The speakers of major Indian languages belong to how many language families?
- (a)Two
- (b)Three
- (c)Four
- (d)Six
Correct — C, Four. The major languages of India are grouped into four language families — the Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-European (Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, etc.), Dravidian (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam), Austro-Asiatic or Austric (Santhali, Mundari, Khasi) and Tibeto-Burman of the Sino-Tibetan family (Manipuri, Bodo and other Himalayan and north-eastern tongues). Speakers of the country's principal languages fall into these four groups.
- (a)Two — Two would cover only Indo-Aryan and Dravidian and leaves out the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman speakers of central and north-east India.
- (b)Three — Three still omits one of the four families — usually the Austro-Asiatic (Austric) group of the tribal belt.
- (d)Six — Six overcounts; while the Census also records tiny Semito-Hamitic and Andamanese groups, the major Indian languages belong to four families, not six.
India's languages are classified by descent into families. Four account for almost all speakers — Indo-Aryan (a branch of Indo-European), Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic (Austric) and Tibeto-Burman (a branch of Sino-Tibetan). Indo-Aryan speakers are the largest group and Dravidian the second.
'How many families' expects the standard NCERT count of four. Recall one example language per family so you do not accidentally merge Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman into a single group.
- Four families cover the major Indian languages — Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic (Austric) and Tibeto-Burman (Sino-Tibetan).
- Indo-Aryan (Indo-European) speakers form the largest share; Dravidian the second largest.
- Austro-Asiatic includes Santhali, Mundari and Khasi; Tibeto-Burman includes Manipuri and Bodo.
- The Munda languages of central-eastern India are a branch of the Austro-Asiatic family.
Major Indian languages fall into these four families — option (c).
- Merging Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman and answering 'three'.
- Counting the tiny Semito-Hamitic or Andamanese groups to reach 'six' for the MAJOR languages.
Asked as 'how many language families' or 'which family does language X belong to' — anchor each family with one example language.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam belong to which language family?
- (a)Indo-Aryan
- (b)Dravidian
- (c)Austro-Asiatic
- (d)Tibeto-Burman
Answer(b) Dravidian — the four major South Indian languages.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Santhali and Mundari belong to which language family?
- (a)Dravidian
- (b)Austro-Asiatic (Austric)
- (c)Indo-Aryan
- (d)Tibeto-Burman
Answer(b) Austro-Asiatic — the Munda branch of the Austric family.