Indo-European · ISO 639-3 bfy
Bagheli Language बघेली
Bagheli is an Indo-European language spoken by about 8.0 million people in 2 countries. It is written in the Devanagari script.
Where Bagheli is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
About the Bagheli language
Bagheli (बघेली) is spoken by about 8.0 million people, which makes it the 143rd most spoken language in the world — just behind Kimbundu (8.1 million) and ahead of Minangkabau (8.0 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Awadhic group within the Indo-Iranian branch.
Where is Bagheli spoken?
Bagheli is used in 2 countries. The largest communities live in India (521,378) and Nepal (168,060).
Share of the population that speaks Bagheli: India <0.1% (521,378) and Nepal 0.5% (168,060).
Bagheli is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Bagheli is written in the Devanagari script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Awadhi, Chhattisgarhi, Powari, Hindi, Urdu, Bhojpuri and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 bfy.
Frequently asked questions about Bagheli
How many people speak Bagheli?
Where is Bagheli spoken?
What language family does Bagheli belong to?
What is Bagheli called in Bagheli?
Is Bagheli an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.