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LanguagesofIndia
FromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

ThelanguagesofIndiabelongtoseverallanguagefamilies,

LanguagesofIndia

themajoronesbeingtheIndoAryanlanguagesspokenby
75%ofIndiansandtheDravidianlanguagesspokenby20%
ofIndians.[1][2]OtherlanguagesspokeninIndiabelongto
theAustroasiatic,SinoTibetan,andafewotherminor
languagefamiliesandisolates.[3]:283Morethanthreemillennia
oflanguagecontacthasledtosignificantmutualinfluence
amongthefourpredominantlanguagefamiliesinmainland
IndiaandSouthAsia.
TheConstitutionofIndiadoesnotgiveanylanguagethe
statusofnationallanguage.[4][5]TheConstitutionofIndia
designatestheofficiallanguageoftheGovernmentof
IndiaasStandardHindiwrittenintheDevanagariscript,aswell
asEnglish.[6]TheEighthScheduleoftheIndianConstitution
lists22languages,[7]whichhavebeenreferredto
asscheduledlanguagesandgivenrecognition,statusand
officialencouragement.Inaddition,theGovernmentofIndia

LanguagefamiliesoftheIndiansubcontinent
Nihali,Kusunda,andThailanguagesarenotshown.

hasawardedthedistinctionofclassical

Official
languages

Hindi,English,21otherofficially
recognisedlanguagesinIndialistedon
the8thSchedule

Regional
languages

Thereisnosuchregionalornational
languagerecognizedbytheConstitution

Mainforeign
languages

IndianEnglishAround90million
speakers
IndianFrenchapproximately75,000
speakers

Sign
languages

languagetoTamil,Sanskrit,Kannada,Telugu,MalayalamandOdia.
AccordingtoCensusofIndiaof2001,Indiahas122majorlanguages

IndoPakistaniSignLanguage
AlipurSignLanguage
NagaSignLanguage(extinct)
Partofaseriesonthe

CultureofIndia

and1599otherlanguages.However,figuresfromothersourcesvary,
primarilyduetodifferencesindefinitionoftheterms"language"and
"dialect".The2001Censusrecorded30languageswhichwere
spokenbymorethanamillionnativespeakersand122whichwere
spokenbymorethan10,000people.[8]Twocontactlanguageshave
playedanimportantroleinthehistoryof

History
People
Languages

[show]

Mythologyandfolklore

[show]

India:Persian[9]andEnglish.[10]Persianwasthecourtlanguage

Cuisine

duringtheMughalperiodinIndia.Itreignedasanadministrative

Religion

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Art

[show]

Literature

[show]

Musicandperformingarts

[show]

government.Hindi,themostwidelyspokenlanguageinIndiatoday,

Media

[show]

servesasthelinguafrancaacrossmuchofNorthandCentral

Sport

languageforseveralcenturiesuntiltheeraofBritish
colonisation.[11]Uptillnow,EnglishisanimportantlanguageinIndia.
ItisusedinhighereducationandinsomeareasoftheIndian

India.[12]However,therehavebeenantiHindiagitationsinSouth

Monuments

[show]

India,mostnotablyinthestateofTamilNadu.[13]Thereisalso

Symbols

[show]

oppositioninnonHindibeltstatestowardsanyperceivedimposition

Indiaportal

ofHindiintheseareas.[14][15]

VTE

Contents[hide]
1 History
2 Inventories
2.1 CensusofIndiafigures
3 Languagefamilies
3.1 IndoAryanlanguagefamily
3.2 Dravidianlanguagefamily
3.3 Austroasiaticlanguagefamily
3.4 SinoTibetanlanguagefamily
3.5 TaiKadailanguagefamily
3.6 GreatAndamaneselanguagefamily
3.7 Languageisolates
3.8 Influences
4 Officiallanguages
4.1 Nationallevel
4.1.1 Hindi
4.1.2 English
4.2 Scheduledlanguages
5 ProminentlanguagesofIndia
5.1 Telugu
5.2 Tamil
5.3 Bengali
5.4 Marathi
5.5 Urdu
5.6 Gujarati
5.7 Kannada
5.8 Malayalam
5.9 Odia
5.10 Punjabi
5.11 Assamese
6 Classicallanguages
6.1 Benefits
7 Otherlocallanguagesanddialects
7.1 Practicalproblems
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8 Languageconflicts
9 Writingsystems
10 Seealso
11 References
12 Externallinks

History

[ edit ]

