MAJOR LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTIC REGIONS OF INDIA
Language is a strong means of socialization. As a means it plays vital role in cultural accumulation and historical transmission. Communication is necessary in social intercourse which may be verbal (dialect or language) or may be expressed by body language. Language is a cultural form of enduring value and a culture can hardly survive if it has no language. It is a major means by which cultural diffusion, both spatial and temporal, takes place. In the opinion of Wagner and Mikesell (1962, 8) "The fact that participation in a given culture demands participation of linguistic communities. For this reason geographers often use language as an identification mark for different cultures. Because language is essential to communication, it strongly influences the sort of political, social and economic institutions we create. As a result economic and religious systems frequently follow patterns of language distribution and political borders quite often parallel linguistic boundaries." As the primary means of transmitting culture from generation to generation language is a critical cultural element. There is no relationship between race and Language. Dialect is a form of language which is usually used by a local cultural group. A language may have many dialect which differ considerably particularly in verbal expressions. For the view point of spatial distribution the dialect tends to change even after 40 to 50 kilometres. In northern India, Magadhi, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Bundelkhandi etc.are major dialects of Hindi language, which differ from each other in words and pronunciations.
India is cradle land of Indus valley ancient Civilization . There are numerous languages practised in India .India has a rich linguistic heritage and heterogeneous ethnic and social groups, which have their own languages and dialects . According to Census of India 1961, there were 187 languages spoken by various sections of Indian society. Of these each of 93 languages were spoken by over 10 thousand persons. 23 major languages were spoken by about 97 percent population of the country. Eighteen languages excluding English are mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India as follows: 1.Kashmiri, 2. Punjabi, 3. Hindi, 4. Urdu, 5. Bengali, 6. Assamese, 7. Gujarati, 8. Marathi, 9. Kannada, 10. Tamil, 11. Telegu, 12. Malayalam, 13. Sindhi, 14. Sanskrit, 15. Oriya, 16. Nepali, 17. Konkani,18.Manipuri.
The demarcation of Indian states is made mainly on the basis of broad regional languages. In the region where many regional or local languages are spoken, the main language is taken into consideration. Thus, however, o the basis of principal languages, India may be divided into following 12 linguistic regions
1. Hindi :
Hindi is the official and National language of the country and the most predominant mother tongue of over 400 million people of country people (2001). It is spoken by about 422 million people of the country, accounting for 41.03 cent share of all the Indian languages. The Hindi belt includes the states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Madhya Pradesh, Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and where more Jharkhand than 80 per cent people speak Hindi.
belt includes the states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Madhya Pradesh, Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and where more Jharkhand than 80 per cent people speak Hindi.
2. Bengali:
Bengali is the second most spoken language of lndia, which is used by 8.11 per cent of total population of the country. Bengali has its culture core in West Bengal but its periphery extends into Assam, Bihar and Tripura. It has rich literary traditions.
3. Telugu
Telugu is the third most spoken 1anguage of India having 74 million speakers. It stands next to Bengali with its linguistic core in Andhra Pradesh, where moree than 80 per cent people speak Telugu. Telugu speakers are also found in Tamil Nadu and Karanataka where 5 to 6 per cent people speak Telugu. Telugu belongs to Dravidian family.
4. Marathi:
Marathi occupies the fourth rank in numerical strength (71.94 milion) with its linguistic core in Maharashtra where 93 percent people speak Marathi. Marathi speaking people are also found in adjacent states i.e Maharasthra, Gujarat, karnataka,Goa, ETC.
5. Tamil:
Tamil Nadu stands fifth in numerical strength with 60.79 million speakers. Singuistic core lies in Tamil Nadu where more nan 80 percent people speak Tamil. Sonme Tamil Speakers are also found in Karantaka, Andhra Tradesh and Pondicherry. Tamil is a member Dravidian linguistic family and has a rich literature starting with the beginning of the Christian era.
6. Urdu:
Urdu is basically a variant of Hindi but written in the Arabic script. Its origin place is India but it is virtually homeless without a strong required base. Urdu is adopted as the official language of the state by Jammu and Kashmir. It is the mother tongue of about 51.5 million people, accounting for 5.0 per cent of total population of the country. Urdu is spoken mostly by Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka etc.
