Caste, class, and social structure (lessons 21-22)
How Nepal's caste structure surfaces in everyday speech — kinship-as-address, when to use which 'you', and why a porter and a CEO get spoken to differently. Sensitive but unavoidable knowledge.
Public-domain FSI Nepali Basic Course audio, streamed via our server. If the player shows an error, the source file may be temporarily unavailable — try again later.
FSI 1979, lessons 21 and 22 combined — sensitive but unavoidable content. Nepal's caste structure (legally abolished in 1963 but socially persistent) surfaces in everyday speech through pronoun choice and kinship-as-address. Minutes 1–8: the three 'you' levels — tan (intimate / lower social rank, never use as a foreigner), timi (familiar), tapaai (formal / honorific / safe default). Minutes 9–15: kinship-as-address — daai (older brother) for any man slightly older, didi (older sister), bahini (younger sister), bhaai (younger brother), kaaka / kaaki (uncle / aunt) for parents' generation, baajee / boju (grandparent generation). Minutes 16–22: how a Brahmin priest, a Newari merchant, and a Tamang porter would each be addressed — the lesson is deliberately uncomfortable to drive the point home. Closing minutes: foreigner exception — using tapaai with everyone is the safe default that no one will be offended by.
Attribution
Audio courtesy of the US Foreign Service Institute (Public Domain) and hosted by Live Lingua. This page links directly to their CDN; we do not re-host or modify the audio.