UNIT 7 LANGUAGES | Structure. 7.4 Introduction 7.6 Linguistic Regions Expected Learning Outcomes 77 Summary 7.2. Language and Dialects - Origin and 7. Terminal Questions Diffusion 7.9 Answers 7.3 Linguistic Classification 7.10 References and Further Reading 7.4 Spatial Pattem and Distribution of Languages 7.5 Monolingualism, Bilingualism, Muttiiingualism and Language Shift 7.1_ INTRODUCTION In Unit § of this Block, you studied how human populations settled in different parts of India and ethnic composition of the Indian population took place. You also studied the in- migration of various ethnic groups, their probable migration routes and areas of their inhabitation in the Indian subcontinent. In-migration has a linkage with the diffusion of languages and emergence of various linguistic regions in India also. You may be aware that language is an area of study in other disciplines like linguistics, anthropology, sociology among others. In human Geography the study of languages is an important area of study as a part of Social or Cultural Geography focusing on the patterns and interactions of languages in relation to the physical environment and space. In this unit language is studied with a view to understand the origin and spread; classification, distribution pattern and linguistic regions of India. In section 7.2, you will study definitions of language and dialect, and the difference between language and dialect followed by their origin and diffusion in the country. In the next section, you will learn the classification of languages starting from Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India 1927 upto the Census of India 2001. In section 7.4, you will study about the numerical strength and geographical distribution of various languages in the country. Some of you may be speaking only one language at home, school and other places and some of you may be 445Block 2 116 Space and Society speaking two or more than two languages. These situations are called monolingualism. bilingualism and multilingualism. You will also leam about the concept of language shift. All these aspects of language are covered in section 7.5, Finally, in section 7.6, you will study the different linguistic, regions of our country in relation to the geographical factors. In the next unit, you will study the cultural characteristics of these regions. Expected Learning Outcomes — After completing the study of this unit, you should be able to: define language and dialect; ‘ trace the origin and spread of languages; “identify the major language families; + identify the linguistic classifications in India; % explain the terms monolingualism, bilingualism, multilingualism and language shift; + explain the numeric and spatial distribution pattern of languages in India; and + identify the linguistic regions in the backdrop of geographical factors and region formation, 7.2. LANGUAGE AND DIALECTS-ORIGIN AND DIFFUSION The Oxford Advanced Leamers Dictionary defines language as the system of communication in speech and writing that is used by people of a particular country or area. Fellmann and other human geographers have defined language as “an organised system of spoken words by which people communicate with each other with mutual comprehension” (Fellmann, Getis and Getis, p. 141). Dialect is defined as distinct linguistic form within a language that is spoken in a particular region or by a specific community. In the most general terms, language is defined as a systematic method of communicating ideas, attitudes, intent or knowledge through the use of mutually understandable written or spoken signs, sounds or gestures. Languages are the means of exploration, expression and exchange of knowledge. Dialects are the regional or social variants of a language, where the words and pronunciation of a language is differently used in various dialects of that language. Dialects are geographic (spoken by same area or locality) and social (spoken by same social group). Many languages/dialects are for oral communications only. You can understand the difference between language and dialect by taking the example of Hindi or any other language. Hindi spoken in Allahabad is different from the ones spoken in Delhi or Bhopal much the same way as English spoken in the United States of America is different from that spoken in the United Kingdom or Australia.Unit7 Languages There are various theories on the origin of languages. It is assumed that there is a direct relationship between material culture and language throughout the history of human social evolution. By this assumption, languages evolved with the emergence of material culture or tool making where interpersonal interaction was inevitable, Finally, language got refined with complex expressions with the advent of new tools and technologies. Different language families evolved in different regions due to geographical separation and lack of continuous interactions and in the same way the different dialects developed within language families due to spatial “The Oxford Advanced compartmentalisation within the same language region. Leamers Dictionary defines language as the system of ‘communication in You may be aware that India is inhabited by people coming from different parts of the world according to one hypothesis mentioned in unit 5. The early in- migrants brought various languages with them, which evolved over time into speech and writing that different forms. The diffusion of languages also may be understood with their | scaq by people of a migration routes and colonisation of various parts of the country, The Gazetteer | particular country or of India (1965), Volume One reveals that the Negroid family was the first area. Fellmann and language family. However, there is no language of this family in the country other human, either due to the non-survival of speakers or assimilation of the language with | _geographershave others. The older languages in India are Austric and Tibeto-Chinese followed by | defined language as Dravidian and Aryan. Indo-Aryan is the newest language to come to India “an organized system of spoken words by As The Gazetteer of India (1965, Volume One) accounts, the Austric or which people Austro-Asiatic is supposed to be the oldest language having probable origin ‘communicate with in Indo-China or South China that spread into India. The other possible each other with mutual origin recorded is that the speakers of Austric are very old off-shoot of the | comprehension” Mediterranean people coming to India from the west before Dravidians (Fellmann, Getis and arrived in India, This group has survived today in the central Indian tribal Getis, p. 141). Dialect tract (Munda Group) and Meghalaya in north-east (Mon-Khmer Group is defined as distinct spoken by Khasis) linguistic form within a , . language thats The origin of Tibeto-Chinese speakers is said to have taken place in the epee Pariibuler west of China 4000 years before Christ. The Siamese-Tibetan got spread | region orby a specific along the Himalayan range and in the foothills from Laddakh to Indo- ‘community. Burmese border including the north-eastern states of India maintaining the continuum from its place of origin, i.e. northern China. The Dravidian’s origin is assumed to have taken place in Asia Minor and the Eastern Mediterranean. Currently the Dravidian languages are primarily located in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Pondicherry leaving trails in the form of patches in Pakistan (Brahui) and central and eastem India (Kurukh, Malto, Kora, Kui, etc). The Gazetteer records that the Indo-European languages have originated from a common Primitive Indo-European speech that flourished about 5000 years ago in south of the Ural mountains and Asia Minor region. The spread of Indo-Aryan language is in the entire North India including Assam and Tripura in the north-east and extending up to Goa in south. You may understand the language diffusion from the transmigration routes and region formation of various racial groups of people who came into the country, which you have studied in the first unit of this Block. If you match 417Block2 118 Space and Society the distribution of languages with the migration routes and region formation by early in-migrants and settlers as illustrated in Fig. 7.1, all these distribution and pattems reflect the ways of diffusion also. Y INDIA + EARLY MIGRATION ROUTES AND LINGUISTIC REGIONS ein Ts Sra ep a Ra Fig, 7.1: Early Migration Routes and Linguistic Regions in India. The pace of diffusion has been very closely linked with the passage of time, where the quantum of spread gradually increased with time. As you are witnessing it today, language diffusion is taking place at a very faster pace due to the advent of new information and communication technology (ICT). Now the languages have reached every nook and corner of the world overcoming alll physical barriers due to the widespread use of ICT. We would like to inform you that geographical factors also play an important role in the development of language. Groups of people living in compartmentalised and closed manner due to physical barriers develop their distinct language because of physical isolation. Gradually, zonesUnit7 Languages between two linguistic regions develop when two groups begin to interact with each other and lear to communicate with one another providing opportunity for the birth of a new language or dialect. SAQ 1 Define and differentiate language and dialect? Mention the probable places of origin of major language families of India. 7.3__ LINGUISTIC CLASSIFICATION ‘Are you aware how diverse the world is in terms of language and dialects? You may note that there are approximately 6000 languages in the world Can you imagine what would be the number of dialects in the world as it changes after every small distance? These languages or dialects are huge in number and are grouped under certain umbrella terms based on vocabulary, phonetics and grammar called language groups, language branch and language families, where language family is at the top. Within a language family, there are sub-families, branches, sub-branches and groups of languages having common origins. The major language families of the world are as follows’ L Indo-European XI. Uralic-Altic IL Caucasian Xi, Austro-Asiatic t Basque XII, Korean ™M. _ Sino-Tibetan/Tibeto-Chinese XIV. Paleo-Siberian Vv. Afro-Asiatic XV, Ainu VL Congo Kordoanfan XVL_Malayo Polynesian ‘Vil Nilo-Sharan XVIL_ Papuan Vill. Khosian XVII Australian X. Dravidian XIX. Amerindian (North) X. Japanese XX. Amerindian (South) You may see the distribution of the above language families which is given under Section 7.6 of this unit. Linguistic Classification in India In India, Sir George Abraham Grierson conducted the first Linguistic Survey during 1894-1927 and recorded 179 languages and 544 dialects. These have been grouped under four language families in India- 1, Austro-Asiatic, known as Nishada, 2. Tibeto-Chinese known as Kirala, 3. Dravidian known as Dravida and 4, Indo-European known as Arya. These language families are further sub-divided into sub-families, branches, sub-branches, groups and languages, which we will discuss in Section 7.4 119Block 2 ‘The languages listed in 8 Schedule of the Constitution of India are known as the Scheduled Languages. There are 22 such languages in India You may identify the scheduled languages in in Table 7.1 120 The language families became five in 2001, with an additional family- Semito-Hamitic that includes a language Arabic or Arbi, as per the classification of Census of India 2001. You may refer to Tables 7.1 and 7.2 for details. You may note that in Table 7.1, Indo-European Family has got two new branches, namely: Iranian and Germanic in addition to the earlier single branch, i.e. Indo-Aryan branch. The Iranian branch includes Afghani Kabull/Pashto and Persian and Germanic branch includes the language of English. In the past English was placed as ‘Mother tongue with unspecified family affiliation Census of India 2001 classifies 122 languages given below in Table 7.1 The languages having less than 10000 speakers at all India level or were not identifiable and the languages of 127,108 persons of 3 sub-divisions of Senapati district of Manipur were not included in language data since the Census results for these sub-divisions were cancelled in 2001. The proportion of this category of languages was only 0.17 per cent of the total population of India, The information from the 2011 Census could not be used as it was not available when this unit was being prepared. Table 7.1: