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122-588: Nepalese Sign Language may have originated in the first school for the deaf in Nepal, established in Kathmandu in 1966 by an ENT doctor. The school was later moved to a children's home in Naxal . The aim of the school was to teach speech therapy to deaf children to have them learn to speak. Even so, deaf people who went to the school at this time recall using signs with each other during and after school. The oral policy continued until

244-629: A World Heritage Site (WHS). The seven monuments zones cover an area of 189 hectares (470 acres), with the buffer zone extending to 2,394 hectares (5,920 acres). The Seven Monument Zones inscribed originally in 1979 and with a minor modification in 2006 are the Durbar squares of Hanuman Dhoka , Patan and Bhaktapur , the Hindu temples of Pashupatinath and Changunarayan , the Buddhist stupas of Swayambhunath and Boudhanath . The literal meaning of Durbar Square

366-610: A one-handed fingerspelling system for devanagari , the Nepali manual alphabet , was developed by KAD with the support of UNICEF. Although the idea behind this alphabet may have been motivated by foreign fingerspelling alphabets (especially American manual alphabet and the International manual alphabet), in fact only a few of the forms of the letters can be said to derive directly from those foreign alphabets (i.e. अ from “a”, ब from “b”, म from “m”, and र from “r”). The Nepali Manual Alphabet

488-411: A ring road , to the southwest by Kirtipur and to the east by Madyapur Thimi . To the north the urban area extends into several municipalities; Nagarjun , Tarakeshwor , Tokha , Budhanilkantha , Gokarneshwor and Kageshwori Manohara . However, the urban agglomeration extends well beyond the neighbouring municipalities, e.g. to Bhaktapur , and nearly covers the entire Kathmandu Valley . Kathmandu

610-554: A Danish Subgroup), a British-origin Group, a French-origin Group, a Polish Group, a Russian Group, a Spanish Group, and a Swedish Group. Notably, several defunct versions of German, Austrian, Hungarian and Danish manual alphabets were part of the Austrian-origin group, while the current MAs of these sign languages are closely related to the French, American, International Sign and other MAs in

732-555: A Sanskrit-Nepal Bhasa dictionary from 1381, was also found. Architecturally notable buildings from this era include Kathmandu Durbar Square , Patan Durbar Square , Bhaktapur Durbar Square , the former durbar of Kirtipur , Nyatapola , Kumbheshwar , the Krishna temple, and others. The Gorkha Kingdom ended the Malla confederation after the Battle of Kathmandu in 1768. This marked the beginning of

854-538: A UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. The base of the stupa has 108 small depictions of the Dhyani Buddha Amitabha . It is surrounded with a brick wall with 147 niches, each with four or five prayer wheels engraved with the mantra, Om mani padme hum . At the northern entrance where visitors must pass is a shrine dedicated to Ajima , the goddess of smallpox . Every year the stupa attracts many Tibetan Buddhist pilgrims who perform full body prostrations in

976-635: A detailed account of the use of a manual alphabet to teach deaf students to read and speak. This alphabet was adopted by the Abbé de l'Épée 's deaf school in Paris in the 18th century and then spread to deaf communities around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries via educators who had learned it in Paris. Over time variations have emerged, brought about by the natural phonetic changes that have occurred over time, adaptations for local written forms with special characters or diacritics (which are sometimes represented with

1098-412: A distinct part of a number of sign languages . There are about forty manual alphabets around the world. Historically, manual alphabets have had a number of additional applications—including use as ciphers , as mnemonics and in silent religious settings. As with other forms of manual communication , fingerspelling can be comprehended visually or tactually . The simplest visual form of fingerspelling

1220-585: A forest monastery at Sankhu . The Licchavis from Vaisali in modern-day Bihar , migrated north and defeated the Kirats , establishing the Licchavi dynasty, circa 400 AD. During this era, following the genocide of Shakyas in Lumbini by Virudhaka , the survivors migrated north and entered the forest monastery, masquerading as Koliyas. From Sankhu, they migrated to Yambu and Yengal (Lanjagwal and Manjupattan) and established

1342-438: A fusion of artistic and architectural traditions from other cultures to be amalgamated with local art and architecture. The monuments of Kathmandu City have been influenced over the centuries by Hindu and Buddhist religious practices. The architectural treasure of the Kathmandu valley has been categorized under the well-known seven groups of heritage monuments and buildings. In 2006 UNESCO declared these seven groups of monuments as

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1464-486: A hillock at the northwestern part of the city. This is among the oldest religious sites in Nepal . Although the site is considered Buddhist, it is revered by both Buddhists and Hindus. The stupa consists of a dome at the base; above the dome, there is a cubic structure with the eyes of Buddha looking in all four directions. There are pentagonal toran above each of the four sides, with statues engraved on them. Behind and above

1586-590: A long time since they last used it. Two families of manual alphabets are used for representing the Latin alphabet in the modern world. The more common of the two is mostly produced on one hand and can be traced back to alphabetic signs used in Europe from at least the early 15th century. Some manual representations of non-Roman scripts such as Chinese, Japanese , Devanagari (e.g. the Nepali manual alphabet ), Hebrew, Greek, Thai and Russian alphabets are based to some extent on

1708-772: A metropolitan city in 1995. Metropolitan Kathmandu is divided into five sectors: the Central Sector, the East Sector, the North Sector, the City Core and the West Sector. For civic administration, the city is further divided into 32 administrative wards. The Council administers the Metropolitan area of Kathmandu city through its 177 elected representatives and 20 nominated members. It holds biannual meetings to review, process and approve

1830-445: A mythological king Bharata , by encouraging cultural exchange. This procedure is followed in other temples around India, which were sanctified by Adi Shankara. The temple is built in the pagoda style of architecture, with cubic constructions and carved wooden rafters (tundal) on which they rest, and two-level roofs made of copper and gold. Boudhanath ( Nepali : बौद्ध स्तुप ; also written as Bouddhanath , Bodhnath , Baudhanath or

1952-502: A number of features with most sign languages studied to date: Morphology in NSL, as in languages in general, comes in two types: derivational morphology and grammatical or inflectional morphology . Incorporation is a feature which blurs the border between phonology and morphology . There exists incorporation of handshapes from the Nepali manual alphabet into lexical items as we saw above

2074-416: A pamphlet by an anonymous author who was himself unable to speak. He suggested that the manual alphabet could also be used by mutes, for silence and secrecy, or purely for entertainment. Nine of its letters can be traced to earlier alphabets, and 17 letters of the modern two-handed alphabet can be found among the two sets of 26 handshapes depicted. ^b Denotes the number (if known) of languages within

2196-521: A sign language. In American Sign Language (ASL) more lexical items are fingerspelled in casual conversation than in formal or narrative signing. Different sign language speech communities use fingerspelling to a greater or lesser degree. At the high end of the scale fingerspelling makes up about 8.7% of casual signing in ASL and 10% of casual signing in Auslan . The proportion is higher in older signers. Across

2318-453: A theoretical revision called " semantic phonology ". Under such a proposal, the sign for TEA चिया /chiya:/ could be seen as a complete predicate, with the "classifier"—in this case the Nepali manual alphabet handshape च /cha/ standing for TEA चिया /chiya:/ -- being incorporated into a "verb" DRINK. Frequently, and especially at the level of the lexicon, instruments are also incorporated. Many verbs also agree in person (and number ) with

2440-526: Is a "place of palaces". There are three preserved Durbar Squares in Kathmandu valley and one unpreserved in Kirtipur . The Durbar Square of Kathmandu is in the old city and has heritage buildings representing four kingdoms (Kantipur, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Kirtipur); the earliest being the Licchavi dynasty. The complex has 50 temples and is distributed in two quadrangles of the Durbar Square. The outer quadrangle has

2562-626: Is a division of the Nepal Police , and the administrative control lies with the Ministry of Home Affairs . The fire service, known as the Barun Yantra Karyalaya ( Nepali : वारुण यन्त्र कार्यालय ), opened its first station in Kathmandu in 1937 with a single-vehicle. An iron tower was erected to monitor the city and watch for a fire. As a precautionary measure, firemen were sent to the areas which were designated as accident-prone areas. In 1944,

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2684-460: Is believed to be a bodily incarnation of the goddess Taleju (the Nepali name for Durga) until she menstruates, after which it is believed that the goddess vacates her body. Serious illness or a major loss of blood from an injury also causes her to revert to common status. The current Kumari, Trishna Shakya, age three at the time of appointment, was installed in September 2017 succeeding Matina Shakya who

2806-422: Is called Kāṣṭhamaṇḍap in a vow that Buddhist priests still recite to this day. Thus, Kathmandu is also known as Kāṣṭhamaṇḍap . During medieval times, the city was sometimes called Kāntipur ( Sanskrit : कान्तिपुर ). This name is derived from two Sanskrit words – Kānti and Pur . Kānti is a word that stands for "beauty" and is mostly associated with light and Pur means place, thus giving it

2928-590: Is dissected by eight rivers, the main river of the valley, the Bagmati and its tributaries, of which the Bishnumati , Dhobi Khola, Manohara Khola, Hanumante Khola, and Tukucha Khola are predominant. The mountains from where these rivers originate are in the elevation range of 1,500–3,000 metres (4,900–9,800 ft), and have passes which provide access to and from Kathmandu and its valley. An ancient canal once flowed from Nagarjuna hill through Balaju to Kathmandu; this canal

3050-453: Is fingerspelling. Often they must also ask the signer to fingerspell slowly. It frequently takes years of expressive and receptive practice to become skilled with fingerspelling. Power et al. (2020) conducted a large-scale data study into the evolution and contemporary character of 76 current and defunct manual alphabets (MAs) of sign languages, postulating the existence of eight groups: an Afghan–Jordanian Group, an Austrian-origin Group (with

3172-574: Is in the northwestern part of the Kathmandu Valley to the north of the Bagmati River and covers an area of 50.7 km (19.6 sq mi). The average elevation is 1,400 metres (4,600 ft) above sea level . The city is bounded by several other municipalities of the Kathmandu valley: south of the Bagmati by Lalitpur Metropolitan City (Patan), with which it forms one urban area surrounded by

3294-591: Is influencing the lexicon and grammar of Maritime Sign Language in various ways, including the fact that the original BANZSL two-handed manual alphabet is no longer used in the Maritimes and has been replaced by the one-handed American manual alphabet , which has been influencing lexicalisation . Although all participants in her survey had learnt and could still produce the BANZSL fingerspelling, they had difficulty doing so, and all participants indicated that it had been

3416-515: Is located in the Kathmandu Valley , a large valley surrounded by hills in central Nepal, at an altitude of 4,344 feet (1,324 metres) above sea level. The city is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world , founded in the 2nd century AD. The valley was historically called the Nepal Mandala (the name for the cosmic elements of water Dha mandala in Newari, and cosmos), and has been

3538-603: Is not related to other sign languages. Wittman posits that NSL is a language isolate (a 'prototype' sign language), though one developed through Trans-cultural diffusion from an existing sign language, likely Indo-Pakistani Sign Language , or the systems that underlay it. Gallaudet University reports that NSL was "developed by the Peace Corps from local and American signs". compared sign-language varieties in India, Pakistan and Nepal and found cognate rates of 62–71%. Work on documenting

3660-487: Is not used natively by the overwhelming majority of deaf people in Nepal. Since the overwhelming majority of deaf children in Nepal, as in all countries, are born into hearing families without a single signing member, Nepalese Sign Language is primarily learned first at schools for the deaf. However, these schools are few in number, and not readily accessible to most, and so most deaf Nepalese have no opportunity to acquire Nepalese Sign Language under normal circumstances. While

