The Indian Languages

India is a mystic land. She is vibrant, and colourful and is unique from the rest of the world of her diversity in culture, traditions as well as in languages. Some of us might be aware that India has multiple languages spoken all across the country. But interestingly there are as many as 22 languages which are referred to as scheduled languages and recognised officially by the Union Government of the Republic of India. Now that's almost one language for each alphabet of the English language! English is also a very important language in India and it is also one of the official languages. But here we left out English to focus on the other languages in India.

1. Hindi

As per the Government of India Census of 2001, the language that is most widely spoken across India is Hindi. 41.03 % of the total population have declared their mother tongue to be Hindi. It is also the 4th largest spoken language across the world.

Like most Indian languages, Hindi is derived from the ancient Indian language Sanskrit. The Hindi language has a lot of influence from the languages Urdu and Persian. The script used to write Hindi is Devanagari and just like major European languages, Hindi is written from left to right. As agreed by the Government of India, the standard Hindi alphabet has 11 vowels and 35 consonants. However, the traditional Hindi alphabet is considered to be made of 13 vowels and 33 consonants.

Contrary to popular belief Hindi is not the national language of India. The Indian Government has never declared any language as the national language. It is still majorly debated whether to consider Hindi as the national language or not. English is also predominantly used in all forms of communication across the country.

2. Bengali

The language which is most spoken other than Hindi is Bengali with 8.11% of the total population of India having cited it to be their mother tongue. Bengali is also the 7th largest spoken language in the world.

Although Bengali is an Indo-European language that originated in the 10th century, it has been influenced by other language families prevalent in South Asia. Bengali was derived from Magahi Prakrit (a spoken language) through Magahi Apabhramsha (its written counterpart). The Bengali script is derived from Brahmi, one of the two ancient Indian scripts, and particularly from the eastern variety of Brahmi. It has 11 vowels and 35 consonants.

Bengali is the second most spoken language in India, but it is primarily spoken in the eastern Indian states of Bengal, Assam and Tripura. Incidentally, there are more native speakers of Bengali in the neighbouring country of Bangladesh, where Bengali is considered the national and official language of the country.

3. Telugu

The third most spoken language in India is Telegu with 7.19% of the population of India reporting it to be their native language. Other than Hindi, English and Bengali, Telugu is the only other language to be spoken in more than one Indian state,

Telugu is a Dravidian language and is predominantly spoken in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and the newly declared state of Telangana. Though it is also much spoken in the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh and Odisha. In 2008, the Government of India accorded Telugu as one of the six languages declared to be the "Classical Language in India".

Telugu has been heavily influenced by the languages Sanskrit and Prakrit. It consists of 60 symbols which are 16 vowels, 3 vowel modifiers, and 41 consonants. There are a lot of similarities between the scripts of Sanskrit and Telugu.

4. Marathi

Marathi is the fourth-largest spoken language in India. 6.99% of India's population considers their native language to be Marathi. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra in India. But a huge population of the neighbouring states especially that of Goa, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh speaks this language.

Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language and is one of the several languages that has descended from Maharashtri Prakrit. Only after the Independence of India in the year 1947, Marathi was accorded as one of the official languages of the country. Along with Bengali, the Marathi language is the oldest of all the regional literature in Indo-Aryan languages and dates back as old as 1000 A.D.

Though Marathi was originally written in Modi script, in the last two centuries, it is written in a version of the Devanagari script called Balbodh. Marathi has a total of 52 letters comprising 36 consonants and 16 vowels.

5. Tamil

The official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar islands is Tamil. 5.91% of India's native speakers speak this language. The island nation Sri Lanka, and the South Asian country Singapore, also consider Tamil as one of their official languages.

Tamil is the oldest member of the Dravidian language family. In the year 2004, Tamil was accorded as one of the six "Classical Languages in India" by the Government. Originally Tamil was written in a version of the Brahmi script and later it developed into vattelutu script. Presently Tamil has 18 consonants and 12 vowels and 1 special character, called the ayatam. Like most languages of the world, Tamil is also written in the direction of left to right.

