A Critical Review of Evolution of Language Families in Nepal

This paper briefly attempts to provide a review of the state of affairs of the languages of Nepal from the perspective of sociolinguistic typology, census of the languages and sustainable language use. Nepal lacks an independent and scientific census of the languages spoken as mother tongues. Thus, till the date, the number of mother tongues and their speakers exclusively rely on the national censuses which are frequently criticized as providing unreliable/manipulated data. Around 123 languages officially recognized by 2011 census, genealogically, belong to five major language families, viz., Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic (Munda), Dravidian and Afro-Asiatic (Semitic) and Kusunda (i.e., a language isolate). These languages, spoken by more than 125 officially recognized caste and ethnic groups with their distinct social and cultural background, are endowed with typologically distinct lexical, phonological, morphological and syntactic features. However, neither the genealogical nor the structural typological classifications can differentiate languages in terms of the prominence they exercise in the sociolinguistic network in Nepal. Constitutionally, every language spoken as mother tongue is the language of the nation and every community is equally entitled to exercise language rights. However, no effective strategies have yet been framed and implemented to make the language communities feel proud of their language in terms of equitable language use. Thus, a number of strategic interventions have to be implemented for expanding the domains of language use for sustainable language use in Nepal. In other words, such interventions are necessary to provide the assurance of equity in prominence in Nepal. Based on the reliable data, the sociolinguistic typology necessitates being indentified for the sustainable language use in Nepal. Thus, sociolinguistic typology and census of the languages and sustainable language use have to be analyzed as interrelated components of the languages of Nepal. Till the day, there are some admirable attempts, viz., Watters (2008), Eppele et al.(2012), Yadava (2013), Regmi (2020), Pokharel (2020) and Regmi (2021a &2021b) to present the sociolinguistic typology of the languages of Nepal. However, no attempt has been made to review the situations of languages of from the perspectives of sociolinguistic typology, census of the languages and sustainable language use. The data are based on the Linguistic Survey of Nepal , national censuses and ethnologue of the languages of Nepal. This paper has employed an approach developed in Bell (1976), Vinogradov (1976), Mechkovskaya (2001) and Shoumarov and Iriskulov (2005) to analyze the sociolinguistic typology. Likewise, sustainable use model developed in Lewis and Simons (2010 & 2017) has been employed to discuss sustainable language use of the languages of Nepal. This paper is broadly organized into six sections. Section 2 presents an overview of present demographic position of the languages of Nepal and socio-linguistic situation of the languages as revealed/exposed by the Linguistic Survey of Nepal. In section 3, we attempt to present a sociolinguistic typology of the languages of Nepal. Section 4 critically assesses census data of the languages and their speakers in Nepal. In section 5, we deal with sustainable language use of the languages of Nepal. Section 6 presents the conclusion of the paper.

World Englishes, 2020

This paper presents a sociolinguistic profile of contemporary Nepal, with particular reference to the status and functions of English in Nepali society. Nepal has been said to belong to the Expanding Circle, as English has traditionally had no official status there, although the language has been playing significant economic, educational, and social roles in society, in similar fashion to an Outer Circle variety of English. The use of English has increasingly spread in various domains of society, including education. This paper begins by providing an overview of Nepal and its cultural, linguistic and social dynamics, and by discussing the history of English in Nepal from the 17th century to date. It then proceeds to discuss the users and uses of English in contemporary society, documenting how the interpersonal, instrumental, administrative, and creative/innovative functions, along with linguistic adaptation and innovation, are manifested in the society.

This paper aims to outline the language politics in Nepal by focusing on the influences and expansions shifted from Global North to the Global South. Based on a small-scale case study of interviews and various political movements and legislative documents, this paper discusses linguistic diversity and multilingualism, globalization, and their impacts on Nepal's linguistic landscapes. It finds that the language politics in Nepal has been shifted and changed throughout history because of different governmental and political changes. Different ideas have been emerged because of globalization and neoliberal impacts which are responsible for language contact, shift, and change in Nepalese society. It concludes that the diversified politics and multilingualism in Nepal have been functioning as a double-edged sword which on the one hand promotes and preserves linguistic and cultural diversity, and on the other hand squeeze the size of diversity by vitalizing the Nepali and English languages through contact and globalization.

With over one hundred languages from four major families (and at least one isolate), and a similarly high number of caste-clan and ethnic groupings, Nepal is a country of undisputed ethno-linguistic diversity. It is also a country of increasingly rapid social, cultural, political and economic change with ensuing geographic movement and language displacement (Angdembe 2013; Rai 2013; Tumbahang 2012). The purpose of this study is to examine the intersection of traditional language practices and cultural diversity with these modern changes as they are relevant for a group of four languages spoken inside of the political boundaries of Manang, Nepal.

The status of English in Nepal has changed in the last seven decades. Adopted first as a ‘foreign’ language, English, in recent years, has become an indispensable part of life for the Nepalese people. In fact, it is presently used as an additional language,second language and even primary language in many socio-economic and educational domains in Nepal. Even though English had been in use in Nepal for a long time, it was only adopted as a foreign language into the formal education system in the first half of the twentieth century, and it continues to have this status, despite the fact that scholars and users of the language claim that it is anything but foreign. Its current domination in all spheres of life makes the language indispensable and on a par with Nepali, currently the only official language for wider communication.As such, many advocate that English in Nepal deserves greater recognition than the term foreign language offers. The present article makes a sociolinguistic analysis of the English language situation in Nepal and, drawing from research and the available literature, it assesses to what extent the claim that it has many faces is justifiable. In view of the growing popularity and dominance of English, the article examines its role and status in the national language education policy, and points out what implications its changing status has on the national curriculum and pedagogic resources.

