3 ms·

I am amazed and humbled to hear that India has 880 languages. I am a stereotypically monolingual American--years of study allow me to mumble a few sentences of

I am amazed and humbled to hear that India has 880 languages. I am a stereotypically monolingual American--years of study allow me to mumble a few sentences of Spanish, German, and an even smaller amount of Japanese. I cannot even conceive of 800/1100+ languages--it's like trying to understand the scale of the Sun or imagine how fast light travels compared to say, a motorcycle or walking. I was hoping someone here on HN was going to give a little background on what 880 living languages even means. Mostly, in a linguistic/cognitive sense, but also in a cultural/economic/political sense.

anuraj 13y ago
Well - India has 22 scheduled languages which are used as official languages and enjoy high level of development owing to state patronage. Each of these languages are spoken by more than a million people. Besides India has close to 800 unlisted languages which do not get the level of patronage that is required and is facing slow extinction. Some of these languages are spoken by less than 1000 people today and are in danger of imminent extinction. Unless we document and preserve them, a large chunk of human history and wisdom shall be wiped out with out any hope of claiming them back. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_India
- test001only 13y ago
  May seem like boasting, but could not resist! Indians if they have finished schooling can speak at least two languages - English and their local/native language. Some of them in the south learn Hindi also, so it comes to three languages - most of the colleagues I work with fall under this category. Also Indians are pretty good at picking up new language if the move to another state in the country for work. I for one know five languages Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, English and Kanada.

3 ms·

I am amazed and humbled to hear that India has 880 languages. I am a stereotypically monolingual American--years of study allow me to mumble a few sentences of

by batguano 13y ago

anuraj 13y ago
Well - India has 22 scheduled languages which are used as official languages and enjoy high level of development owing to state patronage. Each of these languages are spoken by more than a million people. Besides India has close to 800 unlisted languages which do not get the level of patronage that is required and is facing slow extinction. Some of these languages are spoken by less than 1000 people today and are in danger of imminent extinction. Unless we document and preserve them, a large chunk of human history and wisdom shall be wiped out with out any hope of claiming them back. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_India
- test001only 13y ago
  May seem like boasting, but could not resist! Indians if they have finished schooling can speak at least two languages - English and their local/native language. Some of them in the south learn Hindi also, so it comes to three languages - most of the colleagues I work with fall under this category. Also Indians are pretty good at picking up new language if the move to another state in the country for work. I for one know five languages Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, English and Kanada.