62-573: [REDACTED] Look up megha in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Megha means "cloud" in several Indian languages , comes from the Sanskrit word मेघ (megha, "cloud"). As a name, it is glossed by the Penguin Book of Hindu Names for Boys as 'sprinkler', 'cloud, mass', the name of a mythical rakshasa , and 'the father of the 5th Arhat of
124-561: A lexicostatistical comparison of 36 languages which are well known enough to exclude loanwords, finds little evidence for internal branching, though he did find an area of increased contact between the Bahnaric and Katuic languages, such that languages of all branches apart from the geographically distant Munda and Nicobarese show greater similarity to Bahnaric and Katuic the closer they are to those branches, without any noticeable innovations common to Bahnaric and Katuic. He therefore takes
186-642: A "thieves' argot" rather than a legitimate language. The other language isolates found in the rest of South Asia include Burushaski , a language spoken in Gilgit–Baltistan (administered by Pakistan), Kusunda (in western Nepal), and Vedda (in Sri Lanka). The validity of the Great Andamanese language group as a language family has been questioned and it has been considered a language isolate by some authorities. The Hruso language , which
248-588: A few specialized exceptions in other Austroasiatic branches. The Austroasiatic languages are further characterized as having unusually large vowel inventories and employing some sort of register contrast, either between modal (normal) voice and breathy (lax) voice or between modal voice and creaky voice . Languages in the Pearic branch and some in the Vietic branch can have a three- or even four-way voicing contrast. However, some Austroasiatic languages have lost
310-585: A million native speakers, 60 have more than 100,000 and 122 have more than 10,000 native speakers. There are a few languages like Kodava that do not have a script but have a group of native speakers in Coorg (Kodagu). According to the most recent census of 2011, after thorough linguistic scrutiny, edit, and rationalization on 19,569 raw linguistic affiliations, the census recognizes 1369 rationalized mother tongues and 1474 names which were treated as ‘unclassified’ and relegated to ‘other’ mother tongue category. Among,
372-497: A previous life of the Buddha Megha (singer) (born 1987), an Indian Tamil playback singer Megha Akash Indian film actress See also [ edit ] All pages with titles containing Megha Megh (disambiguation) Magha (disambiguation) Mega (disambiguation) Meghna (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
434-520: A privately owned research institution in India, has recorded over 66 different scripts and more than 780 languages in India during its nationwide survey, which the organisation claims to be the biggest linguistic survey in India. The People of India (POI) project of Anthropological Survey of India reported 325 languages which are used for in-group communication by 5,633 Indian communities. The Census of India records and publishes data with respect to
496-479: A stressed, full syllable. This reduction of presyllables has led to a variety of phonological shapes of the same original Proto-Austroasiatic prefixes, such as the causative prefix, ranging from CVC syllables to consonant clusters to single consonants among the modern languages. As for word formation, most Austroasiatic languages have a variety of derivational prefixes, many have infixes , but suffixes are almost completely non-existent in most branches except Munda, and
558-769: A taxon altogether, making it synonymous with the larger family. Scholars generally date the ancestral language to c. 3000 BCE – c. 2000 BCE with a homeland in southern China or the Mekong River valley. Sidwell (2022) proposes that the locus of Proto-Austroasiatic was in the Red River Delta area around c. 2500 BCE – c. 2000 BCE . Genetic and linguistic research in 2015 about ancient people in East Asia suggest an origin and homeland of Austroasiatic in today southern China or even further north. The name Austroasiatic
620-641: Is better preserved in the Katuic languages , which Sidwell has specialized in. Linguists traditionally recognize two primary divisions of Austroasiatic: the Mon–Khmer languages of Southeast Asia , Northeast India and the Nicobar Islands , and the Munda languages of East and Central India and parts of Bangladesh and Nepal . However, no evidence for this classification has ever been published. Each of
682-567: Is given to languages that have a rich heritage and independent nature. According to the Census of India of 2001 , India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages. However, figures from other sources vary, primarily due to differences in the definition of the terms "language" and "dialect". The 2001 Census recorded 30 languages which were spoken by more than a million native speakers and 122 which were spoken by more than 10,000 people. Three contact languages have played an important role in
