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3701 Nepal Tips. 8262 Nepal Photos. 8 Nepal Videos. Nepal Pages by SumTingWong
| Page Views: 13,302 Last Visit to Nepal: August, 2003 I Used To Live Here | The Himalayan Kingdom by SumTingWong - last update: Apr 23, 2004 |
Mero arko desh Nepal ho! | Bearded Sadhu from Pashupatinath, Kathmandu |
Please note that all of the following photos were taken by me and are are under copyrite. Do not reproduce these images in any way unless you have prior permission. Thanks!! Enjoy!
Note that some tips are the same tip with different photos. This is because the travelogues cannot hold all of my photos. Rather than dumping the photos I just repeated the tip with new photos. |
|  | Nepali Language - Nepali Bhaasaa The offcial language of Nepal is Nepali, written in the Davanagari script . Nepali comes from indo-european roots, and more directly related to Sanskrit and Hindi. Because I cannot figure out a way to type in Davanagari on VT, I have some phrases in transliteration.
The Golden Word: HADZUR - this word (also romanized as hajur) has several important meenings. It can be used to meen 'yes' as in 'agreement', it can also mean 'repeat' or 'say it again' it is also used to connotate 'affirmation' (accent usually placed on the 'a' in this case) and also 'perplexity' (accent usually placed on the 'u' at the end)
Basic conversation phrases and vocab: Hello - Namaste Hello (formal) - Namaskaar Whats up? - Ke chha? I'm OK - Thik chha I'm not OK - Thik chhaina How are you? - Tapaainlai kasto chha? I am well - Malai sanchai chha Good - Raamro Very - Ekdam Name - Naam My name is... - Mero naam...dzi ho What is your name? (directed to an adult) - Taapainko naam ke ho? What is your name? (directed to a child) - Timro naam ke ho? I - Ma You (adult) - Tapaain You (child) - Timi He/She (adult) - Wahaan He/She (child) - U / Uni We - Haami You (pl. to children) - Timiharu You (pl. to adults) - Tapaainharu They (adult) - Wahaanharu They (children) - Uharu Mother - Aamaa Father - Baa Older Sister - Didi Younger Sister - Bhahini Older Brother - Dhai Younger Brother - Bhai Aunt - Kaka Uncle - Mama Son - Chhora Daughter - Chhori Whats her/his name? - Wahaanko naam ke ho? I feel sick - Ma birami chhu How much? - Kasto chha?
** The best Nepali phrase book out there is the Lonley Planet one, and it is pretty good at almost all basic vocab and grammar. However, I personally have caught several errors. Nepali grammar is different from place to place, and sometimes varries by a large margin. Nevertheless, you will learn a lot of Nepali by just being in Nepal. TRY TO AVOID USING THE WORD DHANYABAAD, yes many phrase books translate it as "thank you" but it has very, very formal connotations, and just doesn't fit. Only use it when someone does you a big favor.** |
|  | Speaking Nepali Basic knowledge of Nepali grammar is very impressive and useful in Nepal and for speaking Nepali. So, here I am providing those who are interested with a bit of grammar.
Verbs: Infinitive verb: garnu 'to do', ends in "nu" Progressive verb: garna 'doing', ends in "na" "Oops, I forgot how to conjugate" verb form: garne 'lets do', ends in "ne" sometimes pronounced like "ni". To negate this most basic understood form, add "na" to the beginniong of the verb.
Q: Where can verbs be found in a sentence? AT THE END OF THE SENTENCE. ex: I eat food = Ma khaana khaanchhu (lit. I food eat) and it even still applies in more complex sentences with more than one verb, ex: 'I want to live in Nepal.' = Ma Nepal-ma basnu chahinchhu. (lit. I Nepal-in to live want) NOTE that prepositions (like in, on, at, etc...) are hooked onto the ends of the nouns they modify. Also NOTE that the conjugated verb is the final verb of the sentence if there is more than one verb.
Conjugation: conjugation (or at least formal conjugation) is quite complex in Nepali, mostly because there is unfortunatly a completely different conjugation form fot a nagative and positive conjugation of a verb. Anyway, here are the formal conjugations, I used the example veru 'dzaanu' (which can also be romanized as jaanu, but the "j" is pronounced in Nepal like "dz" whereas in India more like a "j") 'to go' (note that the verm boor of any verb is the verb in the infinitive minus the "nu"; however if the verb ends in a vowel the "n" is retained.
PRESENT TENSE POSITIVE CONJUGATION: Ma: dzaanchhu Timi: dzaanchhau U/Yo/Tyo: dzaanchha Haami: dzaanchhaun Timiharu: dzaanchhau Uharu: dzaanchhan Tapaain/Wahaan/Tapaainharu/Wahaanharu: dzaanuhunchha
PRESENT TENSE NEGATIVE TENSE: Ma: dzaandina Timi: dzaandainau U/Yo/Tyo: dzaandaina Haami: dzaandainaun Timiharu: dzaandainau Uharu: dzaandainna Tapaain/Wahaan/Tapaainharu/Wahaanharu: dzaanuhunna
PAST TENSE POSITIVE CONJUGATION: Ma: dzaanen Timi: dzaanyau U/Yo/Tyo: dzaanyo Haami: dzaanyaun Timiharu: dzaanyau Uharu: dzaane Tapaain/Wahaan/Tapaainharu/Wahaanharu: dzaanu-bhayo
PAST TENSE NEGATIVE CONJUGATION: Ma: dzaaninan Timi: dzaanenau U/Yo/Tyo: dzaanena Haami: dzaanenaun Timiharu: dzaanenau Uharu: dzaanenna Tapaain/Wahaan/Tapaainharu/Wahaanharu: dzaanu-bha-e-na
How to form the PRESENT PROGRESSIVE TENSE: add the word 'dai' in-between the verb root and the present tense endings, ex: I am going. = Ma dzaandaichhu
How to form the FUTURE TENSE: There is no immediate future tense, but the most popular way to signify events thet 'may' or 'will' happen in the future, the word "holaa" can be added after a present tense conjugated verb, ex: I will/may go. = Ma dzaanchhu holaa.
How to form the IMPERATIVE TENSE (or the polite command tense): add the following endings
Haami: dzaanaun Timi(haru): dzaanaa Tapaain(haru): dzaanus (or jaanuhos) *Note that to order someone to 'go away' the word baang is used.
more to come......... |
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| Pros: | "People, culture, land, mountains, traditions, history, and many more" | | Cons: | "Kathmandu street people; Politics (the Chairman's amigos)" | | In A Nutshell: | "A place that touches the depths of your soul" |
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Comments for SumTingWong about Nepal | | | | |
mrkenlewis Sat Sep 22, 2007 06:40 UTC STD is an abbreviation for Subscriber Trunk Dialling, localese for inter state telephone calls. STD is NOT the name of the phone company- but that was a good guess anyway. International phone booths would be marked as ISD. | Elena_blue Wed Aug 29, 2007 15:20 UTC Amazing pics, amazing pages. I m planning a trip to Nepal and your pages have been an inspiration. Thank you for sharing Matt. I hope to meet you somewhere, some day. Fare forward, voyager! | mantru Sat Jun 16, 2007 12:53 UTC looks like u did quite a study of our nepali langauage.... | lusilk Wed Jun 6, 2007 14:37 UTC Hi there My god I am surprised to see your knowledge about you and your english-nepali transaltion, and about culture and religion ..................wish you all the best , I wanted to write you more but I will write you when I will go back to Pokhara |
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