language fact file: Nepali

Nepali is spoken as a native language in: Nepal, Bhutan, India

Number of native speakers: 19 million

Learn some: ‘Namaste’ is probably quite a familiar word for lots of people, and it is just used to mean ‘hello’. If you would like to get someone’s attention, it’s ‘maaf garnuhos’.

Fast facts:

Nepal is a very diverse country with a variety of languages and dialects. While Nepali is often a shared second language, uniting Nepalis who have different mother tongues, some argue that, with more than 50% of the population unable to speak it, Nepali should not be considered a national language.

Nepali is a tonal language, which means that a word’s pitch varies its meaning. It also has 12 vowels and 36 consonants (compared to English’s 5 vowels and 21 consonants)!

There are three distinct geographical divisions of the Nepali language: the eastern, the western and the focal. In addition to this, there is a dialect that is spoken by the upper classes, which has its own vocabulary and honorific system. This is increasingly being adopted by the educated middle class and newly wealthy.