Mainarticle:LinguistichistoryofIndia
ThesouthernIndianlanguagesarefromtheDravidianfamily.The
DravidianlanguagesareindigenoustotheIndiansubcontinent.[16]Proto
DravidianlanguageswerespokeninIndiainthe4thmillenniumBCEand
starteddisintegratingintovariousbranchesaround3rdmillennium
BCE.[17]TheDravidianlanguagesareclassifiedinfourgroups:North,
Central(KolamiParji),SouthCentral(TeluguKui)andSouth
Dravidian(TamilKannada).[18]
ThenorthernIndianlanguagesfromtheIndoIranianbranchoftheIndo
EuropeanfamilyevolvedfromOldIndicbywayoftheMiddle
IndicPrakritlanguagesandApabhraaoftheMiddleAges.TheIndo
AryanlanguagesdevelopedandemergedinthreestagesOldIndo

IndoAryanlanguagesubgroups
(UrduisincludedunderHindi)

Aryan(1500BCEto600BCE),MiddleIndoAryanstage(600BCEand
1000CE)andNewIndoAryan(between1000CEand1300CE).
ModernnorthIndianlanguages,suchasHindi(ormorecorrectly,Hindustani),Assamese
(Asamiya),Bengali,Gujarati,Marathi,Punjabi,RajasthaniandOdia,evolvedintodistinct,recognisablelanguages
intheNewIndoAryanAge.[19]
PersianorPharsiwasbroughtintoIndiabytheGhaznaviandotherTurkoAfghandynastiesasthecourtlanguage.
Persiansinfluencedtheart,historyandliteratureoftheregionformorethan500years,resultinginthe
PersianisationofmanyIndiantongues,mainlylexically.In1837,theBritishreplacedPersianwithEnglishfor
administrativepurposes,andtheHindimovementofthe19thCenturyreplacedthePersianisedvocabularyforone
derivedfromSanskritalsoreplacingtheuseofthePersoArabicscriptforHindi/HindustaniwithDevanagari.[9][20]
EachofthenorthernIndianlanguageshaddifferentinfluences.Forexample,Hindustaniwasstronglyinfluenced
bySanskrit,Persian,andArabic,leadingtotheemergenceofModernStandardHindiandModernStandard
UrduasregistersoftheHindustanilanguage.[21][22]ModernStandardHindiisrecognisedastheofficiallanguage
ofIndiawhileUrduisascheduledlanguage.

Inventories

[ edit ]

Mainarticle:ListoflanguagesbynumberofnativespeakersinIndia
ThefirstofficialsurveyoflanguagediversityintheIndiansubcontinentwascarriedoutbySirG.A.Griersonfrom
1898to1928.TitledtheLinguisticSurveyofIndia,itreportedatotalof179languagesand544
dialects.[23]However,theresultswereskewedduetoambiguitiesindistinguishingbetween"dialect"and
"language",[23]useofuntrainedpersonnelandunderreportingofdatafromSouthIndia,astheformerprovinces
ofBurmaandMadras,aswellastheprincelystatesofCochin,Hyderabad,MysoreandTravancorewerenot
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includedinthesurvey.[24]
Differentsourcesgivewidelydifferingfigures,primarilybasedonhowtheterms"language"and"dialect"are
definedandgrouped.Ethnologue,producedbytheChristianevangelistorganisationSILInternational,lists461
tonguesforIndia(outof6,912worldwide),447ofwhichareliving,while14areextinct.The447livinglanguages
arefurthersubclassifiedinEthnologueasfollows:[25][26]
Institutional63
Developing130
Vigorous187
Introuble54
Dying13
ThePeoplesLinguisticSurveyofIndia,aprivatelyownedresearchinstitutioninIndia,hasrecordedover66
differentscriptsandmorethan780languagesinIndiaduringitsnationwidesurvey,whichtheorganisationclaims
tobethebiggestlinguisticsurveyinIndia.[27]
ThePeopleofIndia(POI)projectofAnthropologicalSurveyofIndiareported325languageswhichareusedforin
groupcommunicationby5,633Indiancommunities.[28]

CensusofIndiafigures

[ edit ]

TheCensusofIndiarecordsandpublishesdatawithrespecttothenumberofspeakersforlanguagesand
dialects,butusesitsownuniqueterminology,distinguishingbetweenlanguageandmothertongue.Themother
tonguesaregroupedwithineachlanguage.Manyofthemothertonguessodefinedcouldbeconsidereda
languageratherthanadialectbylinguisticstandards.Thisisespeciallysoformanymothertongueswithtensof
millionsofspeakersthatareofficiallygroupedunderthelanguageHindi.
1961Census
The1961censusrecognised1,652mothertonguesspokenby438,936,918people,countingalldeclarations
madebyanyindividualatthetimewhenthecensuswasconducted.[29]However,thedeclaringindividualsoften
mixednamesoflanguageswiththoseofdialects,subdialectsanddialectclustersorevencastes,professions,
religions,localities,regions,countriesandnationalities.[29]Thelistthereforeincludeslanguageswithbarelyafew
individualspeakersaswellas530unclassifiedmothertonguesandmorethan100idiomsthatarenonnativeto
India,includinglinguisticallyunspecificdemonymssuchas"African","Canadian"or"Belgian".[29]
1991Census
The1991censusrecognises1,576classifiedmothertongues.[30]Accordingtothe1991census,22languages
hadmorethanamillionnativespeakers,50hadmorethan100,000and114hadmorethan10,000native
speakers.Theremainingaccountedforatotalof566,000nativespeakers(outofatotalof838millionIndiansin
1991).[30][31]
2001Census
Accordingtothemostrecentcensusof2001,thereare1365rationalisedmothertongues,234identifiablemother
tonguesand22majorlanguages.[8]Ofthese,29languageshavemorethanamillionnativespeakers,60have
morethan100,000and122havemorethan10,000nativespeakers.[32]ThereareafewlanguageslikeKodava
thatdonothaveascriptbuthaveagroupofnativespeakersinCoorg(Kodagu).[33]
2011Census
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Thelanguagerelateddataresultsofthe2011CensushavenotyetbeenreleasedbytheGovernmentofIndia.[34]

