Nepalese Linguistics

Languages of Nepal

Dan Raj Regmi — 2023-11-20

No abstract.

Presidential Address 36th Sala & 43rd Lsn International Conference, Kathmandu

Krishna Prasad Chalise — 2023-11-20

No abstract.

Acoustic Study of the Nepali Nasal Consonants

Krishna Prasad Chalise — 2023-11-20

The Nepali nasals have been characterized based on duration, formant structure, Cog, and SD. /n/ has the longest duration, followed by /m/ and /ŋ/. They are longer with homorganic vowels. The duration of each place of articulation remains constant across different vowel environments. N1 value increases from /m/ to /ŋ/ and N3 and N4 nearly follow the same pattern. BW1 is the largest for /ŋ/ followed by /m/ and /n/. Cog and SD do not correlate with place of articulation; rather, they correlate with the vowel environment. Similarly, amplitude does not distinguish a nasal from the adjacent vowel in all vowel environments.

The Vowels of Nubri from the Perspective of Other Tibetan Languages

Cathryn Donohue — 2023-11-20

This paper presents the first illustration of the vowel system of the Samagaun dialect of Nubri. We present acoustic data for the nine oral vowels and illustrate the contrastive nasalisation that may be added to three of these vowels. We provide examples of length and non-modal phonation (breathiness and creak), also found in Nubri, but assume that these are a function of tonal contrasts, and not orthogonal to the differences in pitch. We then position the Nubri vowel system in the context of a range of Tibetan languages and discuss challenges for classifying Nubri as Tibetic in the context of possible developments and etymologies of some key words.

Case Markers in Purbiya Raji in Comparative Perspective

Dubi Nanda Dhakal — 2023-11-20

This paper presents the case markers in Purbiya Raji (PR) comparing them with its other varieties. As expected, the variations in case marking is attested across Raji varieties. The variations of the case marking is also seen among the speakers of the same variety in Naukule Raji. While the elder speakers do not use the dative-accusative case marker, younger people use it. The ergative case marker -i can be reconstructed to Raji-Raute languages.

Case Marking in Tharu: A Comparative Perspective

Krishna Prasad Paudyal — 2023-11-20

This paper compares the case marking system in Kathariya and Dangaura Tharu spoken by an ethnic group called Tharu. Both of these varieties typologically follow the nominative-accusative marking system. These varieties have different markers to code different cases. Only the Genitive marker -kə or -k are shared by both of these varieties. The dative-accusative markers -kehən, or -ke, instrumental marker -ləike, and ablative marker- ti are used in Kathariya Tharu. Dangaura Tharu is unique in its use of compound case marking in Genitive case. The locative marker in Kathariya Tharu is -me but it is -mə in Dangaura Tharu. The experiencer subjects in both of these varieties are dative case marked.

Bi/Multilingualism and Language Shift in Chhantyal

Bhim Lal Gautam — 2023-11-20

This paper outlines various aspects of bi/multilingualism and language shift in Chhantyal, a minority language community in Nepal. The main objective is to find the domains of language use and the causes of language shift among the migrated Chhantyal in Kathmandu valley. This research is based on mixed methodology of socio-ethnographic survey data where the data were collected with the help of survey questionnaire, key informants interviews (KIIs) and informal discussions and narratives with Chhantyal people based on Gautam (2021).The findings indicate that there is continuous shifts towards Nepali, English and Hindi languages among the speakers influenced by market multilingualism, globalization, migration, travel and tourism.

Nepali ESL/EFL Student Translators' Manipulation of Sentences at the Textual Level

Bal Ram Adhikari — 2023-11-20

This paper analyzes English translations of Nepali short stories carried out by Nepali ESL/EFL student translators and examines the translators' manipulation of sentences across boundaries. The study adopted a product-oriented framework with a production task to elicit translation from 30 university translation students. The data were analyzed descriptively and discussed under three themes: sentence splitting, sentence joining and sentence-structure preserving. Findings show translators' tendency to preserve source-text sentence boundaries in target texts, with the minimum use of sentence-splitting and sentence-merging strategies to bring about shifts across sentence boundaries.