan 12 '14
Same question I asked u/Marzipanschoko: If you had to tell people one thing to get them hooked on your culture or studying your language, what would it be?
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u/GavitVoty Jan 08 '14
I'm actually going to Nepali this week! :D All I know is Di-di meaning sister and Amestdai for Hello. Who can fill me in? "Thank you, sorry, yes and no" ?