India is a country rich in culture and languages. With over 1.3 billion people, it’s no surprise that hundreds of different languages are spoken in India. Indian languages come in many varieties, ranging from the major ones, such as Hindi, Bengali, and Gujarati, to smaller dialects that most people don’t even know about.
In this article, we will look at some of the most popular languages in India and their respective regions. We will also explore how India’s history has shaped these languages and what makes them unique from other languages worldwide. So let’s get started!
1. Hindi
Hindi is one of the 22 scheduled languages in India, with over 258 million speakers. It is the official language of the Union Government of India and 11 States. Hindi is also one of the two official languages in Jammu and Kashmir.
Although Hindi has been officially recognized as a language since 1955, its use has been controversial. Critics argue that Hindi imposition violates linguistic rights, while supporters see it as a necessary step for national unity.
The Constitution of India does not give any language the national language status, but it has been declared as such by various laws and governmental orders. In addition to Hindi, English is used for all official purposes, including education, judiciary, and business.
2. Telugu
India is a land of many languages. While Hindi is India’s official language, over 22 other languages are spoken throughout the country. Telugu is one of these languages spoken by over 81 million people in India.
Telugu is a Dravidian language that originated in the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. It is the official language of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and is also spoken in the union territories of Puducherry and Yanam. Telugu is also spoken in neighboring states such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Odisha.
The earliest known inscriptions in the Telugu language date back to 575 AD. The script used for writing Telugu has evolved over time and has been influenced by other scripts such as Grantha and Devanagari. The modern Telugu script consists of 56 symbols, including 12 vowels and 18 consonants.
Telugu literature dates back to the 11th century AD, with some early works attributed to Nannaya Bhatta, the first Telugu poet. Since then, many famous poets and writers have composed works in Telugu, including Kālidāsa, Bhartṛhari, Vemana, Gurajada Apparao, Sri Sri, Viswanatha Satyanarayana, Pamulaparti Venkata Subba Rao, Cinna Harinathreddy, Devineni Neh
3. Tamil
Tamil is the official language of Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India, with official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Tamil is spoken by a majority of the population in Sri Lanka and Singapore. It is also the national language of Sri Lanka and an official language of Singapore.
Tamil belongs to the Dravidian family of languages, including about 73 other languages spoken mainly in South Asia. The earliest known inscriptions in Tamil date back to 300 BC. Tamil literature has a rich tradition dating back to over 2,000 years. Notable works include Thirukkural, Silappathikaram and Manimekalai.
Today, Tamil is spoken by around 78 million people spread across India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Mauritius, Fiji, South Africa, Réunion Island andSingapore.
4. Urdu
Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language is spoken mainly in Pakistan and India and in Bangladesh, Nepal, Singapore, and many other countries. It is the official language of Pakistan and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
Urdu has about 60 million speakers worldwide. In Pakistan, Urdu is spoken by around 8 million people as their first language and another 25 million as a second language. In India, there are about 50 million native speakers of Urdu, concentrated in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Telangana. It is also widely spoken in Delhi, Hyderabad, and other urban areas of India.
Urdu has been written in a variety of scripts over its history, including Arabic, Persian, and Devanagari (used for Hindi). Since Independence in 1947, however, it has been written almost exclusively in the Perso-Arabic script.
5. Gujarati
Gujarati is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India, with over 46 million speakers. It is the native language of the Gujarati people, an ethnolinguistic group of India. Gujarati is descended from Old Gujarati (circa 1100–1500 CE).
In India, it is the language in the state of Gujarat and an official language in the union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Gujarat High Court, in 2010, recognized Gujarati as a classical language.
6. Marathi
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken predominantly in the state of Maharashtra in western India. It is the official language of Maharashtra and one of the 22 scheduled languages of India. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India, after Hindi, Bengali and Telugu. The total number of Marathi speakers in the world is 73 million.
Marathi is a descendant of Sanskrit and Prakrit and belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It is closely related to Hindi and Punjabi, with significant borrowings from these and other languages. Marathi is written in Devanagari script.
7. Malayalam
Malayalam is a gravitationally rounded language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and was designated a Classical Language in 2013. Malayalam has the oldest literature amongst the Dravidian languages, with a history dating back to the 13th century. It is also one of the few languages to develop a major body of medieval literature prior to the European colonial period.
Malayalam is spoken by approximately 38 million people, predominantly in Kerala and neighboring states. In addition to Standard Malayalam, numerous dialects are spoken in different geographical regions of Kerala. Literature in Malayalam consists of various genres, including poetry, drama, short stories, novels, and non-fiction. The earliest known work in Malayalam is Ramacharitam, an epic poem written in the 12th century by Chera ruler Rama Varma Kulashekhara Alwar.
8. Oriya
Oriya is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the official language of Odisha and one of the 22 scheduled languages of India. Oriya is one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan languages. It is also spoken in parts of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh. The total number of speakers of Oriya are estimated to be 32 million.
