LANGUAGES OF INDIA

There are 1652 different languages in India and 350 are as major languages. Most of the languages of India belong to two families, Aryan and Dravidian. Some Indian languages have evolved from the Indo-European group of languages and these were the languages of the Aryans who invaded India. This set is known as the Indic group of languages. The other set of languages are Dravidian and are native to South India, though a distinct influence of Sanskrit and Hindi is evident in these languages. Most of the Indian languages have their own script and are spoken in the respective states along with English. Languages spoken in the five states of south India belong to the Dravidian family and most of the languages spoken in the north are of Aryan family. The general script of the Aryan languages is different from the general script of the Dravidian languages. The Indians also distinguish between the general north Indian accent and general south Indian accent. Along with these two main language families, there are others from Sino-Mongoloid family spoken in the East India.

India's official language is Hindi in the Devnagri script. However, English continues to be the Official working language. For many educated Indians, English is virtually their first language, and for a great number of Indians who are multi-lingual, it will probably be the second. The country has a wide variety of local languages and in many cases the State boundaries have been drawn on linguistic lines. Besides Hindi and English, the other popular languages officially recognized by the Indian Constitution are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Oriya, Telugu and Urdu.

Hindi is spoken as a mother tongue by about 30 percent of the population, mainly in North India, in the area known as the "Hindi belt" comprising Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. It is the official language of the four states mentioned above, and of two other states namely, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

There are 1652 different languages in India and 350 are as major languages.