3782-582: Is now extinct. The city of Kathmandu and the surrounding valley are in the Deciduous Monsoon Forest Zone (altitude range of 1,200–2,100 metres (3,900–6,900 ft)), one of five vegetation zones defined for Nepal. The dominant tree species in this zone are oak , elm , beech , maple and others, with coniferous trees at higher altitude. Kathmandu and adjacent cities are composed of neighbourhoods , which are utilized quite extensively and more familiar among locals. However, administratively

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3904-448: Is often rapid so that the individual letters become difficult to distinguish and the word is grasped from the overall hand movement. Most of the letters of the BSL alphabet are produced with two hands but when one hand is occupied the dominant hand may fingerspell onto an imaginary subordinate hand and the word can be recognised by the movement. As with written words, the first and last letters and

4026-413: Is part of Bagmati Province . Kathmandu is and has been for many years the centre of Nepal's history , art , culture , and economy . It has a multi-ethnic population within a Hindu and Buddhist majority. Religious and cultural festivities form a major part of the lives of people residing in Kathmandu. Tourism is an important part of the economy in the city. In 2013, Kathmandu was ranked third among

4148-459: Is still in its infancy, and we do not have a complete list of for any of these parameters we can safely state that: One of the problems of phonemic analysis on NSL, which is also manifest in other sign languages, is the absence of extensive lists of minimal pairs such as are typically found for all spoken languages . While such pairs are impossible to find for all possible minimal pairs , a sufficient number of such pairs can be produced to justify

4270-545: Is tracing the shape of letters in the air and the simplest tactual form is tracing them on the hand. Fingerspelling can be one-handed such as in American Sign Language , French Sign Language and Irish Sign Language , or it can be two-handed such as in British Sign Language . Fingerspelling has been introduced into certain sign languages by educators and as such has some structural properties that are unlike

4392-469: Is unknown, they were unlikely to have been used by deaf people for communication — even though Bede lost his own hearing later in life. Historian Lois Bragg concludes that these alphabets were "only a bookish game." Beginning with R. A. S. Macalister in 1938, several writers have speculated that the 5th century Irish Ogham script, with its quinary alphabet system, was derived from a finger alphabet that predates even Bede. European monks from at least

4514-414: Is used not for NSL per se, but for code switching into Nepali (i.e. when a signer spells out a personal or place name, or a Nepali word). The importance of the forms of this alphabet are, however, not restricted to this function. Indeed, fingerspelling handshapes have been widely used in development of new signs, through a process perhaps borrowed from America's various systems of Signed English, whereby

4636-789: The American manual alphabet . In the Nepali Sign Language only four 'letters' derive from the American manual alphabet : अ /a/, ब /b/, म /m/, and र /r/). The Yugoslav manual alphabet represents characters from the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet as well as Gaj's Latin alphabet . Manual alphabets based on the Arabic alphabet , the Ethiopian Ge'ez script and the Korean Hangul script use handshapes that are more or less iconic representations of

4758-548: The Bhandarkhal Massacre , was also conducted by Kunwar and his supporters in Kathmandu. During the Rana regime, Kathmandu's alliance shifted from anti-British to pro-British; this led to the construction of the first buildings in the style of Western European architecture. The most well-known of these buildings include Singha Durbar, Garden of Dreams , Shital Niwas, and the old Narayanhiti palace. The first modern commercial road in

4880-615: The Kasthamandap , Kumari Ghar , and Shiva-Parvati Temple; the inner quadrangle has the Hanuman Dhoka palace. The squares were severely damaged in the April 2015 earthquake . Hanuman Dhoka is a complex of structures with the royal palace of the Malla kings and of the Shah dynasty. It is spread over five acres. The eastern wing (with ten courtyards) is the oldest part, dating to the mid-16th century. It

5002-534: The Khāsa Chaitya ), is one of the holiest Buddhist sites in Nepal, along with the Swayambhunath . It is a very popular tourist site. Boudhanath is known as Khāsti by Newars and as Bauddha or Bodhnāth by speakers of Nepali . About 11 km (7 mi) from the centre and northeastern outskirts of Kathmandu, the stupa's massive mandala makes it one of the largest spherical stupas in Nepal. Boudhanath became

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5124-510: The Malla era . Rulers from Tirhut , upon being attacked by the Delhi Sultanate , fled north to the Kathmandu valley. They intermarried with Nepali royalty, and this led to the Malla era. The early years of the Malla era were turbulent, with raids and attacks from Khas and Turk Muslims . There was also a devastating earthquake which claimed the lives of a third of Kathmandu's population, including

5246-866: The Tasman Sea only 2.5% of the corpus of New Zealand Sign Language was found to be fingerspelling. Fingerspelling did not become a part of NZSL until the 1980s. Before that words could be spelled or initialised by tracing letters in the air. Fingerspelling does not seem to be used much in the sign languages of Eastern Europe except in schools, and Italian Sign Language is also said to use very little fingerspelling, and mainly for foreign words. Sign languages that make no use of fingerspelling at all include Kata Kolok and Ban Khor Sign Language . The speed and clarity of fingerspelling also vary among different signing communities. In Italian Sign Language fingerspelled words are produced relatively slowly and clearly, whereas fingerspelling in standard British Sign Language (BSL)

5368-406: The subject and object (often the indirect object , as e.g. "He stared at me" with the sign LOOK-AT directed from third person to first person ). However, there is no grammatical or semantic criteria, other than it being transitive which can determine whether a verb will manifest agreement or not. To a limited extend the phonological feature of being "body anchored" (that is, having contact with

5490-651: The 16th century in books published by friars in Spain and Italy. From the same time, monks such as the Benedictine Fray Pedro Ponce de León began tutoring deaf children of wealthy patrons — in some places, literacy was a requirement for legal recognition as an heir — and the manual alphabets found a new purpose. They were originally part of the earliest known Mouth Hand Systems. The first book on deaf education, published in 1620 by Juan Pablo Bonet in Madrid, included