Languagefamilies

[ edit ]

Ethnolinguistically,thelanguagesofSouthAsia,echoingthecomplexhistoryandgeographyoftheregion,forma
complexpatchworkoflanguagefamilies,languagephylaandisolates.[3]:283ThelanguagesofIndiabelongto
severallanguagefamilies,themostimportantofwhichare:[35]
IndoAryanlanguagefamily
Dravidianlanguagefamily
Austroasiaticlanguagefamily
SinoTibetanlanguagefamily
TaiKadailanguagefamily
GreatAndamaneselanguages

IndoAryanlanguagefamily

[ edit ]

ThelargestofthelanguagefamiliesrepresentedinIndia,intermsofspeakers,istheIndoAryanlanguagefamily,
abranchoftheIndoIranianfamily,itselftheeasternmost,extantsubfamilyoftheIndoEuropeanlanguagefamily.
Thislanguagefamilypredominates,accountingforsome790millionspeakers,orover75%ofthepopulation,as
perdatacollatedduringtheCensusof2001.[1]ThemostwidelyspokenlanguagesofthisgroupareHindi,Bengali,
Marathi,Urdu,Gujarati,Punjabi,Assamese,SinhaleseinSriLankaandOdia.[36]AsidefromtheIndoAryan
languages,otherIndoEuropeanlanguagesarealsospokeninIndia,themostprominentofwhichisEnglish,as
alinguafranca.

Dravidianlanguagefamily

[ edit ]

ThesecondlargestlanguagefamilyistheDravidianlanguagefamily,accountingforsome215millionspeakers,or
approximately20%,asperdatacollectedduringtheCensusof2001.[2]TheDravidianlanguagesarespoken
mainlyinsouthernIndiaandpartsofeasternandcentralIndiaaswellasinpartsofnortheasternSriLanka,
Pakistan,NepalandBangladesh.TheDravidianlanguageswiththemostspeakers
areTamil,Telugu,KannadaandMalayalam.[2]Besidesthemainstreampopulation,Dravidianlanguagesarealso
spokenbysmallscheduledtribecommunities,suchastheOraonandGondtribes.[37]OnlytwoDravidian
languagesareexclusivelyspokenoutsideIndia,BrahuiinPakistanandDhangar,adialectofKurukh,inNepal.[38]

Austroasiaticlanguagefamily

[ edit ]

FamilieswithsmallernumbersofspeakersareAustroasiaticandnumeroussmallSinoTibetanlanguages,with
some10and6millionspeakers,respectively,together5%ofthepopulation.[39]
TheAustroasiaticlanguagefamily(austromeaningSouth)istheautochthonouslanguageinSouthAsiaand
SoutheastAsia,otherlanguagefamilieshavingarrivedbymigration.AustroasiaticlanguagesofmainlandIndia
aretheKhasiandMundalanguages,includingSanthali.ThelanguagesoftheNicobarislandsalsoformpartof
thislanguagefamily.WiththeexceptionsofKhasiandSanthali,allAustroasiaticlanguagesonIndianterritoryare
endangered.[3]:456457

SinoTibetanlanguagefamily

[ edit ]

TheSinoTibetanlanguagefamilyarewellrepresentedinIndia.However,theirinterrelationshipsarenot
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discernible,andthefamilyhasbeendescribedas"apatchofleavesontheforestfloor"ratherthanwiththe
conventionalmetaphorofa"familytree".[3]:2835
SinoTibetanlanguagesarespokenacrosstheHimalayasintheregionsofLadakh,Himachal
Pradesh,Nepal,Sikkim,Bhutan,ArunachalPradesh,andalsointheIndianstatesofWestBengal,Assam,(hills
andautonomouscouncilsBTC )[40][41]Meghalaya,Nagaland,Manipur,TripuraandMizoram.SinoTibetan
languagesspokeninIndiaincludeKarbi,Meitei,Lepcha,aswellasmanyvarietiesofseveralrelatedTibetic,West
Himalayish,Tani,Brahmaputran,AngamiPochuri,Tangkhul,Zeme,Kukishlanguagegroups,amongstmany
others.