Languages Spoken by more than 10000 Speakers in India, 2001 Family Branch Language/Dialect 1, Indo- () Indo-Aryan | Assamese (S), Bengali (S), Bhili Bhilodi, European Bishnupuriya, Dogri (S) Gujarati (S), Halabi, Hindi (S), Kashmiri (S), Khandeshi, Konkani (S), Lahnda Maithili (S), Marathi (S), Nepali (S), Oriya (S), Punjabi (S), Sanskrit (S), Shina, Sindhi (8), Urdu (S) (ii) iranian Afghani/Kabuli/Pashto, Persian (ii) Germanic | English 2. Dravidian Coorgi/Kodagu, Gondi, Jatapu, Kannada (S), Khond/Kondh, Kisan, Kolami, Konda, Koya, Kui, Kurukh/Oraon, Malayalam (S), Malto, Parji, Tamil (S), Telugu (S), Tulu 3. Austro-Asiatic Bhumij, Gadaba, Ho, Juang, Kharia, Khasi, Koda/Kora, Korku, Korwa, Munda, Mundari, Nicobarese, Santali (S), Savara 4. Tibeto- Adi, Anal, Angami, Ao, Balti, Bhotia, Chinese Bodo (S), Chakesang, Chakru/Chokri, Chang, Deori, Dimasa, Gangte, Garo, Halam, Hmar, Kabui, Karbi/Mikir, Khezha, Khiemnungan, Kinnauri, Koch, Kom, Konyak, Kuki, Ladakhi, Lahauli, Lakher, Lalung, Lepcha, Liangmei,Unit7 Limbu, Lotha, Lushai/Mizo, Manipur (S), Maram, Maring, Miri/Mishing, Mishmi, Mogh, Monpa, Nissi/Dafla, Nocte, Paite, Pawi, Phom, Pochury, Rabha, Rai Rengma, Sangtam, Sema, Sherpa, Simte, Tamang, Tangkhul, Tangsa, Thado, Tibetan, Tripuri, Vaiphei, Wancho, Yimchungre, Zeliang, Zemi, Zou 5. Semito-Hamitic Arabic/Arbi (8) = Scheduled Source: Census of India, 2001, www.censusindia.gov.in SAQ 2 Mention the major language families of india. 7.4 SPATIAL PATTERN AND DISTRIBUTION OF LANGUAGES Numerical Strength You will agree that there exists a vast linguistic diversity in the world in general and India in particular. In India alone, 6661 mother tongues were recorded by the Census of India 2001, and Hindi was the predominant mother tongue with 41 per cent of the total speakers. The other major languages in India are Bengali (8.1 per cent speakers), Telugu (7.2 per cent speakers), Marathi (7 per cent speakers) and Tamil (5.9 per cent speakers). According to the Census of India 2001, only 30 languages were spoken by at least ten lakh people and 234 mother tongues in 122 languages were spoken by more than 10000 speakers. The Census does not provide information about languages having speakers less than 10000 persons. Therefore, the identity of such minor languages and groups remains a challenge in the plural linguistic profile of India. ‘As you have seen in the map above (Fig. 7.1), Indo-European family occupies the largest coverage in terms of area in the country and is also numerically the largest language family in India with 76.86 per cent speakers (Table 7.2). The next language family is Dravidian with 20.82 per cent speakers. Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Chinese and Semito-Hamitic families constitute 1.11, 1.00 and 0.01 per cent speakers respectively. ‘Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Chinese languages are spoken mainly by the tribal population in the country. Though tribal groups also speak the languages of Dravidian and Indo-European families. For example Kurukh, Matto, Gondi, Kui, Koya, Kisan, Kolami, Khond, ete. are the tribal languages of Dravidian family and Bhili, Sadri, etc. of Indo-European family Languages 121Block 2 122 Space and Society Table 7.2: Family-wise Grouping of the 122 Scheduled and Non- Scheduled Languages -2001 Language Number of Persons who | Percentage to. families Languages retumed the _|total population languages as their mother tongue 1. Indo-European a 790,627,060 76.86 (a) Indo-Aryan (b) Iranian 2 22,774 0 (©) Germanic 1 226,449 0.02 2. Dravidian 7 214,172,874 20.82 3,_Austro-Asiatic 14 11,442,029 4.11 4, Tibeto-Burmese of 6 10,305,026 1.00 Tibeto-Chinese Family 5. Semito-Hamitic 1 51,728 0.01 Total 2 1,026,847,940" 99,82" * The balance of 1,762,388 (0.17%) population out of total Indian population 4,028,610,328 comprises of 1,635,280 speakers of those languages and mother tongues, which were not identifiable or retumed by less than 10000 speakers at all India level and the population (127,108 persons) of Manipur was not included in language data since the Census results were cancelled in 3 sub-divisions of Senapati district of Manipur in 2001 Source: Census of india, 2001 Hindi and its variants (dialects) constitute more than half of the Indo- European family (53.38 per cent). The other languages of this family are Bengali, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarati, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Maithili, Kashmiri, Nepali, Sindhi, Konkani, Dogri, Khandeshi, Halabi and Sanskrit, where only Bengali constitutes more than 10 per cent speakers. Telugu is the largest spoken language of Dravidian family followed by Tamil, Kannada and Malyalam, The other languages are Gondi, Kurukh, Tulu, Kui, Koya, Malto, Kisan, Kolami and Khond and are unscheduled, Telugu, Tamil Kannada and Malyalam constitute for 96.08 per cent of the languages of Dravidian family In Austro-Asiatic family, Santhali is the single major language with 56.54 per cent speakers. Second largest language is Khasi, which is the only language of Austro-Asiatic family spoken in the north-eastern part of the country. In the east-central India Mundari/Munda, Ho, Savara and Kharia are other languages of Austro-Asiatic family. Nicobaries is another important language of this family. Tibeto-Burmese sub-family of the Tibeto-Chinese family has many small languages especially in the North-East. The largest language is Manipuri with 14.23 per cent speakers in the family closely followed by Bodo with 13.11 per cent speakers. There are 66 other languages. The major languages havingUnit7 Languages more than one lakh population are Garo, Tripuri, Lusai/Mizo, Mir/Mishing, Karbi, Konyak, Nissi/Dafla, Thado, Rabha, Tangkhul, Ladakhi and Sema You will notice that 15 out of 22 scheduled languages belong to the Indo- European family, four to Dravidian family, one to Austric family and two under Tibeto-Chinese family. Out of the all Scheduled Languages, three are primarily spoken by the tribal population- Santhali, Bodo and Manipur. Spatial Pattern and Distribution Let us now discuss the broad geographical pattem of the spatial distribution of language families in India namely, Indo-European, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, Indo-Chinese and Semito-Hamitic. We have