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Newar

A language of Nepal

ISO 639-3: new

Population	825,000 in Nepal (2001 census). Many women are monolingual. Population total all countries: 839,000. Ethnic population: 1,256,737 including 1,245,232 Newar plus 11,505 Pahari.
Region	Widespread. Kathmandu Valley and thoughout Nepal. Fewer far west. Also in India.
Language map	Western Nepal, reference number 75
Alternate names	Nepal Bhasa, Newal Bhaye, “Newari”
Dialects	Dolkhali (Dolakha), Sindhupalchok Pahri (Pahri, Pahari), Totali, Citlang, Kathmandu-Patan-Kirtipur, Bhaktapur, Baglung. Dialects Dolkhali of Dolakha and Pahri of Sindhupalchok may be separate languages (Genetti 1994:2–3), especially Dolakha (Genetti 2006). Dolakha, Totali, and Pahari are conservative linguistically. Kirtipur is similar to Kathmandu. Baktapur people can mostly understand Kathmandu. Some vocabulary differences between Hindus and Buddhists.
Classification	Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman, Himalayish, Mahakiranti, Newari
Language use	Language shift greater among Hindus than Buddhists. Home. All ages. Dolakha and Totali are reserved toward outsiders. Kathmandu is the prestige dialect with most published materials. Many attitudes are linked with political groupings. English is highly valued; mixed feelings about Hindi; Tibetan [bod] does not have high prestige. People learn whichever language will help them economically: Nepali, English, Hindi, and others. Also use Nepali [nep], English, Hindi, or Tibetan [bod].
Language development	Literacy rate in L1: 60% (1991 census). Literacy rate in L2: 60% (1991 census). Younger people are more literate than older; men more than women. Magazines. Newspapers. Radio programs. Films. Dictionary. Grammar. NT: 1986.
Writing system	Devanagari script. Prachalit (Nepali) script, in common use during the Malla period and earlier, recent attempts to revive this script. Ranjana (Newari) script, no longer in use.
Comments	SOV; postpositions; genitives, adjectives, demonstratives before noun heads; relatives before and without noun heads; in polar questions there is a particle sentence finally; maximum number of prefixes 2; maximum number of suffixes 4; affixes or clitics indicate case of noun phrases; ergative; causatives; comparatives; CVC; nontonal. Jyapu intensive agriculturalists (farming caste); full range of occupations. Buddhist, Hindu, syncretism with traditional religion.

Also spoken in:

India

Language name	Newar
Population	14,000 in India (2007). Ethnic population: 166,000.
Region	Sikkim; West Bengal; Some in Bettiah, Bihar; Andamans.
Alternate names	“Newari”

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

DALY, Margaret H., author. 1992. Review of: Songs of Nepal: An anthology of Nevar folksongs and hymns, by Siegfried Lienhard.

FRIEDMAN, Lindsay C.; HALE, Austin; KANSAKAR, Tej Ratna; TULADHAR, Jyoti, authors. 1983. On the variants of Newari vowels: a study in phonological non-alignment.

GENETTI, Carol; SLATER, Keith W., authors. 2004. "An analysis of syntax and prosody interactions in a Dolakhā Newar rendition of "The mahābhārata (with appendices and sound files)."  

GLOVER, Warren W., author. 1970. "Cognate counts via the Swadesh list in some Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal."

GLOVER, Warren W.; YADAVA, Yogendra P., editors. 1999. Topics in Nepalese linguistics.

HALE, Austin, author. 1970. "A phonological survey of seven Bodic languages of Nepal."

HALE, Austin, author. 1970. "Newari higher levels."

HALE, Austin, author. 1970. "Newari segmental synopsis."

HALE, Austin, author. 1973. "On the form of verbal bases in Newari."

HALE, Austin, author. 1980. "Person markers: Finite conjunct and disjunct verb forms in Newari."

HALE, Austin, author. 1985. "Noun phrase form and cohesive function in Newari."

HALE, Austin, author. 2002. "Optimizing the Shoebox parser for Newari."

HALE, Austin, author. 2011. "The modalities of Newār ‘mal’."  

HALE, Austin, author; SHAKYA, Kesar Man, translator. 1990. "Linguistic reflections on a Newari text."

HALE, Austin, editor. 1973. Collected papers on Khaling, Kulunge, Darai, Newari, Chitwan Tharu.

HALE, Austin; HALE, Margrit, authors. 1969. Newari phonemic summary.

HALE, Austin; HALE, Margrit, authors. 1970. "Newari texts."

HALE, Austin; HALE, Margrit, authors. 1971. A vocabulary of the Newari language.

HALE, Austin; HALE, Margrit; SRESTHACHARYA, Iswaranand, authors; TULADHAR, Nirmal Man, translator. 1976. Jyāpu vocabulary (preliminary report).

HALE, Austin; MANANDHAR, Thakurlal, authors. 1973. "Case and role in Newari."

HALE, Austin; MANANDHAR, Thakurlal, authors. 1980. "Case and role in Newari."

HALE, Austin; MASKEY, Jagan Nath; SRESTHACHARYA, Iswaranand, authors. 1971. Conversational Newari.

HALE, Austin; PIKE, Kenneth L., editors. 1970. Tone systems of the Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal 2: Lexical lists and comparative studies.

HALE, Austin; PIKE, Kenneth L., editors. 1970. Tone systems of the Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal 3: Texts 1.

HALE, Austin; PIKE, Kenneth L., editors. 1970. Tone systems of Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal 1: Studies on tone and phonological segments.

HALE, Austin; PIKE, Kenneth L., editors. 1970. Tone systems of Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal 4: Texts 2.

HALE, Austin; SHRESTHA, Kedar P., authors. 1996. "Deictic and non-deictic senses of kin terms in dhõcolecaa."

HALE, Austin; SHRESTHA, Kedar P., authors. 1999. "On the senses of the Newar conjunctive participle: -a."

HALE, Austin; SHRESTHA, Kedar P., authors. 2003. "Three Newar sentence finals seen in context."

HALE, Austin; SHRESTHA, Kedar P., authors. 2006. Newār (Nepāl bhāsā).

HALE, Austin; SHRESTHACHARYA, Iswaranand, authors. 1973. "Is Newari a classifier language?."

HALE, Austin; SRESTHACHARYA, Iswaranand, authors. 1972. Toward a revision of Hale’s roman Newari orthography.