Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Most Indians speak a language belonging to the families of the Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-European (c. 77%), the Dravidian (c. 20.61%), the Austroasiatic (precisely Munda and Khasic) (c. 1.2%), or the Sino-Tibetan (precisely Tibeto-Burman) (c. 0.8%), with some languages of the Himalayas still unclassified.
According to the Census of India of 2001, India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages. However, figures from other sources vary, primarily due to differences in the definition of the terms "language" and "dialect".
As you can see, there are 14 languages in India that have over five million speakers. We aren’t going to look at all of them – this post would end up way too long! – but we’ll be taking a closer look at these five: Gujarati, Malayalam, Bengali, Odia, and Telugu.
Anthropological Survey of India, identified 75 "major languages" out of a total of 325 languages used in Indian households. Ethnologue, too reports India as a home for 398 languages, including 387 living and 11 extinct languages. Most importantly, as early as in the1990s, India was reported to have 32 languages with one million or more speakers.
Languages belonging to the two major language families - Indo Aryan and Dravidian - are spoken by more than 90% of the people of India. Know more about the languages of India with India...
India is known for its rich diversity of culture, tradition, religion as well as languages. Over 700 languages are spoken in India. However, India has no national language. As per the 8 th schedule of Indian constitution, there are 22 scheduled or official languages that are given official acknowledgement and support.
There are 22 scheduled languages, 114 other languages, 216 mother tongues, 96 non specified languages and totally up to 10,000 languages spoken by the people in India. Indian languages have evolved from different stocks and are closely associated with the different ethnic groups of India.