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NepalLanguage
Even though Nepali (written in Devanagari script, the
same as
Sanskrit and Hindi) was the national language and was
mentioned as
the mother tongue by approximately 58 percent of the
population,
there were several other languages and dialects. Other
languages
included Maithili, Bhojpuri, Tharu, Tamang, Newari, and
Abadhi.
Non-Nepali languages and dialects rarely were spoken
outside their
ethnic enclaves. In order to estimate the numerical
distribution of
different ethnic groups, the census data indicating
various mother
tongues spoken in the country must be used (see
table 7,
Appendix).
In terms of linguistic roots, Nepali, Maithili, and
Bhojpuri
belonged to the Indo-European family; the mother tongues
of the
Tibeto-Nepalese groups, including Newari, belonged
predominantly to
the Tibeto-Burman family. The Pahari, whose mother tongue
was
Nepali, was the largest ethnic group. If the Maithili- and
Bhojpuri-speaking populations of the Tarai were included,
more than
75 percent of the population belonged to the Indo-Nepalese
ethnic
group. Only three other ethnic groups--the Tamang, the
Tharu, and
the Newar--approached or slightly exceeded the one-half
million
population mark. Most of those non-Nepali linguistic and
ethnic
population groups were closely knit by bonds of
nationalism and
cultural harmony, and they were concentrated in certain
areas.
Data as of September 1991
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