Languages of India
By: Shefali Deo
India is a country with contrasting cultures and different languages that has been shaped by years of cultural variety, regional differences, race, religion and so on. According to the Constitution of India, there are 22 recognized Indian languages, 325 languages spoken, and more than 2,000 dialects!
Origin
All of the 22 main national languages share a common thing- they all are direct descendants of Sanskrit, which is recognized as the classical language of India.
Hearth of Sanskrit is the Indus Valley
Sanskrit is a historical language from Indo-Aryan language group of the Indo-European language family.
- Sanskrit is the primary sacred language of Hinduism, and a literary language in Buddhism and Jainism.
Diffusion
- Sanskrit diffused throughout the Indian subcontinent through relocation diffusion. People migrated from one state to another, carrying the language with them.
- Robert Antoine, who was a Belgian Jesuit priest and a missionary in India, helped diffuse Sanskrit in India through teaching people about the language and its philosophy.
- In each state, people had different dialects of Sanskrit.
Hindi
- Hindi is a sanskritized Hindustani language which is related to Hinduism. It's words, vocabulary come from the pidgin of Urdu and Sanskrit.
- Hindi's linguistic dialect comes from the Mughal Empire, who were Persian Muslims.
- Hindi is the official language of India. It also belongs to the Dravidian branch of the Indo-European language branch.
- Dialects of Hindi are also different in each state. They might use different vocabulary than others and might say it in a different way as well.
- Hindi draws much of its academic vocabulary from Sanskrit.
Globalization
Sanskrit
- Today, not a lot of people in India speak Sanskrit, except when it is used in religious purposes. It will become an extinct language in the years to follow.
- Many people in India still learn Sanskrit and also pursue degrees in that field, but don't speak it that much.
- However, programs in India are enforcing to keep Sanskrit as a common language and are encouraging people to speak it as well.
Hindi
- Hindi has become a predominant language throughout India. It is becoming a popular language.
- It has become a lingua franca of India as it is used for government and trade purposes.
India Languages -- India Travel
The History of Sanskrit