| Username |
Post |
| AAWAAZ |
Posted
on 06-May-01 10:06 PM
i know the topic has been over discussed in kurakani, but thought i had to bring it up as postings from two people on the board has been used in aawaaz : the nepalese voice on the internet e-zine. here it is again...
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Coming up with the final name of aawaaz e-forum wasnt easy, especially when i had to chose between the words "nepali" and "nepalese" in the "the nepalese voice on the internet" phrase. Scratching my head and rattling my minsicule brain, and even considering doing inky minky, i finally settled on the word "nepalese." My final take on the issue was that the e-zine is in english language, so "nepalese" would do for now, and i know that there will be people who will disagree on my choice of the word. We all are from Nepal, but "Nepali" or "Nepalese"; what are we after all? The seemingly trifle question is actually a big one, as we are being confused about our own identity or terminology at least. And sad to say, this might be a question that might never get answered. Ashu in GBNC board discussion opts to vote for the word "nepali." " Nepalese is a term the British in India gave us. It's a 'phoren'word. We call ourselves Nepalis and NOT Nepalese. Should we keep on using the Anglicized version of the word 'Nepali'even when we are addressing one another here?," he says. However, San thinks it's not right to impose the English speaking world to implement the Nepali version of the words. "I don't know what the Japanese people call themselves, or the Chinese, or the Russians, but I'm sure English language would get pretty complicated if every other country wanted their people to be refered to in their own language! I know 'Nepali' is not too complicated to say or write but I'm sure there are lots of other language in the world with consonants that we don't know exist", he writes. Someone writing under the alias "peace" in nepaien.com board has an interesting take on the issue. Says peace, " u know what chinese call us ... NepaLee...eeeehahaha... italians call us Nepalini. Australians call us Nepauliaans. Yugoslavians call us Nepalovich. Brazilians calus Nepaldhino. Hispanics calls us Nepalics or nepalitino. some unknown khuires call us Nefouli. Russians calls us Nepalin. Vietnamese call us Nepalgyuyen. Japanese call us Nepalnomo. But the worst name given to us is by indians and i hate them for that.. they call us "nepali log" witout no respect "
We are about half way divided between whether to be called and call ourselves nepali or nepalese, it seems. But is it really an issue? Should we bicker about the rest of the world "anglicizing" our language. If so, then we might have to argue on why we are using the word "hospital" as well, and be adamant to our very own "aspatal."
Besides, as San points out, when a foreign diplomat calls us Nepalese as opposed to Nepali, this should not be a topic of debates. Instead let's find out and utilize what he/she has to offer us!
And, whether as "Nepali" or Nepalese", what we have to offer to the rest of the world as well, i think. Whats your opinion on the issue?
regards.
AAWAAZ : THE NEPALESE VOICE ON THE INTERNET
www.aawaaz.cjb.net
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| Hari |
Posted
on 06-May-01 11:44 PM
I don't think anyone really has that much concern for us being called Nepali or Nepalese, that they actually go out and correct a foreign diplomat adressing us as 'Nepalese'. So, don't fret about it too much!
Remains the question about preferences (and I have written about this in my earlier post on this issue): Yes, lots of people call us Nepalis by lots of different names in lots of different languages. That's completely fine. We also call Russians "rusi", the Chinese "chiniya", and so on. And you might be frustrated that SOME indians call us "nepali log" (I don't know why that's disrespectful; the same people call other Indians, "bihari log" "madrasi log" "gujrati log" etc.), but the fact is that some of us also derogatively call Indians "dhoti".
So, yes, people can call whatever their language calls us. English is somewhat different. If the Americans prefer to call us Nepalese that's fine. If the British prefer to call us Nepalese that's fine too. My objection was that since INTERNATIONALLY we are adopting English as a common language, we should call (but this is a requirement only for the international variety of English) everyone by their proper names; that is, we should call Germans "deutscher", Chinese (biswo, Trailokya, help me out here)"....", etc. That means, we should call us "Nepalis" when we are communicating in international English. Besides, it can only be better if people are called what they call themselves.
Dui Paise Musings,
Hari
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 07-May-01 01:56 AM
Hariji:
Chinese people say 'Zhongguoren' (pronounce chung-kuo-ren) for
Chinese.
