Doteli, or Dotyali ( Doteli-Devanagari: ) is an

Indo-Aryan language The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east of the Indus river in Ba ...

spoken by about 495,000 people, most of whom live in

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. It is a dialect of

Khas Khas peoples or Khas Tribes, (; ) popularly known as Khashiya are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent, in what is now the South Asian country of Nepal, as well as the Indian stat ...

, which is an ancient form of the modern

Nepali language Nepali (; , ), or ''Gorkhali'' is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language native to the Himalayas region of South Asia. It is the official and most widely spoken Languages of Nepal, language of Nepal, where it also serves as a ''lingua fr ...

, and is written in the

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental systems: alphabets, writing system), based on the ancient ''Brāhmī script, Brā ...

script. It has official status in Nepal as per Part 1, Section 6 of the

Constitution of Nepal The Constitution of Nepal () is the present governing Constitution of Nepal. Nepal is governed according to the Constitution which came into effect on 20 September 2015, replacing the Interim Constitution of 2007. The constitution of Nepal is di ...

2072 (2015). There are four main dialects of Doteli, namely Baitadeli, Achhami, Bajhangi Nepali, Darchuli and Doteli. The

mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intelli ...

between these dialects is high and all dialects of Doteli are able to share language-based materials.

Example short phrases

Names of the language

The language is known by various names in the far–western region of Nepal, according to the districts.

Official status

The Language Commission of Nepal has recommended Dotyali language as official language in

Sudurpashchim Province Sudurpashchim Province () is one of the seven Provinces of Nepal, provinces established by the Constitution of Nepal, new constitution of Nepal which was adopted on 20 September 2015. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north, ...

Origin and history

Although Dotyali isn't fully intelligible with standard Nepali, Dotyali is considered a member of the macrolanguage Nepali. In Nepal, Doteli is considered a Nepali dialect. However, local intellectuals and people of Doti, those who speak Doteli, are increasingly demanding their language to be recognized as one of the national languages of Nepal.

References

External links

Easy Nepali Typing

English to Nepali Converter

Type Nepali with Nepali Unicode

Type In Nepali Unicode

Saral Nepali Unicode
{{Authority control Languages of Nepal Languages written in Devanagari Languages of Sudurpashchim Province Languages of Karnali Province