Languages of India
From ArticleWorld
The native languages of India are offshoots of two classical languages Sanskrit and Tamil. Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu are of Dravidian decent and are spoken in south India. Languages spoken in south India are very different than the Aryan languages spoken in north India. The main Aryan languages derived mainly from Sanskrit and Persian are Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Marathi, Oriya, Assamese, Gujarathi, Punjabi and a host of variations of these languages.
Urdu is vastly different from any other native Indian language. Urdu is an amalgamation of Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic and was basically spoken language of the army.
Script
The north Indian languages use “Devanagari” script, which is taken mainly from the ancient Sanskrit language, and influenced by Persian and Arabic. The south Indian scripts are very different from the north Indian script but are similar amongst themselves. Grammar of all Indian languages is however similar and the age-old rules of Panini Grammar are still followed.
Indian languages are phonetic. They have vowels and consonants just as in English. Each vowel has is followed by its longer version. The consonants are basically four or five rows each succeeding letter is a systematic development of the first letter in the row.
Official recognition
The constitution of India recognizes 22 major languages. Though majority of people speak and understand Hindi all over India, it has not been given any official status different than the other recognized languages... English and Hindi are used in official communication with equal regard. Each state though has its own official language, apart from using Hindi and English with equal status. English is also widely spoken and understood. It is taught as a second language in schools all over the country.
Languages have formed an important part in the formation of states in India. The issue of languages spoken in a particular region has been the one most important factor in demarcating the boundaries of the Indian states.