STATES AND LANGUAGES OF INDIA


India, a potpourri of different cultures, religions, and beliefs, is home to not just one or two languages but to an uncountable number of different lingual families. Languages belonging to the two major language families - Indo Aryan and Dravidian - are spoken by more than 90% of the people of India. Know about the languages of India with India Language Map.

According to Ethnologue, India is considered to be the home to 398 languages out of which 11 have been reported extinct. But still there is not a single Indian language which is spoken across its length and breadth. Hindi is spoken by the majority of North Indians but it's not a popular means of communication in southern part of India. Similarly south Indian languages - Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam - are not understood by the people of northern India. For the convenience of people, the Constitution of India has recognized 22 languages as official languages of India. These are known as Scheduled Languages and constitute the Major languages of India. India Language Map provides detailed information about these languages listed in Schedule VIII of the Constitution. The List of Indian languages includes:

·         Sanskrit

·         Hindi

·         English

·         Gujarati - Language of Gujarat and Union Territories of Dadar and Nagar Haveli.

·         Punjabi - The official language of Punjab.

·         Bengali- The state language of West Bengal

·         Assamese - Official language of Assam.

·         Kashmiri - The language of Kashmir .

·         Urdu

·         Oriya - The state language of state of Orissa.

·         Marathi - Language of Maharashtra.

·         Kannada - The official language of Karnataka.

·         Tamil - The state language of Tamil Nadu.

·         Telugu - It is the official language of Andhra Pradesh.

·         Malayalam - It is the official language of Kerala.

·         Sindhi

·         Konkani - The state language of Goa.

·         Manipuri - The official language of Manipur.

Besides these, there are Indian languages which are spoken by large masses but have still not acquired the status of Scheduled Languages of India. These languages spoken by regional people are known as regional languages of India. This includes Rajasthani, Bihari, Haryanavi, Bhili, Gondi, Tulu among others.

Some Indian languages are not widely spoken; they are given the status of minority languages. Mahl and Portuguese languages come under this category.