Nepali: A Beginner's Primer, Conversation and …

1 & Nepali: a beginner s primer Conversation and Grammar Banu Oja Shambhu Oja Department of Asian Studies South Asia Program Cornell University Third Edition 2004 with editorial assistance from Mark Turin iTable of Contents pageThe Nepali Alphabet vowels, consonants and their pronunciations v Lesson One personal introduction, the verb to be ( : and forms), identification of objects and their ownership, polite command form, introduction of the simple past tense, numbers up to ten 1 Lesson Two family members, adjectives, review of lesson one, numbers up to twenty 19 Lesson Three past tense negative, suffix & and , colours, the taste of foods, numbers up to thirty 29 Lesson Four times of the day, review of past tense (positive and negative), numbers up to forty 43 Lesson Five liking and disliking, use of and , numbers up to fifty 51 Lesson Six 0 and , shopping, numbers up to sixty 63 Lesson Seven post office situations, different meanings of the impersonal verb 4 , infinitive verbs 75 Lesson Eight present progressive tense, comparison, familiar commands 87 Lesson Nine times: days, weeks, months and years, use of the verb to be able to 5 , tell and ask the time, structures.

2 And .. , numbers up to seventy 101 ii Lesson Ten to like and feel like ( : 4 ), case marker , obligatory structures, present and future conditional clause (if clause), numbers up to eighty 115 Lesson Eleven past tense of ( ), use of , unconjugated past tense .. , unconjugated future tense .. 133 Lesson Twelve adjectival clauses ( 0 , , ), use of 141 Lesson Thirteen compound verbs, present perfect tense, review adjectival clauses 153 Lesson Fourteen past progressive tense, past perfect tense, use of colloquial phrases like , 0 0 , 5 , all numbers 167 Lesson Fifteen structures .. 0 and .. , past habitual tense 179 Lesson Sixteen directions, review of lesson fifteen 191 Appendix A Nepal s administrative boundaries 199 Appendix B verb conjugation tables 203 iiiThe Nepali Alphabet Nepali Vowels: :a aa i ii u uu e ai o au a a _ Nepali Consonants: consonant + h = aspirated consonant the half consonant forms are given in parentheses (( ) () ) (* ) (+ ) (- ) ka kha ga gha nga (.)

3 (/ ) (0 ) (2 ) (3 ) cha chha ja jha a (4 ) (5 ) (6 ) (7 ) (8 ) Ta Tha Da Dha Na (9 ) (: ) (; ) (< ) (= ) ta tha da dha na (> ) (? ) (@ ) (A ) (B ) pa pha ba bha ma (C ) (D , ) (E ) F ( ) ya ra la wa iv ( ) ( ) ( ) sha sha sa (K) L ( ) ( ) P ( ) ha kshya tra g a Devanagari Romanized Linguistic Pronunciation Vowels: ( ) a a low back ( ) aa aa low back ( ) i ii front high ( ) ii ii front high ( ) u u back high ( ) uu uu back high ( ) e e mid front ( ) ai ai dipthong (a+i) ( ) o o mid back ( ) au au/aw dipthong (a+u / a+w) / ( / ) a a low back (nasal) : ( ) a a low back (lengthened) v Consonants: (( ) ka k unaspirated voiceless velar stop () ) kha kh aspirated voiceless velar stop (* ) ga g unaspirated voiced velar stop (+ ) gha gh aspirated voiced velar stop (- ) nga ng velar nasal (3 ) a palatal nasal (4 ) Ta T anaspirated voiceless retroflex stop (5 ) Tha Th aspirated voiceless retroflex stop (6 ) Da D anaspirated voiced retroflex stop (7 ) Dha Dh aspirated voiced retroflex stop (8 ) Na N retroflex nasal (9 ) ta t anaspirated voiceless dental stop (: ) tha th aspirated voiceless dental stop (; ) da d anaspirated voiced dental stop (< ) dha dh aspirated voiced dental stop (= ) na n dental nasal (> ) pa p anaspirated voiceless bilabial stop (?)