presented this in Table 7.4 and also in Fig. 7.2 I. Indo-European Family (Arya) Indo-European family is the largest language family in India occupying largest area as well spread in the states and Union Territories of Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. However, there are some areas with overlapping language families known as composite linguistic regions illustrated in Fig. 7.2 It has three sub-families-Aryan, Iranian and Germanic. The Aryan sub-family has two branches-Indo-Aryan and Dardic (Pisacha). You may see the Chart 7.1 for classification. Indo-Aryan branch has two sub-branches- Outer and Middle/Inner. Former has again three groups- North Western, Souther and Easter. North-western group includes the languages of Lahnda (Punjab) and Sindhi (Maharashtra, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh) Southern Group of languages are Marathi and Konkani spoken mainly in Maharashtra, Goa, Daman and Diu and partly in the boarders of Kamataka and Madhya Pradesh. Oriya, Bihari (Bhojpuri, Magahi/Magadhi, Maithili), Bengali and Assamese are the languages of Eastern Group spoken in Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. Bhojpuri is spoken in Eastem Uttar Pradesh also and Bengali is spoken in West Bengal and Tripura. Dardic branch consists of Kafir, Khawar and Dard groups. The language under Kafir group is Wali Ala spoken in Uttar Pradesh and the Khowar language comes under Khawar group spoken in Assam. Dardi, Shina, Kashmiri and Kohistani languages fall under the Dard group and spoken in Jammu and Kashmir. This sub-family is isolated in the north. The Mediate sub-branch has two major groups - Mediate/Central and Pahari and three other unspecified groups. The Mediate/Central Group of languages are Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bhili, Khandeshi and Rajasthani, which are spoken in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab. Some patches are also found in Maharashtra and Karnataka 123Block 2 124 Space and Society The Pahari group has three sub-groups- Easter, Central and Westem. Eastem Pahari includes Nepali language spoken in Sikkim, Assam, northem parts of West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The Central Pahari includes the languages of Kumauni and Garhwali spoken in Kumaun and Garhwal regions of Uttarakhand, The Western Pahari languages are Wester Pahari, Jaunsari, Sirmauri, Baghati, Kiunthali, Handuri, Siraji, Soracholi, Bashahri, Siraj-Inner Siraji, Sodochi, Kului, Mandi, Mandeall, Suketi, Charmeali, Bharmauri/Gaddi, Churahi, Pangwali, Bhadrawahi, Bhalesi, Padari and Pahari-Unspecified. These are spoken in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir states and also in some patches of Uttarakhand and Punjab. The other Indo-Aryan tongues are Mahasu Pahari, Tharu and Kewati spoken in Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra respectively. Old Middle Indo-Aryan Languages are Ardhmagadhi (Mahrashtra), Pali (Bihar, Maharashta, Karnataka), Prakrit (Tamil Nadu) and Sanskrit (Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh). Colour Code Fam Sub Fa ranch Sub Branch lang Chart 7.1: Classification of Indo-European Languages in India. The Iranian sub-family of languages (Afghani/Kabuli/Pashto and Persian are spoken in Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. English, the language under Germanic sub-family, is the state language in ‘Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya, southern India and substantially found in cities. I The Dravidian Language Family (Dravida) Dravidian family of languages are mainly spoken in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Union Territory of Puduchery andUnit7 Languages Lakshadweep. It is also spoken in few patches of Central Indian tribal belt in the north. It has three major groups-South, Central and North. The South Group of languages are Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malyalam, Coorgi/Kodagu, Tulu, Toda and Kota. They have distinct regional boundaries. The languages are spoken in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puduchery and Lakshadweep. The languages of Central Group are spoken mainly by tribal groups. Kui, Parji, Khond/Kondh, and Konda languages are spoken in Odisha. Gondi is found in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradhes, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Kolami is spoken in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. Parji/Khond/Kondh and Konda are spoken in Odisha. Jatapu is found in Andhra Pradesh. North group of Dravidian languages are Kurukh or Oraon and Malto which are spoken in Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. The other Dravidian tongues are Dravidian, Madrasi, Ladhadi and Bharia The traces of these languages are in the central and eastern part of the Central Indian tribal belt. IIL Austro-Asiatic Language Family (Nishada) ‘Austro-Asiatic or Austric family has no sub-family and has two branches- Mon-Khmer and Munda. Mon-Khmer branch has Mon-Khmer group of languages- Khasi spoken in Meghalalya and Nicobaries spoken in Nicobar Islands, The Munda branch consists of Munda group of languages. These languages are Santali, Mundari, Ho, Kherwari, Bhumij, Bithor, Koda/Kora, Turi, Asuri, Agaria, Birjia/Brijia/Binjhia, Korwa, Korku , Kharia, Juang, Savara, Gadaba and Munda- Unspecified. These languages are spoken in the States of Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bangal, Chhattisgarh and Bihar, The Austro-Asiatic Languages are spread in the mid-Indian tribal region from Maharasthtra to West Bengal with two outliers. These outliers are Khasi in Meghalaya and Nicobaries in Andman and Nicobar Island. Now the Santhali is also found in the north-eastem part of the country, especially in Assam due to the workers’ migration for tea plantation from their original homeland IV. Tibeto-Chinese Language Family (Kirata) Tibeto-Chinese family (Kirata) has two sub-famillies-Siamese-Chinese and Tibeto-Burman (Chart 7.2). Siamese-Chinese sub-family includes Tai group of language-Khampti or Khamti, The speakers of Khampti language are spread over the North-Eastern boarders of Arunachal Pradesh (Lohit, Changlang, Lower Subansiri, Dibang and Tirup districts) and Assam (Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh and Cachar districts). 