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#1732780257657744-725: Is long assumed to be a Sino-Tibetan language , it may actually be a language isolate . Roger Blench classifies the Shompen language of the Nicobar Islands as a language isolate. Roger Blench also considers Puroik to be a language isolate . In addition, a Bantu language , Sidi , was spoken until the mid-20th century in Gujarat by the Siddi . After Mughal rule and prior to Independence, in British India , English
806-583: Is the Meitei or Manipuri language ". In India, Tibeto-Burman languages are spoken across the Himalayas in the regions of Arunachal Pradesh , Assam (hills and autonomous councils), Himachal Pradesh , Ladakh , Manipur , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland , Sikkim , Tripura and West Bengal . Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in India include two constitutionally recognised official languages, Meitei (officially known as Manipuri ) and Bodo as well as
868-702: Is the pre-form of the Kamrupi dialect of today). Nowadays, small Tai communities and their languages remain in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh together with Sino-Tibetans, e.g. Tai Phake , Tai Aiton and Tai Khamti , which are similar to the Shan language of Shan State , Myanmar ; the Dai language of Yunnan , China ; the Lao language of Laos ; the Thai language of Thailand ; and
930-436: Is the second most spoken and understood language in the country with a significant number of speakers in eastern and northeastern regions . Marathi is the third most spoken and understood language in the country with a significant number of speakers in the southwest, followed closely by Telugu, which is most commonly spoken in southeastern areas. Hindi is the fastest growing language of India, followed by Kashmiri in
992-442: Is well represented in India. However, their interrelationships are not discernible, and the family has been described as "a patch of leaves on the forest floor" rather than with the conventional metaphor of a "family tree". Padma Vibhushan awardee Indian Bengali scholar Suniti Kumar Chatterjee said, "Among the various Tibeto-Burman languages, the most important and in literature certainly of much greater importance than Newari,
1054-859: The Chamic languages of Vietnam, and the Land Dayak languages of Borneo (Adelaar 1995). Diffloth 's widely cited original classification, now abandoned by Diffloth himself, is used in Encyclopædia Britannica and—except for the breakup of Southern Mon–Khmer—in Ethnologue . Peiros is a lexicostatistic classification, based on percentages of shared vocabulary. This means that languages can appear to be more distantly related than they actually are due to language contact . Indeed, when Sidwell (2009) replicated Peiros's study with languages known well enough to account for loans, he did not find
1116-635: The Constitution of India does not give any language the status of national language. The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution lists 22 languages, which have been referred to as scheduled languages and given recognition, status and official encouragement. In addition, the Government of India has awarded the distinction of classical language to Kannada , Malayalam , Odia , Sanskrit , Tamil and Telugu . This status
1178-621: The Middle Indo-Aryan Prakrit languages and Apabhraṃśa of the Middle Ages . The Indo-Aryan languages developed and emerged in three stages — Old Indo-Aryan (1500 BCE to 600 BCE), Middle Indo-Aryan stage (600 BCE and 1000 CE), and New Indo-Aryan (between 1000 CE and 1300 CE). The modern north Indian Indo-Aryan languages all evolved into distinct, recognisable languages in the New Indo-Aryan Age. In
1240-801: The Northeast India , among the Sino-Tibetan languages , Meitei language (officially known as Manipuri language ) was the court language of the Manipur Kingdom ( Meitei : Meeteileipak ). It was honoured before and during the darbar sessions before Manipur was merged into the Dominion of the Indian Republic. Its history of existence spans from 1500 to 2000 years according to most eminent scholars including Padma Vibhushan awardee Suniti Kumar Chatterji . Even according to
1302-617: The People's Linguistic Survey of India , India has the second highest number of languages (780), after Papua New Guinea (840). Ethnologue lists a lower number of 456. Article 343 of the Constitution of India stated that the official language of the Union is Hindi in Devanagari script, with official use of English to continue for 15 years from 1947. Later, a constitutional amendment, The Official Languages Act, 1963 , allowed for
