Nepali grammar
Nepali grammar is the study of the
Phonology
In matters of script, Nepali uses
Vowels and consonants are outlined in the tables below. Hovering the mouse cursor over them will reveal the appropriate IPA symbol, while in the rest of the article hovering the mouse cursor over underlined forms will reveal the appropriate English translation.
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Like Bengali, Assamese, and Marathi and unlike Hindustani, Nepali may retain the final schwa in a word. The following rules can be followed to figure out whether or not Nepali words retain the final schwa.
1) Schwa is retained if the final syllable is a conjunct consonant. अन्त (anta, 'end'), सम्बन्ध (sambandha, 'relation'), श्रेष्ठ (śreṣṭha, 'greatest'/a last name).
Exceptions: conjuncts such as ञ्च ञ्ज in मञ्च (mañc, 'stage') गञ्ज (gañj, 'city') and occasionally the last name पन्त (panta/pant).
2) For any verb form the final schwa is always retained unless the schwa-cancelling halanta is present. हुन्छ (huncha, 'it happens'), भएर (bhaera, 'in happening so; therefore'), गएछ(gaecha, 'he apparently went'), but छन् (chan, 'they are'), गईन् (gain, 'she went').
Meanings may change with the wrong orthography: गईन (gaina, 'she didn't go') vs गईन् (gain, 'she went').
3) Adverbs, onomatopoeia and postpositions usually maintain the schwa and if they don't, halanta is acquired: अब (aba 'now'), तिर (tira, 'towards'), आज (āja, 'today') सिम्सिम (simsim 'drizzle') vs झन् (jhan, 'more').
4) Few exceptional nouns retain the schwa such as: दुख(dukha, 'suffering'), सुख (sukha, 'pleasure').
Note: Schwas are often retained in music and poetry to facilitate singing and recitation.
Morphology
Nouns
Nepali
Overall, in terms of grammatical gender, among Indo-Aryan languages, Nepali possesses an "attenuated gender" system, in which "gender accord typically is restricted to female animates (so that the system is essentially restructured as zero/+Fem), optional or loose even then […], and greatly reduced in syntactic scope. […] In Nepali, the [declensional] ending is a neutral -o, changeable to -ī with Personal Feminines in more formal style."[2]
Nepali distinguishes two
Adjectives
Adjectives may be divided into declinable and indeclinable categories. Declinables are marked, through termination, for the gender and number of the nouns they qualify. The declinable endings are -o for the "masculine" singular, -ī for the feminine singular, and -ā for the plural. e.g. sāno kitāb "small book", sānī keṭī "small girl", sānā kalamharū "small pens".
"Masculine", or rather "neutral" -o is the
Indeclinable adjectives are completely invariable, and can end in either consonants or vowels (except -o).
- Examples of declinable adjectives:[4] ṭhūlo "big", rāmro "good", seto "white", sāno "small".
- Examples of indeclinable adjectives:[5] garīb "poor", saphā "clean", dhanī "rich", nayā̃ "new".
Postpositions
In Nepali the locus of grammatical function or "
- ko – genitive marker; variably declinable in the manner of an adjective. X ko/kī/kā Y has the sense "X's Y", with ko/kī/kā agreeing with Y.
- lāī – marks the indirect dative marker"), or, if definite, the direct object.
- le – both perfective/perfect and optionally in other transitive aspects.
- mā – general locativemarker; "in, at, on", etc.
- bhandā – an ablative postposition used for comparatives and along with adverbsfor compound postpositions.
- Riccardi (2003:557) lists the following other common primary postpositions: tala "below", muni "under", dekhi "from", bāṭa "from", sãga "with", sita "with", pachi "after", samma "up to", bittikai "as soon as".
Beyond this come compound postpositions, composed of a primary postposition (most likely ko or bhandā) plus an adverb.
- ko lāgi "for", ko pachāṛī "behind", ko viruddha "against", bhandā māthi "above", bhandā par "beyond", etc.
Pronouns
Nepali has
The first person singular pronoun is म ma, and the first person plural is हामी hāmī. The following table lists the second and third person singular forms.
2nd pn. | 3rd pn. | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Prox. | Dist. | |||
Low | तँ tã | यो yo (यस yas) | त्यो tyo (त्यस tyas) | ऊ ū (उस us) |
Middle | तिमी timī | यिनी yinī (यिन yin) | तिनी tinī (तिन tin) | उनी unī (उन un) |
High | तपाईं tapāī̃ | यहाँ yahā̃ | वहाँ wahā̃ |
yo and tyo have yī and tī as plurals, while other pronouns pluralize (including hāmī, for emphasis, but excluding ū) with the common suffix -harū. Also, bracketed beside of a number of forms in the above chart are their
Verbs
Verbs in Nepali are quite highly inflected, agreeing with the subject in number, gender, status and person. They also inflect for tense, mood, and aspect. As well as these inflected finite forms, there are also a large number of participial forms.
Possibly the most important verb in Nepali, as well as the most irregular, is the verb हुनु hunu 'to be, to become'. In the simple present tense, there are at least three conjugations of हुनु hunu, only one of which is regular. The first, the ho-conjugation is, broadly speaking, used to define things, and as such its complement is usually a noun. The second, the cha-conjugation is used to describe things, and the complement is usually an adjectival or prepositional phrase. The third, the huncha-conjugation, is used to express regular occurrences or future events, and also expresses 'to become' or 'to happen'.