Oriya has a rich literary tradition dating back to the 13th century. The first Oriya book was written in 1516. The first Oriya newspaper was published in 1866. Notable Oriya writers include Fakir Mohan Senapati, Gopinath Mohanty, and Radhanath Roy.
9. Punjabi
There are 22 officially recognized languages in India. Hindi is the most widely spoken language, with 41% of the population speaking it as their first language. Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, and Urdu are also widely spoken.
Punjabi is the 10th most widely spoken language in India. It is native to the Punjab region of northwestern India and Pakistan. With over 29 million speakers, it is the third most widely spoken language of Pakistan.
10. Assamese
Assamese is spoken in the Indian state of Assam and in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. It is an eastern Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Bengali-Assamese branch of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language family. The language has around 18 million speakers, making it India’s 23rd most widely spoken language.
Assamese is written in the Assamese alphabet, which is a modified form of the Bengali alphabet. It is one of the few languages in India with its own distinct script. The earliest known inscriptions in Assamese date back to the 13th century CE.
The grammar of Assamese is similar to that of other modern Indo-Aryan languages such as Bengali and Hindi. However, it has unique features, such as a synthetic passive voice construction and a series of enclitic particles attached to verbs to indicate mood and tense.
Assamese vocabulary includes words borrowed from Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and English. Recently, there has been a growing tendency to use loanwords from Hindi and Bengali instead of Sanskrit or Persian words. This trend is especially evident in informal speech and writing.
11. Maithili
Maithili is a language spoken in the Mithila region of India and Nepal. A minority of people in Bangladesh also speak it. It is the official language of Jharkhand state, India. Maithili is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is recognized as a regional language in Nepal.
Maithili has its own script, called Tirhuta or Mithilakshar, which is used to write the Maithili language. The script has been used since the 13th century CE and was traditionally used to write Maithili poetry.
Maithili belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family and is closely related to other languages such as Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, and Oriya.
12. Konkani
Konkani is a beautiful language spoken in the Indian state of Goa and in some parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra. It is similar to Marathi in many ways but has its own unique flavor. A small minority of people in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli speaks Konkani.
13. Bengali
Bengali is the most widely spoken language in India after Hindi. It is the official language of West Bengal and is also spoken in parts of Assam, Tripura, and Odisha. Bengali is written in the Bengali alphabet, derived from the Sanskrit alphabet. The Bengali alphabet has 37 letters, of which 4 are vowels and 33 are consonants.
The earliest known inscriptions in Bengali date back to the 6th century CE. Bengali literature began to develop in the 12th century with works such as Charyapada and Shrikrishna Kirtana. The Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, becoming the first Asian Nobel laureate.
14. Kannada
Kannada is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southern India. Kannada is also spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
According to the 2001 Census of India, Kannada is the seventh most spoken language in India with 38,938,910 speakers. Kannada is one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of India and the official language of the state of Karnataka.
Kannada has a rich literary tradition dating back to the ninth century CE. The earliest known Kannada literature consists of brief inscriptions found on coins, pottery, and stone artefacts. The earliest extant literary work in Kannada is the Geetha Saramasa (c. 950 CE), a Jain text written by Chandragupta Purushottama Gaddigaru.
Over the centuries, many great saints and poets have contributed to the growth of Kannada literature. Among these are Adikavi Pampa (940-1020 CE), Sri Ponna (990-1130 CE) and Basava (1134-1196 CE). Modern Kannada poetry began with authors such as Kumara Vyasa (1370-1448 CE) and Lakshmisha (1565-1645 CE).
Kannada prose began to develop from the seventeenth century onwards with works such as Shivaratri Mahatmya.
List of Languages Spoken in India
There are 22 constitutionally recognized languages spoken in India. Hindi is the official language of the government but English is also widely used, especially in business and education. The other 21 languages include Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Saurashtra, Kannada, Konkani and Nepali. The government also recognizes Indian Sign Language.
The number of dialects spoken in India is estimated to be around 1,600. Most of these languages are spoken in specific regions and are not commonly understood outside of those areas. However, there are some regional languages that speakers of other regional languages understand. For example, Hindustani (which includes Hindi and Urdu) is understood by speakers of Bengali and Punjabi.
The Official Language of India
India is a land of many languages. There are 22 officially recognized languages in India. Hindi is the official language of the Government of India and is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India. It is the lingua franca of the Hindi belt and to a lesser extent other parts of India (usually in a simplified or pidginized form).
Conclusion
India is a melting pot of culture, language and ethnicity. With more than 122 major languages, the country boasts of having one of the most diverse linguistic heritages in the world. From Hindi to Tamil to Kannada, India’s cultural diversity is reflected in its language use. So if you are ever looking for an opportunity to experience many different cultures all at once, look no further than India!
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