Gurung is one of the major languages of Nepal, and is also spoken in India, Bhutan, and by diaspora communities in places such as Singapore and Hong Kong.

Robert Shafer classified Gurung within the Bodic division, sub-grouping that into Bodish and West Central Himalayish.

Sten Konow classified Himalayan T-B languages into pronominalized and non-prominalized, where Gurung is located.

[16][17][18] These use a modified Devanagari orthography, which include subscript dots for nasalized vowels and other special symbols for consonant clusters and tonal and phonation distinctions that are found in Gurung, but not in Nepali.

A 2020 Gurung-English-Nepali dictionary, based on the Sikkim variety of Gurung also makes use of a modified Devanagari script, but does not indicate tone.