A Dictionary of Classical Newari, by Hans Jorgensen

Classical Newari language is the modern language mainly known from the works of Hodgson, and of which traces are to be found in the Manuscript. The main characteristics of it are considerable phonetic changes in the final consonants. The author has taken all pure Newari and all loan-words from Indo-Aryan languages, the meaning of which he has been able to ascertain with a satisfactory degree of certainty. He has endeavored to explain all loan-words, as far as possible, but has abstained from too hazardous guessing. With our present knowledge it seems impossible to find the exact sources of the loan-words from Indo-Aryan languages. At the outset it would appear most likely that a good deal of them have sprung from that form of Old-Maithili which before the conquest was used in Nepal, but unfortunately this language is unknown. From Parbatiya we cannot expect to find loan-words till after the conquest, and as most of the works found in the manuscript, at all events as regards their origin, date from earlier times, the amount of loan-words from this source is, after all, perhaps not so very great. About the Author: - Hans Jørgensen was the founder of Newar studies in the west. He published a Newar grammar and dictionary and studies of a number of Newar texts. He received his doctorate in 1911 at Kiel University in Sanskrit and worked at the Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin until 1919. In 1927, he travelled to England to consult Newar manuscripts at Cambridge with the support of the Carlsberg Foundation.