5612-649: The 2016 World Health Organization's Ambient Air Pollution Database, the annual average PM2.5 (particulate matter) concentration in 2013 was 49 μg/m , which is 4.9 times higher than recommended by the World Health Organization . Starting in early 2017, the Government of Nepal and the Embassy of the United States in Kathmandu have monitored and publicly share real-time air quality data. In Nepal and Kathmandu,

5734-641: The French-origin Group. Latvian Sign Language 's MA dangled somewhere between the Polish and Russian Groups, Finnish Sign Language (which belongs to the Swedish Sign Language family ) had a French-origin MA, while Indo-Pakistani Sign Language (whose lexicon and grammar have independent origins) currently used a two-handed manual alphabet of British origin. Yoel (2009) demonstrated that American Sign Language

5856-529: The Kathmandu Valley, the New Road , was also built during this era. Trichandra College (the first college of Nepal), Durbar High School (the first modern school of Nepal), and Bir Hospital (the first hospital of Nepal) were built in Kathmandu during this era. Education was only accessible to the privileged class. Rana rule was marked by despotism, economic exploitation and religious persecution. Kathmandu

5978-503: The Kathmandu Valley, which is representative of its valley's climate, the average summer temperature varies from 28 to 30 °C (82 to 86 °F). The average winter temperature is 10.1 °C (50.2 °F). Five major climatic regions are found in Nepal. Of these, High hills of Kathmandu Valley including Chandragiri hill is in the Warm Temperate Zone (elevation ranging from 1,200 to 2,300 metres (3,900 to 7,500 ft)), where

6100-576: The Middle East. The practice of substituting letters for numbers and vice versa, known as gematria , was also common, and it is possible that the two practices were combined to produce a finger calculus alphabet. The earliest known manual alphabet, described by the Benedictine monk Bede in 8th century Northumbria , did just that. While the usual purpose of the Latin and Greek finger alphabets described by Bede

6222-516: The United States) was strong during its initial stage of the formation, but in different ways and to different degrees remains strong to this day (although the contact is more with International Sign , American Sign Language and various European sign languages used by visiting deaf tourists and by deaf from European funding organizations). There are also semantic overlaps with spoken Nepali (and perhaps other spoken languages). Nepalese Sign Language

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6344-449: The Valley and throughout the greater Himalayas. Newar artists travelled extensively throughout Asia, creating religious art for their neighbours. For example, Araniko led a group of his compatriot artists through Tibet and China. Bhrikuti , the princess of Nepal who married Tibetan monarch Songtsän Gampo , was instrumental in introducing Buddhism to Tibet. The Licchavi era was followed by

6466-521: The absence of or in addition to NSL, which are one source of linguistic variation in the language, and the potential impact of late exposure to NSL on signing practice. Scholars have also noted that first exposure to signing practice often takes place in schools for the deaf, where classes are taught primarily by hearing teachers who use Signed Nepali , which can become another source of variation in Deaf Nepalese's signing repertoire. As mentioned above,

6588-618: The ancient dhunge dharas ( Nepali : ढुङ्गे धारा ) for all the purposes related to water. The city water shortage should be solved by the completion of the much plagued Melamchi Water Supply Project by the end of 2019. Despite continued efforts by governmental bodies, Kathmandu is one of the most polluted cities in Nepal, largely due to overpopulation. Waste management may be through composting in municipal waste management units, and at houses with home composting units. Both systems are common and established in India and neighbouring countries. Kathmandu's urban cosmopolitan character has made it

6710-571: The annual budget and make major policy decisions. The ward's profile documents for the 32 wards prepared by the Kathmandu Metropolitan Council is detailed and provides information for each ward on population, the structure and condition of houses, the type of roads, educational, health and financial institutions, entertainment facilities, parking space, security provisions, etc. It also includes lists of development projects completed, on-going and planned, along with informative data about

6832-408: The annual premature deaths due to air pollution reached 37,399 and 9,943 respectively, according to a Republica news report published on 23 November 2019. This indicates, around a quarter of the total deaths due to air pollution in Nepal are in Kathmandu. Kathmandu Municipal Corporation (KMC) is the chief nodal agency for the administration of Kathmandu. The Municipality of Kathmandu was upgraded to

6954-650: The arrival of the Patricia Ross, who tried to have total communication introduced into the school in 1985. In 1980, 13 deaf Kathmandu youths established the Deaf Welfare Association, which would later become the Kathmandu Association of the Deaf (KAD). This was the first association of any type established by disabled themselves and run under their own leadership and management. One of the chief goals of KAD

7076-415: The body at some point during execution) can limit agreement (e.g. a sign which starts with a body contact will be less free to show subject agreement, and a sign which ends with body contact will be less free to show object agreement). Thus, in sentences of the type "I gave a book to you" we may have a single sign GIVE, inflected for agreement (motion of the verb begins from the signer and moves towards

7198-494: The capital of Nepal kingdom. The ancient history of Kathmandu is described in its traditional myths and legends . According to the Swayambhu Purana , present-day Kathmandu was once a huge and deep lake named " Nagdaha ", as it was full of snakes. The lake was cut drained by Bodhisattva Manjushri with his sword, and the water was evacuated out from there. He then established a city called Manjupattan, and made Dharmakar

7320-510: The characters in the writing system. Two-handed manual alphabets are used by a number of deaf communities; one such alphabet is shared by users of British Sign Language , Auslan and New Zealand Sign Language (collectively known as the BANZSL language family) and another is used in Turkish Sign Language . Some of the letters are represented by iconic shapes and in the BANZSL languages

7442-559: The city is around 1400 mm (55 in). On average humidity is 75%. The chart below is based on data from the Nepal Bureau of Standards & Meteorology, Weather Meteorology for 2005. The chart provides minimum and maximum temperatures during each month. The annual amount of precipitation was 1,124 millimetres (44.3 in) for 2005, as per monthly data included in the table above. The decade of 2000–2010 saw highly variable and unprecedented precipitation anomalies in Kathmandu. This

