Question

Which one of the following is the largest linguistic group of India?
1. Sino-Tibetan
2. Austrie
3. Indo-Aryan
4. Dravidian

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 3 : Indo-Aryan

The correct answer is Indo-Aryan.

• Indo-Aryan Group: It is a branch of the larger Indo-European group of languages which came to India with the advent of Aryans.
  It is the largest language group of India and around 74% Indians speak those languages which belong to this group.
• This group is mainly divided into three groups:
  1. Old Indo Aryan Group: This group had its development around 1500 BC and Sanskrit was born around this period.
     The ancient form of Sanskrit which is found in Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads, etc had emerged from this time.
     It is a scheduled classical language. One amongst 22 Indian languages. It is also known as the mother of Indian languages.
     The understanding of the diversity and richness of our culture has been possible because of the development of the Sanskrit language during those times.
  2. Middle Indo-Aryan Group (600 BC to 1000 AD): Prakrit was developed during this period. Prakrit was also the mother language for other languages such as Pali, Apabhramsha, Ardha Magadhi.
     Pali was one of the main languages used in Buddhist scripts. Buddha himself preached in Pali.
  3. Modern Indo-Aryan Group: The languages belonging to this group are Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Odia, Urdu, etc.
     The language developed under this group are mainly spoken in the northern, western, and eastern parts of India.

• Sino Tibetan group: Languages under this family belong to the Mongoloid family and stretch all over North Bihar, North Bengal, Assam, and in North East.
  These languages are considered older than Indo-Aryan languages and are referred to in the oldest Sanskrit literature as Kiratas.
  • Tibeto Burman: Tibetan, North Assamese, Burman, Manipuri are the most common languages spoken in this category.
  • Siamese Chinese: Ahom is one of the languages spoken in this category but it has already become extinct.
• Austrie: These are the languages spoken by the Munda or Kol group and spoken in central, eastern, and northeastern India.
  Santhali is an important language spoken by the group and common among the Santhal tribals such as Jharkhand, Bihar, and Bengal.
• Dravidian Group: Group comprises mainly of languages spoken during the southern part of India. Around 25% of the Indian population is covered in this group. Proto Dravidian gave rise to 21 Dravidian languages. These are classified into three categories. Telugu is numerically the largest of all Dravidian languages, Malayalam is the smallest and youngest of the Dravidian group.
  • Northern: Brahui (Baluchistan), malto (tribal areas of Bengal and Odisha), and Kurukh (Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh) are the main languages.
  • Southern: Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Tulu, Kodagu, Toda, and Kota. Tamil is the oldest amongst these.
  • Central: It consists of eleven languages i.e. Gondi, Khond, Kui, Telugu. Only Telugu became a civilized language and is spoken in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.