Languages and Scripts (People Of India)

This comprehensive survey of India's languages shows that Indian languages are largely derivative of the ethnic community or territory where the language is used, and describes how languages are distributed into different language families. The authors suggest that in language-contact situations the incidence of bilingualism is extremely high: it is not uncommon for tribals to speak up to four languages, and despite the dominance of a regional language, all of the States and Union Territories are multilingual. As a result of this multilingual character, language evolution in India is quite dynamic. This volume, part of the People of India project, forms the first comprehensive and definitive database of the languages and scripts used by communities all over India.