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7564-439: The city is divided into 32 wards, numbered from 1 to 32. Earlier, there were 35 wards which made it the metropolitan city with the largest number of the wards. Under Köppen's climate classification , portions of the city with lower elevations (1300-1400m) which is 88 per cent of total have a humid subtropical climate (Cwa), while portions of the city with higher elevations generally have a subtropical highland climate (Cwb). In

7686-444: The climate is fairly temperate, atypical for the region. This zone is followed by the Cool Temperate Zone with elevation varying between 2,100 and 3,300 metres (6,900 and 10,800 ft). The city generally has a climate with warm days followed by cool nights and mornings. Unpredictable weather is expected, given that temperatures can drop to 0 °C (32 °F) or less during the winter. The lowest ever temperature of −3.5 °C

7808-626: The construction of public buildings, squares, and temples, as well as the development of waterspouts, the institutionalisation of trusts (called guthis ), the codification of laws, the writing of dramas, and the performance of plays in city squares. Evidence of an influx of ideas from India, Tibet, China, Persia, and Europe among other places can be found in a stone inscription farom the time of king Pratap Malla . Books have been found from this era that describe their tantric tradition (e.g. Tantrakhyan), medicine (e.g. Haramekhala), religion (e.g. Mooldevshashidev), law, morals, and history. Amarkosh,

7930-400: The cultural heritage, festivals, historical sites and the local inhabitants. Ward 16 is the largest, with an area of 437.4 ha; ward 26 is the smallest, with an area of 4 ha. Kathmandu is the headquarters of the surrounding Kathmandu District . The Metropolitan Police is the main law enforcement agency in the city. It is headed by a commissioner of police . The Metropolitan Police

8052-421: The dark through the use of tactile signing . In 1680, George Dalgarno published Didascalocophus, or, The deaf and dumb mans tutor , in which he presented his own method of deaf education, including an arthropological alphabet. Charles de La Fin published a book in 1692 describing an alphabetic system where pointing to a body part represented the first letter of the part (e.g. Brow=B), and vowels were located on

8174-399: The development of modern military structures, such as modern barracks in Kathmandu. The nine-storey tower Dharahara was originally built during this era. Rana rule over Nepal started with the Kot massacre of 1846, which occurred near Hanuman Dhoka Durbar. During this massacre, most of Nepal's high-ranking officials were massacred by Jung Bahadur Rana and his supporters. Another massacre,

8296-455: The divine female energy (or devi ) in South Asian countries. In Nepal, the selection process is very rigorous. Previously, during the time of the monarchy, the queen and the priests used to appoint the proposed Kumari with delicate process of astrological examination and physical examination of 32 'gunas'. The china ( Nepali : चिना ), an ancient Hindu astrological report of the Kumari and the reigning king, has been said to be similar. The Kumari

8418-426: The fingertips as with the other British systems. He described codes for both English and Latin. The vowels of these early British manual alphabets, across the tips of the fingers, have survived in the contemporary alphabets used in British Sign Language , Auslan and New Zealand Sign Language. The earliest known printed pictures of consonants of the modern two-handed alphabet appeared in 1698 with Digiti Lingua ,

8540-414: The fire service was extended to the neighbouring cities of Lalitpur and Bhaktapur. In 1966, a fire service was established in Kathmandu central airport . In 1975, a West German government donation added seven fire engines to Kathmandu's fire service. The fire service in the city is also overlooked by an international non-governmental organization, the Firefighters Volunteer Association of Nepal (FAN), which

8662-427: The first permanent Buddhist monasteries of Kathmandu. This created the basis of Newar Buddhism , which is the only surviving Sanskrit-based Buddhist tradition in the world. With their migration, Yambu was called Koligram and Yengal was called Dakshin Koligram during most of the Licchavi era. Eventually, the Licchavi ruler Gunakamadeva merged Koligram and Dakshin Koligram, founding the city of Kathmandu. The city

8784-757: The first region in Nepal to face the unprecedented challenges of rapid urbanization and modernization at a metropolitan scale. It is the largest metropolitan area located in the Himalayas . The indigenous Nepal Bhasa term for Kathmandu is Yen . The Nepali name Kathmandu comes from Kasthamandap , a building that stood in Kathmandu Durbar Square and was completely destroyed by the April 2015 Nepal Earthquake (it has since been reconstructed). In Sanskrit , Kāṣṭha ( Sanskrit : काष्ठ ) means "wood" and Maṇḍapa ( Sanskrit : मण्डप ) means "pavilion". This public pavilion, also known as Maru Satta in Newari,

8906-433: The heritage sites and are key sources for the history of Nepal . The earliest Western reference to Kathmandu appears in an account of Portuguese Jesuit Father Joao Cabral who passed through the Kathmandu Valley in the spring of 1628 and was received graciously by the king of that time, probably King Lakshminarasimha Malla of Kathmandu on their way from Tibet to India. Father Cabral reported that they reached "Cadmendu",

9028-731: The home of the Newar people , a cosmopolitan urban civilization in the Himalayan foothills. The city was the royal capital of the Kingdom of Nepal and hosts palaces, mansions and gardens built by the Nepali aristocracy. It has been home to the headquarters of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation SAARC ) since 1985. Today, it is the seat of government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, established in 2008, and

9150-554: The incongruity of applying the term phonology to a sign language , like other sign languages Nepalese Sign Language also has a sub-morphemic level of structuring which is analogous (to a certain degree at least) to phonology in spoken languages . As such, the standard sign language model of phonology (first developed by William Stokoe for American Sign Language ) can be applied to Nepalese Sign Language as well, according to which signs are analyzable according to five parameters : Although linguistic research on Nepalese Sign Language

