Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0040/00406.txt

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$Unique_ID{bob00406}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Nepal
Chapter 4A.   Languages}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{George L. Harris}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{languages
pahari
groups
language
tarai
nepal
ethnic
nepali
country
eastern
see
tables
}
$Date{1973}
$Log{See Table 2.*0040601.tab
See Table 3.*0040602.tab
}
Title:       Nepal
Book:        Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, An Area Study: Nepal
Author:      George L. Harris
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1973

Chapter 4A.   Languages

     Settled in ancient times by peoples from India to the south and west and
Tibet to the north and east, Nepal has been more or less continuously subject
to cultural influences from these two centers of civilization. It has in turn
influenced them. Thus, Tibet received its script from Nepal in the Malla
period. From Nepal also the pagoda style of architecture spread throughout
the East. The country's population is ethnically complex, ranging in physical
type and culture from the Indian to the Tibetan. Except for the sizable
population of Indian birth or ancestry concentrated in the Tarai on the border
with India and a few thousand refugees from Chinese-Communist-dominated
Tibet, all of the varied ethnic groups into which the Nepalese are divided
have evolved distinctive patterns of their own.

     The north Indian antecedents of a number of caste groups which make up
nearly half of the total population are evident in their language, religion,
social organization and physical appearance, but all of these features have
been modified in the Nepalese environment. These groups-several castes of
Brahmans, the high-ranking Thakuri and Chetri castes and an untouchable
category-have been classified as Pahari (Parbate) from their historic north
Indian connections, although the term has only a limited use in Nepal and the
Pahari groups are known by their individual caste names. Nepali, the native
tongue of the Pahari (and the official language of the country), is closely
related to but by no means identical with Hindi. The Hinduism of the Pahari
has been influenced both by Buddhism and by indigenous folk belief. The caste
system of the Pahari is neither as elaborately graded nor as all embracing in
its sanctions as that of the Indians; and physically many of the Pahari show
the results of intermixture with the Mongoloid peoples of the region.
Similarly, the Bhote groups of the high Himalayas-among whom the
mountaineering Sherpa have attracted the attention of the outside
world-although clearly related physically and culturally to the Tibetans,
have developed regional distinctions among themselves. "Bhote" is also a
generic term, applied to persons of Tibetan culture and Mongoloid physical
type. As used by the Pahari and the Newar it has a pejorative connotation and
may be applied to any non-Hindu of Mongoloid appearance (see fig. 7).

     An extraordinarily complex terrain has contributed to the human
complexity. The deeply cut valleys and high ridges of the Himalayan massif, in
which the northern three-fourths of the country lies, have tended to divide
the various ethnic populations themselves into many small, isolated and
relatively self-sufficient communities. Travel is still largely over footpaths
following the generally north to south meanderings of the principal river
systems. East and west movement, except in the lowlands of the Tarai, is made
difficult by the prevailing direction of the mountain ridges. The
regionalizing effect of the terrain is apparent in the predominantly Indian
character of the Tarai, which is an extension of the Gangetic Plain; in the
clustering of Tibetan-related languages and local cultures in the northern and
eastern parts of the country and of Indian-derived patterns in the west and
south; and in the historic distinctiveness and relative isolation of the
central valley enclave of Katmandu. Finally, the nature of the landscape has
led to a vertical as well as a lateral sorting of the population, with most of
the ethnic groups characteristically being found at particular altitudes.
Subsistence pattern is evidently the determining factor, and the distribution
ranges from the Indians of the Tarai, who cultivate irrigated rice on the
Gangetic Plain, to the Sherpa, whose dry fields and pastures are often at
10,000 feet and above.

     Historical origin and continued linguistic and cultural connections
make it possible to classify most ethnic groups into two categories:
Indo-Nepalese and Tibeto-Nepalese. The Indo-Nepalese category, which includes
the Pahari, the Indians of the Tarai, the Newar and the Tharu, comprises
perhaps 7.8 million persons, or nearly 80 percent of the total population.
Of these four Indo-Nepalese groups, the Pahari was by far the largest,
numbering more than 4 million in 1954, according to the last ethnic census
data available. Although found throughout the country, the bulk of the
Indo-Nepalese population is located in the Tarai and the Katmandu Valley.
Most of the principal Tibeto-Nepalese groups-the Tamang, Rai, Limbu, Bhote
and Sunwar-live in the north and east, although the Magar and Gurung are
found in west-central Nepal. Only three, the Tamang, Magar and Rai, exceeded
200,000 persons in 1954, whereas the Sunwar numbered about 17,000. It seems
probable, however, that the peoples on the northern rim of the country-the
Bhote, in particular-were underestimated in the 1952-54 census, no actual
count having made in that area.

