Nitin Singhania Test: Languages In India - UPSC MCQ

• A language family includes individual languages related through a common ancestor that existed before the recorded history. A dialect is a form of language spoken in a local area.

• It should be noted that several dialects can be derived from a particular language.

Old Indo-Aryan Group:

• This group had its development around 1500 B.C., and Sanskrit was born out of this group. The ancient form of Sanskrit is what we find in the Vedas. Even Upanishads, Puranas and Dharmasutras, were all written in Sanskrit. It can be said that Sanskrit is the mother of many Indian languages.

• Understanding the diversity and richness of our culture has been possible all because of the development of Sanskrit language during those times. It is the most ancient language of our country and is one of the 22 scheduled languages listed in the Constitution.

• The development of Sanskrit grammar began with Panini in 400 B.C. with his book Asthadhyayi being the oldest book in Sanskrit grammar.

• Some of the Buddhist literature belonging to Mahayana and the Hinayana school are even written in the Sanskrit language.

• The book Mahavastu of the Hinayana school is a treasure of stories. Lalitavistara, the most sacred Mahayana text and Ashvagosha's Buddhacharita were also written in Sanskrit.

• Sanskrit is the only language that transcended the barriers of region and boundaries. From north to south and east to west, there is no part of India that has not contributed to or been not affected by the Sanskrit language.

• The various literature in the Sanskrit language has been discussed in the chapter on literature. The chaste form of Sanskrit developed in between 300 BC to 200 BC.

1. Pali

2. Magadhi Prakrit

3. Shauraseni

4. Maharashtri Prakrit

5. Elu

6. Paishachi

• By the 6th-7th century, the development of 'Apabhramsa' (corrupt or non-grammatical) took place.

• Apabhramsa is also an umbrella term which means dialects other than Sanskritnor even Prakrit. It represents a transition from Middle to Modern Indo-Aryan Group of languages.

• Apabhramsha gradually became a literary language and was used to write several texts, legends, etc. By the 7th century, Apabhramsa developed its own Identity.

Among these 21 languages of the Dravidian Group, the four major languages of the Dravidian group are: Telugu (numerically the largest of all Dravidian languages)

• Tamil (the oldest and purest form of language)

• Kannada

• Malayalam (smallest and the youngest of the Dravidian group).

1. The root words in the two language families are different.

2. There is a different grammatical structure in the two groups.

(a) Grammatical structure of the Dravidian family is agglutinative, i.e. the combinations in which roots words are united with little or no change of form or loss of words.

(b) The Indo-Aryan group's grammatical structure is inflected, i.e. the words ending or its spelling changes according to its grammatical function in a sentence.

• Later Sindhi was added as the 15th language through the 21st Amendment Act of 1967. 71stnAmendment Act, 1992 added three more languages.

• They are Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali. 92nd Amendment Act, 2003 added four more languages to the Eighth Schedule. They are Bodo, Maithili, Dogri and Santhali.

• At present, there are 22 languages in total listed under the eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution.

• Brahmi is the oldest writing system used in the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia during the final centuries BCE and the early centuries CE.

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  Some believe that Brahmi was derived from a contemporary Semitic script or maybe Indus script. All surviving Indic scripts in SouthEast Asia are descendants of the Brahmi.

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  The best-known Brahmi inscriptions are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka in north-central India, dated to 250-232 BCE. The script was deciphered in 1837 by James Prinsep. Brahmi is usually written from left to right.

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  Brahmi is an abugida, meaning that each letter represents a consonant, while vowels are written with obligatory diacritics called mātrās in Sanskrit, except when the vowels commence a word.

• In West Bengal, the Oraon tribal community is spoken in Dooars (alluvial floodplains in northeastern India that lie south of outer foothills of Himalayas and north of Brahmaputra River basin).

• Most of the tribal languages in West Bengal have their origins in the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Barman families.

• But Kurukh is an exception with its origin from the Dravidian family Malto, which is not spoken in West Bengal, but the Rajmahal hills area of Jharkhand.

• Its script is called Tolong Siki. It is an old script. So, C is wrong. The language has been incorporated as a 'vulnerable' state in UNESCO's list of endangered languages.

• Jharkhand recognised Kurukh as a language and its script in 2003. The state allows students to write their school final examination in this script.

• Pali: It was widely spoken in Magadha. It was popular during the fifth-first century BC. It is closely related to Sanskrit, and the texts in Pali were written generally in Brahmi script.

• The Tripitaka of Buddhism were also written in Pali. It serves as the lingua franca of Theravada Buddhism. It is believed that Buddha himself did not speak in Pali but gave his preachings in Ardha-magadhi language.

The four major languages of the Dravidian group are:

• Telugu (numerically the largest of all Dravidian languages)

• Tamil (the oldest and purest form of language)

• Kannada

• Malayalam (smallest and the youngest of the Dravidian group).

• Union Minister gives the classical language status for Culture

• Criteria for Classical Languages in India

(a) High antiquity of its early texts/ recorded history from 1500 to 2000 years.

(b) A body of ancient literature/ texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers.

(c) The literary tradition is original and not borrowed from another speech community.

(d) The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.

• Benefits

(a) Two major annual international awards for scholars of eminence in the concerned language.

(b) A 'Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Languages' can be set up.

(c) The University Grants Commission can be requested to create, to start with at least in Central Universities, a certain number of professional chairs for classical languages, for scholars of eminence in the concerned language

• Current Classical Languages - 6

(a) Tamil in 2004 - first to be recognised

(b) Sanskrit

(c) Telugu

(d) Kannada

(e) Malayalam

(f) Odia

• Google is using its expertise in artificial intelligence for Project Navlekha. It will quickly render any PDF with Indian language content into editable text, overcoming issues that usually occur when trying to copy the text in Indian languages from a PDF.

• The project aims to bring 135,000 local language publishers online by making web hosting smooth and simple.