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South Asia is home to several hundred languages, spanning the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. It is home to the fourth most spoken language in the world, Hindi–Urdu; the seventh most spoken language, Bengali; and thirteenth most spoken language, Punjabi. Languages like Bengali, Tamil and Nepali have official/national status in more than one country of this region. The languages in the region mostly comprise Indo-Iranic and Dravidian languages, and further members of other language families like Austroasiatic, and Tibeto-Burman languages.

Geographical distribution

Geolinguistically, the Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and Munda language groups are predominantly distributed across the Indian subcontinent. The term Indic languages is also used to refer to these languages, though it may be narrowed to refer only to Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages. The subcontinent is also home to a few language isolates, like Burushaski, Kusunda, Nihali, and Vedda.

Areally, the influence of the languages extend beyond the subcontinent into other neighbouring Southern Asian as well as East and Southeast Asian regions, and the extended linguistic area is known as Indosphere. More precisely, the sprachbund of Indic languages and other geopolitically-neighboring languages is known as South Asian languages (which additionally includes Eastern-Iranic and Nuristani languages, as well as Central- and Western- Tibeto-Burman linkages).

The Iranian Plateau located west to the subcontinent is home to Iranic languages, beginning with Pashto of Pashtunistan and Balochi of Balochistan in the eastern-side of the plateau. Persian is spoken in the central plateau, with varieties like Dari in Afghanistan, Farsi in Iran and Tajik in Tajikistan. Kafiri languages are spoken in pockets at the northern intersection of the plateau and the subcontinent.

Tibeto-Burman languages of the Trans-Himalayan family and Khasi–Palaungic languages of the Austroasiatic family are spoken in and beyond the regions of the Himalayan and Indo-Burman Ranges, predominantly on the Tibetan Plateau and Burma. Andamanese languages are spoken on the Andaman Islands.

Lingua francas

Historically, Sanskrit was the lingua franca of South Asia. In the Indo-Muslim period, Persian became a connecting language throughout much of India and the Persianate world in general, influencing local languages. From the colonial era onwards, English became a lingua franca to some extent, aiding those who participated in the Indian independence movement for example.

In contemporary times, English is considered the international lingua franca of the South Asian countries. Since the colonial era, the South Asian languages have absorbed significant influences from the English language, with the most-spoken South Asian language Hindustani also acquiring a new English-influenced variant known as Hinglish which is spoken more in urban areas.

On a subregional level, Telugu was a language of high culture in South India in precolonial times, while in modern times, Punjabi and Bengali function as major transnational languages connecting the northwestern and eastern regions of India to Pakistan and Bangladesh respectively (see also Punjabiyat).

By country

Afghanistan

The official languages of Afghanistan are Pashto and Dari (Farsi), both of which are Iranic languages. Dari, an Afghan standardised register of the Persian language, is considered the lingua franca of Afghanistan and used to write Afghan literature. Tajik is spoken by people closer to Tajikistan, although officially, is regarded to be the same as Dari. Pashto is widely spoken by the Pashtun people, who mainly reside towards the south of Afghanistan on the Pakistani-Afghan border. A few Turkic languages, like Uzbek and Turkmen, are spoken near regions closer to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Bangladesh

Standard Bengali based on the Rarhi dialect is the national language of Bangladesh. The majority of Bangladeshis speak an eastern variant of Bengali. Other native languages of Bangladesh include Sylheti, Rangpuri, Noakhali and Chittagonian, while some ethnic minority groups also speak Tibeto-Burman, Dravidian and Austro-Asiatic languages.

Bhutan

Dzongkha is the national language of the Kingdom of Bhutan. Other languages spoken include Brokpa, Dzala, Chali Chocangacakha, Dakpa language, Khengkha language, Nepali language, Gongduk, Nyenkha, Lhokpu, Takpa and Tshangla.

Almost all the languages of Bhutan are from the Tibetic family (except Nepali, an Indo-Aryan language).

India

Most languages spoken in the Republic of India belong either to the Indo-Aryan (c. 74%), the Dravidian (c. 24%), the Austroasiatic (Munda) (c. 1.2%), or the Tibeto-Burman (c. 0.6%) families, with some languages of the Himalayas still unclassified. The SIL Ethnologue lists 461 living languages for the Indian Republic.

Hindustani is the most widespread language of India. The Indian census takes the widest possible definition of "Hindi" as the broad variety of the Hindi languages. The native speakers of Hindi so defined account for 39% of Indians. Bengali is the second most spoken language of South Asia, found in both Bangladesh and Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam. The International Mother Language Day was created by UNESCO to commemorate the Bengali language. Other notable languages include Odia, Telugu, Punjabi, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Sindhi, Kannada, Pashto, Malayalam, Maithili, Meitei (Manipuri), Konkani, and Tulu.

Thirteen languages account for more than 1% of Indian population each, and between themselves for over 95%; all of them are the "scheduled languages of the Constitution".

Scheduled languages spoken by less than 1% of Indians are Santali (0.64%), Meitei (Manipuri) (0.14%), Bodo (0.13%), Dogri (0.01%, spoken in Jammu and Kashmir). The largest language that is not "scheduled" is Bhili (0.95%), followed by Gondi (0.27%), Tulu (0.17%) and Kurukh (0.099%)

Maldives

Divehi is national language of Maldives, spoken by 95% of the population. Arabic is considered as the religious language, and English is medium of instruction for education and international purposes such as tourism.

Nepal

Most of the languages of Nepal either fall under Indo-Aryan languages or Sino-Tibetan languages. The official language of the country is Nepali, earlier known as Gorkhali in the Kingdom of Nepal, which is part of the Indo-Aryan group and is the spoken by majority of the population.

