Top 10 Spoken Languages in India in 2024

Top 10 Spoken Languages in India in 2024

 

India ranks fourth in being the most linguistically diverse country, and as per official data, there are 700 languages out of which almost 200+ languages are no longer used and 17 languages are on the verge of becoming extinct! The census of 2021 could have given a better perspective on the linguistic composition of India, but it got stalled by COVID-19. The IGNCA’s proposed “Language Atlas” can help us get comprehensive knowledge about languages in India in the future.

Image Credits: Weforum

 

There are no current official figures on the top spoken languages in India,  but the census of 2011 and some data from global data and business intelligence platforms to get an idea of the past and the present.

Languages in India in 2024: A Brief Overview

National Language of India: None

Official Language of India: English and Hindi

Scheduled Languages of India: 22 languages that include Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

Oldest languages in India: Sanskrit (7000 years ) followed by Tamil (5000)

Language Families of India: The Indo-Aryan Languages, The Dravidian Languages, The Austric Family, The Tibeto-Burman Languages

Top 10 Languages Spoken in India

Here is a list of the most spoken languages in India, each with diverse dialects, influence, literary contributions, and histories.

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1. Hindi (43%)

Hindi (descendant of Sanskrit) tops the chart as the most spoken language in India, belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch, and is a phonetic language (every character has a sound). It has almost 53 crore speakers in states like U.P., Bihar, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, M.P., Chhattisgarh, H.P., and Delhi. Hindi uses the Devanagari script and almost 8.3% of the world's population uses it, making it the most translated Indian language.

 

Also Read: To know more about Hindi Language

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2. Bengali (8%)

Bengali (Indo-Aryan group)  is the second most spoken language in India that uses the Bengali script and has approx. 9+ Crore speakers. It is a phonetic language with two styles: Sadhubhasa (elegant form ) and Chaltibhasa (colloquial form). Besides West Bengal, the states of Assam, Tripura, and Jharkhand use Bengali. As almost 98% of the people of Bangladesh and 8% of Indians use Bengali, translation to and from Bengali is popular for industrial, academic, and other uses. 

Also Read: To know more about Bengali Language

 

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3. Marathi (6.8%)

Marathi is the third most spoken language in India with almost 8+ crore using it mostly in Maharashtra and is its official language. It comes under the Indo-Aryan group of languages and is used in Goa and the Deccan part of India. Marathi has almost 42 dialects, including Konkani, Khandeshi, Ahirani, Samavedi, Wadvali, Varhadi etc.

Also Read: To know more about Marathi Language

 

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4. Telugu (6.7%)

Telugu is a Dravidian language spoken by 8.11 crore speakers, mostly in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Telugu speakers increased 4 times in the U.S., blurring the boundaries of language. California in US. has a large Telugu-speaking population and other parts of the United States, United Kingdom, UAE, New Zealand, and Australia also have a Telugu-speaking population, showing the need for translation services that provide professional translation services to Telugu and from any languages.

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5. Tamil (6.7%)

Tamil, is spoken by over 6.9 crore people and is at number 5. It is one of the oldest languages in the world and is used in Malaysia, Canada, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, and Fiji, besides India. Tamil has its own script and a rock-solid literary history and the recent example of criminal laws in India being translated into Tamil shows the strength of this language. As it is used in many parts of the world, Tamil translations are used worldwide for business, academic, and website translations.

 

Also Read: To know more about Tamil language

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6. Gujarati (4.6%)

Gujarati is the sixth most-used language in India with 5.6 crores using it in Gujrat and surrounding states. It is also used in neighboring countries of Pakistan. It is believed that the Gujarati language has its influence from Persian, Arabic, and Portuguese due to historical trade and colonial interactions.

 

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7. Urdu (4.59%)

Urdu is spoken by 5.08 crore people in India and you can see a blend of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish languages in Urdu and usually spoken by the Muslim population in India. The script of Urdu in the Perso-Arabic script. An interesting fact about the Urdu script is written from right to left.

Also Read: To know more about Urdu language

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8. Kannada (4.4%)

Kannada is a Dravidian language spoken by approx. 3.7 crore people in India and the Kannada literature, dates back to the 9th century. There was a recent scandal that arose when Google’s answer to a query about India’s ugliest language came out as Kannada. This showed the fallibility of Machines and Google algorithms. 

 

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9. Odia (3.05%)

The Odia-speaking population in India is 3.75 crores and it is primarily spoken in Odisha/Orissa. Odia has a unique script that is believed to be derived from Brahmi and has a rich literary history of poems and prose that showcases history.  

 

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10.  Malayalam (2.9%)

Malayalam is spoken by 3.4 crore people in India, primarily a language of Kerala. It is considered the toughest language in India, and the script involves circular fonts. An interesting fact about the word Malayalam is that it is a palindrome i.e. if you read the word from left to right or from right to left, you get the same word.

India’s Growth Through Translation

With the aim of empowerment of the masses, and to break language barriers the government of India established the National Translation Mission (NTM) in 2005. It was an attempt to facilitate higher education by making knowledge texts accessible to students and academics in different languages as required.

LanguageNoBar, assists IITs, IIMs, universities, technical institutes, schools, e-learning platforms, research institutions, organizations, start-ups, and entrepreneurs with certified translation services as per government guidelines. 

 

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