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Indian Languages: Difference between revisions
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** Spoken in the state of Kerala (33 million speakers, who are called Malayalees/"Mallus"). Since it uses a lot of consonants, it can sound very harsh to those who are not used to it. Sometimes shows up as a [[Token Minority|token]] in the media of other regions because of the distinctiveness of the language and the culture surrounding it - any Indian character with an [[Overly Long Name]] is probably a parody of Malayalees. It is also said to be the hardest Indian language to learn.
* Tamil
** Spoken in the state of Tamil Nadu, and also in several countries (over 70 million Tamils worldwide). Like Malayalam, it uses harsh-sounding consonants often and sounds not unlike a pinball machine. Tamil is also said to be the Indian language with the least Sanskrit influence (usually limited to loanwords), and it has attained classic language status. Native Tamils are famous for their ethno-linguistic pride and are known to be protective of their linguistic rights (unfortunately, this sometimes leads to the [[Angry Black Man|Angry Tamil Man]] stereotype).
* Telugu
** Spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh (74 million). The third most common Indian language. It was once called "the Italian of the east" because it is a very lyrical language and nearly all words in Telugu end in a vowel. Alongside Tamil, Sanskrit and Kannada, Telugu is also considered a classic language of India.
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== Eastern Languages ==
* Bengali
** Spoken mainly in the sate of West Bengal (and the country of Bangladesh). There are 83 million Banglas/Bengalis worldwide, and it is the second most-spoken native language in India. ''Jana Gana Mana'' (the national anthem) and ''Vande Mataram'' (the national song) are written in a mixture of Bengali and Sanskrit (or,
* Maithili
** Mostly spoken in the state of Bihar. About 12 million speakers.
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* Sindhi
** Mainly spoken in Gujarat, and is also a language of Pakistan (estimated 2 million speakers in India, 40 million worldwide). Also spoken throughout India by groups of people descended from Pakistani emigrants.
== North-Eastern Languages ==
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== Not Regionally affiliated ==
* Hindustani (Hindi and Urdu)
** Hindi is the most commonly spoken and most well-known language in India, This is because at the time of independence, Hindi had the most speakers. The government at the time wanted it to become the national language, but several ethnic groups protested because they were afraid of losing employment opportunities to native Hindi speakers. In response, the government gave Hindi the status of 'Official Language of the Union' instead. Hindi was never actually made the national language, but the government does endorse its use as a lingua franca by requiring Hindi to be taught as a first or second language in most places. Urdu is an official language of Pakistan, but it is also associated with Indian Muslims. Hindi and Urdu are very similar, to the point of being mutually intelligible. Because the languages are nearly identical at the colloquial level, linguists consider Hindi and Urdu dialects of a [[wikipedia:Hindi–Urdu controversy|single "Hindustani" language]]. The main differences occur in the more formal registers and the written forms: Urdu is written in Persian Arabic script, and its literary register has Persian and Arabic borrowings, while Hindi is written in Devanagari, and its literary register borrows more from Sanskrit. In numbers, Hindi has over 500 millions of speakers in the country, while Urdu has 59 million
** Generally speaking, the farther you go from North/Central India, the less Hindustani you will find. Hindi is not as common in South India as it is in the North. This is because South Indian languages are from an entirely different language family, and also because South Indians have been politically resistant to adopting the language. However, urban South Indians will sometimes use Hindi if there is a Hindi-speaking community in the area. This is especially true in the city of Hyderabad, which has significant Muslim influence in its culture and a large Urdu-speaking minority. Also, people in the southern state of Kerala are known to have high proficiency in Hindi (probably because the state itself is very cosmopolitan and affluent). Similarly, the languages of the Northeast tend to be in the Tibeto-Burman family. This, combined with the fact that there are some [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters|rather extreme separatist movements]] in the region, mean that there is not much Hindi spoken there either. English on the other hand is pretty common in the NE region, with several states claiming it as their official language.
* English
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