Assamese, also known by its endonym Asamiya, is an Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is spoken primarily by the Assamese people, native to the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language. It has long served as a lingua franca in parts of Northeast India. It has over 15 million native speakers and 8.3 million second language speakers according to Ethnologue.