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;
- 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.
- 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.