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#17327802576571364-690: The Republic of India belong to several language families , the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians; both families together are sometimes known as Indic languages . Languages spoken by the remaining 2.31% of the population belong to the Austroasiatic , Sino–Tibetan , Tai–Kadai , and a few other minor language families and isolates . According to
1426-657: The Zhuang language in Guangxi , China . The languages of the Andaman Islands form another group: In addition, Sentinelese is thought likely to be related to the above languages. The only language found in the Indian mainland that is considered a language isolate is Nihali . The status of Nihali is ambiguous, having been considered as a distinct Austroasiatic language, as a dialect of Korku and also as being
1488-480: The history of India in chronological order: Sanskrit , Persian and English. Persian was the court language during the Indo-Muslim period in India and reigned as an administrative language for several centuries until the era of British colonisation . English continues to be an important language in India. It is used in higher education and in some areas of the Indian government. Hindi , which has
1550-484: The "Manipur State Constitution Act, 1947" of the once independent Manipur, Manipuri and English were made the court languages of the kingdom (before merging into Indian Republic). Persian , or Farsi , was brought into India by the Ghaznavids and other Turko-Afghan dynasties as the court language. Culturally Persianized, they, in combination with the later Mughal dynasty (of Turco-Mongol origin), influenced
1612-567: The 1369 rationalized mother tongues which are spoken by 10,000 or more speakers, are further grouped into appropriate set that resulted into total 121 languages. In these 121 languages, 22 are already part of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India and the other 99 are termed as "Total of other languages" which is one short as of the other languages recognized in 2001 census. Languages in India (2011) Ethnolinguistically,
1674-429: The 1991 census, 22 languages had more than a million native speakers, 50 had more than 100,000 and 114 had more than 10,000 native speakers. The remaining accounted for a total of 566,000 native speakers (out of a total of 838 million Indians in 1991). According to the census of 2001, there are 1635 rationalised mother tongues, 234 identifiable mother tongues and 22 major languages. Of these, 29 languages have more than
1736-679: The Austroasiatic languages, only Vietnamese , Khmer , and Mon have lengthy, established presences in the historical record. Only two are presently considered to be the national languages of sovereign states: Vietnamese in Vietnam, and Khmer in Cambodia. The Mon language is a recognized indigenous language in Myanmar and Thailand, while the Wa language is a "recognized national language" in
1798-804: The Indian Parliament. Austroasiatic languages The Austroasiatic languages ( / ˌ ɒ s t r oʊ . eɪ ʒ i ˈ æ t ɪ k , ˌ ɔː -/ OSS -troh-ay-zhee- AT -ik, AWSS- ) are a large language family spoken throughout Mainland Southeast Asia , South Asia and East Asia . These languages are natively spoken by the majority of the population in Vietnam and Cambodia , and by minority populations scattered throughout parts of Thailand , Laos , India , Myanmar , Malaysia , Bangladesh , Nepal , and southern China . Approximately 117 million people speak an Austroasiatic language, of which more than two-thirds are Vietnamese speakers. Of
1860-489: The Indian subcontinent was carried out by Sir George Abraham Grierson from 1898 to 1928. Titled the Linguistic Survey of India , it reported a total of 179 languages and 544 dialects. However, the results were skewed due to ambiguities in distinguishing between "dialect" and "language", use of untrained personnel and under-reporting of data from South India, as the former provinces of Burma and Madras, as well as
1922-524: The Indian subcontinent. Proto-Dravidian languages were spoken in India in the 4th millennium BCE and started disintegrating into various branches around 3rd millennium BCE. The Dravidian languages are classified in four groups: North, Central (Kolami–Parji), South-Central (Telugu–Kui), and South Dravidian (Tamil-Kannada). The Northern Indian languages from the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family evolved from Old Indo-Aryan by way of
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1984-580: The Indo-Aryan languages, other Indo-European languages are also spoken in India, the most prominent of which is English, as a lingua franca . The second largest language family is the Dravidian language family , accounting for some 277 million speakers, or approximately 20.5% per 2018 estimate. The Dravidian languages are spoken mainly in southern India and parts of eastern and central India as well as in parts of northeastern Sri Lanka , Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh . The Dravidian languages with
