how many languages in india are there bilingua part 1

How Many Languages in India Are There? [PART 1]

“Indians are the Italians of Asia and vice versa. Every man in both countries is a singer when he is happy, and every woman is a dancer when she walks to the shop at the corner.

For them, food is the music inside the body and music is the food inside the heart.

Amore or Pyar makes every man a poet, a princess of peasant girl if only for second eyes of man and woman meets.”

This is what Gregory David Roberts, a popular Australian author has to say about India, and in just a few lines, he gave a tour to India.

India is a land of diverse culture, located in South Asia. It is the seventh largest and we ask how many languages in India are there, in the second most populated country in the world? In the subsequent section let’s figure out the extent of this diversity.

How many languages in India are there?

There are more than 1700 regional languages or mother languages spoken in India. Out of these, 122 languages are major and other languages are sometimes considered their dialects. Despite such a large number of languages, there is no national language of India.

Are these languages official?

No, out of these 122 important languages of India, there are 23 official languages including English. The official languages of India are (alphabetically mentioned)- Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Meitei (Manipuri), Nepali, Odia, Punjabi. Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

language in indiaWhy are there so many languages in India?

When we look at the history of India, India was popular for growing high quality spices. This attracted trade and followed by the nation being ruled by a sequence of empires from different parts of the world.

That is why, the Indian languages belong to several different language families. 65 % of the Indian languages belong to the Indo-Aryan language family, 25 % to the Dravidian family, and the remaining 10 % belongs to the Austroasiatic, Sino-Tibetan, Tai-Kadai, and other minor language families and isolates.

Isolate languages are natural languages, which do not demonstrate genealogical relationship with the existing ancestral languages.

The official languages in India

Let’s discuss the official languages in India and their regional impact.

Assamese

It is the official language of the Assam state of India. Assamese language belongs to the Eastern Indo-Aryan language family. This language follows Eastern Nagari or Assamese writing system. The earliest forms of Assamese in literature are found in the 9th-century Buddhist verses called Charyapada (চৰ্যাপদ).

How many people in India speak Assamese?

Over 15 million people in India are the native speakers of Assamese language.

Where is Assamese spoken?

Assamese language is spoken mainly in Assam and some parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland states of India.

Bengali

It is the second most widely spoken languages in India after Hindi. Bengali language belong to the Indo-Aryan language family, spoken in some other south Asian countries.

How many people in India speak Bengali?

Over 189 million people in India are the native speakers of Bengali language. Worldwide, this figure rises to 208 million.

Where is Bengali spoken?

Bengali language is mostly spoken in India and Bangladesh.

Bodo

Bodo or Mech is the language of North Eastern region of India, belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It follows Devanagari writing style.

How many people in India speak Bodo?

There are about 2 million native speakers of this language.

Where is Bodo spoken?

It is spoken by the Bodo community of North East India, Nepal, and Bengal.

Dogri

Dogri language belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family. The people who speak this language are called Dogras, and the region they belong is called Duggar.

How many people in India speak Dogri?

About 5 million people in India are the native speakers of Dogri language.

Where is Dogri spoken?

It is mostly spoken in the Jammu & kashmir and Himachal Pradesh state of India and in some parts of Pakistan bordering India.

Gujarati

It is the native language of the Indian state of Gujarat, belonging to the Indo-Aryan language family. It is written using Gujarati alphabets, derived from the Brahmic style of writing.

How many people in India speak Gujarati?

There are about 55 million people speaking Gujarati worldwide, out of which about 50 million are the native speakers.

Where is Gujarati spoken?

Gujarati is the official language in Gujarat, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and diu. The later two are the union territories of India.

Hindi

Hindi is the official language of the Government of India. It is the lingua franca in the northern and central parts of India. It is directly derived from the ancient Sanskrit language.

How many people in India speak Hindi?

About 490 million people speak Hindi, out of which 370 million are the native speakers and 120 million people speak Hindi as their second language.

Where is Hindi spoken?

It is spoken in northern and central parts of India known as Hindi-belt. Outside India, Hindi and its dialects are spoken in Fiji, and parts of Africa.

Kannada

Kannada belongs to the Dravidian language family. It is the official and administrative language of the Karnataka state of India.

How many people in India speak Kannada?

About 51 million people speak Kannada, out of which 38 million are the native speakers.

Where is Kannada spoken?

It is spoken in majority in Karnataka state of India and in minority, spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Kerala, Goa, and abroad.

Kashmiri

This language belongs to the dardic subgroup of the Indo-Aryan languages.

How many people in India speak Kashmiri?

About 5 million people in India are the native speakers of Kashmiri language.

Where is Kashmiri spoken?

Kashmiri language is spoken in the Chenab Valley region of the Jammu and Kashmir state of India.

Konkani

Konkani is the language of the south western coast of India. It belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family.

How many people in India speak Konkani?

There are about 13 million native speakers of this language.

Where is Konkani spoken?

It is the official language of Goa and also spoken in Maharashtra and Kerala. Though in minority, but considerable number of people in Gujarat, Daman and Diu speak this language.

Maithili

It is a language from the Indo-Aryan language family and second most prevalent language of Nepal.

How many people in India speak Maithili?

About 50 million people in India speak Maithili and in in Nepal it is spoken by about 3.7 million people.

Where is Maithili spoken?

In India, it is spoken in Bihar and Jharkhand states. Outside India, it is spoken in Nepal.

Malayalam

Malayalam language belongs to the Dravidian language family, and is designated as a “classical language” of India.

How many people in India speak Malayalam?

There are about 38 million native speakers of this language and are known as Malayali.

Where is Malayalam spoken?

It is spoken in Kerala, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry states of India.

 

Read more about learning languages here:

A Simple Guide to Learning Hindi through English

How to Say Goodbye in Chinese Mandarin for Different Situations

Chinese, Japanese, Korean: A Language Comparison

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