how many dialects are there in India?
339244
India has a diverse list of spoken languages among different groups of people. At least 30 different languages and around 2000 dialects have been identified. The Constitution of India has stipulated the usage of Hindi and English to be the two official languages of communication for the national government. Additionally, it contains a list of 22 scheduled languages. These languages are entitled to representation on the Official Language Commission, and a candidate in an examination conducted for national government service may opt to take the exam in any of these languages.
429026
The population in India  stood at 1,027,015,247 persons. With this, India became only the second country in the world after China to cross the one billionmark. India's population rose by 21.34 % between 1991 - 2001. The sex ratio (i.e., number of females per thousand males) of population was 933, rising from 927 as at the 1991 Census. Total literacy rate in India was returned as 65.38%.   \n\nPersons      1,027,015,247\nMales        531,277,078\nFemales      495,738,169\n\nSource-Sam
1023380
The top four, according to the Ethnologue database --\n1) Papua New Guinea - 830 languages listed (820 living, 10 extinct)\nhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=PG\n\n2) India - 428 languages listed (415 living, 13 extinct)\nhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=IN\n\n3) Mexico - 298 languages listed (291 living, 7 extinct)\nhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=MX\n\n4) China -- 236 languages listed (235 living, 1 extinct)\nhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=China\n\nInfoplease seems generally to concur, listing 715 indigineous languages for Papua New Guinea\nhttp://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107875.html\ncompare: http://geography.about.com/library/faq/blqzpapualanguages.htm\n\n\nThere is a bit of confusion, though, since Infoplease also speaks of India having "1,600+ dialects"\nhttp://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107629.html\nCompare wikipedia's "number of mother tongues in India is as high as 1,652" (though there is no further explanation given)\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_India \n\nBased solely on this, one might argue for India.   But the problem here is that "dialect" is used in many different ways, and the statistics given for India are not explained, nor are other countries compared on the same basis.   Since Ethnologue, which is highly regarded, uses one consistent approach to all the countries, I believe it is wisest to go with their totals, according to which PAPUA NEW GUINEA ranks first.
1172008
There is no standard form. There are Standard British, American, and Australian dialects, but no general form exists.
334400
The answer may come as a surprise. Depending on one's definition, estimates range from at least 4,000 languages to 6,000. Either way, this is still quite a large number. One obvious fact is that languages vary greatly in size. We go all the way from English and Spanish with hundreds of millions of speakers around the world - even more if we count all those who use one of these regularly as a second language - down to small languages spoken by a few thousand or a few hundred people. Many go down lower than this: some languages are spoken natively by only a couple dozen or so people, and languages like this soon go down to a single speaker and disappear forever (extinction of languages is the topic of
1046852
There are 26 in India.  This site has maps.\nhttp://www.searchanddiscovery.com/documents/2004/kumar/index.htm
581986
Well the UN officially recognises exactly 200 countries. However there are several which claim independance, but are not recognised, ir Chechnya, Kashmir, Western Sahara etc Also there are more countries which exist as parts of Unions or Federations, and so are only counted once, ie England, Scotland, Wales & N.Ireland are all counted as the UK. \nAs for language's. There are over 7000 according to the Ethnologue, although UN statistics suggest the number is closer to 3,500 that are in common use, although with globalisation there is apparently a language extinction every 20 days or so at present! Although is seems a large number the vast majority or people upon the Earth speak one of the top 50 most common. The top 10 are:\n1 Chinese (Mandarin) 1,000,000,000 + \n2 English 508,000,000 \n3 Hindustani (Hindi and Urdu) 497,000,000 \n4 Spanish 392,000,000 \n5 Russian 277,000,000 \n6 Arabic 246,000,000 \n7 Bengali 211,000,000 \n8 Portuguese 191,000,000 \n9 Malay-Indonesian 159,000,000 \n10 French 129,000,000
836362
They both are Indo-Aryan languages but they belong to different subbranches. So hence, they are different languages.
