INTRODUCTION
The farmer’s market near where I live sells a lot of locally produced organic produce, which they claim to contain a thousand good qualities. What is so local about them? Well, when you say something is locally made, you refer to a particular location at which the thing is manufactured at. In case of linguistics, the location of something is particularly interesting, as it gives you information about the location of something or someone.
Local postpositions are postpositions that give more information about the location of something or someone. For example, the word made bold is what a local postposition is:
The apple is above the box.
In fact, we can extend the idea of something being located somewhere into a neat graphic show below. The equivalent words in Nepali are written below the figure in italics, while the translation is given above the figure in bold.
Now we have a basic concept of local postpositions, let’s explore them further. A note is that like most postpositions, they must be written together with the word they modify. Pronouns must also be in the oblique case if necessary (as how it is in case markers).
VOCABULARY
मन (man) = Heart (emotional)
भावना (bhāwanā) = Emotion(s)
उभिरहनु (ubhirahanu) = To stand continuously
भिर (bhir) = Cliff
चुरोट (curoṭ) = Cigarette
चुरोट खानु (curoṭ khānu) = To smoke (a cigarette)
मन्दिर (mandir) = Temple
हात्ती (hāttī) = Elephant
पर्खाल (parkhāl) = Boundary wall; Fence
गाउँ (gāum̐) = Village
डाँडा (ḍām̐ḍā) = Hill
STATIC POSTPOSITIONS
Static postpositions are local postpositions that give the static location of an object, that is, the location unchanging and fixed. There is no motion indicated, and these postpositions typically consist of pointers as to where an object is located.
Māthi
माथि (māthi) has the meanings of “above”, “up” or “over”. It can also mean “on”. The general feeling of the word is to point at objects on something, or at a higher elevation. For example:
बिरालो कुर्सीमाथिसुत्दै छ (birālo kursī-māthi sutdai cha)
= (The) cat is sleeping on (the) chair
[cat + chair (+) māthi-postposition + sleeping + is]
किताबमाथि स्याउ छ (kitāb-māthi syāu cha)
= (An) apple is on (the) book
[book (+) māthi-postposition + apple + copula]
Muni
मुनि (muni) has the meanings of “below”, “down” or “under”. The general feeling of the word is to point at objects below something, or at a lower elevation. For example:
बिरालो कुर्सीमुनि सुत्दै छ (birālo kursī-muni sutdai cha)
= (The) cat is sleeping under (the) chair
[cat + chair (+) muni-postposition + sleeping + is]
छातामुनि के छ ? (chātā-muni ke cha)
= What is under (the) umbrella?
[umbrella (+) muni-postposition + what +copula]
Bhitra
भित्र (bhitra) has the meanings of “inside”. It can also mean “in”. The general feeling of the word is to point at objects inside something, or contained within something. For example:
कुकुर घरभित्र कराउँदै छ (kukur ghar-bhitra karāum̐dai cha)
= (A) dog is howling inside (the) house
[dog + house (+) bhitra-postposition + howling + is]
मान्छेको मनभित्र कस्तो भावना हुन्छ ? (mānche-ko man-bhitra kasto bhāwanā huncha)
= What kind of feeling(s) is inside (a) person’s heart?
[person (+) ko-case marker + heart (+) bhitra-postposition + what kind of + feeling(s) + copula]
Bāhira
बाहिर (bāhira) has the meanings of “outside”. The general feeling of the word is to point at objects outside something, or contained outside something. For example:
कुकुर घरबाहिर कराउँदै छ (kukur ghar-bāhirakarāum̐dai cha)
= (A) dog is howling outside (the) house
[dog + house (+) bāhira-postposition + howling + is]
घरबाहिर को उभिरहँदै छ ? (ghar-bāhira ko ubhiraham̐dai cha)
= Who is (continuously) standing outside (the) house?
[house (+) bāhira-postposition + who + keep standing + is]
Agāḍi
अगाडि (agāḍi) has the meaning of “in front of”. The general feeling of the word is to point at objects in front of something. For example:
कुकुर घरअगाडि कराउँदै छ (kukur ghar-agāḍikarāum̐dai cha)
= (A) dog is howling in front of (the) house
[dog + house (+) agāḍi-postposition + howling + is]
यो बाटोअगाडि भिर छ (yo bāṭo-agāḍi bhira cha)
= (A) cliff is in front of this road
[this + road (+) agāḍi-postposition + cliff + copula]
Pachāḍi
पछाडि (pachāḍi) has the meanings of “behind of” or “behind”. The general feeling of the word is to point at objects behind something. For example:
कुकुर घरपछाडि कराउँदै छ (kukur ghar-pachāḍikarāum̐dai cha)
= (A) dog is howling behind (the) house
[dog + house (+) pachāḍi-postposition + howling + is]
रुखपछाडि को चुरोट खाँदै छ ? (rukh-pachāḍi ko curoṭ khām̐dai cha)
= Who is smoking cigarette(s) behind (the) tree?
