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.
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
- Dogri, Urdu - The language of Jammu and
Kashmir
- 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
- Khasi - The official language of
Meghalaya
- Mizo - The official language of Mizoram
- Lotha - The official language of Nagaland
Urdu and Telugu are also the official languages of the newly
formed state, Telangana.
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.