The Indo-Aryan languages spoken in Nepal include Maithili language, Bhojpuri language and Tharu language which constitutes majority of the speakers in southern Nepal in the Terai region. The Sino-Tibetan languages includes Tamang, Newari, Magar language, Gurung language, Kiranti languages and Sherpa language and are often spoken in central and northern Nepal in the hilly and mountainous regions.

Pakistan

Pakistan is a linguistically diverse country; it has many dozens of languages spoken as first languages. The major languages of Pakistan broadly fall under the category Indo-Iranian languages, with western regions of Pakistan speaking Iranic languages, and eastern regions speaking Indo-Aryan languages; with the Indus River approximately dividing the families.

Other language families in Pakistan include Dravidian (Brahui spoken in Central Balochistan), Sino-Tibetan languages such as Balti and Purgi spoken in the north-east (In Baltistan region of Pakistan), Nuristani languages such as Kamkata-vari spoken in the north-west (In chitral region of Pakistan), Language Isolate Burushaski spoken in the north (In Gilgit Division), Turkic languages are also spoken in Pakistan, by Kyrgyz migrant families in the North and Uzbeks and Turkmen in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and by refugees from Afghanistan; and Uyghur refugees from China.

The lingua franca in Pakistan is Urdu, a Persianised register of the Hindustani language. The most-widely spoken first language in the country is Punjabi, spoken by the Punjabi people, forming a majority in the Punjab province and Islamabad Capital Territory. Punjabi is followed by Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki, Urdu, Balochi; while more than 70 other languages like Shina, Balti, Gujarati, Bengali etc. are also spoken.

Sri Lanka

Sinhala and Tamil are the official languages of Sri Lanka, with English as the link language. Tamil is a South-Dravidian language, and Sinhala belongs to the Insular Indic family (along with Dhivehi of Maldives). Vedda is said to be the indigenous language of Sri Lanka before the arrival of the Indo-Aryans and Dravidians.

See also

• Languages of Asia
• Languages of Bangladesh
• Languages of Bhutan
• Languages of India
  • Languages with official status in India
  • List of languages by number of native speakers in India
• Languages of Maldives
• Languages of Nepal
• Languages of Pakistan
• Languages of Sri Lanka

References

1. Reynolds, Mike; Verma, Mahendra (2007), Britain, David (ed.), "Indic languages", Language in the British Isles (2 ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 293–307, ISBN 978-0-521-79488-6, retrieved 6 October 2024
2. Kak, Subhash (1996). "Indic Language Families and Indo-European". Yavanika: Journal of the Indian Society for Greek and Roman Studies (6): 51–64.
3. Eaton, Richard M. (14 October 2020). "The Two Languages That Shaped the History of India". Literary Hub. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
4. Cheshire, Jenny (26 April 1991). English around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-58235-0.
5. Rauch, Irmengard; Carr, Gerald F. (19 February 2018). Linguistic Method: Essays in Honor of Herbert Penzl. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 978-3-11-081566-5.
6. Hodges, Amy; Seawright, Leslie (26 September 2014). Going Global: Transnational Perspectives on Globalization, Language, and Education. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-6761-0.
7. Kachru, Braj B. (1986). The Alchemy of English: The Spread, Functions, and Models of Non-native Englishes. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-06172-1.
8. Kothari, Rita; Snell, Rupert (2011). Chutnefying English: The Phenomenon of Hinglish. Penguin Books India. ISBN 978-0-14-341639-5.
9. Vajpeyi, Ananya (2012). "Hindi, Hinglish: Head to Head". World Policy Journal. 29 (2): 97–103. doi:10.1177/0740277512451519. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
10. Salwathura, A. N. "Evolutionary development of 'hinglish' language within the indian sub-continent." International Journal of Research-GRANTHAALAYAH. Vol. 8. No. 11. Granthaalayah Publications and Printers, 2020. 41-48.
11. Vanita, Ruth (1 April 2009). "Eloquent Parrots; Mixed Language and the Examples of Hinglish and Rekhti". International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter (50): 16–17.
12. Singh, Rajendra (1 January 1985). "Modern Hindustani and Formal and Social Aspects of Language Contact". ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics. 70 (1): 33–60. doi:10.1075/itl.70.02sin. ISSN 0019-0829.
13. Parshad, Rana D.; Bhowmick, Suman; Chand, Vineeta; Kumari, Nitu; Sinha, Neha (1 May 2016). "What is India speaking? Exploring the "Hinglish" invasion". Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications. 449: 375–389. Bibcode:2016PhyA..449..375P. doi:10.1016/j.physa.2016.01.015. ISSN 0378-4371. S2CID 59247503.
14. Winterbottom, Anna (29 April 2016). Hybrid Knowledge in the Early East India Company World. Springer. p. 120. ISBN 978-1-137-38020-3. Telugu had become the language of high culture in southern India during the medieval period, and by the seventeenth century its status rivalled that of Sanskrit.
15. Miller, Barbara Stoler (1992). The Powers of Art: Patronage in Indian Culture. Oxford University Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-19-562842-5. In Tyagaraja's time, Telugu was the language of high culture even in Tanjore, the heartland of the Tamil linguistic area.
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Citations

• "Indian Language Family". Central Institute of Indian Languages. Archived from the original on 15 June 2002.
• Data table of Census of India, 2001
• SCHEDULED LANGUAGES IN DESCENDING ORDER OF SPEAKERS' STRENGTH – 2001
• COMPARATIVE RANKING OF SCHEDULED LANGUAGES IN DESCENDING ORDER OF SPEAKERS' STRENGTH-1971, 1981, 1991 AND 2001
• Census data on Languages

Notes

1. combining both western and eastern Punjabi

1. Seen by many as a variety of Punjabi

External links

• Major Indian Languages
• Ethnologue report
• Central Institute of Indian Languages

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