Languages of the Indian subcontinent: Difference between revisions

[[File:South Asian language Families.jpg|thumb|Map of language families in [[South Asia]].]]

[[File:States of South Asia.png|thumb|right|400px|The names of each state in the script of the dominant language of that state of India, part of Pakistan and the whole of Bangladesh, Maldives , Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.]]

[[South Asia]] is home to several hundred languages, spanning the countries of [[Afghanistan]], [[Bangladesh]], [[Bhutan]], [[India]], [[Nepal]], [[Pakistan]], [[Maldives]] and [[Sri Lanka]]. It is home to the third most spoken language in the world, [[Hindi–Urdu]]; and the sixth most spoken language, [[Bengali language|Bengali]]. The languages in the region mostly comprise [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranic]] and [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian]] languages, and further members of other language families like [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]], [[Turkic languages|Turkic]], and [[Tibeto-Burman languages|Tibeto-Burman]] languages.

 

 

 

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

 

 

[[Bengali language|Standard Bengali]] based on [[Rarhi dialect]] (West Bengal, India) is the national language of Bangladesh. Majority of Bangladeshis speaks [[Eastern Bengali]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Bangladesh - Languages {{!}} Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Bangladesh/Languages|access-date=2022-01-10|website=www.britannica.com|language=en}}</ref> Native languages of Bangladesh are [[Sylheti language|Sylheti]] and [[Chittagonian language|Chittagonian]], while some ethnic minority groups also speak [[Tibeto-Burman languages|Tibeto-Burman]], [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian]] and [[Austroasiatic languages|Austro-asiatic]] languages. <ref name=":0" />

 

 

[[Dzongkha]] is the national language of the [[Kingdom of Bhutan]]. Almost all the languages of Bhutan are from [[Tibetic languages|Tibetic family]] (except [[Nepali language|Nepali]], an [[Indo-Aryan language]]).

[[Hindustani language|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]] and [[Tripura]]. The [[International Mother Language Day]] was created by [[UNESCO]] to commemorate the [[Bengali language]].<ref name="UNESCO">{{cite web |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000117961.page=38|title=The General Conference proclaim"International Mother Language Day"  to be observed on 21 February|website=unesdoc.unesco.org |date=1999-11-16 |access-date=2019-04-21}}</ref> Other notable languages include [[Odia language|Odia]], [[Telugu language|Telugu]], [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]], [[Marathi language|Marathi]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Urdu]], [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]], [[Kannada]], [[Pashto]], [[Malayalam]] and [[Konkani language|Konkani]].

Most of the languages of [[Nepal]] either fall under [[Indo-Aryan languages]] or [[Sino-Tibetan languages]]. The official language of the country is [[Nepali language|Nepali]], earlier known as Gorkhali in the [[Kingdom of Nepal]], and is the mother tongue of around half the population.

[[Pakistan]] is a linguistically diverse country it has many dozens of languages spoken as first languages.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kukreja |first=Veena |date=March 2020 |title=Ethnic Diversity, Political Aspirations and State Response: A Case Study of Pakistan |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0019556120906585 |journal=Indian Journal of Public Administration |language=en |volume=66 |issue=1 |pages=28–42 |doi=10.1177/0019556120906585 |issn=0019-5561}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=A revealing map of the world’s most and least ethnically diverse countries |language=en-US |work=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/05/16/a-revealing-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-ethnically-diverse-countries/ |access-date=2022-04-29 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> The major languages of Pakistan broadly fall under the category [[Indo-Iranian languages]], with western regions of Pakistan (close to [[Iran]] and [[Afghanistan]]) speaking [[Iranic languages]] and eastern regions (close to India) speaking [[Indo-Aryan languages]] (with the [[Indus River]] approximately dividing the families).

 

 

The national uniting medium of Pakistan is [[Urdu]], a persianized register of the [[Hindustani language]]. The major native languages of Pakistan are [[Balochistan|Baluchi]], [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]], [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]], [[Saraiki language|Saraiki]], [[Pashto]], while more than 70 other languages like [[Shina language|Shina]], [[Balti language|Balti]], [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-10-02 |title=Karachi’s Gujarati speaking youth strive to revive Jinnah’s language |url=https://www.arabnews.pk/node/1381116/pakistan |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=Arab News PK |language=en}}</ref> [[Bengali language|Bengali]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-01-16 |title=Five million illegal immigrants residing in Pakistan |url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/322325/five-million-illegal-immigrants-residing-in-pakistan |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=The Express Tribune |language=en}}</ref> etc. are also spoken.

 

 

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

* [[Languages of Asia]]

* [[Languages of Pakistan]]  

* India: