The official and most widely spoken language in Nepal is Nepali , also known as Gorkhali. It is spoken by about 45% of the population as their first language and serves as the lingua franca among diverse ethnic groups in Nepal. Nepali is an Indo-Aryan language derived from Sanskrit and is written in the Devanagari script. Besides Nepali, there are over 120 other languages spoken in Nepal, reflecting its linguistic diversity, with Maithili and Bhojpuri being among the other commonly spoken languages.