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India is referred to as a “museum of languages” because it is home to many languages and dialects. It’s commonly referred to as ‘linguistic plurality’ in popular culture. The current state of affairs in the country is not pluralistic but relatively continuous. One dialect slowly flows into the other, and one tongue progressively replaces the other. Furthermore, there is a zone of transition where persons are multilingual along the line of contact between two languages.
Indian language history
The Indian language branch’s history is frequently divided into three stages:
- Old Sanskrit, which includes Vedic and classical Sanskrit;
- Middle (approximately 3rd century BCE) consists of the Prakrit varieties of Sanskrit, including Pali, and Late (about 3rd century BCE).
- The contemporary languages of the northern and central parts of the Indian subcontinent are included in this category, dating from around the 10th century CE.
Linguistic overview
Indian languages have originated from various sources and are strongly tied with India’s different ethnic groupings. It is divided into six categories:
- Indo-Aryan
- Sino-Tibetan
- Dravidian
- Negroid
- Austric
- Others
Over the years, Indian languages have interacted with one another, resulting in the primary language divisions of modern India. Indo-Aryan and Dravidian are dominant, including all of India’s major languages.
Indo-Aryan: India’s most populous linguistic group, accounting for roughly 74 percent of the country’s overall population. It includes Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Assamese, Sindhi, Oriya, Bihari, Kashmiri, Pahari,Urdu, and Sanskrit, as well as other northern and western Indian languages.
Dravidian: It is the second significant group, consisting primarily of Southern Indian languages. It includes Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam, the Dravidian group’s primary languages.
Sino-Tibetan: The Sino-Tibetan is found throughout the Himalayan regions, including Bihar, Bengal, and Assam, as well as the country’s north-eastern borders.
Austric: The Austro-Asiatic sub-family includes Munda languages spoken in the middle, eastern, and north-eastern India, as well as Mon-Khmer languages such as Khasi and Nicobarese.
Others: Adivasi languages, such as Gondi, Kurukh, Khond, Parji, and Mal-Pahariya are included in this category. They are unique and cannot be categorized in other groupings.
Official languages of India
- Bengali
- Hindi
- Maithili
- Nepalese
- Sanskrit
- Tamil
- Urdu
- Assamese
- Dogri
- Kannada
- Gujarati
- Bodo
- Manipur
- Oriya
- Marathi
- Santali
- Telugu
- Punjabi
- Sindhi
- Malayalam
- Konkani
- Kashmiri.
India’s Most Common Languages Depending on the location
The Indian Constitution particularly specifies 22 languages for a reason: the number of speakers determines which languages are spoken on India’s national and state levels. Almost everyone in the country speaks one or more languages.
North India: Hindi, Punjabi, Ladakhi, and Kashmiri are some of the languages spoken.
Northeast India: Nepali, Bengali, Khasi, Assamese, and Manipuri are spoken languages.
South India: Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu are spoken languages.
India’s west coast: Marathi, Bhili, Konkani, and Gujarati are the language spoken.
Common languages of India
Hindi
Hindi is India’s most spoken language and the world’s second most spoken language. It is native to over 100 million people, the majority of whom live in North India. Despite coming from various linguistic backgrounds, a large majority of the Indian population speaks Hindi.
During India’s independence, Hindi was regarded as a common language. The Indian constitution designated sixteen languages as official languages in 1950. Later, 14 additional languages were added to the list, bringing the total number of official languages in India to 22. The northwestern section of India is home to the majority of Hindi speakers. They account for half of the country’s population, which spans 11 states, including Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
English
Although English remains a symbol of the British Raj for some, others appreciate its continued usage as an official language in India, mainly because it is (unofficially) acknowledged as a business language. Many tourists believe that the better your English is, the more money you have in Indian merchants’ eyes.
However, especially among the top classes, English does not have a prominent presence in India’s broad social life. For many Indians, English is no longer a foreign language because Indians adopted it after over a century of colonization. Indian English is distinct from Standard English for cultural and linguistic reasons and is commonly referred to as “Hinglish.”
Conclusion
India is noted for its vast cultural diversity, traditions, religions, and languages. In India, there are over 700 different languages spoken. There is not any national language of India. According to the Indian constitution’s 8th schedule, 22 scheduled or official languages receive government recognition and support. The Indian constitution does not recognize any language as the national language of India. In India, there are 22 official languages.
