The Nepal Weekly 
July 2, 2024Nepal Bhasa which is also known as Newari (language of the Newars), now can be translated by using Google Translate. This has been possible since a few days.
A number of linguists had contributed it to be a success. The achievement made possible for many people, the Newars or non- Newars, to get Neapl Bhasa easily.
Nepal Bhasais a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Newars, the indigenous inhabitants of Nepal Mandala which consists the Kathmandu valley and surrounding settlements. This language has been used in many thousands of religious and historical value inscriptions. The literature in this language is also very rich. Centuries old texts are available in the old palaces and monasteries.
This language was the official language of Nepal from Lichhavi era to Malla era of Nepal. Newar words appeared in Sanskrit inscriptions in the Kathmandu Valley for the first time in the fifth century. The words are names of places, taxes and merchandise indicating that it already existed as a spoken language during the Lichhavi period (approximately 400–750 AD). The inscriptions from the Lichhavi period includes Newari words. Hence, it indicated that this language was the common language during Lichhavi dynasty although the official use of the period was Sanskrit, but Nepal Bhasa was already in use. The earliest dated stone inscription in Thakuri dynasty is in Newari, dated Nepal Sambat 293 (1173 CE).
Newari was Nepal’s administrative language from the 14th to the late 18th century. From the early 20th century until democritisation, the Newar suffered from official suppression. From 1952 to 1991, the percentage of Newari speakers in the Kathmandu Valley dropped from 75% to 44%.
Google Translate is expected to bring back glory of the Newars providing access to get into this almost forgotten language. Moreover, interested people and researchers can take benefit from the internet tool. As Google translate is a multilingual neural machine translation service developed by Google to translate text, documents and websites from one language into another. It offers a website interface, a mobile app for Android and iOS app, as well as an API that helps developers build browser extensions and software applications. So far, Google Translate supports 243 languages at various levels. It claimed over 500 million total users as of April 2016. with more than 100 billion words translated daily, after the company stated in May 2013 that it served over 200 million people daily.
Link : https://www.translation-services-usa.com/languages/nepal_bhasa_newari.php
