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South Asia is home to several hundred languages, spanning the countries ofAfghanistan,Bangladesh,Bhutan,India,Maldives,Nepal,Pakistan, andSri Lanka. It is home to the fourth most spoken language in the world,Hindi–Urdu; the seventh most spoken language,Bengali; and thirteenth most spoken language,Punjabi.[note 1] Languages likeBengali,Tamil andNepali have official/national status in more than one country of this region. The languages in the region mostly compriseIndo-Iranic andDravidian languages, and further members of other language families likeAustroasiatic, andTibeto-Burman languages.
Geolinguistically, theIndo-Aryan,Dravidian andMunda language groups are predominantly distributed across theIndian subcontinent. The termIndic languages is also used to refer to these languages,[1] though it may be narrowed to refer only to Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages.[2] The subcontinent is also home to a fewlanguage isolates, likeBurushaski,Kusunda,Nihali, andVedda.
Areally, the influence of the languages extend beyond the subcontinent into other neighbouringSouthern Asian as well asEast andSoutheast Asian regions, and the extended linguistic area is known asIndosphere. More precisely, thesprachbund of Indic languages and other geopolitically neighboring languages is known asSouth Asian languages (which additionally includesEastern-Iranic andNuristani languages, as well asCentral- andWestern- Tibeto-Burmanlinkages).
TheIranian Plateau, located west of the subcontinent, is home toIranic languages, beginning withPashto ofPashtunistan andBalochi ofBalochistan in the eastern-side of the plateau.Persian is spoken in the central plateau, with varieties likeDari in Afghanistan,Farsi in Iran andTajik in Tajikistan.Kafiri languages are spoken in pockets at the northern intersection of the plateau and the subcontinent.
Tibeto-Burman languages of theTrans-Himalayan family andKhasi–Palaungic languages of theAustroasiatic family are spoken in and beyond the regions of theHimalayan andIndo-Burman Ranges, predominantly on theTibetan Plateau andBurma.Andamanese languages are spoken on theAndaman Islands.
Historically,Sanskrit was the lingua franca of South Asia. In theIndo-Muslim period,Persian became a connecting language throughout much of India and thePersianate world in general,influencing local languages.[3] From the colonial era onwards, English became a lingua franca to some extent, aiding those who participated in theIndian independence movement, for example.
In contemporary times,English is considered the international lingua franca of theSouth Asian countries. Since the colonial era, the South Asian languages have absorbed significant influences from the English language,[4][5][6][7] with the most-spoken South Asian languageHindustani also acquiring a newEnglish-influenced variant known asHinglish[8][9][10][11][12] which is spoken more in urban areas.[13]
On a subregional level,Telugu was a language of high culture inSouth India in precolonial times,[17] while in modern times,Punjabi andBengali function as major transnational languages connecting the northwestern and eastern regions of India to Pakistan and Bangladesh, respectively (see alsoPunjabiyat).[18][19]
The official languages of Afghanistan arePashto andDari (Farsi), both of which areIranic languages. Dari, an Afghanstandardised register of thePersian language, is considered the lingua franca of Afghanistan and used to write Afghan literature.Tajik is spoken by people closer toTajikistan, although officially, is regarded to be the same as Dari. Pashto is widely spoken by thePashtun people, who mainly reside towards the south ofAfghanistan on the Pakistani-Afghan border. A fewTurkic languages, likeUzbek andTurkmen, are spoken near regions closer toUzbekistan andTurkmenistan. Balochi is spoken in southern part of the country, primarily bordering areas of Sistan Baluchistan and Balochistan, Pakistan.
Standard Bengali based on theCentral dialect is the national language of Bangladesh. The majority of Bangladeshis speak aneastern variant of Bengali language.[20] Otherlanguage varieties that are variously considered as dialects of Bengali includeSylheti,Rangpuri,Noakhali andChittagonian, while some ethnic minority indigineous groups also speakTibeto-Burman,Dravidian andAustroasiatic languages.[20]
Dzongkha is thenational language of theKingdom of Bhutan. Other languages spoken includeBrokpa,Dzala,ChaliChocangacakha,Dakpa language,Khengkha language,Nepali language,Gongduk,Nyenkha,Lhokpu,Takpa andTshangla.[21]
Almost all the languages of Bhutan are from theTibetic family (exceptNepali, an Indo-Aryan language).
