Nepali

Nepali (Devanagari: नेपाली) is the official and most-widely spoken language of Nepal, where it also serves as a lingua franca. It is also extensively used beyond Nepal's borders in the Himalayas. It is an Indo-Aryan language, belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch within the Indo-European language family, native to the Himalayan region of South Asia.

Nepali has official status in the Indian state of Sikkim and in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, a semi-autonomous region of West Bengal, being a majority language in both of these places. It is also spoken by about a quarter of Bhutan. Nepali also has a significant number of speakers in the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Uttarakhand. In Myanmar, it is spoken by the Burmese Gurkhas community. The Nepali diaspora in the Middle East, Brunei, Australia and around the world also use the language. Overall, Nepali is spoken by approximately 19 million native speakers and additional 14 million as a second language.

Nepali is commonly classified within the Eastern Pahari group of the Northern zone of Indo-Aryan. The language originated in the Sinja Valley of Karnali Province, which served as the capital of the Khasa Kingdom around the 10th and 14th centuries. It developed in close contact with several Indo-Aryan languages, particularly other Pahari languages. Nepali was originally spoken by the Khas people, an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the Himalayan region of South Asia.

From Wikipedia · Nepali language · CC BY-SA 4.0