9272-422: The initial letter of the Nepali word is incorporated into the NSL, thus creating so-called " initialized signs ". Perhaps more than anything else, it is this system of initialized signs which makes the lexicon of NSL structurally different from the lexicon of Indo-Pakistani Sign Language . The classification of Nepalese Sign Language is currently under dispute. Older work has suggested that Nepalese Sign Language

9394-407: The inner lower enclosure, walk around the stupa with prayer wheels, chant, and pray. Thousands of prayer flags are hoisted up from the top of the stupa downwards and dot the perimeter of the complex. The influx of many Tibetan refugees from China has seen the construction of over 50 Tibetan gompas ( monasteries ) around Boudhanath. Swayambhunath ( Nepali : स्वयम्भू स्तूप ) is a Buddhist stupa atop

9516-401: The king Abhaya Malla . These disasters led to the destruction of most of the architecture of the Licchavi era (such as Mangriha and Kailashkut Bhawan ), and the loss of literature collected in various monasteries within the city. Despite the initial hardships, Kathmandu rose to prominence again and, during most of the Malla era, dominated the trade between India and Tibet. Nepali currency became

9638-406: The length of the word are the most significant factors for recognition. When people fluent in sign language read fingerspelling they do not usually look at the signer's hand(s) but maintain eye contact, as is normal for sign language. People who are learning fingerspelling often find it impossible to understand it using just their peripheral vision and must look straight at the hand of someone who

9760-453: The lexicon of Nepalese Sign Language started in the mid-1980s. The first work collecting signs in Nepal that we know of was started in 1985. Patricia Ross, an American Peace Corps volunteer, was a pioneer in sign language research in Nepal. However, her work with Kathmandu Association of the Deaf (KAD) was to collect already existing signs, not creating new signs. She wrote "The initial stumbling block in initiating total communication in Nepal

9882-426: The meaning, "City of light". Among the indigenous Newar people, Kathmandu is known as Yeṃ Dey ( Newar : येँ देय् ), and Patan and Bhaktapur are known as Yala Dey ( Newar : यल देय् ) and Khwopa Dey ( Newar : ख्वप देय् ) respectively. "Yen" is the shorter form of Yambu ( Newar : यम्बु ), which originally referred to the northern half of Kathmandu. The older northern settlements were referred to as Yambi while

10004-400: The method. Such pairs are especially easy to find in cases of initialized signs ; thus, for example, while the index finger with tip indexic the back of the opposite wrist indicates the generic term TIME (Nepali: समय /samaj/), a म /ma/ handshape indicates OPPORTUNITY (Nepali: मौका /mauka:/), a फ /pʰa/ handshape indicates FREETIME (Nepali: फुर्सत /pʰursat/), etc. Nepalese Sign Language shares

10126-614: The modern era in Kathmandu. The Battle of Kirtipur was the start of the Gorkha conquest of the Kathmandu Valley. Kathmandu was adopted as the capital of the Gorkha empire, and the empire itself was dubbed Nepal. During the early part of this era, Kathmandu maintained its distinctive culture. Buildings with characteristic Nepali architecture, such as the nine-story tower of Basantapur, were built during this era. However, trade declined because of continual war with neighbouring nations. Bhimsen Thapa supported France against Great Britain; this led to

10248-487: The most populous city in Nepal. According to the National Population Census of 2011, the total population of Kathmandu city was 975,543 in 254,292 households with an annual growth rate of 6.12% with respect to the population figure of 2001. 70% of the total population residing in Kathmandu are aged between 15 and 59. In one decade, the population increased from 427,045 in 1991 to 671,805 in 2001. The population

10370-464: The national sign language, several local indigenous 'village' sign languages have been identified. The following “village sign languages” have been identified: Jhankot Sign Language , Jumla Sign Language , Ghandruk Sign Language and Maunabudhuk–Bodhe Sign Language . Although insufficiently studied, they each appear to be mutually unintelligible to native signers of Nepalese Sign language, and thus qualify as separate sign languages. ^b Denotes

10492-499: The number (if known) of languages within the family. No further information is given on these languages. Kathmandu Kathmandu , officially the Kathmandu Metropolitan City , is the seat of federal government and the most populous city in Nepal . As of the 2021 Nepal census , there were 845,767 inhabitants living in 105,649 households and approximately 4 million people in its surrounding agglomeration. It

10614-513: The one-handed Latin alphabet described above. In some cases, however, the 'basis' is more theory than practice. Thus, for example, in the Japanese manual syllabary only the five vowels (ア /a/,　イ /i/,　ウ /u/,　エ /e/,　オ /o/) and the Ca (consonant plus "a' vowel) letters (カ /ka/, サ /sa/, ナ /na/, ハ /ha/, マ /ma/, ヤ /ya/, ラ /ra/, ワ /wa/, but notably not タ /ta/, which would resemble a somewhat rude gesture) derive from

10736-509: The other hand) and avoidance of handshapes considered obscene in some cultures. Meanwhile, in Britain, manual alphabets were also in use for a number of purposes, such as secret communication, public speaking, or used for communication by deaf people. In 1648, John Bulwer described "Master Babington", a deaf man proficient in the use of a manual alphabet, "contryved on the joynts of his fingers", whose wife could converse with him easily, even in

10858-477: The place as Nayapala city, which was famous for its Pashupati Shivalinga. The name Nepal probably originates from this city Nayapala. Very few historical records exists of the period before medieval Licchavi rulers . According to Gopalraj Vansawali , a genealogy of Nepali monarchy, the rulers of Kathmandu Valley before the Licchavis were Gopalas , Mahispalas, Aabhirs, Kirat , and Somavanshi. The Kirata dynasty

10980-463: The population speaking it as their mother tongue. Newari is spoken by 19%, and the other languages spoken in the city include Tamang (6%), Maithili (3%), Bhojpuri (2%), Gurung (2%), Magar (2%) and Sherpa (1%) as their first language. English is also spoken by many. Ethnic groups in Kathmandu The largest group is the native Newars , whose various sub-groups combine to make up 24.7% of