1012430
Official language: Nepali \n\nOther languages spoken in Sikkim include Bhutia, Dzongkha , Groma, Gurung, Lepcha, Limbu, Magar, Majhi, Majhwar, Newari, Rai, Sherpa, Sunuwar, Tamang, Thulung, Tibetan, and Yakha.
75573
Sourashtra (alternate names and spellings: Palkar, Sowrashtra, Saurashtra, Saurashtri, Patnuli) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of the Southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu. The Ethnologue puts the number of speakers at 310,000 (1997 IMA), although the actual number could be double this figure or even more.\n\n\nClassification\nSourashtra is a Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family.\n\n\nGeographical Distribution\nThe speakers of the Sourashtra language, known as Sourashtrians, maintain a predominant presence in Madurai, a city in the southern part of Tamil Nadu. Though official figures are hard to come by, it is believed that the Sourashtra population makes up for about one-third of the city's total population. They are present in significant numbers in the cities of Dindigul, Paramakudi, Erode, Palani, Rajapalayam, Nilakottai, Salem, Thanjavur, Trichy, Kumbakonam,Thiruvarur and Kottar (Nagercoil). A sizable number is also found in Chennai, Bangalore and other parts of India, but this presence is largely due to small-scale migrations in the last few decades from one of the aforesaid traditional Sourashtrian settlements.\n\nIt is also believed that Sourashtra speakers exist, albeit in small numbers, in other southern states such as Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. However, in the absence of any reliable facts to substantiate this claim, this remains a speculation at best.\n\n\nHistory\nThough there is little historical evidence available to support the argument that the Sourashtrians lived in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat in Western India, folklore, and recent linguistic and genetic researches have been able to establish that this region was indeed once the habitat of the Sourashtrians. However, their language has more similarities with Marathi and Konkani, both Indo-Aryan languages of Western India, than it does with Modern Gujarati, the language of present-day Gujarat. Linguists have been able to explain why it is so: Both Sourashtra and Gujarati branched off from a common parent, and have since taken completely different paths to modernity. Gujarati came under the influence of Persian, Arabic, many tribal languages and Hindi, whereas Sourashtra, taking off from Gujarat before it had made any Muslim contact, was influenced by Marathi, Konkani, Kannada, Telugu, and finally, Tamil. It has been acknowledged that Persian and Arabic have had only limited influence on Marathi and Konkani, and this is why they still retain a good amount of vocabulary and grammar derived from Sanskrit, as compared to other daughter languages of Sanskrit. It is possible that the vocabulary and grammar shared between Modern Sourashtra and Marathi is what was originally derived from Sanskrit.\n\nThe southward flight of the Sourashtrians seems to have been triggered by the frequent Muslim invasions of their homeland and the instability caused by it. No details are available as to whether it was a mass-migration and when it took place. They found the safe haven they were looking for in the Vijayanagar Kingdom, with its capital at Hampi in present-day Karnataka, which was then expanding southwards. They, whose traditional occupation was weaving, were able to impress upon the Emperor with their weaving skills, and soon were elevated to the position of Royal Weavers. Telugu and Kannada were the court languages, though other languages such as Sanskrit and Tamil were also in use. It was during this period that Sourashtra started absorbing Telugu and Kannada words into its lexicon.\n\nVijayanagar rulers had the practice of appointing Governors, known as Nayaks, to manage far-flung regions of the empire. When Madurai and Thanjavur were annexed to the empire, Governors were appointed to administer the new territories. It is believed that a part of the Sourashtra community moved to Madurai and Thanjavur to serve the Governors.\n\n\n\n\n****\nHey why di they suspend you from yahoo\n*****
406345
There are 15 official Languages in India\nAnd "Hindi" is the National Language
98176
mostly hindi. sometimes english.
