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The History of Indian Languages
The History of Indian Languages
Languages
Introduction
• Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 78.05%
of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians, both families together are sometimes known as Indic
languages. Languages spoken by the remaining 2.31% of the population belong to the Austroasiatic, Sino–Tibetan, Tai–Kadai and a
few other minor language families and isolates. India has the world's fourth highest number of languages (447),
after Nigeria (524), Indonesia (710) and Papua New Guinea(840).
• 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 definition of the terms "language" and "dialect". The 2001 Census recorded 30
languages which were spoken by more than a million native speakers and 122 which were spoken by more than 10,000
people. Two contact languages have played an important role in the history of India: Persian and English. Persian was the court
language during the Mughal period in India. It reigned as an administrative language for several centuries until the era of British
colonisation. English continues to be an important language in India. It is used in higher education and in some areas of the Indian
government. Hindi, which has the largest number of first-language speakers in India today, serves as the lingua franca across much
of North and Central India. However, there have been concerns raised with Hindi being imposed in South India, most notably in the
states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Maharashtra, West Bengal, Assam, Punjab and other non-Hindi regions have also started to
voice concerns about Hindi.
History
• The Southern Indian languages are from the Dravidian family. The Dravidian languages are indigenous to the Indian
subcontinent. Proto-Dravidian languages were spoken in India in the 4th millennium BCE and started disintegrating into
various branches around 3rd millennium BCE. The Dravidian languages are classified in four groups: North, Central
(Kolami–Parji), South-Central (Telugu–Kui), and South Dravidian (Tamil-Kannada).
• Persian, or Farsi, was brought into India by the Ghaznavids and other Turko-Afghan dynasties as the court language.
Culturally Persianized, they, in combination with the later Mughal dynasty (of Turco-Mongol origin), influenced the art,
history, and literature of the region for more than 500 years, resulting in the Persianisation of many Indian tongues, mainly
lexically. In 1837, the British replaced Persian with English and Hindustani in Perso-Arabic script for administrative
purposes and the Hindi movement of the 19th Century replaced Persianised vocabulary with Sanskrit derivations and
replaced or supplemented the use of Perso-Arabic script for administrative purposes with Devanagari.
Language Families
• Indo-Aryan Language Family
• Dravidian Language Family
• Austroasiatic Language Family
• Tibeto-Burman Language Family
• Tai-Kadai Language Family
• Andamanese Language Families
• Language Isolates
Indo-Aryan Language Family
• The largest of the language families represented in India, in terms of speakers, is the Indo-Aryan
language family, a branch of the Indo-Iranian family, itself the easternmost, extant subfamily of
the Indo-European language family. This language family predominates, accounting for some
1035 million speakers, or over 76.5 of the population, as per a 2018 estimate. The most widely
spoken languages of this group are Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kashmiri,
Rajasthani, Sindhi, Assamese (Asamiya), Maithili and Odia. Aside from the Indo-Aryan languages,
other Indo-European languages are also spoken in India, the most prominent of which is English,
as a lingua franca.
Dravidian Language Family
• The second largest language family is the Dravidian language family, accounting
for some 277 million speakers, or approximately 20.5% as per 2018 estimate. The
Dravidian languages are spoken mainly in southern India and parts
of eastern and central India as well as in parts of northeastern Sri Lanka,
Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. The Dravidian languages with the most speakers
are Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. Besides the mainstream population,
Dravidian languages are also spoken by small scheduled tribe communities, such
as the Oraon and Gond tribes. Only two Dravidian languages are exclusively
spoken outside India, Brahui in Balochistan, Pakistan and Dhangar, a dialect
of Kurukh, in Nepal.
Austroasiatic Language Family
• Families with smaller numbers of speakers are Austroasiatic and numerous
small Sino-Tibetan languages, with some 10 and 6 million speakers, respectively,
together 3% of the population.
• The Austroasiatic language family (austro meaning South) is the autochthonous
language in Southeast Asia, arrived by migration. Austroasiatic languages of
mainland India are the Khasi and Munda languages, including Bhumij and Santali.
The languages of the Nicobar islands also form part of this language family. With
the exceptions of Khasi and Santali, all Austroasiatic languages on Indian territory
are endangered.
Tibeto-Burman Language Family