Nepali English Glossary

NEPALI-ENGLISH &

ENGLISH-NEPALI GLOSSARY

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Introduction to the Second Edition

The Nepali language is spoken by around 20 million people in the Kingdom of Nepal, wherenational it is and official language. About 11 million of these speakers use Nepali as the a motherOutside of Nepal, Nepali is also spoken in north-east India and in much of tongue. Bhutan. On account of its widespread use in the states of West Bengal (particularly in the district of and Sikkim, the Indian Constitution recognizes Nepali as a major language Darjeeling) of India. While Dzongkha is the national language of Bhutan, Nepali is widely spoken by many of its across citizens the country. and usedIn asshort, lingua a Nepali franca is a major regional language used in numerous South Asian countries.

Nepali is an Indo-Aryan language, and thus part of a linguistic grouping which includes other South Asian languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Gujarati. Modern Indo-Aryan languages are related to Sanskrit, much as modern European languages are related to Latin. Nepali is written in the Devanâgarî (or ‘Nagari’) script, which is also used for Hindi, Marathi Sanskrit. Nepaliand Devanâgarî has 12 vowels and 36 consonants. The script is essentially phonetic, meaning that the pronunciation closely resembles the written form. The script is written from left to right, with a top line indicating the word boundaries. This volume is made up of two discrete glossaries, Nepali-English and thereafter first . While similar, the lexical English-Nepali corpora which make up the two glossaries are actually quite closely distinct. follows The Nepali-English the content of Glossary Shambhu and Banu , and theOja’s lesson Nepali number Beginner’s in which Primer a word is first used is given in This 51-page glossary is organised according to the Nepali the penultimate column. alphabetic does order. not mapThe directly English-Nepali onto the Glossary content of the lessons in the primer, but rather provides an extensive corpus of terms which Cornell’s Nepali language instructors have been asked to translate over the years. The content of this glossary reflects the interests of generations of Cornell students who have studied anthropology, ecology, economics, politics and sociology in Nepal and through Nepali. Shambhu Oja, Department of Asian Studies Mark Turin, Digital Himalaya Project Cornell University, Ithaca, New York June 2004

Shambhu Oja Acknowledgements to theBanu SecondOja Edition relied administrative glossary the to we Anne Kathryn Thanks work would Nepali Stengle to on March with. would like Ajay the Unicode and In for generous to Rai support never particular, Durga express her of font have Wandering unflagging of Bor support remaining team our seen the atwe at appreciation Department the the of Spirits would Madan support errors South many light like Puraskâr individuals. for Asia or of and to to typographical the day. Asian Program Sara members thank Pustakâlaya front WeShneiderman Studies are First Amar for ofcover grateful the Gurung their lapses and at in photo. Cornell Cornell foremost, for Kathmandu help and are for her Needless Pawan with community, our your University, careful without have the trust Chitrakar. tobeen say, in and the and a Mark Turin The production Nepali-English of the second and English-Nepali edition of this Glossary has Elisabeth Uphoff South Cornell Asia June University Program 2004 edition financial Professor specifically help. pleasure Finally, particular printing, editorial any Second, and Professor Edward eye. to M. Gunn, responsibility. Ann VanDeMark and Kim Steber, thissecond revised and reworked

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Introduction to the First Edition