I think we are both Nepali and Nepalese. I don't think that these
two terms are mutually exclusive. We are not only Nepalese, or
Nepali log, we are also ni-bo-er-ren, ne-pa-ru (gaijin or sth
like that, I don't know), and as long as there are several
languages, we continue to be named by different way. We are also
00977, we are also .np, and we can't alter that, or at least,
our energy should not be squandered for that purpose.
This is my dui paise musing!!
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| Trailokya Aryal |
Posted
on 07-May-01 07:03 PM
Namaste,
I like Nepalis better than Nepalese. Nepali(s) have aafnai-nepali-paana to it and sounds good too, hoina ta.
Biswo xiansheng, ni xiang shen me?
Trailokya
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| Trailokya Aryal |
Posted
on 07-May-01 07:11 PM
Namaste Hariji,
Chinese is a very interesting language. They have Chinese names for everything, even computer programs and nations! They call us ne-bo-er ren, because we are from Ne-bo-er (which emans looking from back.. I stillw onder how we got this name. Biswoji, any idea?)
As for other countries, America is mei-guo (this is pretty interesting too. The first character of this word means beautiful and the Chinese people say that mei guo means beautiful country, however, the same character also means sheep... so I still wonder whether the chinese by meai guo really mean beautiful country or the coubntry of sheep.. Biswoji, what do you think), france is fa guo and germany is de guo.
Trailokya
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| Hari |
Posted
on 07-May-01 08:58 PM
Could it perhaps mean that we are the country that's on their back-side (quite literally)? I mean, if you're facing towards China (North), you would have your back on Nepal (South). It is quite interesting. Thank you for this added piece of knowledge.
As for the US, I think all the eastern peoples (Chinese, Korean, Japanese) have a fascination for them (or for fair-skinned people in general from the West). I have heard anecdotal stories about how fair-skinned people are considered very highly; and this is particularly interesting because the easterners (Chinese, Koreans, Japanese) consider themselves the "chosen ones".
Dui Paise Musings,
Hari
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| Hari |
Posted
on 07-May-01 09:04 PM
The US currency is also called "Mei-Yuan" in Chinese, isn't it? So this must mean that it's the "beautiful money". Given the strength of the dollar in recent years, that's very appropriate.
:-)
Hari
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| Trailokya Aryal |
Posted
on 07-May-01 09:56 PM
namaste Hariji,
Re: Ne-Bo-Er (looking from behind), I think its exactly what you wrote, but given the multiple meanings of any given character (and 10000 meanings depending on the combination), one really needs to do some research before getting into any conclusion.
Yes, the US currency is mei qian, but again, whether its a beautiful currency or something else, I don't know.
Yes, the Chinese consider themselves the chosen ones. The Chinese name for China is Zhong Guo, which means, the middle country (kingdom) or the central kingdom meaning they are the ones at the center of everything. And everybody else is barbarian. That's why they still call the westerners barbarians or wai guo gui (foreign devils).
Bishwoji, any idea?
Trailokya
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 08-May-01 04:09 AM
Dear Trailokya:
I think ni-bo-er is just a phonetical translation, there is no
reason behind that naming. Meiguo is for beauty, as long as I
know, because the starved Chinese who came to USA first to work in
gold rush, railway, and tea farms must have found the lush land
of California very beautiful.Britain (ying-guo) is the land of
heros, and that was god damn precise observation made thousand yrs
ago!!
One thing I noticed very interesting in China was their map: their
map of the earth is different than what we were used to see in
Nepal. We place China in east. Africa / Europe are in somewhat
middle. But Chinese make the map in the way they are placed
in the middle. They start from American in the east, and show
Britains in the west. We can't blame them for that, because the
planet is not flat, and one is free to start from any place he
likes.
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| Trailokya Aryal |
Posted
on 09-May-01 06:26 PM
Britain (ying-guo) is the land of
heros, and that was god damn precise observation made thousand yrs
ago!!
Namaste Bishwoji,
I don't think Ying-guo-de-ying de yi si shi heroes. (I don't think that Ying here means heroes, and that Britain is the land of heroes). The first character Ying, as far as I know, is of flower. So, ying guo means, again I don't know much chinese, the flower(y) country, or the country of flowers...
Feel free to comment, entertain, educate and inform.
Trailokya
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