Most languages spoken in theRepublic of India belong either to theIndo-Aryan (c. 74%), theDravidian (c. 24%), theAustroasiatic (Munda) (c. 1.2%), or theTibeto-Burman (c. 0.6%) families, with some languages of theHimalayas still unclassified.TheSIL Ethnologue lists 461 living languages for the Indian Republic.
Hindustani is the most widespread language of India. TheIndian census takes the widest possible definition of "Hindi" as the broad variety of theHindi languages. The native speakers ofHindi so defined account for 39% of Indians.Bengali is the second most spoken language of South Asia, found in both Bangladesh and Indian states ofWest Bengal,Tripura andAssam. TheInternational Mother Language Day was created byUNESCO to commemorate the Bengali language.[22] Other notable languages includeOdia,Telugu,Punjabi,Marathi,Tamil,Urdu,Sindhi,Kannada,Pashto,Malayalam,Maithili,Meitei (Manipuri),Konkani, andTulu.
Thirteen languages account for more than 1% of Indian population each, and between themselves for over 95%; all of them are the "scheduled languages of the Constitution".
Scheduled languages spoken by less than 1% of Indians areSantali (0.64%),Meitei (Manipuri) (0.14%),Bodo (0.13%),Dogri (0.01%, spoken inJammu and Kashmir). The largest language that is not "scheduled" isBhili (0.95%), followed byGondi (0.27%),Tulu (0.17%) andKurukh (0.099%)
Divehi is the national language of theMaldives, spoken by 95% of the population.Arabic is considered as the religious language, and English is medium of instruction for education and international purposes such as tourism.
Most of the languages ofNepal either fall underIndo-Aryan languages orSino-Tibetan languages. The official language of the country isNepali, earlier known as Gorkhali in theKingdom of Nepal, which is part of the Indo-Aryan group and is the spoken by majority of the population.
TheIndo-Aryan languages spoken in Nepal includeMaithili language,Bhojpuri language andTharu language, which constitutes majority of the speakers in southern Nepal in theTerai region.[23] TheSino-Tibetan languages includeTamang,Newari,Magar language,Gurung language,Kiranti languages andSherpa language and are often spoken in central and northern Nepal in the hilly and mountainous regions.[23]
Pakistan is a linguistically diverse country; it has many dozens of languages spoken as first languages.[24][25] The major languages of Pakistan broadly fall under the categoryIndo-Iranian languages, with western regions of Pakistan speakingIranic languages, and eastern regions speakingIndo-Aryan languages; with theIndus River approximately dividing the families.
Other language families in Pakistan includeDravidian (Brahui spoken in CentralBalochistan),Sino-Tibetan languages such asBalti andPurgi spoken in the north-east (InBaltistan region of Pakistan),Nuristani languages such asKamkata-vari spoken in the north-west (Inchitral region of Pakistan),Language isolateBurushaski spoken in the north (InGilgit Division),Turkic languages are also spoken in Pakistan, byKyrgyz migrant families in the North andUzbeks andTurkmen inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa and byrefugees from Afghanistan; andUyghur refugees from China.[26][27]
Thelingua franca in Pakistan isUrdu, a Persianised register of theHindustani language. The most-widely spoken first language in the country isPunjabi, spoken by thePunjabi people, forming a majority in thePunjab province andIslamabad Capital Territory. Punjabi is followed byPashto,Sindhi,Saraiki,[a]Hindko,Pahari-Pothwari, Urdu, andBalochi; while more than 70 other languages likeShina,Balti,Gujarati,[28]Bengali,[29] etc. are also spoken.
Sinhala andTamil are the official languages of Sri Lanka, withEnglish as the link language. Tamil is a South-Dravidian language, and Sinhala belongs to the Insular Indic family (along withDhivehi of the Maldives).Vedda is said to be the indigenous language of Sri Lanka before the arrival of the Indo-Aryans and Dravidians.
Telugu had become the language of high culture in southern India during the medieval period, and by the seventeenth century its status rivalled that of Sanskrit.
In Tyagaraja's time, Telugu was the language of high culture even in Tanjore, the heartland of the Tamil linguistic area.
In precolonial or early-modern South India, Telugu became the cultural language of the south, including the Tamil country, somewhat similar to the overwhelming dominance of French as the cultural language of modern Europe during roughly the same era. Therefore, Telugu predominates in the evolution of Carnatic music, and it is the practice to teach Telugu language in music colleges to those aspiring to become singers.
