INDIAN LANGUAGES

INDIAN LANGUAGES

The languages spoken in India belong to the four main families of (a) Austric (Nishada), (b) Dravidian (Dravida), (c) Sino-Tibetan (Kirata), and (d) Indo-European (Aryan).

There are more than 180 languages spoken by different sections of India. Of these, 90 odd are spoken by less than 10,000 persons each and 20 odd languages together account for 97 per cent of the total population of the country. About a dozen major languages constitute the principal linguistic regions. These languages are Kashmiri, Punjabi, Hindi, Bangia, Assamese, Oriya, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. These twelve linguistic regions generally correspond with the states of the Indian Union. But the state boundaries do not always correspond with the linguistic boundaries. In fact, the linguistic bound­ary in itself is not a line but a zone of transition over which one language gradually loses its dominance and gives way to the other.

The four language families of India are discussed below.
1. Austric Family (Nishada) Spoken by 1.38 per cent of total Indian population, this family includes mainly tribal languages and dialects of the central tribal belt, Khasi and Jaintia hills of Meghalaya, and Nicobar islands in the Bay of Bengal. The Austric languages are spoken by 6.2 million people in India. The largest single group is that of Santhali speakers, who alone account for more than half of this total.

2. Sino-Tibetan Family (Kirata) T};\e languages and dialects of this group are spoken by the tribal groups of the north-east and of the Himalayan and sub-Himalayan region of the north and north-west, and account for 0.85 per cent of Indian population. Major languages of this group are Tibetan, Balti, Ladakhi, Lahuli, Sherpa, Sikkim Bhutia, Chamba, Kanauri, Lepcha of the Tibeto-Himalayan region; Aka, Dafla, Abor, Miri, Mishmi and Mishing of north-Assam or the Arunachal region; Bodo/Boro, Naga, Kachin, Kukichin, Manipuri, Garo, Tripuri, Mikir and Lushai of the Assam-Myanmarese branch.

3. Dravidian Family (Dravida) Of the total population of India, 20 per cent speak languages and dialects belong­ing to the Dravidian family. Languages of this family are concentrated in the plateau region and the adjoining coastal plains. Telugu is spoken in Andhra Pradesh; Tamil in Tamil Nadu; Kannada in Karnataka and Malayalam in Kerala. Some tribal groups also speak Dravidian languages like Gonds and Oraons. Some minor languages and dialects belonging to the Dravidian family are Tulu, Kurgi, Yerukala, Kui, Parji and Khond. The Dravidian languages are less diverse than the other language families of India. The major language groups such as Tamil, Telugu, Kahnada and Malayalam themselves account for more than 90 per cent of the total population of the Dravidian speakers.

4. Indo-Aryan Family (Aryan) Nearly 73 per cent of the Indian population speaks languages and dialects of this family. Although these languages are mainly concentrated in the plains of India, their domain extends over the peninsular plateau also, reaching as far south as the Konkan coast.

The central part of this region has Hindi as the principal language. Hindi is spoken by the majority of people in India. Hindi is spoken in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. A major concentration of the Urdu speakers is found in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Kachchhi and Sindhi are mainly concentrated in western India. Marathi is the most important language of the southern group of the Indo-Aryan family. The languages of the eastern group include Oriya, Bangia and Assamese. The languages of the central group are confined to Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. The Himalayan and silb­Himalayan areas are inhabited by speakers of the various forms of Pahari and Nepali which belong to the 110rthern group of the Indo-Aryan languages.

India has 22 officially recognised languages. Hindi speaking people are numerically the largest in India. Bengali is the second largest linguistic unit followed by Telugu, as per the 2001 Census. (See" tabl'e for details).