A.History

1.Details from Proto Stage to Current Stage

Indo-European> Indo-Iranian> Indo-Aryan> Northwestern> Khasa Prakrit> Pahadi language> Eastern Pahadi (Nepali)

2.Script(S) Used to Document the Language

• Main script: Devanagari
• Gurkha soldiers from Southeast Asia used to publish a periodical called PARBATE in the roman script.
• Madhavlal Karmacharya has published a few historical documents of this language in the Tibetan script.

3.Stages of Development

a) Earliest reference in other sources
• Purna Prakash Nepal Yatri has claimed to have discovered the earliest historical inscription in Nepali dated 10th century A.D., but ample amount of inscriptions in the language have been dated to be from the 12th century.
• According to Grierson (1916), the earliest mention of Nepali ('Nepalensis') in the Western sources is by the Italian scholar Amaduzzi (1771).

b)Significant levels/ Points of Planning

• The name 'Naipali' is given to this language by J.A. Ayton (1820), who happens to be the first grammarian of Nepali language.
• Other names given to this language are 'Gorkhali' and 'Khas-bhaashaa'.

• The present Constitution of Nepal (2047VS) has declared Nepali as the official language of the kingdom of Nepal. Out of the two groups of languages spoken in the kingdom of Nepal, the Constitution has labelled Nepali as raastrabhaasaa (the national language) in contrast with other raastriya bhaasaas 'the languages of the nation'.

• Nepali is also the lingua franca for the speakers of more than hundred mother tongues.
• In 1911 Alahabad University recognized Nepali language as a subject.
• In 1921  Culcutta University recognized Nepali language as a subject in school and college.
• In 1974 Sahitya Academy recognized Nepali as a Indian regional language.
• In 1992 Govt.of India included Nepali language in 8th Schedule of Indian constitution as a regional language.  

4.Change of Status/ Course Due to Important Event Like Linguistic State Organization

a) From about the 10th or 12th century to the end of the 15th century this lanuguage has remained an official state language during the Khasa rules of Western Nepal.

b) The fall and subdivision of the Khasa kingdom since 15th century resulted in the official status of some dialects of Nepali.

c) This situation continued until the unification of Nepal in 1774 by Prithvi Narayan Shah, originally the king of Gorkha and the founder of the kingdom of modern Nepal. Inception of modern Nepali roughly coincides with the formation of the kingdom of modern Nepal.

B.Linguistic Classification:

1.Genetic

a) Nepali is an Indo-European language of the satem group, because the word for hundred in Nepali is sae.
b) Within the satem group of Indo-European, Nepali is grouped under Indo-Iranian.
c) Nepali falls on the Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-Iranian.
d) Historically, Nepali is a New Indo-Aryan language.
e) Hoernle (1880) has classified Nepali as the Northern Gaudian language. Turner (1931) and Masica (1990) have groped it in the Northwestern branch of Indo-Aryan. Chatterji (1926) has placed Nepali as an offshoot of Khasa-praakrit.

2.Typological

a) Nepali is an SOV language. 
b) Nepali is a Head-right language. In every phrase the head is on the right. 
• Typical order of a VP is NP-V.
• Typical order of a NP is ADJ-NP.
• Typical order of an ADJP is ADV-ADJ.
• Typical order of a PP is NP-P. It means the language is postpositional.
• In a comparative phrase the order is STANDARD-COMPARATIVE MARKER.

3.Areal

a) Nepali is a South Asian language with the following characteristics shared by other South Asian languages.
b) It has dental and apical (retroflex) contrast in the two series of plosives, e.g: top 'cannon' vs. Top 'hat'.
c) It has morphological causativization, e.g: gar-yo 'did' vs. gar-aa-yo 'caused to do'.
d) It has Dative Subject construction, e.g: 
e) ma-laai bhok laag-yo (I-DAT hunger touch-3s.PERFECTIVE) 'I am hungry'.