The Nepali language program at Cornell faces several challenges that are likely to characterize similar programs elsewhere. The number of students taking Nepali changes every year, each student has a different level of ability and there is a scarcity of published Nepali texts and dictionaries. Most importantly, most Nepali language students have specific but widely diverse fields of interest. Some students come from the Peace Corps, some come after study or travel abroad, and increasingly some come from Nepalese-American families. This means that they have very different language backgrounds and very different reasons for wanting to learnwant Nepali. Some to work in development on irrigation or healthcare; others want to do PhD research questionson of religious change or women’s issues; others simply want to be able to talk to older members of their families. It has been our goal at Cornell to teach not only basic skills in spoken and written Nepali but to try to make our students linguistically competent in their chosen fields of specialization well. Because ofasthe difficulties in locating texts and reference books to suit all their needs,varying we have tried to create new kinds of instructional materials for Nepali which could: (a) teach increasingly complex grammatical structures (b) tailor additional vocabulary and dialogues to individual students’ professional directions (c) wherever possible utilize material from Nepalese school books, folk stories, literature, songs, proverbs, Radio Nepal/Nepal TV, taped conversations, or other sources not created solely for the classroom We began the Nepali Computer Project in 1988 with support between 1988 and 1992 from the Northeast Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning, Cornell South Asia Program, and the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics. Our objective has been to an integrated system to provide Nepali language instructors with flexible develop teaching materials that can be readily adapted to suit their students’ varying numbers, abilities, and wide For this reason we chose a computer-based system because it range of interests. offered the flexibility of organization and presentation that we needed. At present, the projectBeginners’ Beginning consists of Reader Primer ,a, an a which Intermediate has been Reader compiled , and from this Glossary the vocabulary contained in the other materials using a computer database. All of the words in this glossary are coded subject andbyby the chapter or story in which they are first introduced, so that it would be possible to print out specific vocabulary lists according to topic of interest and/or level study. Itofhas been aeach long and informative voyage from our first them days, trying produce materials instructors students and infor those and Nepali their that level language will main offollow, assistants, classes students. will at These Cornell but continue also volumes for the to almost serve represent cumulative ten the years. in questions, all effort We ofto hope their not problems, that only of newneeds the and these language volumes, diverse of needs. Department Professor Cornell Ithaca, of Kathryn Anthropology University New 1992 March York

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Acknowledgements to the First Edition

The Nepali Computer Project at Cornell owes thanks to many people. First, of course, is the South Asia Program which is making this publication possible and which has Cornell backed language the Nepali offerings at Cornell since 1984. We would like to thank the Northeast Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning for their financial support of this project. Theof Modern Languages and Linguistics at Cornell, too, provided invaluable Department support both in the basic support of the Nepali language program and in the person of Ann VanDeMark, without whose administrative savvy any of this work would have been unthinkable. Professor James Gair’s Sinhala glossary provided an important early model and inspiration for our Professor efforts. Kathryn March was ever behind the project with constant advocacy and And support. But above all, we are indebted to all the students through the years of Nepali teaching at Cornell who have read, revised, and added to this work. And of those students we are especially gratefulfor the special assistance of Christopher Scott and Bhushan Tuladar. We are glad to be able to offer this printed version of our Nepali language materials. However, please bear in mind that this is a first edition and may contain spelling or other errors. We would deeply appreciate feedback both on technical and methodological presentation so that we can make the second edition better. Banu Oja, Shambhu Oja, Elisabeth Uphoff Ithaca, New York 1992

Technical Notes

Work on the first edition of this glossary started in 1988 using an early Apple Macintosh computer, a database package called FileMaker+ and the Kånchi NR Devanagari font. The glossary was subsequently published in 1992.

The second edition was prepared in May 2004 by Shambhu Oja and Mark Turin, using the Nepali Unicode environment devised by the Madan Puraskâr Pustakâlaya library in Kathmandu, Nepal. The original glossary was retyped as a tabulated Microsoft Word document, checked and then sorted according to the Nepali and English alphabetical orders. We have used a Unicode Nepali font called Kalimati, which is freely downloadable from the Madan Puraskâr Pustakâlaya website along with the keyboard layout . The updated version of this bilingual glossary is currently being formatted as a searchable database for online delivery. of==Abbreviations an = anthropology h =List household (words ag g p general politics agriculture (food, dealing (basic utensils, with glossary) kinship parts or of religion) houses)

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1

Nepali - English Glossary

Nepali part English lesson subject अअंकममाल n

hug

g

अअंमजजजीे adj

English L-8 g

अअंजल+ुु n

cupped hands - g

अ-यमाररोँ adj

dark L-24 g

अ-यमाररोपननँ n

darkness - g

अककःममातत adv अ7रn

suddenly

g

letter (alphabet) - g

अखडमा n

arena, station, base - p

अखबमार n

newspaper L-28 g, p

अगु