India Language, Indian Hindi

Indian languages fall under two major and two minor families : the Indo-European languages—Indo-Aryan (70%)—and the Dravidian languages (22% ), Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman families and a few isolated languages.

The first official language of India is Hindi. English is the second.The constitution of the country reads: "The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script.". Interesting to note that the constitution or the law specifies a National language. States have their own official languages. For example the southern state of Kerala has Malayalam as the official language while Andhra Pradesh has Telugu.

Interesting Quick Fact: Did you know that Malayalam, the language spoken in the southern Indian state of Kerala is the longest PALINDROME word?

There are several hundred languages spoken in various parts of the country. According to the 1961 census, there are 1,652 spoken languages in India! But the most often spoken by most people. Here is a language map of India. Here is a list of all the Indian Languages - 1000s!

Indian Languages Map, India Map with Indian Languages

Langauge Origins Speakers* Which region is it common in
Assamese/Axomiya  Indo-Aryan, Eastern  13 Assam
Bengali  Indo-Aryan, Eastern  83 West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, Tripura (list)
Bodo  Tibeto-Burman  1.2 Assam
Dogri  Indo-Aryan, Northern  0.1 Jammu and Kashmir
Gujarati  Indo-Aryan, Western  46 Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu (list)
Hindi  Indo-Aryan, various  422 the "Hindi belt", North India
Kannada  Dravidian, Southern  38 Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Goa (list)
Kashmiri  Dardic  5.5 Jammu and Kashmir
Konkani  Indo-Aryan, Southern  2.5 Konkan (Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala)
Maithili  Indo-Aryan, Eastern  12 Bihar
Malayalam  Dravidian, Southern  33 Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mahé, Puducherry
Manipuri (also Meitei or Meithei)  Tibeto-Burman  1.5 Manipur
Marathi  Indo-Aryan, Southern  72 Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Goa (list)
Nepali  Indo-Aryan, Northern  2.5 Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam
Oriya  Indo-Aryan, Eastern  33 Orissa
Punjabi  Indo-Aryan  29 Punjab, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana
Sanskrit  Indo-Aryan  0.05 Mattur
Santali  Austro-Asiatic, Munda  6.5 Santal tribals of the Chota Nagpur Plateau (comprising the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa)
Sindhi  Indo-Aryan, Northwestern  2.5 Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh (list)
Tamil  Dravidian, Southern  61 Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra (list)
Telugu  Dravidian, South-Central  74 Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Orissa (list)
Urdu  Indo-Aryan, Central  52 Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand (list)

* Speakers in Millions as per 2001 Survey

Most Indian Langauages have their own script. Here are details of Indic scripts

 

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