Nepali is the official and most widely spoken language of Nepal, where it also serves as a lingua franca. It is an Indo-Aryan language, belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family, native to the Himalayan region of South Asia.
Facts
ISO 639-3 Code Speaker Count2011-2021 estimate, first-language speakers (14 million second-language speakers, 2021 census; 32 million total). Browse and compare
Difficulty for an English Speaker Classification
Language Kind Official Status Partially Attested
Attested From (Year)Approximate date: the Dullu inscription in Dailekh District is given as written around 981 CE, around the reign of King Bhupal Damupal. Connections
In Family
Source Wikipedia: Nepali Language
Written In
In the Other Atlases
Cases Where Used
Also in Divinity Atlas: used in this subject.
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Source Wikipedia: Nepali LanguageLead sentence 3tier 2Quote, Lead sentence 3
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.
Sources
1. Glottolog: Nepali (Glottolog languoid nepa1254)
GlottologEndangerment, AES statusQuote, Endangerment, AES status
AES status: not endangered
2. Wikipedia: Nepali Language
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Nepali (Devanagari: नेपाली) is the official and most-widely spoken language of Nepal, where it also serves as a lingua franca.
Infobox: lc1
npi
Infobox: date
2011-2021
Lead section, first sentence, current use
where it also serves as a lingua franca
Lead section, first sentence, place of use
the official and most-widely spoken language of Nepal
History, earliest inscription
The earliest known inscription in the Nepali language is believed to be an inscription in Dullu, located in Dailekh District, which was written around the reign of King Bhupal Damupal, around the 981 CE.
In Family: Indo-European, Infobox, Language family
Top family: Indo-European; immediate branch: Indo-Aryan languages (Northern Zone, Eastern Pahari group).
View the Source 3. WALS Online (World Atlas of Language Structures): Nepali / Order of Subject, Object and Verb (WALS datapoint)
WALS Online (World Atlas of Language Structures)Datapoint pageQuote, Datapoint page
Feature: Order of Subject, Object and Verb by Matthew S. Dryer Value: SOV
4. WALS Online (World Atlas of Language Structures): Nepali / Tone (WALS datapoint)
WALS Online (World Atlas of Language Structures)Datapoint pageQuote, Datapoint page
Feature: Tone by Ian Maddieson Value: No tones
5. Effective Language Learning: Language Difficulty Ranking
Effective Language LearningForeign Service Institute categories listQuote, Foreign Service Institute categories list
Category IV: 44 weeks (1100 hours) Languages with significant linguistic and/or cultural differences from English Albanian Amharic Armenian Azerbaijani Bengali Bosnian Bulgarian Burmese Croatian Czech * Estonian * Finnish * Georgian Greek Hebrew Hindi * Hungarian Icelandic Khmer Lao Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian * Mongolian Nepali
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