It is interesting to note that the word Anaconda is a word derived from the Tamil word anai-kondra meaning elephant killer.

6. Urdu

The language Urdu is majorly spoken in the Islamic countries of the world. But India has a considerable population with Urdu as their native language. 5.01% of India speaks Urdu which is the 6th largest language spoken in India. Though it is mostly spoken among the Muslim communities of the country, it has a lot of similarities with that of the Hindi dialect, which makes it easy to understand for the larger Hindi-speaking population of the country. The Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have the largest number of inhabitants who speaks Urdu. It should be noted that the official language of the neighbouring country of Pakistan is Urdu.

Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and much of it is developed from the influence of Arabic and Persian languages. It is written in the direction from right to left. The Urdu alphabet has 39 basic letters and 13 extra characters, making 52 altogether. Presently Urdu is written in the Nastaʿlīq script style.

7. Gujarati

Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language and is the 7th in terms of native language spoken in India. 4.48% of India's population speaks this language. It is the major language in Gujarat, a western state of India. Though it is widely spoken across other states surrounding Gujarat like Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Additionally, the official language of the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli is Gujarati.

It is from the Devanagari script from which Gujrati has been adapted. Gujarati is also believed that much of it has been derived from the ancient language of Sanskrit via Prakrit and Apabhramsha. The Gujarati script is comprised of a total of 47 characters and several diacritics.

It is interesting to note that the name of the Indian state of Gujarat comes from the word "Gurjara" a subtribe of Huns who dominated the area throughout the 8th and 9th centuries.

8. Kannada

In rank 8 in terms of native language speakers in India is Kannada with 3.69% of the country's population speaking the language. Kannada is the second oldest member of the Dravidian language family. Sometimes it is also called Kannares or Kannana. In the year 2008, the Government of India granted Kannada the status of being one of the six Classical Languages of the country.

Kannada is the official language of the southern Indian state of Karnataka. To some extent, this language is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra.

Much of the influence in the language has come from the ancient Indian language Sanskrit. Prakrit and Pali also have much influence on the development of Kannada. The root of the script has come from one of the two major ancient Indian scripts called the Brahmi. There are 49 letters in the Kananda alphabet series including 14 vowels.

9. Malayalam

One of the many Dravidian languages is Malayalam. This language is mostly spoken in the Southern part of India, especially in the state of Kerala. It is the 9th most spoken language in India and 3.21% of the Indian population speaks this language. The Government of India granted Kannada the status of being one of the six Classical Languages of the country in the year 2013. This is the official language of the states of Kerala and also in the Union Territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry.

Malayalam was developed from the Grantha script, which was in turn developed from the very old Indian script of Brahmi. Much influence has also come from Sanskrit, an ancient language of India. Interestingly English also has a dominant role in the development of the modern Malayalam language.

Malayalam has a total of 53 alphabets, out of which 20 are vowels while the rest are consonants.

10. Odia

Odia or Oriya as it was called earlier belongs to the Top 10 official languages spoken in India. There is only a marginal difference between its predecessor Malayalam when it comes to the number of people speaking the language in India. 3.21% of the populace of the country speaks this language.

This language is the official language of Odisha (earlier known as Orissa), a state in the eastern part of India. Though other eastern states like West Bengal and Jharkhand have a considerable population speaking this language. Odia also has similarities between the Indian languages of Bengali and Assamese.

Odia belongs to the Indo-Aryan language. The ancient Indian script Brahmi had many descendants, of which Kalinga is one. Odia is derived from the Kalinga script. There are a total of 39 consonants and 12 vowels in Odia. This language is the sixth language to be recognised as one of the six Classical languages of India.

Now you know one more reason why India is such a colourful country - maybe the most colourful of all.