2046-559: The South from their party stance, the resignation of two Union ministers from the South, and the increasing threat to the country's unity forced Shastri to concede. As a result, the proposal was dropped, and the Act itself was amended in 1967 to provide that the use of English would not be ended until a resolution to that effect was passed by the legislature of every state that had not adopted Hindi as its official language, and by each house of
2108-714: The art, history, and literature of the region for more than 500 years, resulting in the Persianisation of many Indian tongues, mainly lexically. In 1837, the British replaced Persian with English and Hindustani in Perso-Arabic script for administrative purposes and the Hindi movement of the 19th Century replaced Persianised vocabulary with Sanskrit derivations and replaced or supplemented the use of Perso-Arabic script for administrative purposes with Devanagari. Each of
2170-535: The conservative view that the thirteen branches of Austroasiatic should be treated as equidistant on current evidence. Sidwell & Blench (2011) discuss this proposal in more detail, and note that there is good evidence for a Khasi–Palaungic node, which could also possibly be closely related to Khmuic. If this would the case, Sidwell & Blench suggest that Khasic may have been an early offshoot of Palaungic that had spread westward. Sidwell & Blench (2011) suggest Shompen as an additional branch, and believe that
2232-456: The continuation of English alongside Hindi in the Indian government indefinitely until legislation decides to change it. The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union are "the international form of Indian numerals ", which are referred to as Arabic numerals in most English-speaking countries. Despite some misconceptions, Hindi is not the national language of India;
2294-580: The date for changeover approached, however, there was much alarm in the non-Hindi-speaking areas of India, especially in Kerala , Gujarat , Maharashtra , Tamil Nadu , Punjab , West Bengal , Karnataka , Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh . Accordingly, Jawaharlal Nehru ensured the enactment of the Official Languages Act, 1963 , which provided that English "may" still be used with Hindi for official purposes, even after 1965. The wording of
2356-590: The de facto autonomous Wa State within Myanmar. Santali is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India . The remainder of the family's languages are spoken by minority groups and have no official status. Ethnologue identifies 168 Austroasiatic languages. These form thirteen established families (plus perhaps Shompen , which is poorly attested, as a fourteenth), which have traditionally been grouped into two, as Mon–Khmer, and Munda . However, one recent classification posits three groups (Munda, Mon-Khmer, and Khasi–Khmuic ), while another has abandoned Mon–Khmer as
2418-546: The declaring individuals often mixed names of languages with those of dialects, subdialects and dialect clusters or even castes, professions, religions, localities, regions, countries and nationalities. The list therefore includes languages with barely a few individual speakers as well as 530 unclassified mother tongues and more than 100 idioms that are non-native to India, including linguistically unspecific demonyms such as "African", "Canadian" or "Belgian". The 1991 census recognises 1,576 classified mother tongues. According to
2480-490: The epithet "national". The Constitution of India does not give any language the status of national language . Members belonging to the northern parts of India insisted that the Constitution be drafted in Hindi with the unofficial translation in English. This was not agreed to by the drafting committee on the grounds that English was much better to craft the nuanced prose on constitutional subjects. The efforts to make Hindi
2542-658: The families that is written in boldface type below is accepted as a valid clade. By contrast, the relationships between these families within Austroasiatic are debated. In addition to the traditional classification, two recent proposals are given, neither of which accepts traditional "Mon–Khmer" as a valid unit. However, little of the data used for competing classifications has ever been published, and therefore cannot be evaluated by peer review. In addition, there are suggestions that additional branches of Austroasiatic might be preserved in substrata of Acehnese in Sumatra (Diffloth),
