Indian Languages

Indian Languages

Introduction:

There are 29 states and 6 union territories in India. There are 18 official languages and approximately 100 other languages spoken in India. But, almost each of these 18 languages, include different dialects or variations of that language. Most of the languages of India belong to two families, Aryan and Dravidian.

Languages spoken in the four states of south India belong to the Dravidian family and most of the languages spoken in the north are of Aryan family. The general script of the Aryan languages is different from the general script of Dravidian languages.

History Of Indian Languages:

The Aryans are said to have entered India through the fabled Khyber pass, around 1500 BC. Before the Aryans, the Dravidian people resided in India. It is believed that coming of the Aryans pushed the local people southwards or towards the jungles and mountains in north India.
The Aryans are believed to have brought with them the horse, developed the Sanskrit language and made significant contribution to the religion of the times.
The languages spoken in present India, evolved in different phases of Indian history. In the earlier stage of Indian history other languages were spoken. The holy books of different religions that developed in ancient India are written in different languages. The holy books of Hinduism were written Sanskrit

Indian languages now in use have evolved from different language families in the course of time in history.

The Constitution has recognized Hindi, in the Devanagiri script, as Indias official language. However, English continues to be the official working language. For many educated Indians, English is virtually their first language, and for a great number of Indians who are multi-lingual, it will probably be the second. The regional languages have been recognized as the official language of the States. In many cases, the state boundaries are drawn between linguistic lines.
Despite their separate names, Hindi and Urdu are actually slightly different dialects of the same language. The main differences lie in their vocabulary sources, scripts, and religious traditions. Hindi vocabulary derives mainly from Sanskrit, while Urdu contains many words of Persian and Arabic origin; Hindi is written in the Devanagari script, and Urdu in a Persian Arabic script. Hindi is spoken mainly by Hindus; Urdu is used predominantly by Muslims—in India as well as throughout Pakistan.

Bihari is actually the name of a group of three related languages—Bhojpuri, Maithili, and Magahi—spoken mainly in northeastern India in Bihar. Despite its large number of speakers, Bihari is not a constitutionally recognized language of India. Even in Bihar, Hindi is the language used for educational and official matters.

Facts about Dravidian Languages

About 23 Dravidian languages are spoken by an estimated 169 million people, mainly in southern India.

The 4 major Dravidian tongues are recognized as official state languages—Tamil in Tamil Nadu, Telugu in Andhra Pradesh, Kannada (Kanarese) in Mysore, and Malayalam in Kerala.
Dravidian languages have long literary histories and are written in their own scripts.

Telugu is spoken by the largest number of people

Tamil has the richest literature, is thought to be extremely ancient, and it is spoken over the widest area, including northwestern Sri Lanka.


Official Languages Of India, recognized by the Indian constitution

	Language	Spoken Approx By
1	Assamese	13 million
2	Bengali	69.5 million
3	Gujarati	40 million
4	Hindi	337 million
5	Kannada	32 million
6	Kashmiri	56 thousand
7	Konkani	1.7 million
8	Malayalam	30.3 million
9	Manipuri	1.2 million
10	Marathi	62 million
11	Nepali	2 million
12	Oriya	28 million
13	Punjabi	23 million
14	Sanskrit	49.7 thousand
15	Sindhi	2.1 million
16	Tamil	53 million
17	Telugu	66 million
18	Urdu	43 million

Assamese is the language of Assam and is spoken by nearly 60 percent of the State population. It developed as a literary language from the 13th Century.

Bengali, one of the leading Indo-Aryan languages, is the official language of West Bengal. It too developed as a language in the 13th Century and is now spoken by nearly 200 million people in West Bengal and in Bangladesh.

Bengali is spoken by almost the entire population of Bangladesh. Like Hindi, it is descended from Sanskrit, and has the most extensive literature of any modern Indian language.

Gujarati is the official language of the state of Gujarat and is spoken by 70 percent of the State population. Gujarat started out as an independent language around AD 1200. It is now one of the most developed languages in India.

Hindi is numerically the biggest of the Indo-Aryan family and is the official language of India. Two major varieties of Hindi are spoken; Western Hindi, which originated in the area around Delhi, includes literary Hindi and Urdu and Eastern Hindi is spoken mainly in central Uttar Pradesh and eastern Madhya Pradesh. There are various dialects of Hindi. In six states and union Territories, Hindi is the official language.

Kannada is the state language of Karnataka and is spoken by 65 percent of the state population. It belongs to the Dravidian family, and dates back to the 9th Century as an independent language.

Kashmiri is a language of the Indo-Aryan group and is often mistaken as the state language of Jammu and Kashmir. Urdu is the state language of Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmiri speaking population of the state comes to around 55% of the total population. Kashmiri literature goes back to AD 1200.

Konkani, the official language of Goa, is principally based on classical Sanskrit and belongs to the southwestern branch of Indo-Aryans. It is spoken by thousands of Konkanis in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala also.