[tree (+) pachāḍi-postposition + who + cigarette + consuming + is]
Nira
निर (nira) has the meanings of “near”, “nearby” or “close by”. The general feeling of the word is to point at objects at the vicinity of something, but not “at” something. Another way to say “nira” is to use the following words, which have identical meanings: नेर (nera), नजिक (najik), छेउ (cheu). For example:
कुकुर मनिर बस्यो (kukur ma-nira basyo)
= (The) dog sat near me
[dog + me (+) nira-postposition + verb]
When I mentioned interchangeability, I meant something like this:
लाजिम्पाट(निर /नेर /नजिक/ छेउ) नै बस्छु! (lājimpāṭ(nira /nera /najika /cheu) nai baschu)
= I (do) live near/around Lazimpat!
[Lazimpat (+) nira-postposition + nai-particle + verb]
The general idea is that you don’t live exactly at Lazimpat, but somewhere close to it. This is conveyed by all three variations of the Postposition. Another way you say that is “around” in English, giving a general description rather than a specific one.
Note that नजिक (najik) is also an adverb, so in places where it functions as such, you cannot replace it with nira or nera, which are both only postpositions.
Wāri
वारि (wāri) has the meaning of “on the same side of”. The general feeling of the word is to point at objects which are located on the same side as the speaker. This is of course, relative to the speaker, so your wāri may not necessarily be someone else’s wāri. For example:
बाटोवारिएउटा कुकुर कराउँदै छ (bāṭo-wāri euṭā kukur karāum̐dai cha)
= A dog is howling on the same side of (the) road
[road (+) wāri-postposition + one + dog + howling + is]
गाडी बाटोवारि रोकिदिनुहोस् (gāḍī bāṭo-wāri rokidinuhos)
= (Please) stop the car on the same side of (the) road (as me)
[tree (+) pachāḍi-postposition + who cigarette + consuming + is]
Pāri
पारि (pāri) has the meanings of “on the other side of” or “across”. The general feeling of the word is to point at objects which are located on the opposite side as the speaker. This is of course, relative to the speaker, so your pāri may not necessarily be someone else’s pāri, but could be their wāri. For example:
बाटोपारि एउटा कुकुर कराउँदै छ (bāṭo-pāri euṭā kukur karāum̐dai cha)
= A dog is howling on the other side of (the) road
[road (+) pāri-postposition + one + dog + howling + is]
मन्दिर खोलापारि छ (mandir kholā-pāri cha)
= (The) temple is across (the) river
[temple + river (+) pāri-postposition + copula]
Madhye
मध्ये (madhye) has the meaning of “amongst” or “among”. The general feeling of the word is to point at objects which are in the midst of other things. For example:
यो घरहरूमध्ये कुन घर तिम्रो हो ? (yo ghar-harū-madhye kun ghar timro ho)
= Which house is your(s) among these houses?
[this + house (+) pluralizer (+) madhye-postposition + which +house + your(s) + copula]
सबैमध्ये राम्रो यो हो (sabai-madhye rāmro yo ho)
= This is (the) best amongst all
[all (+) madhye-postposition + good +this + copula]
Bic
बिच (bic) is not exactly a postposition, as it is a noun, but when used with the genitive case marker ko, it functions as a postposition to give the meaning of “between (of)”. The first term is marker-optional, that is, you may or may not mark it with a genitive case marker. However, the second term must take a mandatory genitive case marker. An important note is that words modified by genitives still follow the rules of genitive marker addition, that is, if you have certain pronouns, then those pronouns have to be modified as to fit with the genitive marker. For example:
हात्ती तिम्रो र मेरो बिच छ (hāttī timro ra mero bic cha)
= (The) elephant is between you and me.
[elephant + your + and + mine + between + copula]
It is not uncommon to use the locative case marker mā along with bic to give a sense of location:
हाम्रो बिचमा के दुस्मनी छ ? (hāmro bic-mā ke dusmanī cha)
= What enmity there is in between us?
[our + between + mā-case marker + what + enmity + copula]
DYNAMIC PREPOSITIONS
Dynamic postpositions are local postpositions that give the dynamic location of an object, that is, the location can vary or indicates some form of motion.
Samma
सम्म (samma) has the meanings of “until” or “till”. The general feeling of the word is to indicate an upper range, or threshold. For example:
मेरी घरसम्म हिड्ँदै गएछ (merī ghar-samma hiḍm̐dai gaecha)
= Mary went walking until (her) home, it seems!