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2604-505: The internal (branching) structure below. Diffloth compares reconstructions of various clades, and attempts to classify them based on shared innovations, though like other classifications the evidence has not been published. As a schematic, we have: Remo Savara Kharia – Juang Korku Kherwarian Khmuic Pakanic Palaungic Khasian Vietic Katuic Bahnaric Khmer Pearic Nicobarese Aslian Monic Or in more detail, Paul Sidwell (2009), in
2666-422: The language Hindi. Separate figures for Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi were not issued, due to the fact the returns were intentionally recorded incorrectly in states such as East Punjab , Himachal Pradesh , Delhi , PEPSU , and Bilaspur . The 1961 census recognised 1,652 mother tongues spoken by 438,936,918 people, counting all declarations made by any individual at the time when the census was conducted. However,
2728-654: The language families represented in India, in terms of speakers, is the Indo-Aryan language family , a branch of the Indo-Iranian family , itself the easternmost, extant subfamily of the Indo-European language family . This language family predominates, accounting for some 1035 million speakers, or over 76.5 of the population, per a 2018 estimate. The most widely spoken languages of this group are Hindi , Bengali , Marathi , Gujarati , Bhojpuri , Awadhi , Odia , Maithili , Punjabi , Marwari , Kashmiri , Assamese (Asamiya) , Chhattisgarhi and Sindhi . Aside from
2790-504: The languages of South Asia, echoing the complex history and geography of the region, form a complex patchwork of language families , language phyla and isolates . Languages spoken in India belong to several language families , the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians. The most important language families in terms of speakers are: The largest of
2852-562: The largest number of first-language speakers in India today, serves as the lingua franca across much of northern and central India . However, there have been concerns raised with Hindi being imposed in South India , most notably in the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka . Some in Maharashtra , West Bengal , Assam , Punjab and other non-Hindi regions have also started to voice concerns about imposition of Hindi. Bengali
2914-709: The most speakers are Telugu , Tamil , Kannada and Malayalam . Besides the mainstream population, Dravidian languages are also spoken by small scheduled tribe communities, such as the Oraon and Gond tribes. Only two Dravidian languages are exclusively spoken outside India, Brahui in Balochistan, Pakistan and Dhangar , a dialect of Kurukh , in Nepal . Families with smaller numbers of speakers are Austroasiatic and numerous small Sino-Tibetan languages , with some 10 and 6 million speakers, respectively, together 3% of
2976-577: The non-scheduled languages like Karbi , Lepcha , and many varieties of several related Tibetic , West Himalayish , Tani , Brahmaputran , Angami–Pochuri , Tangkhul , Zeme , Kukish sub linguistic branches, amongst many others. The Ahom language , a Southwestern Tai language , had been once the dominant language of the Ahom Kingdom in modern-day Assam , but was later replaced by the Assamese language (known as Kamrupi in ancient era which
3038-550: The northern Indian languages had different influences. For example, Hindustani was strongly influenced by Sanskrit , Arabic and Persian , leading to the emergence of Modern Standard Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu as registers of the Hindustani language. Bangla on the other hand has retained its Sanskritic roots while heavily expanding its vocabulary with words from Persian, English, French and other foreign languages. The first official survey of language diversity in
3100-425: The number of speakers for languages and dialects, but uses its own unique terminology, distinguishing between language and mother tongue . The mother tongues are grouped within each language. Many of the mother tongues so defined could be considered a language rather than a dialect by linguistic standards. This is especially so for many mother tongues with tens of millions of speakers that are officially grouped under
3162-481: The official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement." Article 343 (1) of the Constitution of India states "The Official Language of the Union government shall be Hindi in Devanagari script." Unless Parliament decided otherwise, the use of English for official purposes was to cease 15 years after the constitution came into effect, i.e. on 26 January 1965. As
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#17327802576573224-659: The population. The Austroasiatic language family ( austro meaning South) is the autochthonous language in Southeast Asia, arrived by migration. Austroasiatic languages of mainland India are the Khasi and Munda languages , including Bhumij and Santali . The languages of the Nicobar islands also form part of this language family. With the exceptions of Khasi and Santali, all Austroasiatic languages on Indian territory are endangered. The Tibeto-Burman language family