125Block 2 126 einuina. | (rest ant rte one ns Tang chan. ste Rano Peony. Usctoe Colour Code Family Sub Fam ‘Branch Sub-Branch Lang Chart 7.2: Classification of Tibeto-Chinese Languages in India. Tibeto-Burman sub-family has two Branches- Tibeto-Himalayan and Assam-Burmese. Tibeto-Himalayan branch has three groups- Bhotia (Tibetan), Himalayan (Pronominalized/Non-Pronominalized Himalayan) and North-East Frontier (North-Assam). Bhotia group includes Tibetan, Balti, Ladakhi, Lahuli, Spiti, Jad, Sherpa, Sikkim Bhotia, Bhutani, Kagate, Monpa and Bhotia-Unspecified, which are spoken in the stretch of Himalayas from Sikkim in the east to Kashmir in the west. The Himalayan group includes the languages of Lahuli of Chamba, Kanashi, Kanauri, Jangali, Dhimal, Limbu, Khambu, Rai, Gurung, Tamang, ‘Sunwar, Mangari, Newari, Lepcha, Kami and Toto spoken from West Bengal to Himachal Pradesh with little offshoots in Punjab and Assam (Mangari). The majority of these languages are spoken in West Bengal and Sikkim North-East Frontier group consists of Aka/Hrusso, Dafla, Abor/Adi, Miri and Mishmi languages spoken mainly in Arunachal Pradesh and extended upto Assam. ‘Assam-Burmese Branch has five groups-Bodo, Naga, Kachin, Kuki-Chin and Burma. Bodo group of languages are Bodo/Bore, Lalung, Dimasa, Garo, Koch, Rabha, Tripuri, Deori and Mikir and are mainly found in Assam and Tripura. Naga group of languages are Chakesang, Chakru, Liangmei, Sangtam, Zeling, Angami, Sema, Rengma, Khezha, Ao, Lotha, Tableng, Chang-Naga, Kacha Naga, Zemi Naga, Kabui, Khoirao, Mao, Maram, ‘Tanghul, Maring, Konyak, Pochury, Phom, Yimchungre, Khiemilungam, Nocte, Wancho, Makware, Tangsa and Naga- Unspecified and are found in Nagaland, Manipur and Assam. Zemi Naga is found also in Assam, and Nocte and Tangsa are in the boarders of Arunachal Pradesh. Kachin group includes the languages of Kawri (West Bengal) and Singpho (Assam).Unit7 Languages Kuki-Chin Group includes the languages of Manipuri/Meithei, Thado, Ralte, Paite, Tlangtlang, Pawi, Lakher, Lushai/Mizo, Rangkhol, Hala, Langrong, Aimol, Chiru, Kom, Hmar, Lamgang, Chote, Purum, Anal, Gangte, Vaiphei, Khami, Khawathlang, Simte, Zou, Halam, Ku ki-Unspecified and Chin- Unspecified. These languages are spoken in the states of Manipur, Assam and Nagaland. Burma group of languages- Mru, Monpa and Arakanese- are spoken in north-eastem part of West Bengal Tibeto-Chinese languages are spread in a ribbon like region from Baltistan and Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east. The Bhotia and the Himalayan groups are spread over Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Hilly Uttarakhand-Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. The other languages of this family are found primarily in the north-eastern states V. Semito-Hamitic This family of language- Arabic/Arbi is found in Kamataka, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, There are small linguistic/dialect enclaves such as that of Bengali, which is also spoken in the State of Tripura, the Urdu in Tamil Nadu and Telangana surrounded by Dravidian languages, Kurukh is spoken in Indo Aryan and Austro Asiatic regions, Sadr is spoken in north Bengal, Assam, Andman and Nicobar Island and Delhi brought along with the migrants. SAQ 3 Place the language families in India based on their numerical strength in descending order. Draw a rough sketch showing the regions of major language families in India. 7.5 MONOLINGUALISM, BILINGUALISM, MULTILINGUALISM AND LANGUAGE SHIFT Monolingualism is the ability of a speaker to communicate in one language/dialect only while bilingualism is the ability to communicate in two languages in terms of speaking and understanding. When it is more than two languages, it is multilingualism or poly-lingualism. Language shift is a situation where traditionally spoken language is replaced or displaced by another language. Language shift is also called language displacement where one is abandoned in favour of another. Bilingualism among the speakers of regional or dominant languages are less than the speakers of tribal languages. Because tribals get exposed to and need to leam the language other than their mother tongue while interacting with the outside world in schools, work place, market and places of travel. It is considered that more than half of the world's 127Block 2 128 Space and Society population is bilingual. Census of India 2001 records 24.79 per cent as bilingual and 8.51 per cent as multilingual speakers in India Language shift has continuously been taking place as the Linguistic Survey of India (1927) recorded 179 languages and 544 dialects in 1927, which got decreased to 122 languages 234 mother tongues in 2001 Census (excluding languages having less than 10000 speakers). It may be due to natural process of mingling and merging into other language, compulsion and also linguistic politics. The natural process includes the condition like urbanisation, where some communities gradually shift to the common language spoken in the place/region, especially in case of small linguistic groups and tribal communities. Table 7.3: Changing Share of Speakers of Selected Mother Tongues in India,1961-2001 Communities and Mothertongue 1961 2001 Speakers | Percentage Speakers | Percentage Santhal (Santhali) 3247058 074 6469600 0.63 Munda (Mundari) 737037 O17 1530709 0.45 Oraon (Kurukh) 1141804 0.26 1751489 o.47 Ho (Ho) 648359 0.15 1042724 0.10 Kharia (Kharia) 477159 0.04 239608 0.02 Gond (Gondi) 4901431 0.34 2713790 0.26 Maithili 4984811 114 42179122 1.18 SadriNagpuria 532735 0.12 3287362 0.32 Total Speakers 438936918 1026847940 Source: (i) htip:/www.languageinindia.com/aug2002/ indianmothertongues1961aug2002.htm|, (i) Census of India, 1961 and 2001 The Table 7.3 shows the changing share of speakers of various languages, The speakers of traditional language and population do not match reflecting the shift. Examples of language shift in this table may be seen with Munda, Oraon, Kharia and Gond communities. Most of the tribal languages have been declining in terms of its speakers. Hindi was spoken by 39.94 per cent population as per 1981 Census, which increased to 41.03 per cent. Hindi has been gaining possibly due to the assimilation and shift of small tribal language speakers to Hindi along with natural growth