They are conjugated as follows:
हो ho | छ cha | हुन्छ huncha | |
---|---|---|---|
First person singular | हुँ hũ | छु chu | हुन्छु hunchu |
First person plural | हौँ haũ | छौँ chaũ | हुन्छौँ hunchaũ |
Second person singular low-grade | होस् hos | छस् chas | हुन्छस् hunchas |
Second person middle-grade/plural | हौ hau | छौ chau | हुन्छौ hunchau |
High grade | हुनुहन्छ hunuhuncha | हुनुहन्छ hunuhuncha | हुनुहन्छ hunuhuncha |
Third person singular low-grade | हो ho | छ cha | हुन्छ huncha |
Third person middle-grade/plural masculine | हुन् hun | छन् chan | हुन्छन् hunchan |
Third person middle-grade/plural feminine | हुन् hun | छिन् chin | हुन्छिन् hunchin |
हुनु hunu also has two
The finite forms of regular verbs are conjugated as follows (using गर्नु garnu 'to do' as an example):
Simple Present/Future | Probable Future | Simple Past | Past Habitual | Injunctive | Imperative | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
First person singular | गर्छु garchu 'I (will) do' |
गरुँला garũlā 'I will (probably) do' |
गरेँ garẽ 'I did' |
गर्थेँ garthẽ 'I used to do' |
गरुँ garũ 'may I do' |
– |
First person plural | गर्छौँ garchaũ 'We (will) do' |
गरौँला garaũlā 'We will (probably) do' |
गर्यौ garyaũ 'We did' |
गर्थ्यौँ garthyaũ 'We used to do' |
गरौँ garaũ 'may we do, let's do' |
– |
Second person singular low-grade | गर्छस् garchas 'you (will) do' |
गर्लास् garlās 'you will (probably) do' |
गरिस् garis 'you did' |
गर्थिस् garthis 'you used to do' |
गरेस् gares 'may you do' |
गर् gar 'do!' |
Second person middle-grade/plural | गर्छौ garchau 'you (will) do' |
गरौला garaulā 'you will (probably) do' |
गर्यौ garyau 'you did' |
गर्थ्यौ garthyau 'you used to do' |
गरौ garau 'may you do' |
गर gara 'do' |
High grade | गर्नुहुन्छ garnuhuncha 'you (will) do' |
गर्नुहोला garnuhola 'you will (probably) do' |
गर्नुभयो garnubhayo 'you did' |
गर्नुहुन्थ्यो garnuhunthyo 'you used to do' |
गर्नुहोस् garnuhos 'may you do, please do' |
– |
Third person singular low-grade | गर्छ garcha 'he does' |
गर्ला garlā 'he will (probably) do' |
गर्यो garyo 'he did' |
गर्थ्यो garthyo 'he used to do' |
गरोस् garos 'may he do' |
– |
Third person middle-grade/plural masculine | गर्छन् garchan 'they (will) do' |
गर्लान् garlān 'they will (probably) do' |
गरे gare 'they did' |
गर्थे garthe 'they used to do' |
गरून् garūn 'may they do' |
– |
Third person middle-grade/plural feminine | गर्छिन् garchin 'she (will) do' |
गर्लिन् garlin 'she will (probably) do' |
गरिन् garin 'she did' |
गर्थिन् garthin 'she used to do' |
गरुन् garūn 'may she do' |
– |
As well as these, there are two forms which are infinitival and participial in origin, but are frequently used as if they were finite verbs. Again using गर्नु garnu as an example, these are गरेको gareko 'did' and गर्ने garne 'will do'. Since they are simpler than the conjugated forms, these are often overused by non-native speakers, which can sound stilted.
The eko-participle is also the basis of perfect constructions in Nepali. This is formed by using the auxiliary verb हुनु hunu (usually the cha-form in the present tense and the thi-form in the past) with the eko-participle. So, for example, मैले काम गरेको छु maile kām gareko chu means 'I have done (the) work'.
Infinitives
Nepali has two infinitives. The first is formed by adding -नु nu to the verb stem. This is the
The second infinitive is formed by adding -न na to the verb stem. This is used in a wide variety of situations, and can generally be used where the infinitive is used in English. For example, म काम गर्न रामकहाँ गएको थिएँ ma kām garna rāmkahā̃ gaeko thiẽ 'I had gone to Ram's place to do work'.
References
- ^ Riccardi (2003:555)
- ^ Masica (1991:220–221)
- ^ Riccardi (2003:554–555)
- ^ Hutt & Subedi (1999:32–33)
- ^ Hutt & Subedi (1999:33)
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-521-29944-2.
- Hutt, Michael; Subedi, Abhi (1999), ISBN 978-0-07-142468-4.
- Riccardi, Theodore (2003), "Nepali", in Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh (eds.), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, pp. 538–579, ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5.
External links
- Conjugation of गर्नु at Wiktionary, the free dictionary
- Conjugation of हुनु at Wiktionary, the free dictionary