3286-500: The pre-eminent language were bitterly resisted by the members from those parts of India where Hindi was not spoken natively. Eventually, a compromise was reached not to include any mention of a national language. Instead, Hindi in Devanagari script was declared to be the official language of the union, but for "fifteen years from the commencement of the Constitution, the English Language shall continue to be used for all
3348-501: The present Avasarpinī . It may refer to: Megha Alaya or Meghalaya , a state in northeastern India, meaning "cloud abode" Arts and entertainment [ edit ] Megha Duta , ancient Indian poem by Kalidasa Megha (1996 film) , an Indian Hindi-language film Megha (2014 film) , an Indian Tamil-language film Music [ edit ] Megha (album) , a 1999 Assamese album by various artists. People [ edit ] Megha, also known as Sumedha ,
3410-658: The princely states of Cochin, Hyderabad, Mysore and Travancore were not included in the survey. Languages of India by language families ( Ethnologue ) Different sources give widely differing figures, primarily based on how the terms "language" and "dialect" are defined and grouped. Ethnologue , produced by the Christian evangelist organisation SIL International , lists 435 tongues for India (out of 6,912 worldwide), 424 of which are living, while 11 are extinct. The 424 living languages are further subclassified in Ethnologue as follows: The People's Linguistic Survey of India,
3472-443: The reconstruction of Proto-Mon–Khmer in Harry L. Shorto 's Mon–Khmer Comparative Dictionary . Little work has been done on the Munda languages , which are not well documented. With their demotion from a primary branch, Proto-Mon–Khmer becomes synonymous with Proto-Austroasiatic. Paul Sidwell (2005) reconstructs the consonant inventory of Proto-Mon–Khmer as follows: This is identical to earlier reconstructions except for *ʄ . *ʄ
3534-411: The register contrast by evolving more diphthongs or in a few cases, such as Vietnamese, tonogenesis . Vietnamese has been so heavily influenced by Chinese that its original Austroasiatic phonological quality is obscured and now resembles that of South Chinese languages, whereas Khmer, which had more influence from Sanskrit, has retained a more typically Austroasiatic structure. Much work has been done on
3596-453: The second place, with Meitei (officially called Manipuri ) as well as Gujarati , in the third place, and Bengali in the fourth place, according to the 2011 census of India . According to the Ethnologue , India has 148 Sino-Tibetan , 140 Indo-European , 84 Dravidian , 32 Austro-Asiatic , 14 Andamanese , 5 Kra-Dai languages. The Southern Indian languages are from the Dravidian family . The Dravidian languages are indigenous to
3658-445: The text proved unfortunate in that while Nehru understood that "may" meant shall, politicians championing the cause of Hindi thought it implied exactly the opposite. In the event, as 1965 approached, India's new Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri prepared to make Hindi paramount with effect from 26 January 1965. This led to widespread agitation, riots, self-immolations, and suicides in Tamil Nadu. The split of Congress politicians from
3720-589: The title Megha . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megha&oldid=1222931804 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Languages of India (total of official languages: 23, including 22 8th Schedule languages and additional official language, English) Languages spoken in
3782-559: Was coined by Wilhelm Schmidt ( German : austroasiatisch ) based on auster , the Latin word for "South" (but idiosyncratically used by Schmidt to refer to the southeast), and "Asia". Despite the literal meaning of its name, only three Austroasiatic branches are actually spoken in South Asia: Khasic , Munda , and Nicobarese . Regarding word structure, Austroasiatic languages are well known for having an iambic "sesquisyllabic" pattern, with basic nouns and verbs consisting of an initial, unstressed, reduced minor syllable followed by
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#17327802576573844-405: Was the sole language used for administrative purposes as well as for higher education purposes. In 1946, the issue of national language was a bitterly contested subject in the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly of India , specifically what should be the language in which the Constitution of India is written and the language spoken during the proceedings of Parliament and thus deserving of
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