Twenty-two Tongues
A guide to the offcial Indian languages. By Pushpi Bagchi
All content for this book is for academic purposes only. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without permission from the author. Content, editing and design by Pushpi Bagchi Printed and bound in Edinburgh College of Art.
Contents INTRODUCTION
04
SANSKRIT
06
NORTH INDIA
08
NORTH EAST INDIA
18
EAST INDIA
24
SOUTH INDIA
30
WEST INDIA
36
Introduction India does not have an official national language. The official language of the Union Government of the Republic of India is Standard Hindi, with English as a secondary official language. The constitution of India states “The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script�, a position supported by a High Court ruling. However, languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian constitution are sometimes referred to, without legal standing, as the national languages of India. There are twenty-two official languages as listed by the constitution but the 2001 census listed a 122 spoken languages in the country. The following pages show a break down of the twenty-two official languages based on the geographic location of where they are spoken. Each language is represented by a mask, the design of which is inspired by the traditional craft styles of the region the language is spoken in.
Right: Political Map of India
04
05
Sanskrit For more than three millennia Sanskrit was the lingua franca of the Indian subcontinent; the language of science, knowledge, and culture. Like Greek and Latin it is one of the great classical languages of the world. Renowned for the sophistication of its phonetic structure it is the basis for many modern Indian languages such as Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Punjabi. Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and therefore shares many similarities in structure and vocabulary to European languages including English. As the liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, Sanskrit is mostly used as a ceremonial language in religious rituals today. Even though it is not a spoken language, it has much cultural significance making it one of the 22 official languages of India.
Right: Mask illustration representing Sanskrit.
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07
North India The North Indian Zone includes the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, National Capital Territory of Delhi, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. The official languagesspoken in this region are Hindi, Urdu, Kashmiri, Dogri, Punjabi, Maithili and Sindhi.
Right: North Indian states.
08
09
As per the last census report of India (2011), there are 422 million people who consider Hindi as their first language, making it the largest spoken language in the Indian subcontinent.
10
Urdu is the national language of Pakistan, and an official language of five Indian states. It is written in Perso-Arabic script.
11
Kashmiri is predominantly spoken in the Kashmir Valley. It was traditionally written in the Sharada script but is not in common use today, except for religious ceremonies. At present it is written in Devanagari and Perso-Arabic script (with some modifications).
12
Dogri is spoken in India and parts of Pakistan. It is written in the Devanagiri script in India, and the Nasta’liq form of Perso-Arabic in Pakistan and Pakistaniadministered Kashmir.
13
Punjabi is the 10th most widely spoken language in the world, with a predominance in the United Kingdom and Canada due to large scale migration. It is written in Gurumukhi script.
14
Maithili is spoken in north India and is the second most spoken language in Nepal. It is written in the Devanagiri script.
15
Sindhi is an ancient language with over seventy percent of the words in Sanskrit. The fact that Sindhi is mostly written in the Arabic script, gives the impression that it is a Persio-Arabic tongue.
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North East India Northeast India is the eastern-most region of India connected to East India via a narrow corridor between Nepal and Bangladesh. It comprises the contiguous Seven Sister States—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and the Himalayan state of Sikkim. The Seven Sister States constitute a single linguistic region with about 220 spoken languages in three different language groups, Indo-Aryan, Sino-Tibetan and Austric that share common structural features. The official languages spoken in this region are Assamese, Bodo, Manipuri and Nepali.
Right: North-east Indian states.
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Assamese is the official language of the state of Assam. It uses the Assamese script and has several regional dialects.
20
Bodo or Mech, is the Tibeto-Burman language of the Bodo people of north-eastern India and Nepal.
21
Meithei, also known as Manipuri, is the predominant language in the state of Manipur. The language has proven to be a integrating factor among all ethnic groups in Manipur who use it to communicate among themselves.
22
Nepali is the lingua franca of Nepal and has official language status in the formerly independent state of Sikkim and in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district. Historically it was called Khaskura (language of the khas ‘rice farmers’).
23
East India East India consists of the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and the union territory Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Together with Bangladesh, West Bengal formed the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal before the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. The historic region of Bengal which was ruled by the Nawabs of Bengal comprises the present West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Bangladesh from where the British started their conquest of India. The official languages spoken in this region are Bengali, Odiya and Santali.
Right: East Indian states.
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Bengali is one of the most spoken languages in the world. It is locally known as Bangla and has its own definitive script.
26
Odiya is one of the oldest languages of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Odisha and in parts of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.
27
Santali is spoken in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. The language has its own script, known as Ol Chiki.though a variant of the Latin alphabet is also used.
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South India South India, also known as Dravida, is the area encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry. The official languages spoken in this region are Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam which are part of the Dravidian language family which is considered to be one of the largest language families in the world. The family includes 73 languages spoken by over 222 million people in southern India, Sri Lanka, certain areas of Pakistan, and in Nepal. The word dravida in Sanskrit historically means ‘Tamil.’
Right: South Indian states.
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Kannada is predominantly spoken in the state of Karnataka. The Government of India officially recognises Kannada as a classical language for its rich literary heritage.
32
Tamil is predominantly spoken by people in Southern India and North-east Sri Lanka. It is one of the longest surviving classical languages with literature that has existed for over two thousand years.
33
Telugu is mainly spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh but is the most spoken Dravidian language because of the large number of people who speak it.
34
Malayalam is spoken in the state of Kerala and has its own script but is also written in a version of the Arabic script by Muslims in Singapore and Malaysia, and occasionally by Muslims in Kerala.
35
West India West India consists of the states of Goa, Gujarat and Maharashtra, along with the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The official languages spoken in this region are Gujarati, Marathi, Konkani and Hindi.
Right: West Indian states.
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Gujarati is the official language of the state of Gujarat. The Gujarati script was adapted from Devanagiri. Until the 19th century it was used mainly for writing letters and keeping accounts, while Devanagiri was used for literature and academic writings.
38
Marathi is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. It is written in the Devanagiri script. It has two major dialects and called Standard Marathi and Warhadi Marathi and several sub dialects.
39
Konkani is the official language of the state of Goa. According to some Hindu legends, Parashurama shot his arrow into the sea and commanded the Sea God to recede up to the point where his arrow landed. The new piece of land thus recovered came to be known as Konkan meaning piece of earth.
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