     It is the Tibeto-Nepalese groups-particularly the Magar, Gurung and
Rai-who have supplied the bulk of the famous Gurkha contingents to the
British and Indian armies, although their ranks have been augmented from
the Thakuri and Chetri castes of the Indo-Nepalese Pahari. Not an ethnic
designation, the term "Gurkha" derives from the name of the former Kingdom
of Gorkha, west of the Katmandu Valley (see ch. 2, Historical Setting; ch.
22, The Armed Forces).

     The royal house of Nepal is Thakuri, and the Chetri caste supplied the
Rana line of hereditary prime ministers who ruled the country for a hundred
years until 1951, when the royal authority was restored. Nearly half of the
estimated 480,000 inhabitants of the Katmandu Valley in 1963 were Pahari,
and a large proportion of the wealthiest, best educated and politically most
influential persons in the country came from the highest castes of this
group. Most of the other half of the population of the Katmandu Valley
consisted of the Newar. Known today for their business acumen and handicraft
skills, the Newar developed a high degree of civilization in the Valley long
before the Pahari conquest in the eighteenth century. They are interesting
as a people of Mongoloid-North Indian ancestry, Tibetan-related speech, and
mixed Buddhist-Hindu religious orientation, whose Hinduization over the
centuries places them with the Pahari in the Indo-Nepalese category (see
table 2.)

[See Table 2.: Principal Ethnic Groups of Nepal, 1952-54]

     Although many members of the Tibeto-Nepalese groups, especially among
the Gurung, Magar and Rai, have adopted Hindu religious beliefs and practices,
these peoples remain basically Buddhist. A sizable and growing percentage
of the Tibeto-Nepalese groups reportedly can speak Nepali, and probably a
majority of them have some knowledge of the language. Slowly and unevenly
these peoples are being drawn into a national framework of thought and
activity by the development of public education, the extension of trade
and the operation of the panchayat system. There are no signs, however, that
basic ethnic identities are disappearing, and all of these peoples preserve
their Tibeto-Burman languages and dialects and their traditional culture.
None, as a group at least, has adopted the Hindu caste system, although
the dominant Pahari and Newar tend to regard the Tibeto-Nepalese groups as
so many unitary castes and to rank them below themselves.

     Most of the languages spoken in the country belong either to the
Indo-European family, represented in India by Hindi among others, or to the
Tibeto-Burman family, of which Tibetan is a member. The speakers of the
Nepalese languages of these two families, except for the Newar, fall into
the Indo-Nepalese and the Tibeto-Nepalese ethnic categories, respectively.
A third speech family, the Austro-Asiatic of India, is also thought to be
represented by the languages of several Indo-Nepalese groups. Local
isolation had produced marked dialect differences within particular
languages and, within a given ethnic group, speech may vary widely from one
area to another.

     Nepali, with a number of related Indian languages, had historical
connections with Sanskrit. It is the mother tongue of the numerically and
politically dominant Pahari and the official language of the nation. Its
use by the Pahari makes it the first language of about half of the total
population, and the estimated 13 percent in other groups throughout the
country who had some knowledge of it in 1954 has undoubtedly increased. This
trend will continue with the growth of the public school system, in which
Nepali is the basic medium of instruction. Moreover, there appears to have
been some tendency for non-Pahari communities in predominantly Pahari
areas to abandon their own speech for Pahari, as appears to be the case
with the Magar. The Newar of the Katmandu Valley, however, provide an
example of a group which determinedly has preserved its own language though
it has accepted Nepali for use in the community at large. It seems probable
that a similar pattern will prevail among the other principal non-Pahari
groups for the indefinite future.

