information on India - Languages in India

In different parts of India, different languages are spoken. Most of the languages of India belong to two families, Aryan and Dravidian. 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 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 other languages from the Sini - Mongoloid family spoken in east India.

The languages spoken in present India, evolved in different phases of Indian history. In the earlier stage of Indian history other languages were spoken. The holy books of different religions that developed in ancient India are written in different languages. The holy books of Hinduism were written Sanskrit. The holy books of Buddhism were written in Pali. The holy books of Jainism were written in Ardhamaghadi. These three languages aren’t spoken fluently in India today, but Sanskrit is recognized as one of the official languages of India. The modern Aryan languages are considered to have evolved from Sanskrit. The evolvement of south Indian languages isn’t clear. Many believe that before the arrival of the Aryans, Dravidian languages were spoken over all India. Some of the tribes of north India speak (or spoke in the near past) in dialects similar to Dravidian languages. Among the present Dravidian languages of south India, Tamil language had exerted its greatest influence on other Dravidian languages.

©Aharon Daniel

1998-2000