Nepali (Devanagari: नेपाली) 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 within 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, a semi-autonomous region of West Bengal, where it is the majority language. It is also spoken by about a quarter of Bhutan. 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 community. The Nepali diaspora in the Middle East, Brunei, Australia and around the world also use the language. Overall, Nepali is spoken by approximately 19 million native speakers and additional 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 in the Sinja Valley of Karnali Province, which served as the capital of the Khasa Kingdom around the 10th and 14th centuries. It developed in close contact with several Indo-Aryan languages, particularly 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 known inscription in the Nepali language is believed to be an inscription in Dullu, located in Dailekh District, which was written around the reign of King Bhupal Damupal, around the 981 CE. The institutionalisation of the Nepali language began during the rule of the Kingdom of Gorkha in the 16th century, which later became known as the Kingdom of Nepal. The various different dialects of Nepali language are believed to emerged across the Khasa Kingdom, present-day Western Nepal, parts of Uttarakhand, India, and parts of Tibet which later expanded into the Gandaki basin, shaped by influences from Sanskrit, and local Tibeto-Burman languages helping Nepali language develop into a lingua franca. Like all other modern Indo-Aryan languages, Nepali grammar has undergone significant syncretisation and has lost much of the complex declensional system found in older forms of the language. 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, religious sincerity, and 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 (Gorkha Language Publishing Committee), a government institution established in 1913 (B.S. 1970) for advancement of Gorkha Bhasa, renamed itself as Nepali Bhasa Prakashini Samiti (Nepali Language Publishing Committee) in 1933 (B.S. 1990), 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 embracing the term. The initial name of Nepali language was "Khas Kura" (खस कुरा), 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 (गोरखा भाषा; language of the Gorkhas) 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 (पर्वते कुरा), 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 (22 principalities) in Karnali-Bheri region and Chaubise rajya (24 principalities) 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 (then known as Nepal Mandala), 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. It was during this period of growth that Nepali borrowed many words from various Sino-Tibetan languages, primarily Newar. This is evident from the fact that the borrowed words match the older form of the languages in question.
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 (A Biography of Ram Shah). 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.
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