4 Pha ph aspirated voiceless bilabial stop (@ ) ba b anaspirated voiced bilabial stop vi (A ) bha bh aspirated voiced bilabial stop (B ) ma m bilabial nasal (C ) ya y palatal glide (D , ) ra r alveolar liquid (E ) la l alveolar liquid F ( ) wa w velar glide ( ) sha sh palatal fricative ( ) sha sh palatal retroflex ( ) sa s dental fricative (K) ha h glottal fricative Affricates (. ) cha c unaspirated voiceless palatal stop (/ ) chha ch aspirated voiceless palatal stop (0 ) ja j unaspirated voiced palatal stop (2 ) jha jh aspirated voiced palatal stop Non-standard L ( ) kshya kshy complex segment (k+s+y) ( ) tra tr complex segment (t+r) P ( ) gya gy complex segment (g+y) Lesson 1 1 (Lesson 1) (Part 1) (A) A: B: A: ?

5 B: ! A: ? C: ! A: ? B: A: ? C: A: ? B: , (Translation) : A: Hello! (greetings) B: Hello. A: What is your name? B: My name is Samjhana. A: What is his/her name? C: His/Her name is Samjhana. A: Where do you come from (literally where is your home)? B: I come from America (literally my home is America). A: Where does s/he come from? C: S/he comes from Nepal. A: Does Kathy come from Nepal? B: No, she comes from America. Nepali: a beginner s primer 2 (B) A: ? B: A: ? B: A: B ? B: B A: B ? B: B : A: What is this? B: This is a pen. A: What is this? B: This is a chair. A: What is that?

6 B: That is a book. A: What is that? B: That is a bag. Lesson 1 3(C) A: ? B: A: ? B: A: B ? B: B A: B ? B: B A: ? B: A: ? B: A: ? B: A: ? B: A: ? B: A: ? B: Nepali: a beginner s primer 4 (C) : A: What is this? B: This is a pen. A: Whose pen is this? B: This is my pen. A: What is that? B: That is a notebook. A: Whose notebook is that? B: That is his/her notebook. A: Is this a book? B: No. A: What is this then? B: This is a pen. A: Is this a watch? B: Yes. A: Is this your watch? B: No. A: Whose watch is it then?

7 B: This is his/her watch. A: Isn t this your watch? B: No. Lesson 1 5 Vocabulary : hello, greetings name ? what? house, home is to be ? where? pen chair book bag notebook ? who? ? whose? watch pencil gloves shirt sock F shoe G window Nepali: a beginner s primer 6 (Part 2) (A) A: B: A: : A: Hello, Banu! B: Yes? A: Please take the book. Please read the book. Please close the book. (B) A: B: A: B ? B: B A: B ? B: A: ? B: P A: ?

8 B: P A: ? C: Lesson 1 7(B) : A: Banu! B: Yes! A: What is that? B: That is a book. A: Whose book is that? B: This is my book. A: Please open the book. What did you do? B: I opened the book. A: Please read the book. What did you do? B: I read the book. A: What did she do? C: She read the book. Nepali: a beginner s primer 8 (C) A: ! B: A: ? B: A: U ? B: U A: ? B: A: ? C: , U A: U ? B: P A: ?

9 B: A: ? C: , Lesson 1 9(C) : A: Samjhana! B: Yes. A: Please get up. Please take the chalk. Did you take the chalk? B: Yes, I took it. A: Go near (towards) the blackboard. Where did you go? B: I went to the blackboard. A: You didn t go near the door? B: No, I didn t (go). A: Didn t s/he go near the door? C: S/he didn t go near the door, s/he went to the blackboard. A: Please write your name on the blackboard. What did you do? B: I wrote my name. A: You didn t write Ram s name? B: No, I didn t. A: S/he didn t write Ram s name? C: S/he didn t write Ram s name, s/he wrote her/his name. (D) A: B: A: ? B: B A: ?

10 B: B A: Nepali: a beginner s primer 10 (D) : A: Kalpana! B: Yes? A: How much is this? B: This is seven. A: And this? B: That is nine. A: Please count from one to ten. (Numbers) : Lesson 1 11 Vocabulary : yes (polite response) to take to read, to study to teach to teach to learn to close to open to do to go to come to sit to get up to write door to count ? how much? Nepali: a beginner s primer 12 Useful Expressions : I know. I don t know. $ I understood. I didn t understand.