India is a country of linguistic diversity. According to a scholar named Grierson, as per the survey conducted in India from 1903 to 1928, about 197 languages and 544 dialects are spoken in the country. In 1961, according to the Census Department of India, there are 1018 different languages and dialects in the country, while, 22 languages are scheduled in the Indian Constitution. On the basis of their dialects and origin,
the languages of India can be divided into the following 4 language families:
1. Indo – European Language Family: The languages of this family are spoken by about 73% population of the country. Hindi is the main language of this family, which is spoken prominently by about 40% of population of the country in the states of North India. The other languages of this family are Kashmiri, Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, Marathi, Konkani, Gujarati, Bengali, Assamese, Chhattisgarhi, Nepali and Pahari. The country’s 8.3% population speaks Bengali, 7.5% population speaks Marathi, 5.2% population speaks Urdu, 4.9% population speaks Gujarati, 3.3% population speaks Oriya, 2.8% population speaks Punjabi and 1.6% population speaks Assamese language.
2. Dravidian Language Family: The main Indian languages of this language family are Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada, which are spoken prominently in Peninsular India. Telugu language is spoken by the country’s 7.9% population, Tamil by the country’s 6.3% population, Kannada by the country’s 3.9% population and Malayalam language is spoken by the country’s 3.6% population. Thus, about 20% population of the country speaks Dravidian languages. Dravidian languages have a dominating presence in different states, like – Telegu in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil in Tamil Nadu, Kannada in Karnataka and Malayalam language in Kerala are the most popular.
3. Sino – Tibetan Language Family: In India, this is a small language family, in which the languages which are prominently included are Ladakhi in Jammu – Kashmir, Kinnauri and Lepcha in Himachal Pradesh, Dapla, Abor, Bodo, Naga, Myanmari, Kukichin languages in north – eastern states of India.
4. Austro – Asiatic Language Family: In India, this is also a small language family, in which Santhali, Mandari and Ho languages are spoken in Jharkhand and Western Satpura region, Khasi language is spoken in Meghalaya and Nicobari language is spoken in Nicobar Island.
