The Voices of Bharat: Statistical Insights into India's Language Diversity

India, often called Bharat, is a land of vibrant cultures, profound history, and an astonishing tapestry of languages. As you traverse this incredible nation, you are met with a symphony of diverse voices, accents, and dialects, each telling a unique story. At Zoice, a conversational AI platform for India, we understand that truly connecting with Bharat means embracing and understanding this rich linguistic landscape.

Languages in India: A Statistical Snapshot

The linguistic richness of India is both astonishing and awe-inspiring. While India has 2 official languages, 22 scheduled languages, the country is also home to an impressive 121 languages and 270 mother tongues. Among these, Sanskrit stands out as one of the world's oldest languages. This linguistic mosaic reflects India's diverse and pluralistic society, where people from various religions, ethnicities, castes, and classes coexist and interact.

Let's delve into the top languages spoken across India and their geographical footprint:

• Hindi: As one of the official languages of India, Hindi is the most widely spoken language in the country, with 528.3 million speakers. It serves as a supplemental language in many federal recruitment exams and is predominantly spoken across states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi. Hindi is descended from Sanskrit and has been influenced by Dravidian, Arabic, Portuguese, English, Persian, and Turkish languages. It also encompasses many dialects like Awadhi, Braj, Khadi Bhasha, Bhojpuri, and Haryanvi.
• Bengali: India's second most spoken language, Bengali has 97.2 million speakers. It is primarily spoken in the Indian states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Assam, and Tripura, and is also found in countries like Bangladesh, The Middle East, the United States, Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Bengali evolved from Indo-Aryan languages, particularly Sanskrit, over more than 1,300 years.
• Marathi: With 83.0 million speakers, Marathi is India's third most widely spoken language. This Indo-Aryan language is the official language of the western states of India, including Goa and Maharashtra. Marathi is known for its approximately 42 dialects.
• Telugu: A Dravidian language, Telugu is spoken by 81.1 million people in India, primarily in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Yanam (Puducherry). The Government of India has recognized Telugu as one of the six classical languages of India. It boasts a rich history with approximately 10,000 inscriptions as of 1996.
• Tamil: Also from the Dravidian language family, Tamil is spoken widely in Tamil Nadu and neighboring South Indian states. It is the official language of both Singapore and Sri Lanka and is often considered one of the world's oldest living languages, with a literary history spanning over 2,000 years.
• Gujarati: An Indo-Aryan language derived from Sanskrit, Gujarati is the official language of Gujarat, a state in northwest India, and is spoken by 55.4 million people. It is divided into three dialects: Parsi, Hindu, and Muslim.
• Urdu: Spoken by 50.7 million people in India, Urdu is an official language in West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana, and Jharkhand, and also the official language of Pakistan. Like Hindi, Urdu is a Hindustani language and is written from right to left using an extension of the Persian script, which is an extension of the Arabic alphabet.
• Kannada: A Dravidian language, Kannada is spoken by 43.7 million people in India, mainly in Karnataka and other South Indian states. It has more than 20 dialects and was designated a classical language of India.
• Odia: The official language of Odisha, Odia is spoken by 37.5 million people in India. It is the sixth Indian language to be classified as a Classical language due to its long literary tradition and minimal borrowing from other languages.
• Malayalam: Spoken by around 34.8 million people in India, primarily in Kerala, Puducherry, and Lakshadweep, Malayalam also traces its roots to the Dravidian languages. It shows variations in intonation patterns, vocabulary, and grammatical and phonological elements based on geography, religion, community, occupation, social strata, style, and register.

This vibrant linguistic landscape also gives rise to language mixing, such as the widespread use of 'Hinglish' (a blend of Hindi and English), though specific statistics for 'Hinglish' are not provided in the sources. This influence of various languages on Hindi itself, and the presence of numerous dialects within languages like Marathi and Kannada, demonstrate this dynamic mixing.