of speakers, The proportion of Indo-European laguages increased from 73.3 to 76.86 percent speakers during 1961-2001 and the decline from 24.5 percent to 20.82 percent speakers of Dravidian languages can also be attributed to languge shift The decline of tribal languages has been recorded between 1911 and 1961 (Brass 1974). Similarly, the number of Maithili recorded a sudden increaseUnit7 Languages in 1961 for the want of separate state based on linguistic identity (Khubchandani, 1971). It must be noted that the Census conducts no verification or test as to who speaks which language, it simply records the response of the people Language shift has also taken place from a tribal language to another tribal language at micro level due to the dominance of the regional language over the small group speakers. The growth in the share of Sadri speakers is also an example of language shift The region of Indo-European languages has been identified as most fluid one except West Bengal, Odisha and Assam. The region of southem Dravidian and Indo-Tibetan (North-Eastern States) are the most stable regions in terms of language fluidity, SAQ 4 What do you mean by monolingualism, bilingualism and multilingualism? What do you mean by language shift? Mention some examples of language shift 7.6 LINGUISTIC REGIONS The assumptions are that different languages developed in particular areas, which were bounded by some geographical barriers and had sustained relative isolation from other languages. These languages have transition zones at the outer areas where two or more languages interact and get intermixed with varying degrees. Yet there are identifiable linguistic regions. Before studying the linguistic regions of India, you should know the broad linguistic regions of the world The spread of Indo-European family extends into the countries of Indian Subcontinents, parts of western Russia, Central Asia, Middle-Eastern Countries, Europe, major part of North and South America and Australia. Caucasoid is spoken in Russia and Georgia. Languages of Basque family are spoken in Spain and France. Sino-Tibetan or Sino-Thai languages are found in China, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, Thailand, Laos and India Afro-Asiatic is spread in Middle-East, Israel and Africa. Congo Kordofanian, Nilo-Saharan and Khosian are spoken in the countries of Africa. Dravidian languages are found mainly in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Ainu-Japanese and Korean languages are spoken in Japan and Korea respectively. Uralic- Altaic languages are found in Central Asia, Russia, Finland, Estonia, Norway, Sweden, Hungary and Siberia. Austro-Asiatic languages are spoken in India, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma and Thailand. Paleo-Siberian languages are spoken in Siberian region Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken in East Asian countries - Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Madagascar and Malaysia. Papuan languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea. Australian languages are spoken in Australia. Amerindian languages are spoken in North and South America 129Block2 130 Space and Society Broad Linguistic Regions in India Since languages got developed among different human groups, these are very closely linked with specific physical and cultural milieu with many human activities leading to different types of cultural landscapes. Geographical factors have guided the successive movements and settlements of various ethnic groups in India as you have studied in the unit on peopling of India. The successive groups drove the previous ones into deep inside the country where the oldest groups, mainly tribals, secluded themselves by settling in remote hilly areas. This way the language also got its spread and present distribution manifesting the strong correlation with geographical factors. India is a vibrant country known for unity in vast diversity in the form of ethnicity, religion, cultural practices and also in the form of numerous languages and dialects spoken by the people of India residing in various parts of the country. Populations residing in various regions or pockets developed their own languages or dialects giving distinct regional linguistic INDIA { LINGUISTIC REGIONS 2001 ‘Bouncwies Langunges ‘ eo Sa eum Tiss Fig, 7.2: Ling Regions of India.Unit7 Languages identities. Despite weak language boundaries and transitional zones there are linguistic regions in India which can be geographically distinguished Linguistic regionalisation may be done based on linguistic family, state language and languages/dialects, which characterise various regions as monolingual regions or composite regions discussed in the following sub- sections. Language Family Based Ling: Region The regionalisation may be done based on the spatial distribution of the language families. The Indo-Aryan is the largest region. It covers all the northern and eastem states, Maharashtra and Goa in west and south west; and Assam and Tripura in north east (Fig. 7.2). The Dravidian region is also very clearly demarcated in southem India covering Andhra Pradesh, Kamataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puduchery. The Tibeto-Chinese region is in a ribbon shape starting from Ladakh in Kashmir to all the north eastern states. The Austric region is not a mono region but is overlapped by Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages in the central and eastern India and is a composite region with Tibeto-Chinese and Indo-Aryan in north- easter India (Meghalaya). Il, Official Language Based Re: A kind of regionalisation may also be done based on the official languages of the Indian states. Most of these states have been created based on the present day official languages. The largest region is of Hindi encompassing the states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand, which is also found in a patch in Andman and Nicobar Islands (Fig. 7.3). The other regions are Kashmiri in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjabi in Punjab and Chandigarh, Gujarati in Gujarat and Daman and Diu, Marathi in Maharashtra, Konkani in Goa, Tamil in Tamil Nadu and Puduchery, Telugu in Andhra Pradesh, and Yenam district of Puduchery, Malayalam in Kerala, Lakshadweep and Mahe district of