Nepali

About Nepali

Nepali is the official language of Nepal and the common language between its many peoples. It is also an official language of the Indian state of Sikkim and is spoken in Darjeeling and in Bhutan. About 16 million people speak it as a first language and millions more as a second language.

Nepali has several levels of "you". Use tapāī with strangers and older people, timī with friends and younger people and hajur when you want to be especially respectful. It is written in Devanagari, the same script as Hindi. The usual greeting is namaste, said with the palms pressed together, and it works for both hello and goodbye.

FamilyIndo-European, Indo-Aryan
Native speakersabout 16 million (2019)
Official inNepal, India (Sikkim)
ScriptDevanagari
Codesne (ISO 639-1), nep (ISO 639-3)

Speaker number: Ethnologue (2019), via Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

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