1 year, 11 months ago
What are the 21 different languages spoken in India?
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The CIA World Factbook lists the languages spoken in India as:
1. Hindi (spoken by 41% of Indian population)
2. Bengali (8.1%)
3. Telugu (7.2%)
4. Marathi (7%)
5. Tamil (5.9%)
6. Urdu (5%)
7. Gujarati (4.5%)
8. Kannada (3.7%)
9. Malayalam (3.2)
10. Oriya (3.2%)
11. Punjabi (2.8%)
12. Assamese (1.3%)
13. Maithili (1.2%)
14, 15, 16, 17. Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sanskrit, Hindustani (5.9% combined)
English is also widely spoken and adopted as an official language in India, but a percentage of speakers was not given by the CIA World Factbook. Wikipedia lists the English-speaking population of India as 23.18%. Wikipedia also lists off more languages spoken in India by smaller populations - Bodo, Chhattisgarhi, Dogri, Garo, Kashmiri, Khasi, Kokborok, Konkani, Manipuri, Mizo, Nepali, Oriya, and Santali. Combining those smaller languages with English and the list on the CIA World Factbook, that is a total of 31 languages spoken in India.
The languages given "official" status by the Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution are listed by Wikipedia as:
1. Assamese/Axomiya
2. Bengali
3. Bodo
4. Dogri
5. Gujarati
6. Hindi,
7. Kannada
8. Kashmiri
9. Konkani
10. Maithili
11. Malayalam
12. Manipuri (also Meitei or Meithei)
13. Marathi
14. Nepali
15. Oriya
16. Punjabi
17. Sanskrit
18. Santhali
19. Sindhi
20. Tamil
21. Telugu
22. Urdu
There doesn't seem, therefore, to be a complete consensus as to which languages are officially spoken in India. It's always difficult to pin down what's an official language and what's just a dialect, too. Like they say, "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy." :)
1. Hindi (spoken by 41% of Indian population)
2. Bengali (8.1%)
3. Telugu (7.2%)
4. Marathi (7%)
5. Tamil (5.9%)
6. Urdu (5%)
7. Gujarati (4.5%)
8. Kannada (3.7%)
9. Malayalam (3.2)
10. Oriya (3.2%)
11. Punjabi (2.8%)
12. Assamese (1.3%)
13. Maithili (1.2%)
14, 15, 16, 17. Kashmiri, Sindhi, Sanskrit, Hindustani (5.9% combined)
English is also widely spoken and adopted as an official language in India, but a percentage of speakers was not given by the CIA World Factbook. Wikipedia lists the English-speaking population of India as 23.18%. Wikipedia also lists off more languages spoken in India by smaller populations - Bodo, Chhattisgarhi, Dogri, Garo, Kashmiri, Khasi, Kokborok, Konkani, Manipuri, Mizo, Nepali, Oriya, and Santali. Combining those smaller languages with English and the list on the CIA World Factbook, that is a total of 31 languages spoken in India.
The languages given "official" status by the Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution are listed by Wikipedia as:
1. Assamese/Axomiya
2. Bengali
3. Bodo
4. Dogri
5. Gujarati
6. Hindi,
7. Kannada
8. Kashmiri
9. Konkani
10. Maithili
11. Malayalam
12. Manipuri (also Meitei or Meithei)
13. Marathi
14. Nepali
15. Oriya
16. Punjabi
17. Sanskrit
18. Santhali
19. Sindhi
20. Tamil
21. Telugu
22. Urdu
There doesn't seem, therefore, to be a complete consensus as to which languages are officially spoken in India. It's always difficult to pin down what's an official language and what's just a dialect, too. Like they say, "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy." :)
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
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