Need help with the languages of India

[NewGuy2005 53]

Good Morning,

One of my daughters is very interested in India to the point that she would like to learn something about the language(s). What are the most prevalent languages spoken and do you know of any resources for self-study? Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ken

[Jumpervint 0]

Predominant langauges are Hindu, Punjabi, Gujarati (sp), Bengali. I have one Indian student who speaks Hindu, Bengali and Punjabi and now English. There are a handful of Indian students in my school, and they all speak Punjabi. English is still widely used, at least by the credit card soliicitors who call me in the evening.

Vint

. . . . .
"Make it hard again." Doc Ed

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[waltappel 1]

I thought the predominant languages were Hindi and Tamil.

Walt

[Squeak 17]

Quote

I thought the predominant languages were Hindi and Tamil.

Walt

also Masti, Maylalam and Marathi

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[shropshire 0]

Namaste, ap kaise hain? Mera nam Tony hai.

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[Jumpervint 0]

My bad. Hindu is the religion, Hindi is the langauge.

Tamil is spoken, but when you look at a billion people, then you're looking at a lot of langauges. Tamil is just one of many I forgot about.

I spoke based on my limited knowledge of Indian langauges based on the students I serve in my ESL program.

Vint

. . . . .
"Make it hard again." Doc Ed

“A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free” Nikos Kazantzakis

[Taikoen 0]

Hindi is the national language. Each of the 15 states also has its own state language. The reason Tamil needs to be known by many people in South India is because Tamil Nadu (the state where Tamil is spoken) does not recognize Hindi as a national language. Typically, the progression in India is StateLanguage, Hindi, then English. In Tamil, it's Tamil, then English. Of course it is taught by some schools and parents, but not necessarily.

With Hindi, your daughter should be able to go most places in India and get by. If she's thinking about one specific region, the state language(s) would be ideal. For example, Bombay and Bangalore are two of the biggest and richest cities in India, but they're in different states so the inhabitants speak different languages as their first language. When I was in India, I met with a group of friends whose only common language was English, although between the four of them they spoke 10 total languages.

[NewGuy2005 53]

Thanks for the guidance, everyone.

[Lindercles 0]

I don't care who you are, "punjabi" is just funny.

[pratul 0]

I am from India. In most parts of India people can understand or speak Hindi. Only in Tamilnadu there could be some difficulty.
Rosetta Stone is a good start to learn.