Nepali · नेपाली

About Nepali

Language family

Indo-European, Indo-Aryan (Pahari branch)

Where it's spoken

Nepal, with communities in Sikkim and Darjeeling, India, and Bhutan

Speakers

roughly 16 million native speakers and 32 million total

Nepali developed from Indo-Aryan dialects carried into the Himalayan foothills and shares Devanagari script and much basic grammar with Hindi, though centuries of separate development and Tibeto-Burman contact language gave it its own distinct character. It is Nepal's official language and also serves as a lingua franca among the country's more than 120 recognized languages. Its spread into neighboring Indian hill states and Bhutan reflects historical Gorkha-era territorial expansion.