Three quarters of the hundred or so languages native to Nepal belong to the Tibeto-Burman language family; this includes Nepal Bhasa (Newar) (the original language of Kathmandu), the Tamang, Magar and various Rai and Limbu languages.
However, the official and numerically most important language, Nepali, 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 Austroasiatic 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 several indigenous village sign languages, Jhankot Sign Language, Jumla Sign Language, and Ghandruk Sign Language, in addition to the Nepali Sign Language designed for national use.