Languages

     The census of 1952-54 listed 30 languages and dialects and 5 regional
groups of local dialects. Of the total, however, about 20 languages were
spoken by fewer than 1,000 persons each. Three great language families
are thought to be represented in the country: Indo-European, Tibeto-Burman
and Austro-Asiatic. Little research has been done on the indigenous languages,
however, and classification of many of them remains tentative (see table 3).

     The most widely spoken languages belong to the Indo-Aryan branch of the
Indo-European family. They include Eastern Pahari, or Nepali, five regional
groupings of local dialects found in the Tarai, and five languages spoken
by the Indians of the Tarai: Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Bhojpuri and Maithili.
While all of these languages are related to each other, they are not all
mutually intelligible. The Tibeto-Burman languages include Magar, Gurung, Rai,
Limbu, Sunwar, Tamang, Newari and a number of Bhote dialects, including Sherpa
and Thakali. Dhimal, Hayu and Thami appear to be closely related to Limbu and
Rai, but some authorities suggest connections with the Munda branch of the
Austro-Asiatic family. Munda languages are spoken mainly in the tribal areas
of the Indian States of Orissa, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. In Nepal, these
languages are thought to include Chepang, Danuwar, Darai, Kumkale, Jirel and
Jhangar, spoken mainly by small groups in the Tarai.

[See Table 3.: Languages of Nepal by Percentage of the National Population,
1952-54]

     The languages of the north and east belong predominantly to the
Tibeto-Burman family. Aside from the speculative Munda connection, the Kiranti
languages of eastern Nepal-Limbu, Rai, Dhimal, Thami and Hayu-which seem to be
related to the Lepcha language of Sikkim, are generally considered to be
Tibeto-Burman. Newari likewise is commonly placed in the Tibeto-Burman family,
but some authorities suggest that it may be derived from an early language of
India which subsequently was influenced by both Tibeto-Burman and
Indo-European languages.

     The south and west are areas of Indo-European speech. A few
Austro-Asiatic enclaves, with tentative connections with languages of this
family in India, are present but the number of speakers is small. Nepali is
the dominant language of the Western Mountain, the Eastern Mountain and the
Eastern Inner Tarai Regions. Many people in the Katmandu Valley and in both
of the Inner Tarai Regions also speak it. Only in the Tarai itself does it
occupy a relatively minor position as a first language. In the Western Inner
Tarai and Far Western Tarai Regions more than half of the people speak
Tharuhati, the Hindi-influenced language of the Tharu. Newari is the native
tongue of more than half of the population of the Katmandu Valley. In the
Eastern and Midwestern Tarai Regions a number of Indian languages and dialects
are spoken, none clearly overshadowing the others.

     The Pahari dialects, of which Nepali is one, fall into three main
divisions, Eastern, Central and Western. Eastern Pahari, officially known as
Nepali, is also called Parbatiya-bhasha (language of the mountain people),
Khaskura (language of the Kha), or Gurkhali or Gorkhali (from the ancient
Kingdom of Gorkha). Western Pahari is represented by a number of local
dialects in Kashmir. Central Pahari is found in the Far Western Region of
Nepal, but it centers in the mountain areas of Uttar Pradesh in India. Eastern
Pahari differs from Central and Western Pahari mainly in having been more
strongly influenced by Tibeto-Burman languages. Nepali, or Eastern Pahari, is
reported to have three main subdialects, but detailed information about them
is lacking.

     Although the principal languages are centered in particular regions,
speakers of most of them may be encountered in various parts of the country,
especially in the larger towns. Nepali, long before it acquired its status as
the official national language, was employed as a lingua franca by members
of the different speech communities in their dealings with each other, and the
knowledge of it is spreading. There are indications that in some ethnic
communities it is actually displacing other languages.

     Of the indigenous languages, only Pahari and Newari have developed a
literature of their own, both using scripts derived from Sanskrit. The Limbu
have a script, which they reportedly are trying to revive after a long
period of disuse. A Limbu chronicle and other works in this script are said
to have been destroyed during the Pahari conquest, and none has since come
to light. Most of the people in the north are adherents of Buddhism of the
Tibetan type, and many have some knowledge of the Buddhist scriptures in
Tibetan.