11102-417: The population. More recently, other Madeshi groups from Terai have come to represent a substantial proportion of the city's population, and there are around 12,000 Marwadis, mainly merchants. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The ancient trade route between India and Tibet that passed through Kathmandu enabled

11224-634: The population. Almost equal in number is the Bahuns , also known as Hill-Brahmin or Khas Brahmin, representing 24.5% of the population. They are part of the broader Khas community, as are the Chhetri , the third largest group, who account for 18% of the population. Other groups in Kathmandu include the Janajatis, comprising the Tamang (7.8%), Magar (3.8%), Gurung (2.6%), and Rai (2.1%). Nepalese Muslims represent 1.8% of

11346-457: The process. Generally speaking then, NSL developed as a natural language established by the Deaf community of Kathmandu valley, but it has been influenced by other sign languages, as well as artificial systems of sign such as Total Communication or Simultaneous Communication . This influence from outside due to contact (with, for example Indo-Pakistani Sign Language and with structural principles introduced from artificial sign systems used in

11468-540: The proper sign was. Slowly and patiently the students taught me their signs, their language." Ross's work collecting NSL signs eventually lead to the publication of the first Nepalese Sign Language dictionary. Subsequently, the National Deaf Federation Nepal published a much more extensive dictionary, and continues to work on both documenting and supplementing the Nepalese Sign language lexicon. Despite

11590-466: The receiver's hand becomes the subordinate hand. Some signs, such as the sign commonly used for the letter C , may be one-handed. Some writers have suggested that the body and hands were used to represent alphabets in Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Assyrian antiquity. Certainly, " finger calculus " systems were widespread, and capable of representing numbers up to 10,000; they are still in use today in parts of

11712-421: The recipient) and the handshape of the verb GIVE is modified to incorporate a "thick classifier" handling classifier handshape (object the size and shape of a BOOK). Typically, in discourse, sentences are short, and verbal arguments ( actants ) are often left to context (leading to average clause length of less than 2 signs). In addition, NSL (like other sign languages), tends to be topicalizing ; that is,

11834-426: The ruler of the valley land. After some time, a demon named Banasura closed the outlet, and the valley again turned into a lake. Krishna came to Nepal, killed Banasura, and again drained out the water by cutting the edge of Chobhar hill with this Sudarshana Chakra . He brought some cowherds along with him and made Bhuktaman the king of Nepal. Kotirudra Samhita of Shiva Purana , Chapter 11, Shloka 18 refers to

11956-407: The sections above on manual alphabet and lexicon. Incorporation also occurs in NSL verbs, in what are often referred to as " classifier predicates ". The pattern is ergative-accusative , with subjects of intransitive verbs (e.g. ONE-PERSON in "One person passed by in front of me")), and objects of transitive verbs (e.g. "thick classifier" in "I ate a buff burger"). William Stokoe proposed

12078-531: The southern settlement was known as Yangala. Archaeological excavations in parts of Kathmandu have found evidence of ancient civilizations. The oldest of these findings is a statue, found in Maligaon, that was dated at 185 AD. The excavation of Dhando Chaitya uncovered a brick with an inscription in Brahmi script . Archaeologists believe that it is two thousand years old. Stone inscriptions are ubiquitous elements at

12200-445: The standard currency in trans-Himalayan trade. During the later part of the Malla era, Kathmandu Valley comprised four fortified cities: Kantipur, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, and Kirtipur. These served as the capitals of the Malla confederation of Nepal. These states competed with each other in the arts, architecture, esthetics, and trade, resulting in tremendous development. The kings of this period directly influenced or involved themselves in

12322-522: The surviving journals of travellers and monks who lived during this era. For example, the famous 7th-century Chinese traveller Xuanzang described Kailaskut Bhawan, the palace of the Licchavi king Amshuverma . The trade route also led to cultural exchange as well. The artistry of the Newar people—the indigenous inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley—became highly sought after during this era, both within

12444-501: The temple premises, but non-Hindu visitors are allowed to view the temple only from the across the Bagmati River. The priests who perform the services at this temple have been Brahmins from Karnataka in southern India since the time of Malla king Yaksha Malla . This tradition is believed to have been started at the request of Adi Shankara who sought to unify the states of Bhāratam , a region in south Asia believed to be ruled by

12566-617: The temple was destroyed by Mughal invaders in the 14th century and little or nothing remains of the original 5th-century temple exterior. The temple as it stands today was built in the 19th century, although the image of the bull and the black four-headed image of Pashupati are at least 300 years old. The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Shivaratri , or the night of Shiva, is the most important festival that takes place here, attracting thousands of devotees and sadhus . Believers in Pashupatinath (mainly Hindus ) are allowed to enter

12688-405: The time of Bede have made use of forms of manual communication , including alphabetic gestures, for a number of reasons: communication among the monastery while observing vows of silence , administering to the ill, and as mnemonic devices. They also may have been used as ciphers for discreet or secret communication. Clear antecedents of many of the manual alphabets in use today can be seen from

12810-714: The top ten upcoming travel destinations in the world by TripAdvisor , and ranked first in Asia. The city is considered the gateway to the Nepal Himalayas and is home to several World Heritage Sites : the Durbar Square , Swayambhu Mahachaitya , Bouddha and Pashupatinath . Kathmandu valley is growing at 4 per cent per year according to the World Bank in 2010, making it one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in South Asia, and

12932-672: The topic is fronted (moved to the front of the clause). Given these two facts, it is hard to a "Basic Word Order" for NSL; nevertheless, in those instances where both agent and patient are lexicalized and where there is no topicalization (e.g. in artificially elicited sentences in isolation), the word order tends to be SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) - just like Nepali and most members of the South Asian Sprachbund . Discourse in Nepalese Sign Language shares many features with discourse in other sign language: In addition to