Puduchery, Oriya in Odisha, Bengali in West Bengal and Tripura, Assamese in Assam, Nepali in Sikkim, Manipuri in Manipur and English in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya. Some of the small isolated regions are also found like Hindi in Andman and Nicobar Islands, Gujarati in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Malayalam in Lakshadweep. II Language/Dialect Regions It is important to recall that dialects form a variation of language. Therefore, we may find that as we move from one place to another, language in spoken and/or written form may change. If you travel from Kolkata towards north you will find that spoken Bengali changes just like in Hindi there are variations from east-to-west or from north- to-south. A language may also have variations by class of people. Hence, the language of an educated person may be different. For example Hindi spoken by an educated person will be 431Block2 132 Space and Society INDIA. LINGUISTIC REGIONS BY OFFICIAL LANGUAGES % 2011 Pee ‘neo Io oon Joe sities Fig. 7.3: Linguistic Regions of India. very different than an uneducated person or Urdu spoken by the erstwhile aristocratic classes could be significantly different from that of the common masses. Dialects, therefore, are not inferior or superior due to absence of script. Development of script facilitates ‘communication over larger areas and spread of a standard form of language and it also helps in keeping written records as opposed to oral narratives. There are micro level pockets of various languagesidialects around the locations shown in the Fig. 7.2. For example within Kashmiri region, there are naively demarcated small regions of Balti in the north, Dogri in the south.west and Ladakhi in the east. In the Indo-Aryan region, there are Pahari in the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Newari in the eastern part of Uttarakhand, Haryanvi in Haryana, Marwari and Mewari in Rajasthan, Khari Boli, Braj Bhakha and Awadhi in UttarUnit7 Languages Pradesh, Bhojpuri in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Magadhi and Maithili in Bihar, Kacchhi and Bhili in Gujarat; Nepali in Northern West Bengal and Sikkim, ete. In the region of Indo-Aryan family, there are languages of other families also. Examples are: Santhali in Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar and now in Assam; Ho in Jharkhand and Odisha; Kurukh in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh; Gondi in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharasthra, Jharkhand, Bihar and Gujarat; Mundari in Jharkhand and Odisha; and Nicobaries in Andman and Nicobar Islands, etc. In the Kannada region, the Tulu and Koorgi are the sub-regions. The enclaves of languages or dialects in Tibeto-Chinese region of languages are Bhotia in Sikkim, Garo and Khasi in Meghalaya, Miri in Assam, Adi in Arunachal Pradesh, Naga in Nagaland, Mikir in Assam, Kuki-Chin in Manipur, Manipuri/Meithei in Manipur, Assam and Tripura, Lusai/Mizo in Mizoram, etc IV. Composite Linguistic Regions The overlapping languages of various families form the composite regions in the country, especially the territoriality of tribal languages in the form of clusters or enclaves with the numerically larger languages. From Jammu and Kashmir to Uttarakhand, a strip of Tibeto-Chinese languages exist overlapping or coexisting with the region of Indo- European languages. In the mid-India, the patches of Dravidian languages like Gondi, Kurukn and Malto, and Austric languages like Santhali, Mundari, Kharia, Ho, Savara, Kui, etc., exist in the Indo-Aryan region simultaneously. Three outliers of Austric languages also exist in north eastern part of India (Khasi in Meghalaya, Santhali in Assam, and Nicobarese in Andman and Nicobar Islands). Indo-European languages also exist with the languages of Tibeto-Chinese family like -English in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland, and Bengali in Tripura. There are also patches of composite areas in the junctions of different languages. For example the area covering Bidar and Bangalore districts contains Telugu, Tamil and Kannada together; Nilgiri region contains Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam; Coorg and South Kannada has the languages of Tulu, Malayalam, Kannada, Konkani and Coorgi; North Kannada contains Konkani, Maratha and Kannada; Bidar region contains Marathi, Kannada and Telugu together; and so on. In some cases the cities also contain more than one language. For example, Delhi has the languages of Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and many other languages as the settlers in Delhi have retained their own traditional languages like Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, etc. There are language enclaves in the form of towns like Deoghar of Jharkhand with Hindi and Bengali amidst the surrounding Santhali language, Jamshedpur City in the midst of Ho land, Belgaum with Marathi amidst Kannada in the surrounding countryside. 133Block 2 134 Space and Society SAQ 5 What are the bases of linguistic regionalisation in India? 7.7_SUMMARY In this unit you have defined and differentiated the languages and dialects where dialects are the local forms of languages. You have also familiarised yourself with the origins and spread of languages in india You have also classified the languages and dialects into families, sub- families, branches, sub-branches, groups and sub-groups. There are twenty families of languages in the world. In India these were classified into four families in the Linguistic Survey of India of 1927 and Census of India 1961 and 1971. Later on the language families became five in the Census of India 2001 As you have studied, the largest language family in terms of number and areal spread is of Indo-European family followed by the Dravidian, Tibeto- Burmese, Austro-Asiatic and Semito-Hamitic. You may recall the geographic distribution in India by table 7.4 given below: Table 7.4: Broad Geographical Distribution of Major Languages in India Family Subfamily | Branch/ Group Speech Area Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | Dardic Jammu and Kashmir, Assam Indo-Aryan Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand Iranian North Western Frontiers of India Germanic North Eastern India, Southem India, Cities