Languages of IndiaLanguages of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians; both families together are sometimes known as Indic languages. Languages spoken by the remaining 2.31% of the population belong to the Austroasiatic, Sino–Tibetan, Tai–Kadai, Andamanese, and a few other minor language families and isolates.
Indo-European languagesLanguage family native to EurasiaThe Indo-European languages are a language family native to the north of the Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and Greater Iran, with additional native branches found in regions such as Armenia, parts of the southern Indian subcontinent (Sri Lanka and the Maldives), and even stretching as far as to mainland Southeast Asia (Rohingya language in Myanmar).
Munda languagesAustroasiatic languages spoken in the Indian subcontinentThe Munda languages are a group of closely-related languages spoken by about eleven million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Historically, they have been called the Kolarian languages.
Indo-Aryan languagesBranch of the Indo-Iranian languagesThe Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, there were 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated east of the Indus River in South Asia, spread across Eastern Pakistan, Northern India, southern Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Maldives.
Austroasiatic languagesLanguage family concentrated in Southeast AsiaThe Austroasiatic languages ( ) are a large language family spoken throughout Mainland Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Asia. These languages are natively spoken by the majority of the population in Vietnam and Cambodia, and by minority populations scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China.
Sino-Tibetan languagesSino-Tibetan (also referred to as Trans-Himalayan) is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. Around 1.4billion people speak a Sino-Tibetan language. The vast majority of these are the 1.3billion native speakers of Sinitic languages. Other Sino-Tibetan languages with large numbers of speakers include Burmese (33million) and the Tibetic languages (6million).
Dravidian languagesThe Dravidian languages are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, primarily in South India, but also in parts of North India, Bangladesh and Nepal, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan, with pockets in Afghanistan and Iran. The most commonly spoken Dravidian languages (in descending order) are Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam, all of which have long literary traditions. Smaller literary languages include Tulu and Kodava.
Khasic languagesThe Khasic or Khasian languages are a family of Austroasiatic languages native to the Shillong Plateau and spoken by the Khasi, Pnar and other related ethnic groups. Most of them reside in the northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya where Khasi speakers form a plurality of the population. Smaller Khasic-speaking pockets are found in Assam, Manipur, Mizoram and Sylhet Division of Bangladesh. LanguagesSidwell (2018: 27–31) classifies the Khasian languages as follows.
Indian Himalayan RegionThe Indian Himalayan Region (abbreviated to IHR) is the section of the Himalayas within the Republic of India, spanning thirteen Indian states and union territories, namely Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, and Assam. The region is responsible for providing water to a large part of the Indian subcontinent and contains various flora and fauna.
Tibeto-Burman languagesThe Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Over 400 Tibeto-Burmese languages are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak Tibeto-Burman languages.
IndiaCountry in South AsiaIndia, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the world's seventh-largest country by area and the largest by population. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is near Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
EthnologueEthnologue: Languages of the World (stylized as Ethnoloɠue) is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It was first issued in 1951 and is now published by SIL Global, an American evangelicalChristian non-profit organization.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.