Nepal 1

Listen to Nepal 1, a 21-year-old woman from Kathmandu and Gulmi, Nepal. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject. 

Both as a courtesy and to comply with copyright law, please remember to credit IDEA for direct or indirect use of samples. IDEA is a free resource; please consider supporting us.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 21

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 01/08/2004

PLACE OF BIRTH: Gulmi, Lumbini Province, Nepal

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Nepali

OCCUPATION: software-development intern

EDUCATION: pursuing a four-year college degree

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

At the time of this recording, the subject had been living in East Lansing, Michigan, United States, for three years while attending college.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

She studied English in private schools in Kathmandu, studying everything except the Nepali language in language class. Her school was very strict. She practiced a lot of talking in English and learned how to sound American, and she says her American friends assume she is from a Western country because her English is so fluent. Also likely contributing to her very light accent is her involvement in public speaking and acting.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Nick Torres

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/12/2025

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Um, generally, I, I like speaking. I like giving a speech. I used to participate in different kind of like speech competitions, and I was — I used to take on leadership roles, so I had to, like, go to the stage and talk. Uh, I did that, like I was class representative, even, like all years of my high school I was in one or another sort of leadership roles.

But once I went to U.S., I was a little scared, nervous, that I’d mess up the accent. Um, I didn’t even know the difference between sounds; for example, like [ I ] and [ i ], uh, so I used to be really scared; like when I say, “I went to the beach yesterday,” I didn’t want to mess up and say something else without even realizing, you know, so I used to be scared. And for a while, I thought I was an introvert, ’cause I didn’t really like opening up and speaking, um, until the first summer of university. My roommate came here — American roommate came here to meet my family in Nepal — and she saw me interact with people here, and she was like “Prijam, you’re not an introvert. I see you talk to, like, people; you like talking to people. You’re just shy.”

And that just hit me, like, I love talking; I love talking to, like, Uber drivers. I love talking to waiters, this that. I just love talking. It was just that I was really hesitant. It still took me some courage to, like, take on it, and, like, try to, try to, I don’t know, try to speak. That’s one of the main reasons why I took acting class, ’cause I wanted to, like, open up and be there in front of everybody.

Um, but, yeah, this year I tried taking, like, speaking roles. I, um, I took an opportunity to be a student speaker on, on a panel for entrepreneurship institute. Um, next year, I plan to join a club at MSU [Michigan State University]. I don’t know how much time I’ll get next semester ’cause it’s going to be my last semester, but, yeah, I hope to see myself speak on a stage someday, giving a nice speech.

[Subject speaks in Nepali]: हामी नेपालीहरू, खासगरी विद्यार्थीहरू, प्रायः हरेक वर्ष नेपाल घर फर्किने चलन हुँदैन। किनभने प्लेन टिकट एकदमै महँगो हुन्छ, अनि हामी विद्यार्थीहरूलाई आफ्नो फि तिर्न र गुजारा चलाउन नै मुश्किल परिरहेको हुन्छ।

म चाहिँ एकदमै भाग्यमानी रहें कि मैले राम्रो छात्रवृत्ति पाएँ, जसले गर्दा टिकट काटेर घर आउन सकें। यो पटक, मैले धेरै सोचेर आमा, बुबा, र आफन्तहरूलाई सरप्राइज दिने निर्णय गरें।

मैले करिब दुई महिना अगाडि नै टिकट काटिसकेको थिएँ, तर मलाई लिन आउनुहुने मेरो मामालाई बाहेक अरू कसैलाई (आफ्नो आमा-बुबालाई समेत) भनेको थिइनँ।

अनि म यहाँ आएँ, र एयरपोर्टमा मैले मामालाई आमालाई एक कल गर्न भनें, ताकि मलाई एक्कासी देखेर उहाँलाई शक् नलागोस्। हामीले आमालाई थोरै सङ्केत दियौं र घरतिर गयौं। उहाँको लागि यो एउटा राम्रो सरप्राइज भयो। हामीले रमाइलो गर्यौं।

[English translation: We Nepali don’t usually have a culture of coming back home to Nepal every year, especially as students, because of how expensive flights are and how we are just students barely paying our fees and surviving. I have been very lucky to have gotten a really nice scholarship, to be able to afford tickets and visit home. This time, I thought a lot and decided to surprise my mom, dad, and relatives. I bought the tickets like two months ago yet told nobody (not even my parents) except my maternal uncle, who would come to pick me up. So, I came here, and at the airport, I asked my maternal uncle to give a call to my mom so that seeing me at once wouldn’t give her a shock. So, we gave her a little bit of hint and drove to my house. It was a good surprise to her. We had fun.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Nick Torres

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/12/2025

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

The archive provides:

• Recordings of accent/dialect speakers from the region you select.

• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.

• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.

• In most cases, an orthographic transcription of the speakers’ unscripted speech.  In a small number of cases, you will also find a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample (see Phonetic Transcriptions for a complete list).  The recordings average four minutes in length and feature both the reading of one of two standard passages, and some unscripted speech. The two passages are Comma Gets a Cure (currently our standard passage) and The Rainbow Passage (used in our earliest recordings).

For instructional materials or coaching in the accents and dialects represented here, please go to Other Dialect Services.