[Mary + home (+) samma-postposition + walking + agyāt-went]
यहाँसम्म जानुहोस् अनि घुम्नुहोस् (yahām̐-samma jānuhos ani ghumnuhos)
= (Please) go up to here then turn
[Here (+) samma-postposition + go + then + turn]
Tira
तिर (tira) has the meaning of “towards” or “to”. The general feeling of the word is to indicate an object in direction of something or someone. Another way of saying तिर (tira) is तर्फ (tarpha). For example:
मेरी घरतिर हिड्ँदै गयो (merī ghar-tira hiḍm̐dai gayo)
= Mary went walking towards (her) home
[Mary + home (+) tira-postposition + walking + agyāt-went]
You can also use either tira or tarpha:
म(तिर /तर्फ) हेर्नुहोस् (ma-(tira /tarpha) hernuhos)
= (Please) look towards me
[me (+) tira-postposition + verb]
पट्टि (paṭṭi) is also another way of saying तिर (tira), but the difference is that पट्टि (paṭṭi) is more like “facing towards” and tends to be more static. The meaning is also closer to “near to”:
घरपट्टि पर्खाल बनाउनु (ghar-paṭṭi parkhāla banāunu)
= To make (a) fence facing towards (the) house
[house (+) paṭṭi-postposition + fence + verb]
GENITIVE PHRASING
A different way of expressing location also exists in Nepali, that uses the postposition along with a genitive marker to form an entirely new phrase. We call this genitive phrasing, and is very common in Nepali. Let’s break that down. Take the following sentence:
गाउँ डाँडामुनि छ (gāum̐ ḍām̐ḍā-muni cha)
= (The) village is under (the) hill
[village + hill (+) postposition + copula]
Now, you want to talk about the village without using the copula, as to just refer to it as “the village under the hill”, and say for example that “it rained on the village under the hill”. How do you do that?
You first have to establish the relationship between the words. Chiefly, you have to know if A is a part of B, or the other way around. For example, when I say “The cat is under the table”, the cat is the subject (A part), and the subject is at a location (B part along with an adposition). When you do so, you now modify the B part (keeping the postposition) and adding the A part after it to get the same phrase. For example, in the previous Nepali sentence, “the village is under the hill”. We can deduce that the village is part A (the subject) and it located under the hill, making it part B. Now, keep the B part intact (the one with the postposition), and move it to the first position. Add the genitive case marker ko. Then, move the A part to the second part, and treat the overall statement as a phase. For example, our sentence turns into:
डाँडामुनिको गाउँ (ḍām̐ḍā-muni-ko gāum̐)
= (The) village under (the) hill
[hill (+) postposition (+) genitive marker + village]
This phrase can be treated as a single word, so you can make sentences by adding case markers. For example:
डाँडामुनिको गाउँमा पानी पर्यो (ḍām̐ḍā-muni-ko gāum̐-mā pānī paryo)
= It rained at (the) village under (the) hill
This would be no different than somewhere else, such as:
लाजिम्पाटमा पानी पर्यो (lājimpāṭ-mā pānī paryo)
= It rained at Lazimpat
As mentioned before, this type of phrasing is very common, as you seldom use copulas to describe locations, but rather bundle the idea of location along with another idea to give a more complex sentence:
खोलापारिको मन्दिरमा को जान्छ? (kholā-pāri-ko mandir-mā ko jāncha)
= Who goes to (the) temple across (the) river?
Let’s look at one more:
घरपछाडिको कुकुर कराउँदै छ (ghar-pachāḍi-ko kukur karāum̐dai cha)
= The dog behind the house is barking
SUMMARY
- Local postpositions are postpositions that give more information about the location of something or someone.
- Static postpositions are local postpositions that give the static location of an object, that is, the location unchanging and fixed.
- माथि (māthi) has the meanings of “above”, “up” or “over”. It can also mean “on”.
- मुनि (muni) has the meanings of “below”, “down” or “under”.
- भित्र (bhitra) has the meanings of “inside”.
- बाहिर (bāhira) has the meanings of “outside”.
- अगाडि (agāḍi) has the meaning of “in front of”.
- पछाडि (pachāḍi) has the meanings of “behind of” or “behind”.
- निर (nira) has the meanings of “near”, “nearby” or “close by”.
- Other ways of saying निर (nira): नेर (nera), नजिक (najik), छेउ (cheu).
- वारि (wāri) has the meaning of “on the same side of”.
- पारि (pāri) has the meanings of “on the other side of” or “across”.
- मध्ये (madhye) has the meaning of “amongst” or “among”.
- बिच (bic), when used with the genitive case marker ko, functions as a postposition to mean “between”.
- Dynamic postpositions are local postpositions that give the dynamic location of an object, that is, the location can vary or indicates some form of motion.
- सम्म (samma) has the meanings of “until” or “till”.
- तिर (tira) has the meaning of “towards” or “to”.
- Other ways of saying तिर (tira) are: तर्फ (tarpha), पट्टि (paṭṭi).
- In Genitive Phrasing, you refer back to the word by changing the structure slightly using the genitive case marker.