Malayalam, a branch of the Dravidian family is the official language of the state of Kerala. It is also spoken in Lakshwadeep islands. Malayalam developed as an independent language, by the 10th Century AD. It is the youngest of all developed languages in the Dravidian family.

Marathi, the Indic language, dates back to the 13th Century. It is the official language of Maharashtra. Though Marathi separated from the Indo-Aryan stock at a very early date , it has today a fully developed literature of the modern type.

Oriya, a branch of the Indo-Aryan family, is the official language of the State of Orissa, where the Oriya speaking population comprises around 82% of the total population. Oriya is found recorded as far back as the 10th Century. However, its literary career began only in the 14th Century.

Punjabi belongs to the Indo-Aryan family and is the official language of the State of Punjab. Punjabi, though very ancient, turned literary around the 15th Century. From the 19th Century, Punjabi showed vigorous development in all branches of literature. It is written in Gurmukhi script, created by the Sikh Guru, Angad.

Punjabi (Panjabi), spoken in the Punjab, a region covering parts of northeastern India and western Pakistan, was the language of the gurus, the founders of the Sikh religion. The sacred teachings of Sikhism are recorded in Punjabi in the Gurmukhi script, which was devised by a Sikh guru. In India, Punjabi is close to the Hindi language; to the west, in Pakistan, Punjabi dialects differ markedly.

Sanskrit, the classical language of India, is also one of the oldest languages in the world- perhaps the oldest to be recorded. It starts with the Rig Veda, which appears to have been composed around 2000 BC. Early Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit and covers the period between 500 BC and AD 1000.

Sindhi is spoken by a great number of people in the Northwest frontier of the Indian subcontinent comprising parts of India and Pakistan. It belongs to the Indo-Aryan family and preserved some of the archaic characteristics of the Indo-Aryan script. Sindhi is actually an offshoot of some of the dialects of the Vedic Sanskrit. Sindh, on the north west of undivided India, had always been the first to bear the onslaught of the never-ending invaders, and as such absorbed Hindi, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, English and even Portuguese. Sindh is where Persian and Indian cultures blended

Tamil is the oldest of the Dravidian languages and is the State language of Tamil Nadu. Tamil literature goes back to Centuries before the Christian era. It represents certain new literary types that are not in Sanskrit or other Aryan languages. It spoken by more than 73 million people.

Telugu is a Dravidian language spoken by the people of Andhra Pradesh. It is numerically the biggest linguistic unit in India. Telugu is found to be recorded in the 7th Century AD. However, it is only in the 11th Century that it broke out into a literary language.

Urdu is the State language of Jammu and Kashmir and is spoken by more than 28 million people In India. The name "Urdu" is derived from "Zabane-e-Urdu-Muala" which means the language of the exalted camp or court. Here it refers to the camp or court of the ruling Sultans of Delhi. Urdu and Hindi have proceeded from the same source i.e., Khariboli. Urdu is written in the Persio-Arabic script and contains many words from the Persian language.

Languages Spoken In the States and Union Terrotories Of India

Indo-Aryan languages: 491,087,116, 74.24%, Dravidian languages: 157,836,723, 23.86%

Jammu & Kashmir (Dogri, Kashmiri, Ladakhi, Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi, Baltistani, Dardi)
Himanchal Pradesh (Hindi, Pahadi)
Punjab (Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu)
Haryana (Hindi, Haryanvi, Predominantly Muslim - Urdu)
Rajasthan (Hindi, Rajasthani, Marwadi, Predominantly Muslim - Urdu)
Uttar Pradesh (Hindi, Brijbhasha, Pahadi, Avadhi, Bhojpuri, numerous others, Pred. Musl. - Urdu)
Uttaranchal (Hindi)
Chhattisgarh (Hindi)
Madhya Pradesh (Hindi, Marathi, numerous others, pred. Muslim - Urdu)
Gujarat (Gujarati)
Maharashtra (Marathi, Vidarbha region - Hindi and Marathi)
Karnataka (Kannada)
Goa (Konkani)
Kerala (Malayalam)
Tamil Nadu (Tamil)
Lakshadweep (Malayalam )
Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Andamanese)
Andhra Pradesh (Telugu, Hyderabad city - Telugu plus Urdu)
Orissa (Oriya)
Bihar (Hindi, Bhojpuri, Maithini, Santhali, Angika, numerous others, Bengali, Pred. Muslim - Urdu)
Jharkhand (Hindi)

West Bengal (Bengali)
Sikkim (Nepali, Lepcha, Bhutia)
Assam (Assamese, others)
Meghalaya (Garo, Khasi)
Arunanchal Pradesh (Nissi, Daffla)
Mizoram (Mizo)
Nagaland (Naga)
Tripura (Tripuri, Bengali, Kuki)
Delhi (Hindi)

Please print out a copy of the linguistic map of India from http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/india/indianlanguages.htmand use as a reference material for this topic.
Source : Sudha Jamthe , US