Languages of Nepal constitutionally called Nepalese languages are the languages having at least an ancient history or origin inside the sovereign territory of Nepal spoken by

Nepalis Nepalis ( English: Nepalese ; ne, नेपाली) are the citizens of Nepal under the provisions of Nepali nationality law. The country is home to people of many different national origins who are the descendants of immigrants from India, ...

. The 2011 National census lists 123 languages spoken as a mother tongue (first language) in

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...

. Most belong to the Indo-Aryan and

Sino-Tibetan Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...

language families. The official working language at federal level is

Nepali Nepali or Nepalese may refer to : Concerning Nepal * Anything of, from, or related to Nepal * Nepali people, citizens of Nepal * Nepali language, an Indo-Aryan language found in Nepal, the current official national language and a language spoken ...

, but the constitution provisions each province to choose one or more additional official working languages. The Language Commission of Nepal on 6 Sept 2021 recommended 14 official languages for different provinces of Nepal. The mother languages of Nepal, or languages of Nepali origin are sometimes referred to as ''Nepali languages''.

National languages

According to the constitution of Nepal, "all languages spoken as the mother tongues in Nepal are the languages of the nation". Many of the languages also have various dialects. For example, the Rai community has about 30 languages. Some of the languages are similar and may be considered as a dialect but sometimes the distinction between dialects or completely different languages is unclear and might differ in opinions from person to person.

Classification

Nepal's languages are mostly either

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, ...

, while only a very few of them are Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian. Out of 123 languages of Nepal, the 48

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, ...

, which are of the Indo-Aryan (Indic) sub-family (excluding English), constitute the largest group in terms of the numeric strength of their speakers, nearly 82.1% of population.

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

, Maithili,

Awadhi Awadhi (; ), also known as Audhi (), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in northern India and Nepal. It is primarily spoken in the Awadh region of present-day Uttar Pradesh, India. The name ''Awadh'' is connected to Ayodhya, the ancient city, w ...

Tharu languages The Tharu ( Tharu: थारु, hi, थरुवा) or Tharuhat ( ne, थरुहट) languages are any of the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by the Tharu people of the Terai region in Nepal, and neighboring regions of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

, etc. fall in this group. The

Sino-Tibetan family Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese language ...

of Nepal's languages forms a part of its Tibeto-Burman group. Though spoken by relatively fewer people than the Indo-European family (17.3% of population), it includes a greater number of languages, about 63 languages. Languages belonging to this group are

Tamang The Tamang (; Devanagari: तामाङ; ''tāmāṅ'') are an Tibeto-Burmese ethnic group of Nepal. In Nepal Tamang/Moormi people constitute 5.6% of the Nepalese population at over 1.3 million in 2001, increasing to 1,539,830 as of the 2011 ...

, Nepal Bhasa (Newar), Magar, Limbu, etc. The small declining number of

Dravidian languages The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant i ...

are represented by Kurux, and the

Munda languages The Munda languages are a group of closely related languages spoken by about nine million people in India and Bangladesh. Historically, they have been called the Kolarian languages. They constitute a branch of the Austroasiatic language famil ...

of the

Austroasiatic family The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are th ...

by Santali and Mundari. The indigenous languages of Nepal that predated the influx of Indic, Tibeto-Burman, and other families barely survive in the Kusunda language, which is nearly extinct today. Nepal also has at several indigenous village

sign languages Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

: Jhankot Sign Language, Jumla Sign Language, and Ghandruk Sign Language, in addition to the Nepali Sign Language designed for national use.

Constitution

Part 1 of the

Constitution of Nepal 2015 Constitution of Nepal 2015 ( ne, नेपालको संविधान २०७२) is the present governing Constitution of Nepal. Nepal is governed according to the Constitution which came into effect on 20 September 2015, replacing the ...

(2072 B.S.) contains these provisions about the languages of Nepal:Nepali Constitution 2015
PDF *Article 6: All native languages spoken in Nepal are National languages of Nepal. *Article 7a:

Nepali language Nepali (; , ) is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Himalayas region of South Asia. It is the official, and most widely spoken, language of Nepal, where it also serves as a '' lingua franca''. Nepali has official status in the Indian st ...

