Language

There are 123 languages spoken as mother tongue (first language) in Nepal according to 2011 National census. most belonging to the Indo-Aryan and Sino-Tibetian Language families. An overview of Nepali languages is found in the work of Toba, Toba, and Rai.The official language of Nepal is Nepali, formerly called Khaskura then Gorkhali. According to 2011 national census, the percentage of people with Nepali as mother-tongue is 80% and further 20% use it as second language.Three quarters of the 120-some languages native to Nepal belong to the Tibeto- Burman language family; this includes Nepal Bhasa(Newar) (the original language of Kathmandu), theTamang, Magar and various Rai and Limbu languages. 

However, the official and numerically most important language, Nepali(Gorkhali), belongs to the Indo-Aryan(Indic) branch of the Indo-European Family, so that Indic languages constitute 79% of the population to Tibeto-Burman's 18%, even though most languages of both families are spoken by small numbers of people.The Dravidian languages are represented by Kurux, and the Munda languages of the Astronautic family 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 least two indigenous village sign languages, in addition to the Nepali Sign Language designed for national use.