Newar language

Nepal Bhasa is a language spoken by indigenous Newa people of Nepal. It is a Himalayan language of Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages group.

Newa
Nepal Bhasa
नेवाः भाय् Newāh Bhāy
The word "Nepal Bhasa" written in the Ranjana alphabet and the Prachalit Nepal alphabet
Native toNepal
Ethnicity1.26 million Newa people (2001 census?)[1]
Native speakers
860,000 (2011 census)[2]
Sino-Tibetan
  • Newa
    • Newa
Early form
Classical Newa
Dialects
  • Dolakhae
  • Sindhupalchok
  • Kathmandu
  • Lalitpur
  • Bhaktapur
  • Panauti
  • Banepa
  • Hetauda
  • Dhankuta
  • Chitlang
Ranjana alphabets and various in the past, Devanagari currently
Official status
Regulated byNepal Bhasa Academy
Language codes
ISO 639-2new Nepal Bhasa, Newari
ISO 639-3Either:
new  Newar
nwx  Middle Newa
Linguist List
newa Nepal Bhasa
 nwx Middle Newa
Glottolognewa1247

Newah Bhaaye is the term used for Nepal Bhasa by its native speakers. The term 'Newari' has been used in derogatory form to replace the original name of the language. [3]

Linguistics

Nepal Bhasa shares the feature of Kirant and Tibetan dialects of Northern Himalayas. It consists of five major dialects and several sub-dialects spoken by Newa people living throughout the country.

References

  1. Newa at Ethnologue (15th ed., 2005)
  2. Newa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Middle Newa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  3. Kapali, Rukshana (2018-12-08). "Why using the word 'Newari' is problematic". Rukuchee Blog. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
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