Nepalese English

Nepalese English; locally known as Nenglish is a form and accent of the English language spoken by Nepalese people in Nepal. Many Nepalese people speak English as a second language and is most prevalent among Madhesi people who don't speak Nepali — the official language of Nepal.[1]

Classification

This dialect is classified as a non-standard dialect. It has no legal status.

Phonology

Nepalese accents vary greatly. Some Nepalese speak English with an accent very close to a Standard British (Received Pronunciation) accent (although not the same); others lean toward a more 'vernacular', native-tinted, accent for their English speech.

Grammar

The role of English within the complex multilingual society of Nepal is far from straightforward: it is used across the country, by speakers with various degrees of proficiency; the grammar and phraseology may mimic that of the speaker's first language. While Nepalese speakers of English use idioms peculiar to their homeland, often literal translations of words and phrases from their native languages, this is far less common in proficient speakers, and the grammar itself tends to be quite close to that of Standard English.

Numeral system

The numeral system of Nenglish is the South Asian numbering system and is preferred for digit grouping. When written in words, or when spoken, numbers less than 100,000/100 000 are expressed just as they are in Standard English. Numbers including and beyond 100,000 / 100 000 are expressed in a subset of the Indian numbering system. Consequently, the following scale is used:

In digits (Standard English) In digits (Nenglish) In words (Standard English) In words (Nenglish)
10 ten
100 one hundred
1,000 one thousand
10,000 ten thousand
100,000 / 100 000 1,00,000 one hundred thousand one lakh
1,000,000 / 1 000 000 10,00,000 one million ten lakh
10,000,000 /10 000 000 1,00,00,000 ten million one crore

Larger numbers are generally expressed as multiples of the above.[2][3]

Nouns

There are few affection of nouns in Nenglish.

Brother/Cousin

In most of the languages spoken in Nepal, both brother and cousin are referred to as brother. There is no specific word for cousin. So people use the term "own brother" to refer to "brother" and "not own brother" to refer to "cousin".[4]

Aunt/Uncle

In most of the languages spoken in Nepal, there are specific words for aunties and uncles too.
e.g.:-In Nepali,father's sister-फुपु(fupu), mother's sister-सानो आमा(saani aamaa),etc.
So people especially use the native names for referring Aunt/Uncle.

References

  1. "Government of Nepal reached an agreement on Madhesi demand to introduce English as language of education in Nepal : United Nations Charter" (PDF).
  2. "Investors lose Rs 4.4 lakh crore in four days", Business Standard
  3. "Back Corporate chiefs getting crores in salaries: 100 and counting!", SmartInvestor.in
  4. http://twoworldscombined.wordpress.com/.../nepal/nepali-culture-nepal/

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.