13054-446: The torana there are thirteen tiers. Above all the tiers, there is a small space above which lies a gajur . Fingerspelling Fingerspelling (or dactylology ) is the representation of the letters of a writing system , and sometimes numeral systems , using only the hands. These manual alphabets (also known as finger alphabets or hand alphabets ) have often been used in deaf education and have subsequently been adopted as

13176-407: The vast majority of non-hearing Nepalese do not have the opportunity to acquire NSL, those who are a part of the country's active Deaf communities are often well-connected to a wide international network of signers through formal relationships with foreign Deaf organizations and personal relationships with foreign signers. Researchers have discussed the homesign systems generated by Deaf Nepalese in

13298-441: The visually motivated and multi-layered signs that are typical in deaf sign languages. In many ways fingerspelling serves as a bridge between the sign language and the oral language that surrounds it. Fingerspelling is used in different sign languages and registers for different purposes. It may be used to represent words from an oral language that have no sign equivalent or for emphasis or clarification or when teaching or learning

13420-415: The vowels are represented by pointing to the fingertips. Letters are formed by a dominant hand, which is on top of or alongside the other hand at the point of contact, and a subordinate hand, which uses either the same or a simpler handshape as the dominant hand. Either the left or right hand can be dominant. In a modified tactile form used by deafblind people the signer's hand acts as the dominant hand and

13542-451: Was designed in the shape of Chandrahrasa , the sword of Manjushri. The city was surrounded by eight barracks guarded by Ajimas . One of these barracks is still in use at Bhadrakali (in front of Singha Durbar ). The city served as an important transit point in the trade between India and Tibet, leading to tremendous growth in architecture. Descriptions of buildings such as Managriha, Kailaskut Bhawan, and Bhadradiwas Bhawan have been found in

13664-526: Was established by Yalamber . During the Kirata era, a settlement called Yambu existed in the northern half of old Kathmandu. In some of the Sino-Tibetan languages , Kathmandu is still called Yambu. Another smaller settlement called Yengal was present in the southern half of old Kathmandu, near Manjupattan. During the reign of the seventh Kirata ruler, Jitedasti, Buddhist monks entered Kathmandu valley and established

13786-654: Was established in 2000 with the purpose of raising public awareness about fire and improving safety. Electricity in Kathmandu is regulated and distributed by the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). Water supply and sanitation facilities are provided by the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL). There is a severe shortage of water for household purposes such as drinking, bathing, cooking and washing and irrigation. People have been using bottled mineral water, water from tank trucks and from

13908-519: Was expanded by King Pratap Malla in the 17th century with many temples. The royal family lived in this palace until 1886 when they moved to Narayanhiti Palace. The stone inscription outside is in fifteen languages. Kumari Ghar is a palace in the centre of the Kathmandu city, next to the Durbar square where a royal Kumari selected from several Kumaris resides. Kumari (or Kumari Devi), is the tradition of worshipping young pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of

14030-424: Was mostly due to the annual variation of the southwest monsoon. For example, 2001 recorded only 356 mm (14 in) of precipitation due to an extraordinarily weak monsoon season. In contrast, 2003 was the wettest year ever in Kathmandu, totaling over 2,900 mm (114 in) of precipitation due to an exceptionally strong monsoon season. Air pollution is a major issue in the Kathmandu Valley. According to

14152-464: Was originally built as a rest house for travellers. The Pashupatinath Temple ( Nepali : पशुपतिनाथ मन्दिर ) is a famous 5th century Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva . Located on the banks of the Bagmati River , the Pashupatinath Temple is the oldest Hindu temple in Kathmandu. It served as the seat of national deity, Pashupatinath , until Nepal was secularized. However, a significant part of

14274-495: Was projected to reach 915,071 in 2011 and 1,319,597 by 2021. To keep up this population growth, the KMC-controlled area of 5,076.6 hectares (12,545 acres) expanded to 8,214 hectares (20,300 acres) in 2001. With this new area, the population density which was 85 in 1991 remained 85 in 2001; it is likely to jump to 111 in 2011 and 161 in 2021. As of the 2011 census, Nepali is the most common mother tongue in Kathmandu, with 62% of

14396-502: Was rebuilt in 1596 by Biseth in the period of King Laxmi Narsingh Malla. The three-storey structure was made entirely of wood and used no iron nails nor supports. According to legends, all the timber used to build the pagoda was obtained from a single tree. The colophons of ancient manuscripts, dated as late as the 20th century, refer to Kathmandu as Kāṣṭhamaṇḍap Mahānagar in Nepal Mandala . Mahānagar means "great city". The city

14518-440: Was recorded in 1978. While snowfall is generally confined to the hills surrounding the city, there have been a few instances of snowfall in city, most notably in 1945 and 2007. Rainfall is mostly monsoon-based (about 65% of the total concentrated during the monsoon months of June to September), and decreases substantially (100 to 200 cm (39 to 79 in)) from eastern Nepal to western Nepal. The average annual rainfall for

14640-501: Was social reform of deaf people with an effort to promote and further develop sign language. At the time sign language was still banned in the deaf school; however, KAD worked hard to keep it alive at Deaf gatherings on weekends. Later KAD developed a one-handed fingerspelling system for Devanagari with the support of UNICEF. The first NSL dictionary was undertaken by American Patricia Ross in conjunction with KAD. Because of this connection, there may have been influence from ASL during

14762-441: Was the first Kumari of Kathmandu after the end of the monarchy. Kasthamandap is a three-storeyed temple enshrining an image of Gorakhnath . It was built in the 16th century in the pagoda style. The name of Kathmandu is a derivative of the word Kasthamandap . It was built under the reign of King Laxmi Narsingha Malla. Kasthamandap stands at the intersection of two ancient trade routes linking India and Tibet at Maru square. It

14884-425: Was the lack of any recorded sign language. Many people did not know that there was a fully developed system of Nepalese signs. Despite the fact that sign was not used in the schools, the deaf people, out of their own need to communicate, had developed an intricate system of signs". Regarding the process of collecting signs, Ross further stated: "I would write down words and the students would discuss and argue about what

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