Gipan 3:2, 2017

In Nepal, a comprehensive and reliable information on the number of languages, geo-linguistic situation, number of speakers and linguistic vitality is not yet available. Despite the increase in the number of languages in the 2011 census, the vitality of about 56% of the languages is deplorable. Many languages are still preliterate. The multilingual policy has not been adopted relative to the present linguistic context of Nepal. Linguistic Survey of Nepal (LinSuN) launched in 2009 could not move forward for purposes other than sociolinguistic surveys due to budget constraints and other reasons. Major interventions like independent linguistic census, ethno-linguistic documentation, dictionary-making, grammar writing and preparing textbooks in the mother tongue for basic levels in compatible with respective socio-cultural situation are still to be done. The factual sociolinguistic picture of Nepal depicted by the linguistic survey has to be taken seriously by the speech communities, Central Department of Linguistics (TU), Language Commission and other concerned stakeholders in moving forward to preserving , promoting and develoing all the languages of Nepal as a treasure of traditional life crucial knowledge and a heritage of ethnic identity. This is, indeed, an urgent necessity in Nepal. Key words: Numerical estimation , Genealogical relationship , Writing systems, Language vitality, Linguistic survey

2022

It has been speculated by linguists and historians that the Modern Standard Nepali language evolved from a form of the Indo-Aryan lects spoken in western Nepal. This paper aims to gain a better understanding of current and historical relationships between Nepali, western lects (Jumli and Dotyali), Kumaoni, and Hindi by exploring language diversification in this complex contact situation from the perspective of lexical evidence. The analysis relies on the principles of Historical Glottometry to create a representation of the genealogical subgroups of the lects under study, represented with the Wave Model, which allows for each event of language change to intersect, instead of being nested as in the typical Tree Model. This study explores some hints to contact patterns and historical relationships by exploring 25 wordlists from 21 different lects. Rather than relying on sound changes to understand the relationships as Francois does in his research (2013), the focus is on lexical innovations, both internal and external, as suggested by Kogan (2016). Thus, the measure of “subgroupiness” from this data is a count of borrowed terms and shared non-retained lexemes. Looking at the data, this paper discusses evidence of shared retention or shared innovation, observes instances of lexical borrowing, and visualizes the patterns of shared lexemes, demonstrating the study’s conclusions. This study finds that, despite the complexities of their differences caused by constant contact over time, all the lects under study are very closely related to each other, and all retain many Sanskrit words. There is also clear evidence of contact-induced change in all the lects, even those in the most remote regions, although some have more evidence of borrowing than others. Rather than forming a dialect continuum geographically from west to east, as some scholars have proposed, the Jumli and Far Western (Dotyali) lects are both more similar to Nepali than they are to each other. Jumli is the “subgroupiest,” having the most shared innovations within its lects, and show the least evidence of borrowing. The Far Western lects do not subgroup strongly, as suggested by the literature, rather they form complex layers of overlapping subgroups with influence from Kumaoni, Hindi, and Nepali. The paper concludes that the Historical Glottometry model seems to be a good fit for describing the relationships of these varieties. Hindi, Kumaoni, Nepali, Jumli, and the Far Western lects have very complex relationships, best pictured as overlapping subgroups rather than nodes on a family tree.

Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 38 (1), 2024

This paper classifies 124 ancestral languages focusing on language maintenance and shift; and sheds lights on outcome of enumeration of such languages and its implications to language policy implementation in Nepal. In 2021 census, 47 Indo-Aryan and 72 Sino-Tibetan languages were recorded by 78.3% and 21.4% people as ancestral languages, respectively. Such languages, including major languages, belonging to different family groups and sub-groups, demonstrate pitiable language maintenance. This census highly valued language identity. However, it could not mitigate trend of recording unreliable numbers of mother tongue speakers. Obviously, such results imply that official language policy cannot be executed effectively unless such languages are maintained properly. Keywords: Language family, language identity, language maintenance, linguistic census, language policy

Journal of NELTA, 2010

The elites, who have held power in Nepal since its inception in the eighteenth century, have deliberately ignored issues related to minority/ethnic languages in favour of the languages of their choice. While this ‘unplanning' of languages has been responsible for the loss of scores of languages, it has helped the elites to achieve ‘planned' linguistic edge over the speakers of other languages. This article outlines the sociopolitical and linguistic pretexts of the ‘unplanning' of languages which favours Nepali and English, and explains why privileging of Nepali and English, essential though they are for education, employment and access to the world resources, has, in the existing situation, done more harm than good. Key words: language planning, unplanning of languages, multilingualism, linguistic elitism, hegemony DOI: 10.3126/nelta.v14i1.3089 Journal of NELTA Vol.14, No 1&2, 2009 December Page: 32-44

Language on the Move, 2019

The 21st of February marked International Mother Language day, an annual UNESCO Heritage Day that celebrates linguistic diversity and multilingualism around the world. This year’s International Mother Language Day has particular importance, as 2019 has been marked as the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Languages. Most estimates place the total number of languages in the world at around 7,000. Calculating the number of languages in a given country or region is important for both linguists and policy makers (as well as a host of other professions) for many reasons. By knowing the numbers of speakers of a particular language, policy makers can more effectively plan for linguistically-inclusive public communication and administration, consider the role of different languages as the medium or subject of instruction in education systems, and direct efforts for language preservation and revitalisation. However, while empirical data on other social characteristics is usually readily available or easy to collect, data on language has often proved more difficult to enumerate. This post will explore how the question, the context, and the response all provide room for subjective interpretation and can lead to vastly different figures for the number of languages in a single country: Nepal.