Population composition -part-2

Language and dialect groups

Classification of Indian Languages People of India speak a large number of languages which are broadly divided into the following four families:

1.Indo-European Family (Arya).

2. Dravidian Family (Dravida).

3. Austric Family (Nishada),

4. Sino Tibetan Family (Kirata).

1. The Aryan Languages

About 73% of the Indian population speaks different languages of the Aryan family.

The Aryan: languages are divided into following two main branches:

(i) The Dardic Aryan Languages and

(ii) The Indo Aryan Languages

(i) The Dardic Aryan Languages.

• This group comprises a number of languages which are current among very small mountain communities in Kashmir.

• Out of India, it is spoken by small communities living on the frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Dardic languages fall into three branches:

(a)Shina including Kashmiri, Shina proper and Kohistani;

(b)Khowar or Chatrari or Chitrali and

(c) Kafiristan (or Nuristani) dialects.

In Kashmir, there is Shina and Kashmiri, and some dialects allied to Kashmiri. Kashmiri appears to be in its bases a Dardic Aryan dialect. But it has been profoundly influenced by Sanskrit and the Prakrits from the very early times.

ii.The Indo-Aryan Languages.

• This is the second sub-group of the Aryan languages in which Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Gujarati, Sindhi, Kachchi, Marathi, Oriya, Sanskrit, Assamese and Urdu are included.

Based upon the regional distribution of the people speaking these languages, they are further grouped as under:

A. Northern Aryan Languages.

• Languages of this group belong to the dialects spoken by the hilly people in North India. They include Nepali, Central Pahari and Western Pahari Aryan languages.

B.North-Western Aryan Languages.

• Khanda, Kachchi and Sindhi are the well-known Aryan languages which are spoken by the people living in the north-western part of the country.

C.Southern Aryan Languages.

• Marathi and Konkani are the languages included in the Southern group of Aryan languages.

D.Eastern Aryan Languages.

• Bihari, Oriya, Bengali and Assamese languages constitute this group of Aryan languages.

E.East Central Aryan Languages.

• Avadhi, Bugheli and Chhattisgarhi are their languages.

F.Central Aryan Languages.

• The major languages of this region are Hindi, Punjabi, Rajasthani and Alawari.

Among the Aryan languages, Hindi is the most important language, spoken by a large percentage people of the country.

2. Dravidian Languages

• Dravidian family which is spoken by about 20 per cent of the Indian population

• Dravidian languages are older than the Aryan languages. According to an estimate, Dravidians entered India much before the Aryans.

The Dravidian languages fall into several groups. Two major groups are as under:

A.The North Dravidian Languages.

• Telugu and a number of other languages such as various Gondi dialects, Kuruth or Oraon, Maler or Malpahariya, Kui or Kandh, Parji, Kolami and a few others are included in this group.

• Telugu is numerically the most important of all the Dravidian languages and has a very rich literature. This language has spread outside India also-in Myanmar, Indo-China and South Africa.

• It is usually called the Italian of the East by its admirers.

B.South Dravidian Languages.

• This group of languages includes Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. A number of speeches like Tulu, Kota, Kurgi (or Kedagu) and Toda are also included in this group.

• Tamil is spoken in large parts of Tamil Nadu. Outside India, it is spoken by a large number of people in Sri Lanka.

• Malyalam is currently the language of Kerala and Lakshadweep. It had its origin in the old Tamil about 1500 years ago.

• Malayalam has been influenced by Sanskrit more than any other language of India.

• Kannada is the main language of the present Karnataka state.

3. Austric Languages

The Austric languages of India belong to the Austro-Asiatic sub-family. This category is further sub-divided into Munda and Mon-Khmer.

A.Munda or Kol Languages.

• Munda languages are the largest of the Austric group of languages.

• They consist of fourteen tribal languages.

• The Kherwari is the major group, which is current in Eastern India (Chota Nagpur, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal) and includes Santhali, Mundari, Ho, Birhor, Bhumiej. Korwa and Korku (or Kurku).

• Santhali, Mundari, and Ho languages have a noteworthy literature preserved orally, consisting of songs and mythological romantic stories.

B.Mon-Khmer Languages.

• Mon-Khmer group of Austric languages has two sub-groups-Khasi and Nicobari.

• Khasi languages are spoken by Khasi tribal people of Meghalaya.Khasi used to be written in Bengali-Assamese script about a century ago

• Nicobari languages are the languages of the tribal people of the Nicobar islands.

4. Sino-Tibetan Languages

Depending upon the region of settlement, these languages are put into several groups and sub-groups. Sino-Tibetan languages have three major sub-divisions:

(i) The Tibeto-Himalayan.

(ii) The North-Assamese

(iii) The Assam-Myanmari (Burmese)

(i)The Tibeto-Himalayan Languages.

This sub-division of the Sino-Tibetan group of languagesis further sub-divided as the Himalayan group and the Bhutia group.

A.The Himalayan Group.

• The Himalayan group consists of 4 languages. They are Chamba, Lahauli, Kannauri and Lepcha.

• Kannauri is the most widely spoken language of the Himalayan group.

B.The Bhutia/Bhotia Group.

• Tibetan, Balti, Ladakhi, Lahauli, Sherpa and Sikkim Bhutia are included in the Bhutia group of Sino-Tibetan languages. Ladakhi has largest number of Bhutia speakers. It is followed by Sikkim Bhutia and the Tibetan languages in that order.

(ii)North Assam Languages.

• The North Assam branch of languages of the Sino-Tibetan group is also called the Arunachal branch.

• It consists of six languages, such as Aka, Daflta, Abor, Miri, Mishnil and Mishing

• Largest number of people speak Miri language.

(iii)The Assam Myanmari Languages.

• This group of languages include Boro or Bodo, Naga, Cochin, Kukichin and Myanmar groups.

• Naga is the largest speaking language of this group.

• Besides these, the Sino-Tibetan group of languages has some other important languages. They are Manipuri, Garo, Tripuri, Mikir and Lusai. Lusai is also termed as Mizo..

Linguistic groups-

• Initially out Of 23 languages, 14 languages in addition to English have been specified in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India.

• Three more languages have been added to Eighth Schedule by a Parliamentary Act on 20th August, 1992. These languages are Nepali, Konkani and Manipuri

• Later on, Maithili, Santali, Dogri and Bodo were also included in the Schedule, making a total of 22 languages.

Highest linguist groups-

• Hindi>bengali>telgu>marathi ..

Official Language-

• Hindi in Devanagari script is recognised as the "official language" for all India communication at the central level.

• The Constitution of India also provided that English would continue to be used for all purposes at the central level for a period of 15 years from 1950 to 1965.

• This language was assigned a special role in central government's transactions, in parliamentary debate, in courts and as a medium of instruction for specialised subjects for higher and technical education, and also a 'link' language between various states.

• At the state level, regional languages are the official languages.

• Making Hindi the central language by 1965 met with great resistance from the non-Hindi speaking states, particularly the Dravidian language states in south India. It was argued that literary tradition in Hindi was less developed as compared to that of several regional languages such as Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, etc.

• To allay the fears of non-Hindi speaking states, the parliament passed the language bill 1963 according to which English was to continue to be used even after 1965, in addition to Hindi. Thus, English was allowed to be used "as an associate official language" until all non Hindi speaking states had consented to the use of Hindi, thereby retaining English almost indefinitely.

• Thus, English remains an official language of the central government along with Hindi, and is serving as a link between the different states.