Nepali language

Copper Inscription by King of Doti, Raika Mandhata Shahi, at Saka Era 1612 (1747 BS) in old Khas language using Devanagari script

The earliest evidence and inscriptions of dialects related to the Nepali language support the theory of a linguistic intrusion from the West or Northwest Himalayas into the Central Himalayas in the present-day regions of Western Nepal during the rule of Khasas, an Indo-Aryan speaking group, who migrated from the northwest.[28] The oldest discovered inscription in the Nepali language is believed to be the Dullu Inscription, believed to have been written around the reign of King Bhupal Damupal around the year 981. Changes of phonological patterns indicate that Nepali is related to other Northwest Indian languages, including Sindhi, Punjabi, and Lahnda. Comparative reconstructions based on vocabulary have substantiated the relations of the Nepali language to proto-Dardic, Pahari, Sindhi, Lahnda, and Punjabi.[29] Archaeological and historical investigations show that modern Nepali descends from the language spoken by the ancient Khasha people. There is some mention of the word khasha in Sanskrit legal, historical, and literary texts like Manusmriti (circa 100 CE), Puranas (350–1500), and the Rajatarangini (1148).[29] The Khashas are documented to have ruled over a vast territory comprising what is now western Nepal, parts of Garhwal and Kumaon in northern India, and some parts of southwestern Tibet. King Ashoka Challa (1255–1278) is believed to have proclaimed himself Khasha-Rajadhiraja (emperor of the Khashas) in a copper-plate inscription found in Bodh Gaya, and several other copper plates in ancient Nepali have been traced back to the king's descendants.[29]

The Ashoka Challa inscription of 1255 is the earliest example of modern Nepali. The languages of these early inscriptions are considered to be a dialect of Jumla and West Nepal, rather than a predecessor of the dialect of Gorkha, which became the modern Nepali language.[30]

The earliest example of modern Nepali is the literary manuscript Svastanivratakatha, dated 1648. Other such early literary texts in modern Nepali are the anonymous version of the "Khandakhadya" (dated 1649), the "Bajapariksha" (1700) and "Jvarotpatticikitsa" written by Banivilas Jytoirvid (1773) and "Prayascittapradipa" written by Premnidhi Pant (1780).[30] The 1670 Rani Pokhari inscription of King Pratap Malla, another early example of modern Nepali, indicates the significant increment of Nepali speakers in Kathmandu valley.[30] 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 that were well-suited to rice cultivation. 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, making Khasa the lingua franca.

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. In 1559, a prince of Lamjung, Dravya Shah established himself on the throne of Gorkha with the help of local Khas and Magars. He raised an army of khas people under the command of Bhagirath Panta. Later, in the late 18th century, his descendant, Prithvi Narayan Shah, raised and modernized an army of Chhetri, Thakuri, Magars, Gurung people, and others and set out to conquer and consolidate dozens of small principalities in the Himalayas. Since Gorkha had replaced the original Khas homeland, Khaskura was redubbed Gorkhali "language of the Gorkhas".

One of the most notable military achievements of Prithvi Narayan Shah was the conquest of Kathmandu Valley, a region called Nepal at the time. After the overthrowing of the Malla rulers, Kathmandu was established as Prithvi Narayan's new capital. The Khas people originally referred to their language as Khas kurā ("Khas speech"), which was also known as Parbatiya (or Parbattia or Paharia, meaning language of the hill country).[31][32] The Newar people used the term "Gorkhali" as a name for this language, as they identified it with the Gorkhali conquerors. The Gorkhalis themselves started using this term to refer to their language at a later stage.[33] The census of India prior to independence used the term Naipali at least from 1901 to 1951, the 1961 census replacing it with Nepali.[34][35]

Historically, Sanskrit has been a significant source of vocabulary for the Nepali language.[36] According to exclusive phonological evidences observed by lexicographer Sir Ralph Turner, Nepali language is closely related to Punjabi, Lahnda, Hindi and Kumaoni while it appears to share some distinguishing features with the other Indo-Aryan languages like Rajasthani, Gujarati and Bangla.[36] Ethnologist Brian Houghton Hodgson stated that the Khas or Parbattia language is an "Indian Prakrit" brought by colonies from south of the Nepalese hills, and the whole structure including the eighth-tenth portion of the vocabulary of it is "substantially Hindee" due to the influences and loanwords it shares with Arabic and Farsi.[37]