TaiKadailanguagefamily

[ edit ]

AhomlanguagebelongingtoSouthwesternTailanguagehadbeenoncethedominantlanguageofAhom
KingdominmoderndayAssambuthadbeenreplacedlaterbyKamarupilanguage,theancientformofAssamese
language.Nowadays,smallTaicommunitiesandtheirlanguagesremaininAssamandArunachal
PradeshtogetherwithSinoTibetans,e.g.TaiPhake,TaiAitonandTaiKhamtilanguage,whicharesimilartoShan
languageofShanstateofMyanmar,DailanguageinYunnanofChina,LaolanguageofLaos,Thai
languageofThailandandZhuanglanguageinGuangxiofChina.

GreatAndamaneselanguagefamily

[ edit ]

TheextinctandendangeredlanguagesoftheAndamanIslandsformafifthfamilytheGreatAndamanese
languagefamily,comprisingtwofamilies,namely:[42]
theGreatAndamanese,comprisinganumberofextinctlanguagesapartfromonehighlyendangered
languagewithadwindlingnumberofspeakers.
theOnganfamilyofthesouthernAndamanIslands,comprisingtwoextantlanguages,ngeandJarawa,and
oneextincttongue,Jangil.
Inaddition,Sentinelese,anunattestedlanguageoftheAndamanIslands,isgenerallyconsideredtoberelated
andpartofthelanguagefamily.[42]

Languageisolates

[ edit ]

TheonlylanguagefoundintheIndianmainlandthatisconsideredalanguageisolateisNahali.[3]:337Thestatusof
Nahaliisambiguous,havingbeenconsideredasadistinctAustroAsiaticlanguage,asadialectofMunda
languageandalsoasbeinga"thieves'argot"ratherthanalegitimatelanguage.[43][44]
TheotherlanguageisolatesfoundintherestofSouthAsiaincludeBurushaski,alanguagespokeninGilgit
Baltistan(northernPakistan),Kusunda(inwesternNepal)andVedda(inSriLanka).[3]:283ThevalidityoftheGreat
Andamaneselanguagegroupasalanguagefamilyhasbeenquestionedandithasbeenconsideredalanguage
isolatebysomeauthorities.[3]:283[45][46]
Inaddition,aBantulanguage,Sidi,wasspokenuntilthemid20thcenturyinGujarat.[3]:528

Influences

[ edit ]

Thisarticleneeds
additionalcitations
forverification.Please
helpimprovethis
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2015)(Learnhowand
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templatemessage)

ThelanguagefamiliesinIndiaarenotnecessarilyrelatedtothevariousethnicgroupsinIndia,specificallythe
IndoAryanandDravidianpeople.Thelanguageswithineachfamilyhavebeeninfluencedtoalargeextentby
bothfamilies.Forexample,manyoftheSouthIndianlanguagesspecificallyMalayalamandTelugu,havebeen
highlyinfluencedbySanskrit(anIndoAryanlanguage).Thecurrentvocabularyofthoselanguagesinclude
between7080%ofSanskritisedcontentintheirpurestform.
Urduhasalsohadasignificantinfluenceonmanyoftoday'sIndianlanguages.ManyNorthIndianlanguageshave
lostmuchoftheirSanskritisedbase(50%currentvocabulary)toamoreUrdubasedform.Intermsofthewritten
script,mostIndianlanguages,excepttheTamilscriptnearlyperfectlyaccommodatetheSanskritlanguage.South
IndianlanguageshaveadoptednewletterstowritevariousIndoAryanbasedwordsaswell,andhaveaddednew
letterstotheirnativealphabetsasthelanguagesbegantomixandinfluenceeachother.
ThoughvariousIndoAryanandDravidianlanguagesmayseemmutuallyexclusivewhenfirstheard,thereisa
muchdeeperunderlyinginfluencethatbothlanguagefamilieshavehadoneachotherdowntoalinguistic
science.ThereisproofoftheintermixingofDravidianandIndoAryanlanguagesthroughthepocketsof
DravidianbasedlanguagesonremoteareasofPakistan,andinterspersedareasofNorthIndia.Inaddition,there
isawholescienceregardingthetonalandculturalexpressionwithinthelanguagesthatarequitestandardacross
India.Languagesmayhavedifferentvocabulary,butvarioushandandtonalgestureswithintwounrelated
languagescanstillbecommonduetoculturalamalgamationsbetweeninvadingpeopleandthenativesovertime
inthiscase,theIndoAryanpeoplesandthenativeDravidianpeople.

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