Nepali is a language of the Indo-European family belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch It developed from Sanskrit and has now borrowed from other languages such as English, Hindi and Urdu.

It is mainly spoken in the Indian subcontinent, which would explain why the above-mentioned languages have had an impact on the vocabulary of Nepali. It is also the official language of Nepal.

However, this country recognises in the sixth and seventh articles of its constitution that all the native languages of this country are national languages and that the provinces may choose one or more languages as long as they are widely spoken by the population for administration.

Regarding its history, at the beginning of the last century this language was included among the Eastern Pahari languages. But the first steps towards making it a literary language really began in the 18th century. As a matter of fact, the modern literary language is based on Kathmandu speech.

This language is regulated by the Nepal Academy. Through its various departments, the academy promotes Nepalese languages, literature, culture, philosophy and social sciences, and even has a department specifically dedicated to translation. It also coordinates national and international activities.

LINGUISTIC ASPECTS

Nepali has 36 letters and is written in the Devanagari alphabet, although sometimes transliterations in the Latin alphabet can also be found.

Its vocabulary comes mostly from Sanskrit, but has also been influenced by Arabic and Persian. Also, being the official language of a country as important as Nepal, it has borrowed from English, Hindi and Urdu among others.

There are no articles in Nepali and grammatical gender is rarely used. This language has 10 diphthongs.

As far as morphology is concerned, in general, nouns referring to human beings ending in -a or -o are masculine, and if they end in -i they are feminine. In addition, to form the plural, the particle -haru would be added to the end of a singular.

The order of the components of the Nepali sentence is subject, object and verb. In addition, the sociolinguistic complexity makes three forms possible for the second and third person depending on the position of the speaker.

It is also interesting to note that the Nepali language coexists with more than 120 languages, some of which, such as the Rai language, can have as many as 30 dialects.

CULTURE AND IMPORTANCE OF NEPALI

Although there are more than 120 different languages spoken in Nepal, Nepali is the preferred language of instruction, administration and generally religion. Interestingly, the main religions in Nepal are Hinduism and Buddhism, and sometimes a person can be a follower of both religions without any problems.

As far as international issues are concerned, the article Importance of Nepal for regional stability in the Indian subcontinentmakes the role of this country and this language noteworthy. This article argues that by trying to help countries such as Nepal undergo a democratic transformation of the system, this will contribute to the stability of both the country and its neighbouring regions. In addition, the common language plays a vital role in bringing countries closer together.