The Damupal Inscription in Dullu, Dailekh

Expansion – particularly to the north, west, and south – brought the growing state into conflict with the British and the Chinese. This led to wars that trimmed back the territory to an area roughly corresponding to Nepal's present borders. After the Gorkha conquests, the Kathmandu valley or Nepal became the new center of politics. As the entire conquered territory of the Gorkhas ultimately became Nepal, in the early decades of the 20th century, Gorkha language activists in India, especially Darjeeling and Varanasi, began petitioning Indian universities to adopt the name 'Nepali' for the language.[38] Also in an attempt to disassociate himself with his Khas background, the Rana monarch Jung Bahadur Rana decreed that the term Gorkhali be used instead of Khas kurā to describe the language. Meanwhile, the British Indian administrators had started using the term "Nepal" to refer to the Gorkha kingdom. In the 1930s, Nepal government also adopted this term fully. Subsequently, the Khas language came to be known as "Nepali language".[1]

The earliest Nepali grammar to have survived was written by Veerendra Keshari Aryal entitled "Nepali Vyakaran" and it is dated around 1891 to 1905. The grammar is based on Panini model and it equates Nepali with Prakrit and labels it as "the mountain Prakrit".[39] However, later the official institution established in 1912 for formalizing Nepali language, the "Gorkha Bhasha Prakashini Samiti", accepted the 1920 grammar text entitled Candrika Gorkha Bhasha Vyakaran by Pandit Hemraj Pandey as the official grammar of the Nepali language.[39] Nepali is spoken indigenously over most of Nepal west of the Gandaki River, then progressively less further to the east.[40]

Nepali distinguishes six oral vowels and five nasal vowels. /o/ does not have a phonemic nasal counterpart, although it is often in free variation with [õ].

Nepali has ten diphthongs: /ui̯/, /iu̯/, /ei̯/, /eu̯/, /oi̯/, /ou̯/, /ʌi̯/, /ʌu̯/, /ai̯/, and /au̯/.

Nepali consonant phonemes

			Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal			m ⟨म⟩		n ⟨न/ञ⟩	(ɳ ⟨ण⟩)		ŋ ⟨ङ⟩
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	unaspirated	p ⟨प⟩	t ⟨त⟩	t͡s ⟨च⟩	ʈ ⟨ट⟩		k ⟨क⟩
		aspirated	pʰ ⟨फ⟩	tʰ ⟨थ⟩	t͡sʰ ⟨छ⟩	ʈʰ ⟨ठ⟩		kʰ ⟨ख⟩
	voiced	unaspirated	b ⟨ब⟩	d ⟨द⟩	d͡z ⟨ज⟩	ɖ ⟨ड⟩		ɡ ⟨ग⟩
		aspirated	bʱ ⟨भ⟩	dʱ ⟨ध⟩	d͡zʱ ⟨/झ⟩	ɖʱ ⟨ढ⟩		ɡʱ ⟨घ⟩
Fricative					s ⟨श/ष/स⟩				ɦ ⟨ह⟩
Rhotic					r ⟨र⟩
Approximant			(w ⟨व⟩)		l ⟨ल⟩		(j ⟨य⟩)

[j] and [w] are nonsyllabic allophones of [i] and [u], respectively. Every consonant except [j], [w], and /ɦ/ has a geminate counterpart between vowels. /ɳ/ and /ʃ/ also exist in some loanwords such as /baɳ/ बाण "arrow" and /nareʃ/ नरेश "king", but these sounds are sometimes replaced with native Nepali phonemes.

Final schwas may or may not be preserved in speech. The following rules can be followed to figure out whether or not Nepali words retain the final schwa.

1) Schwa is retained if the final syllable is a conjunct consonant. अन्त (anta, 'end'), सम्बन्ध (sambandha, 'relation'), श्रेष्ठ (śreṣṭha, 'greatest'/a last name).
Exceptions: conjuncts such as ञ्च ञ्ज in मञ्च (mañc, 'stage') गञ्ज (gañj, 'city') and occasionally the last name पन्त (panta/pant).

2) For any verb form the final schwa is always retained unless the schwa-cancelling halanta is present. हुन्छ (huncha, 'it happens'), भएर (bhaera, 'in happening so; therefore'), गएछ(gaecha, 'he apparently went'), but छन् (chan, 'they are'), गईन् (gain, 'she went').

Meanings may change with the wrong orthography: गईन (gaina, 'she didn't go') vs गईन् (gain, 'she went').

3) Adverbs, onomatopoeia and postpositions usually maintain the schwa and if they don't, halanta is acquired: अब (aba 'now'), तिर (tira, 'towards'), आज (āja, 'today') सिम्सिम (simsim 'drizzle') vs झन् (jhan, 'more').

4) Few exceptional nouns retain the schwa such as: दुख(dukha, 'suffering'), सुख (sukha, 'pleasure').

Note: Schwas are often retained in music and poetry to facilitate singing and recitation.