Description

Nepal is one of the world's most linguistically variegated countries; more than 40 different languages have been recorded. Just over half the population has Nepali as its mother tongue: the mother-tongue Nepali-speakers are primarily the higher caste and politically dominant Bahuns (Brahmins) and Chetris. Most of the rest of the population speaks either Indo-Aryan languages such as Maithili, Bhojpuri, Awadhi and Hindi, or Tibeto-Burman languages such as Tibetan, Tamang, Newari, Gurung, Magar, Rai and Limbu. The use of these languages was discouraged until 1990, when a democracy movement succeeded in granting some rights to Nepal's linguistic minorities. However, the level of bilingualism with Nepali is now very high in most parts of the kingdom

Keywords