Nepali (English: /nɪˈpɔːli/;[3] Devanagari: नेपाली, [ˈnepali]), or Gorkhali[4][5][6] is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Himalayas region of South Asia.

Nepali has official status in the Indian state of Sikkim and in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration of West Bengal.

The language originated from the Sinja Valley, Karnali Province then the capital city of the Khasa Kingdom around the 10th and 14th centuries.

Nepali was originally spoken by the Khas people, an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the Himalayan region of South Asia.

Around 1830, several Nepali poets wrote on themes from the Sanskrit epics Ramayana and the Bhagavata Purana, which was followed by Bhanubhakta Acharya translating the Ramayana in Nepali which received "great popularity for the colloquial flavour of its language, its religious sincerity, and its realistic natural descriptions".

[10] Conversely, the term Gorkhali in the former national anthem entitled "Shriman Gambhir" was changed to Nepali in 1951.

[15][16] The people living in the Pahad or the hilly region, where it does not generally contain snow, called the language Parvate Kurā (पर्वते कुरा), meaning "the speech of the hills".

[19] The currently popular variant of Nepali is believed to have originated around 500 years ago with the mass migration of a branch of Khas people from the Karnali-Bheri-Seti eastward to settle in lower valleys of the Karnali and the Gandaki basin.

[19] Nepali speakers and Senas had a close connect, subsequently, the language became the lingua franca in the area.

[19] As a result, the grammar became simplified, vocabulary was expanded, and its phonology was softened, after it was syncretised, Nepali lost much of the complex declensional system present in the older languages.

[23] During this time Nepali developed a standardised prose in the Lal mohar (royal charter)—documents related to the Nepalese Kingdom dealing with diplomatic writings, tax, and administrative records.

[9] During this time the ruling Rana dynasty made various attempts to make Nepali the language of education, notably, by Dev Shumsher and Chandra Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, who established Gorkhapatra, and the Gorkha Bhasa Prakashini Samiti respectively.

[28][10] At this time, Nepali had limited literature compared to Hindi and Bengali languages, a movement notably in Varanasi, and Darjeeling was started to create uniformed Nepali identity, which was later adopted in Nepal following the 1951 Nepalese revolution and during the Panchayat system.

[28] In 1957, Royal Nepal Academy was established with the objectives of developing and promoting Nepali literature, culture, art and science.

[33] In 1977, Nepali was officially accepted by Sahitya Academy, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of Indian literature.

[35] On 20 August 1992, the Lok Sabha passed a motion to add the Nepali language to the Eighth Schedule.

Nepali is a highly fusional language with relatively free word order, although the dominant arrangement is SOV (subject–object–verb).

The chief features are: subscript dots for retroflex consonants; macrons for etymologically, contrastively long vowels; h denoting aspirated plosives.

The contribution of trio-laureates Lekhnath Paudyal, Laxmi Prasad Devkota, and Balkrishna Sama took Nepali to the level of other world languages.

Nepali-language speakers are rapidly migrating around the globe in last a couple of decades and many books of Nepali language literature are published from different corners of the world.

Dialects of Nepali include Acchami, Baitadeli, Bajhangi, Bajurali, Bheri, Dadeldhuri, Dailekhi, Darchulali, Darchuli, Gandakeli, Humli, Purbeli, and Soradi.

[13] The following is a sample text in Nepali, of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with a transliteration (IAST) and transcription (IPA).