Maithili (; Maithili) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Nepal and northern India by 34.7 million people as of 2000, of which 2.8 million were resident in Nepal. It is written in the Devanagari script. In the past, Maithili was written primarily in Mithilakshar. Less commonly, it was written with a Maithili variant of Kaithi, a script used to transcribe other neighboring languages such as Bhojpuri, Magahi, and Awadhi.