Newa, Newar, Newari, Nepāla lipi

Newa, Newar, Newari, Nepāla lipi are all names for the same thing: the script used to write Nepal Bhasa, the language spoken by the Newar people of Nepal. This script is also sometimes called Nepal Lipi, Nepali Lipi, or just Newari. It is an abugida, meaning that each character represents a consonant sound followed by a vowel sound, with the exception of a few characters that represent consonant clusters. The Newa script is believed to have been developed from the Brahmi script, and it first appears in inscriptions dating back to the 12th century. It was probably used for writing Nepal Bhasa from the 13th century onwards. The script began to decline in the 18th century, when Nepal was unified under the rule of the Gurkha king Prithvi Narayan Shah. Nepal Bhasa was no longer the language of administration, and Newar people began to use Nepali, written in the Devanagari script. The Newa script is still used today by a small number of people, mainly older generations. There has been a recent revival of interest in Nepal Bhasa, and the Newa script is once again being used to write the language.