Category:Nepali

Nepali (Devanagari: नेपाली) is an native to the Himalayas region of South Asia. It is the official, and most widely spoken, language of , where it also serves as a lingua franca. Nepali also has official status in the Indian state of Sikkim, and in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration of West Bengal; it also has a significant number of speakers in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Uttarakhand. Nepali is spoken by about a quarter of Bhutan's population. In Myanmar, it is spoken by the Burmese Gurkhas. The Nepali diaspora in the Middle East, Brunei, Australia, and worldwide also use the language. Nepali is spoken by approximately 16 million native speakers, and another 9 million as a second language.