Bengali or Bangla (; ) is the language native to the region of Bengal, which comprises the present-day nation of Bangladesh and of the Indian states West Bengal, Tripura and southern Assam. It is written using the Bengali alphabet. Bengali is the national language in Bangladesh and second most spoken language in India. With about 250 million native and about 300 million total speakers worldwide, it is the seventh most spoken language in the world by total number of native speakers and the eleventh most spoken language by total number of speakers. The importance of this language to the countries of South Asia is illustrated by the history of the national anthems of Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, and the national song of India, all first composed in the Bengali language.