There are about a dozen countries in the world with more than 200 living and spoken languages, including indigenous languages. They are as follows – Congo 215 languages, Brazil 228, Australia 244, Cameroon 281, Mexico 288, China 301, USA 420, India 454, Nigeria 539, Indonesia 707 and Papua New Guinea 838........
Language is a means of
communication. Human being is a social animal and needs to communicate and
interact with other humans; and this is what separates us from other species.
According to Ethnologue, a research project that tracks living languages across
the globe, India is the most diverse with over 450 active languages. Papua New
Guinea, Indonesia and Nigeria have more active languages.
Identification of a language can
be controversial as some experts identify language on purely linguistic grounds
while others also include social, cultural and political factors.
Indian constitution recognizes 22
languages as the official languages of the country. There is a demand to
include 38 more. The peculiar thing about India is that even one language
changes in style, tone and spoken words after every few kilometres.
There are about a dozen countries
in the world with more than 200 living and spoken languages, including indigenous
languages. They are as follows – Congo 215 languages, Brazil 228, Australia
244, Cameroon 281, Mexico 288, China 301, USA 420, India 454, Nigeria 539,
Indonesia 707 and Papua New Guinea 838. There are many countries like
Philippines where more than 4-5 languages are spoken and Tagalog is
predominantly spoken among-st the Filipino population.
Besides, there are many countries
with two or less languages – Cabo Verde 2 languages, Iceland 2, Saint Lucia 2,
Samoa 2, San Marino 2, Vatican 2 and North Korea 1. Since earlier days, English
and French were considered Lingua Franca; languages, a means of communication in
a vast area by different people who were once ruled or influenced by either of these countries.
A country as vast and diverse as
India, Hindi is considered the national language though it is not officially so.
Since the British ruled India for over 200 years, English acts as a link
language among-st Indians and plays an important role in all spheres of life, be
it mere communication, business, law, legal matters, etc. A state like
Karnataka for example, the state language is Kannada, but in north Kanara, Konkani is
spoken. In south Kanara, Tulu, Konkani and Beary are spoken. In Coorg, Kodgu and
Coorgi are spoken. In Bhatkal, near Mangalore, the Muslims speak a language
with a lot of Arabic words. In Andhra Pradesh, now divided into Telengana and
Seemandra, Telugu is the state language, a different Urdu called Deccani Urdu, with a sprinkling of
words of surrounding areas, is spoken with a south Indian accent by the Muslims
here. Similarly, the Marathi spoken in western and coastal Maharastra is different
from what is spoken in Vidarbha region and interior Maharastra. A similar pattern is
noticed across India in different states of the union. In Goa, some elderly Goans who have seen Portuguese rule, speak Portuguese. And in Pondicherry, a few people speak French. These are some of reminiscences and legacies left behind by the old rulers.
It is said most of the Indian
languages have derived from the ancient Indian language, Sanskrit, considered to be the
mother of all languages. In Karnataka, a village near Mandhya still converse in
only Sanskrit. And in some regions with a very few people speaking in some of
the old languages, many of these old languages are not active and dying to be
lost forever. They will be extinct and lost to mankind.
Also read:
MyPost
Indonesia
has world’s largest Buddhist temple
The Borobudur Temple, located on the Indonesian island
of Java, is the largest Buddhist temple. Built in the 9th century
during the reign of Syailendra dynasty, the temple was constructed with
approximately 56,000 cubic meters of volcanic stone, and has around 504 Buddha
statues and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels. It was restored with
UNESCO’s help in the 1970s. It attracts a lot of tourists from around the world.
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| Lake Palace, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India |
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