Language Families in India

There are more than 5000 languages that are spoken throughout India. These languages are broadly classified into 4 language families in India, namely (i) Indo-European Languages / Aryan Languages group, (ii) Dravidian Languages group, (iii) Sino-Tibetan / Kirata group and (iv) Austric / Nishada group.

Indo-European Languages Group

• The Aryan Languages group consists of two subgroups, Indo-Aryan Languages group and Dardic group. The major languages in Indo-Aryan family consists of Sanskrit, Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, Odia, Marathi, Konkani, Nepalese, Urdu, etc. Dardic group consists of the language, Kashmiri.
  
  
• Hindi is the most spoken language in India. It is spoken in many dialects like Maithili (Bihar, Jharkhand, Nepal), Bhojpuri (Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar), Avadhi (Western Uttar Pradesh) and Khariboli & Braj Bhasha (Western and Central Uttar Pradesh).

Dravidian Languages Group

The major languages in Dravidian family are Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. The other languages in this group are Tulu, Kodava, Toda, Khond (mixture of Telugu and Odia), Gondi, Kurumba, Kurukh, etc.

Sino-Tibetan Languages Group

These languages are spoken by people of Mongoloid ethnicity. These languages are Bodo, Naga, Manipuri, Tripuri, Dafla, Sherpa, Bhotia, Ladakhi, etc.

Austric Languages Group

This group includes Garo and Khasi languages of Meghalaya, Santhali and Munda languages of Chotanagpur Plateau and Nicobarese language