New thoughts on Nepali.
1) Even if it DID go extinct, we must remember that it's only a tribal language that turned sophisticated rather quickly.
2) Nepali literature didn't exist before Bhanubhakta. Written Nepali was rare, and lacked proper sentence structure -- it existed mainly in speaking. The centuries between Bhanubhakta and Nepali Bhashanuwad Samiti were the most fruitful for the language, when most of the literature was created.
3) Which means, it's likely our future is better than our past -- if only because our past wasn't particularly bright.
4) I regarded internet as mostly a threat for the language. While it still is, I see a future where more Nepali speakers will communicate in Nepali over the internet, and it becomes the norm. I had to think outside my clique of Nepali-nabolne-bourgeoisie-clique.
5) Devkota is still as great, but for slightly different reasons. He knew exactly where the language was, and worked accordingly. His inventing whole classes of words in one go, words that would actually be adopted in everyday use, definitely made it much more 'genuine' and saved it from hindification and bengalification.
6) There's still a LOT more space to work around/be on the frontiers in Nepali. I haven't really read the casual-conversation-y Nepali -- the new novels try, but I don't really feel them. There's such a potential for a new Nepali for the internet generation.
7) A's dad could be one of the pioneers of the trends from 6). His sense of humor (I find) perfectly Nepali, and it also fits brilliantly for the web. As more people from the older generation come to the public web (I'm looking more in the likes of blogs and twitter, not facebook...because closed systems entropy themselves to death).
8) No one's mentioned the slick animation below this page. I'm hurt.
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