7. Gujarati :
Gujarati occupies the seventh
rank in numerical strength having 46 million speakers mostly in Gujarat but extends its
influence in Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
Gujarati is a member of Indo-Iranian or Indic
sub-family which belongs Indo-European linguistic family.
8. Kannada - 4.37 crore speakers
Like Tamil, Kannada is also a Dravidian language. It is spoken by 4.37 crore people in India. Do you know that Kannada is one of the oldest surviving languages of the world? This language is also spoken outside of India, in places like Australia, the United States and Canada. Many of these speakers are also members of the Indian Diaspora. It is estimated that there are about 20 different dialects in Kannada.
9. Odia - 3.75 crore speakers
Odia is the official language of India and most of the speakers are centered in Odisha state. This language is spoken by 3.75 crore speakers across the country.
10. Malayalam - 3.48 crore speakers
Approximately, 3.48 crore speakers in India speak Malayalam, which is spoken in the states of Kerala, Puducherry and Lakshadweep. The roots of this language are also from Dravidian language.
11.Punjabi Language
It is the state languages of Punjab. It belongs to Indo-Arya family and its linguistic core lies in punjab. Punjabi is spoken by about 29.10 million people accounting for 2.83 % share of all Indian Languages. Punjabi speaking families mainly belong to skihism and are concentrated in Punjab But many of them are also settled in towns and cities of Delhi, Chandigarh, Haryana,Rajastha ,Uttar Pradesh, Bengal.
12. English language - 2,59,678 speakers
With Hindi, the English language is also one of the official languages of India's federal government. In some states of India like Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, English is an official language. From the days of the East India Company in the 1800s, English was taught in schools in India.
13. Other Languages : Besides 12 major languages ot the country there are many other languages, which are spoken in various regions of the country. Such languages are Mathili, Kashmiri, Nepali, Sindhi, Konkani and Manipuri. Except only Mathili (12.18 million) no language is spoken by more than six million people. Mathili, an offshoot of Hindi is spoken in northern Bihar, Kashmiri in Kashmir, Sindhi in Rajasthan, Konkani in Maharashtra, and Manipuri in Manipur state, where as Nepali speakers are found in adjacent states to Nepal like Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
Additional Data bases
More than one million speakers
The 2011 census recorded 31 individual languages as having more than 1 million native speakers (0.1% of total population). The languages in bold are scheduled languages (the only scheduled language with less than 1 million native speakers is Sanskrit). The first table is restricted to only speaking populations for scheduled languages
|
First, Second, and Third languages by
number of speakers in India (2011 Census) |
||||||
|
First
language speakers |
Second
language |
Third
language |
Total
speakers |
|||
|
Language |
Figure |
%
of total |
Figure |
%
of total |
||
|
528,347,193 |
43.63% |
139,207,180 |
24,160,696 |
691,347,193 |
57.09% |
|
|
259,678 |
0.02% |
83,125,221 |
45,993,066 |
129,259,678 |
10.67% |
|
|
97,237,669 |
8.03% |
9,037,222 |
1,008,088 |
107,237,669 |
8.85% |
|
|
83,026,680 |
6.86% |
12,923,626 |
2,966,019 |
99,026,680 |
8.18% |
|
|
81,127,740 |
6.70% |
11,946,414 |
1,001,498 |
94,127,740 |
7.77% |
|
|
69,026,881 |
5.70% |
6,992,253 |
956,335 |
77,026,881 |
6.36% |
|
|
55,492,554 |
4.58% |
4,035,489 |
1,007,912 |
60,492,554 |
4.99% |
|
|
50,772,631 |
4.19% |
11,055,287 |
1,096,428 |
62,772,631 |
5.18% |
|
|
43,706,512 |
3.61% |
14,076,355 |
993,989 |
58,706,512 |
4.84% |
|
|
37,521,324 |
3.10% |
4,972,151 |
31,525 |
42,551,324 |
3.51% |
|
|
34,838,819 |
2.88% |
499,188 |
195,885 |
35,538,819 |
2.93% |
|
|
33,124,726 |
2.74% |
2,300,000 |
720,000 |
36,074,726 |
2.97% |
|
|
24,821 |
0.002% |
1,234,931 |
1,196,223 |
2,360,821 |
0.19% |
|
Source:- Wikipedia
Source:- Wikipedia
0 Comments