Dravidian South Dravidian | Tamil Nadu, Kamataka, Kerala, Puduchery, Lakshadweep Central Dravidan] Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jharkhand North Dravidan | Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Assam (Outlier) JAustric ‘Austro-Asiatic | Mon-Khmer | Meghalaya, Nicobar Islands Munda West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, ‘Assam, Madhya Pradesh, MaharashtraUnit7 Languages ‘Sino-Tibetan | Tibeto- Tibeto- Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal lor Tibeto- Myanmari Himalayan Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chinese Uttarakhand, Sikkim, West Bengal North Assam | Arunachal Pradesh ‘Assam- ‘Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Myanmari Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya Semito-Hamitic| Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra Source: i): Ahmad, A. (1999): Social Geography, Jaipur: Rawat Publications, i): Census of India 2001, www.censusindia.gov.in You have leamt the concepts of monolingualism, bilingualism, muttilingualism and language shift by taking examples from you and people around you. You have also done linguistic regionalisation based on language families, official language, languages/dialects and composite or overlapping languages. 7.8 TERMINAL QUESTIONS 1. Define and differentiate language and dialects. 2. Explain the origin and spread of languages and dialects. 3. What are the major language families of the world? Please describe the geographic distribution in the world. 4. Describe the major language families and groups of India with their languages and dialects 5. Explain the numerical strength and geographical distribution of Indian languages by family. 6. What are monolingualism, bilingualism, multilingualism and language shifts? Explain the processes of language shift with suitable examples. 7. What are the bases of linguistic regionalisation? Write in brief about each type of linguistic regions of India showing them on the map. 7.9 ANSWERS Self-Assessment Questions 1. Language is a systematic method of communicating ideas, attitudes, intent or knowledge through the use of mutually understandable signs, sounds or gestures using similar vocabulary, phonetic and grammar and Dialect is a variant of language spoken in a region or by a social group. The origins of languages are as follows: Indo-European: South Ural Mountains and Asia Minor 195Block 2 136 4 Dravidian: Asia Minor and Eastern Mediterranean. Tibeto-Burmese: Northem China and West of China Autro-Asiatic: Indo-China or South China and Mediterranean The major language families of India are Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Chinese, Dravidian, Indo-European and Semito-Hamitc. The order of the language families based on numerical strength in India is Indo-European, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Chinese and Semito-Hamitic. Draw a rough sketch of linguistic region of India as given below following Fig. 7.2 of the Unit. INDIA LINGUISTIC REGIONS veer eat { F J Vs Je a ’ Monolingualism is the ability of a speaker to communicate in one language/dialect only while bilingualism is the ability to communicate in two languages and multilingualism includes the communication in more than two languages. Language shift is a situation where one community speaks a language other than its traditional language.Unit7 Languages Examples are that a Tamil speaks only Hindi replacing his mother tongue-Tamil and tribals speak non-tribal languages 5. The bases of linguistic regionalisation in india are language families, official languages, language and dialects and composite languages. Terminal Questions For the answers of terminal questions, you should refer to the sections of this unit as indicated below: 1. Define language and dialects and explain what way these two are different. Refer to Section 7.2. 2. Explain the probable place of origin and spread or languages and dialects through various assumptions made. Refer to Section 7.2. 3. List the major language families of the world and discuss the geographical distribution of these across the world. Refer to Section 73 and 7.6 4, Discuss the language families and groups of India alongwith their languages and dialects. You may use the chart to explain this. Refer to Section 7.3 5. Start your answer with the numerical strength in terms of percentages of various Indian languages by their families and discuss their geographical distribution. You may supplement it with table and map for better understanding. Refer to Section 7.4. 6. Define and explain the terms monolingualism, bilingualism, multilingualism and language shifts and explain the process of language shift with suitable examples given in the Unit. Refer to Section 7.5. 7. Discuss the bases of linguistic regionalisation like regionalisation based on language family, official language, language or dialects and composite languages and dialects. Refer to Section 7.6 7.10 REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING 1. Nigam, R.C. (1972). Census of India 1971, Language Handbook on Mother Tongues in Census, New Delhi, RGI, Govt. of India. 2. Fellmann, J.D., A. Getis and J. Getis (1999). Human Geography, Boston, Boston: WCB McGraw-Hill 3. Moonis Raza and A. Ahmed (1985). An Atlas of Tribal India: With Computed Tables of District Level Data and its Geographical Inerpretation, New Delhi: Concept Publishing House. 4. Census of India, 2001, www.censusindia.gov.in 5. Brass, P, (1974). Language, Religion, and Politics in North India, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 437Block 2 138 Khubchandani, L. M. (1971)."Mother tongue in multilingual societies: in Chandra Sekhar, A. (ed.). Census of India, 1971, Economic and Socio- Cultural Dimensions of Regionalisation, New Delhi: RGI, Govt. of India, pp. 427-450, Sakharoy, |.V. (1971). “Enthno-linguistic geography of India-facts and problems”, in Chandra Sekhar, A. (ed.). Census of India, 1971, Economic and Socio-Cultural Dimensions of Regionalisation, New Delhi: RGI, Govt. of India, pp. 387-426. Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities (2014). 50th Report of The Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India (July 2012 to June 2013), New Delhi: Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India. www.nelm.nie.in