197301
There are many...it is a language made of Sanskrit, Greek and Latin\n\nYou don't respect people in english...you call you to all...which is very bad
99392
it means ghost! in hindi, the most spoken language in india
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India is divided into twenty-eight states (which are further subdivided into districts), and seven union territories (or territories owned by the Central Government).\n\nnames of 28 States:\n\nAndhra Pradesh \nArunachal Pradesh \nAssam \nBihar \nChhattisgarh \nGoa \nGujarat \nHaryana \nHimachal Pradesh \nJammu and Kashmir \nJharkhand \nKarnataka \nKerala \nMadhya Pradesh \n Maharashtra \nManipur \nMeghalaya \nMizoram \nNagaland \nOrissa \nPunjab \nRajasthan \nSikkim \nTamil Nadu \nTripura \nUttaranchal \nUttar Pradesh \nWest Bengal
597608
The most basic division of the Indian society is of Aryans and Dravidians. According to this division, nearly 72% of Indians are Aryans and 28% are Dravidians. The north Indians are the descendants of Aryans and the south Indians are Dravidians. The languages spoken in five states of south India are considered Dravidian languages and most of the languages spoken in the north are considered Aryan languages. The general script of the Aryan languages is different from the general script of Dravidian languages. The Indians also distinguish themselves by the general north Indian accent and general south Indian accent.\n\nAccording to general Indian legend, the Aryans arrived in north India somewhere from Iran and southern Russia at around 1500 BC. Before the Aryans, the Dravidian people resided in India. The Aryans disregarded the local cultures. They began conquering and taking control over regions in north India and at the same time pushed the local people southwards or towards the jungles and mountains in north India. According to this historical fact the general division of Indian society is made. North Indians are Aryans and south Indians are Dravidians. But this division isn’t proper because of many reasons.\n\nMany Indians immigrated from one part of India to other parts of India and not all local people of north India were pushed southwards by the Aryans. Some stayed and served the Aryans and others moved to live in the forests and the jungles of north India. Before the arrival of the Aryans there were also other communities in India like Sino-Mongoloids and Austroloids. There were also other foreign immigrations and invaders who arrived in India, from time to time. \n\nThere are many that completely doubt that there was ever any Aryan invasion in India. This skepticism is based on the dating of the Aryan invasion of India and the fact that Hinduism and the caste system are believed to have been established as the result of the meetings between the intruding Aryans and original residents of India, the Dravidians. \n\nThe caste system is believed to have been established by the Aryans. The fair skinned Aryans who occupied parts of India established the caste system, which allowed only them to be the priests (Brahman), aristocracy (Kshatria) and the businessmen (Vaisia) of the society. Below them in hierarchy were the Sudras who consisted of two communities. One community was of the locals who were subdued by the Aryans and the other were the descendants of Aryans with locals. In Hindu religious stories there are many wars between the good Aryans and the dark skinned demons and devils. The different Gods also have dark skinned slaves. There are stories of demon women trying to seduce good Aryan men in deceptive ways. There were also marriages between Aryan heroes and demon women. Many believe that these incidences really occurred in which, the gods and the positive heroes were people of Aryan origin. And the demons, the devils and the dark skinned slaves were in fact the original residence of India whom the Aryans coined as monsters, devil, demons and slaves. Normally the date given to Aryan invasion is around 1500 BC. But according to Hinduism experts some of the events in Hinduism occurred much earlier. Some of the events like the great war in the Mahabharta epic is believed to have occurred (based on astronomical research) 7000 years ago. \n\nAccording to this Hindu experts the word Aryan is a misinterpretation of the original Sanskrit word, Arya. Arya means pure or good in Sanskrit. In the holy Vedas the good people were called Arya. Some of the European scholars of Indian culture in the 19th century were Germans. These German scholars who found that Swastika was also a holy symbol among the Hindus distorted, the word Arya to Aryan.
1102628
I found this on the CIA's world fact book:\n\n"English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language"