What do you know about India?

Have
you heard that it is the world’s largest democracy and the country with the
second-largest population with over 1.3 Billion Inhabitants?

What
about its diversity?

Do you
know that India has seven races, over two thousand ethnic groups, and 19,500
languages and dialects, with its most spoken language ‘Hindi’ having over half
a billion speakers?

This
and many more are part of what makes this behemoth of a nation a choice
destination for many business owners. 

In
today’s post, we explore some of the languages spoken in India and the
importance of overcoming language barriers while you navigate these regions.

Some of
the languages in India

Even
though it is obvious this post would not cover the multitudes of languages
spoken in India, we can at least talk about some of its 22 official
languages. 

Yeah,
that is right!! India has 22 official languages.

These
languages spread across the central and state levels. 

Although
India’s constitution chooses Hindi and English as the official language for the
central government, each state’s legislature has the power to select any of the
regional languages as its official language.

For
instance, some states in the northeastern region of India like; Arunachal
Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Nagaland take English as their official language.

Now,
let us take a look at some of the most spoken languages in India;

1. Hindi

Hindi
is the 4th most spoken language globally, with over 610 million speakers.
Locally, about 43% of the populace speak the language which is predominant in
the north but spans across the other regions in India. 

Hindi
is the official language of the central Indian government.

Besides
the central government, nine other states in India have adopted Hindi as their
official language, which implies that the language is strategic for any brand
trying to access the Indian market.

• Bengali

The
next most spoken language in India after Hindi is Bengali, with its 97 million
speakers. Although it is the official language of Bangladesh (a country in the
southern part of Asia), Bengali is also widely spoken in India’s eastern region
of West Bengal and Jharkhand, and other states like; Tripura and Assam in the
northeastern area. 

Bengali
belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family, and it evolved from Sanskrit and
Magadhi Prakit, with influences from other parts of Asia. The language has four
main dialects that are particular to some regions (Radha, Pundra, Kamrupa, and
Bangla) in Bangladesh and West Bengal.

• Marathi

Marathi
is an ancient Sanskrit-based language and the lingua franca for the people of
Maharashtra, India. It is one of the most spoken languages in India with over
83 million speakers (6.86% of India’s total population), with a reach in parts
of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, and some other Indian states
besides Maharashtra, where it is predominant.

Marathi
adopts agglutination for some of its words and borrows certain words from the
Urdu, Arabic, and Persian languages.

Fun
fact: Do you know that Jharkhand has 16 official languages?

• Telugu

Telugu
is yet another ancient language, but one belonging to the Dravidian
family. 

There
are many disagreements concerning its origins, but today, it is the official
language of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana located in the southern part of
India. 

With
its 75 million speakers, Telugu is the 15th most spoken language globally.

Telugu
is known for its vowel-ending sounds, making it is popularly known as “the
Italian of the east”.

• Tamil

Known
to many as the oldest active language, Tamil is an ancient Dravidian language
native to some parts of India and other countries in Asia.

Many of
its 69 million Indian speakers are located in Tamil Nadu in the southern part
of India, while others are in Karnataka, Kerala, and Maharashtra.

In
2004, Tamil was classified as part of the classic languages of the world by
UNESCO alongside languages like; Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Chinese and
Arabic.

• Gujarati

This
language belongs to the Indo-Aryan family and has 55.5 million native speakers
in India. Gujarati is widely known as the mother tongue of the “father of
modern India” Mahatma Gandhi and is spoken in over ten countries in Asia and
Africa.

Gujarati,
like some Indian official languages, comes from Sanskrit and Prakit and has
seven main dialects across continents.

• Urdu

Urdu
may be the national language of Pakistan but has its fair share of native
Indian speakers (50.7 million), which is not surprising since both India and
Pakistan were once together as British India before gaining independence from
Great Britain.

Urdu
sounds a lot like Hindi, but the alphabet reads more like Arabic.

Fun
Fact: Some English words like pajamas, khaki, and typhoon all come from Urdu
origins.

• Kannada

Kannada
is an old language from the Dravidian family whose origins go as far back as
450CE. Today, it is the official language only in Kannada. Although, it is
possible to find other speakers in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra,
Kerala, and Goa states. 

A total
of 58.7 million speak the language throughout India.

• Odia

Odia is
the sixth of India’s classical languages. And it is the official language of
Odisha state in eastern India, with other speakers found in Jharkhand, West
Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh regions.

The
language has 37.5 million speakers, making it the 9th most spoken native
language in India.

1. Malayalam

Malayalam
is the official language of Kerala in the southern part of India and is one of
the languages with the fewest dialects. The language has a soothing rhythmical
tone to it, with over 38 million speakers of the language worldwide.

Fun
Fact: Do you know that the language Malayalam is a Palindrome (a word that
reads the same backward)?

This
list only comprises the first ten most spoken official languages in India.
Other official languages include; Maithili, Nepalese, Sanskrit, Assamese,
Dogri, Bodo, Manipur, Santali, Punjabi, Sindhi, Konkani, and Kashmiri.

Conclusion 

India’s
population and economic growth present a unique opportunity for brands looking
to expand their venture into new markets. One component that makes venturing
into India somewhat tricky is its language and cultural diversity, which
requires careful navigation.

Brands
must tweak their content in accordance with the locality of their target
audience (Localization) as
against just translating from one language to another.