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the a ...

script is used for Nepal government work. (Indigenous languages also are to be written using Devanagari.) *Article 7b: Beside Nepali language, the Provinces can choose one or more other languages spoken by majority population of that province for government work.

Languages in Nepal by numbers of speakers

According to the 2011 national census,

native speakers make up less than half the population, about 44.6%. Most of the languages in Nepal are endangered because out of the 129 languages, only 19 of them have more than 100,000 speakers. Those languages are spoken by 95.91% of the total population. The 2019 annual report of the Language Commission of Nepal registered six languages not previously counted: Rana Tharu, Nar Phu, Chum (Syaar), Nubri (Larke), Poike and Serake (Seke). These languages are spoken in the districts of Kanchapur,

Manang Manang ( ne, मनाङ) is a town in the Manang District of Nepal. It is located at 28°40'0N 84°1'0E with an elevation of . According to the preliminary result of the 2011 Nepal census it has a population of 6,527 people living in 1,495 indiv ...

Gorkha The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with endonym Gorkhali ), are soldiers native to the Indian subcontinent, Indian Subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of Northeast India. The Gurkha units are composed of Nepalis and Indian Go ...

, Dolpa, and

Mustang The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once- domesticated animals, t ...

respectively.

Official languages

in Devanagari script is the official working language in federal level. The constitution has provisioned provinces to choose one or more than one official language(s) besides Nepali. According to the Language Commission of Nepal Maithili and Limbu are recommended to have official status in Province No. 1; Maithili, Bhojpuri and Bajjika in Province No. 2; Tamang and Nepal Bhasa in

Bagmati Province Bagmati Province ( ne, बाग्मती प्रदेश, ''Bagmati Pradesh'') is one of the seven provinces of Nepal established by the constitution of Nepal. The province is Nepal's second-most populous province and fifth largest provin ...

; Magar and Gurung in

Gandaki Province Gandaki Province ( ne, गण्डकी प्रदेश ) ), is one of the seven federal provinces established by the current constitution of Nepal which was promulgated on 20 September 2015. Pokhara is the province's capital city. It borde ...

; Tharu and Awadhi in

Lumbini Province Lumbini Province ( ne, लुम्बिनी प्रदेश, Lumbinī pradēśa) is a province in western Nepal. It borders Gandaki Province and Karnali Province to the north, Sudurpashchim Province to the west, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar ...

; Nepali (Khas Bhasa)'s Karnali dialect and Magar in

Karnali Province Karnali Province ( ne, कर्णाली प्रदेश) is one of the seven federal provinces of Nepal formed by the new constitution which was adopted on 20 September 2015. The total area of the province is covering 18.97% of the cou ...

; Dotyali and Tharu in

Sudurpashchim Province Sudurpashchim Province ( ne, सुदूरपश्चिम प्रदेश, ''Sudurpashchim Province'') (''Far-West Province'') is one of the seven provinces established by the new constitution of Nepal which was adopted on 20 September ...

Scripts

Most of the languages are found exclusively in oral form. According to the Language Commission, fifteen scripts are currently in use in Nepal, आयोगले १५ वटा लिपि प्रचलनमा रहेको जनाएको छ । including the following: *

Devanagari script Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the a ...

Dham script Dham script is used to write Dhimal language. The script has been proposed for unicode encoding since 2012. References See also * Dhimal language Writing systems of Nepal {{writingsystem-stub ...

* Kaithi script * Khema script *

Limbu script The Limbu script (also Sirijanga script) is used to write the Limbu language. It is a Brahmic type abugida. History According to traditional histories, the Limbu script was first invented in the late 9th century by Limbu King Sirijunga Hang and ...

* Magar Akkha script * Mithilakshar script * Nepal scripts *

Ol Chiki script The Ol Chiki () script, also known as Ol Chemetʼ (Santali: ''ol'' 'writing', ''chemet'' 'learning'), Ol Ciki, Ol, and sometimes as the Santali alphabet invented by Pandit Raghunath Murmu in the year 1925, is the official writing system for San ...

* Tamyig script

References

{{Authority control Nepalese culture