One for our Indian members
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I'm not indian but I've read a little bit about languages and language families so I can partially answer your question. There's 3 language families in india and several languages within each family. The 3 families are: 1) Indo-European - spoken in northern india. And as the name implies these languages are distantly related to almost all european languages including English. 2) Dravidian - spoken in the south of India. 3) Munda - which is spoken in a few very isolated areas and may be related to some southeast asian languages. As far as what the languages in each family are and how closely related I don't know. Since you brought this up though I have a question for the indian people here. I understand that Hindus believe in being nice animals in general but why are cows in particular well ..... sacred cows to hindus?
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And by Indian members I mean the cool ones that we love, such as: Rajesh Vikram Vasudevan Rama S. Senthil Kumar Nish And I know there are a number of other guys I like, but can't remember their names. Anyway. I've been to India several times. Well, more than several, but several will do. What always amazes me is that wherever I go, whatever I'm doing there's always someone who can come and tell me what I'm doing wrong, in better English than I speak; be it trying to catch a taxi in Mumbai or fending off tigers in some far off village in the sticks. No matter where I am in the sub-continent, there's always some local to give me a disapproving look and explain to me in my own language where I'm going wrong. This is cool, but not my question :) What I want to know is - speaking no Indian language (although I got some swear words in Hindi pretty much nailed) myself - what the relationship between the different languages spoken in India are. Are they as different as, say, French and English, more different or completely different as say French and English vs Japanese? (I asked a couple of Indian friends, when I was over last, what they thought but the last thing I remember was getting very drunk and everything after that got a bit hazy :) )
What Rama said. Tamil and Malayalam are kinda sorta similar, though unlike French and English, the alphabet is totally different - the few letters that match have different pronunciations. There are quite a few common words though. Like French, Hindi has gender for nouns. Tamil doesn't, and I suspect that's the case for all South Indian languages. On a side note, I've got this fascination for learning to read and write multiple languages - I love it when I can make sense of what was a garbled mess of text before. I learned to read and write Malayalam after a recent trip to Kerala, and it was fascinating to observe (firsthand :) ) how the brain picks up a new script. For me, the process did not seem gradual; initially, I was mentally looking up the pronunciation for each letter, concatenating the sounds to pronounce a word and so on. And then one day, everything just clicked into place - I was able to look at a word and say what it is. I still struggle with really long words, and Malayalam has plenty of those :(.
Regards Senthil _____________________________ My Home Page |My Blog | My Articles | My Flickr | WinMacro
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Let me try: Rajesh, Vasudevan, Senthil speak Tamil. Tamil is considered to be the oldest language and does not have same root as Sanskrit (which is the root for languages including English). Nish speaks Malayalam. Malayalam and Tamil are not radically different. They are similar according to Nish (I have no way of knowing). Now, Vikram speaks Marathi (though he can speak Tamil too) which is similar to Hindi but it is radically different than Tamil. Marathi is derived from Sanskrit. I speak Telugu (though I can also speak Hindi and to some extent Bengali). Telugu shares features of both Sanskrit and Tamil, though it is more closer to Sanskrit that it is to Tamil. So here is my conclusion in terms of programming languages :) Tamil = C++ Malayalam = C# Hindi = Lisp Marathi = Scheme Telugu = F#
I can speak Hindi too, and even a bit of Telugu. I have to find out what Scheme is like before making up my mind whether to take offence. :-D
Cheers, Vikram. (Got my troika of CCCs!)
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And by Indian members I mean the cool ones that we love, such as: Rajesh Vikram Vasudevan Rama S. Senthil Kumar Nish And I know there are a number of other guys I like, but can't remember their names. Anyway. I've been to India several times. Well, more than several, but several will do. What always amazes me is that wherever I go, whatever I'm doing there's always someone who can come and tell me what I'm doing wrong, in better English than I speak; be it trying to catch a taxi in Mumbai or fending off tigers in some far off village in the sticks. No matter where I am in the sub-continent, there's always some local to give me a disapproving look and explain to me in my own language where I'm going wrong. This is cool, but not my question :) What I want to know is - speaking no Indian language (although I got some swear words in Hindi pretty much nailed) myself - what the relationship between the different languages spoken in India are. Are they as different as, say, French and English, more different or completely different as say French and English vs Japanese? (I asked a couple of Indian friends, when I was over last, what they thought but the last thing I remember was getting very drunk and everything after that got a bit hazy :) )
To add to what the others said: The four southern states speak Dravidian languages. Eg: Rama - Telugu, Nish - Malayalam, Senthil - Tamil. The languages of the East are mixed. Eg: Oriya is spoken is Orissa. I think Ravi is Bengali (well, he was in Calcutta). The Northeast speaks languages closer to the Tibeto-Burman language family. The rest of India (Western, Northern, and Central), well over 50% in terms of population, speak Indo-Aryan languages. Eg: Me - Marathi, D@nish - Hindi. Also, Rama halved my language skills - my native language is Marathi but I also speak Tamil because I was born and raised in Tamil Nadu, Hindi because I learnt it at school, English (obviously) because that was the medium of instruction at school (and it's influenced me to such an extent I've read a book in no other language) and a bit of Telugu because I have Telugu friends and it's such a nice language (it's called the Italian of the East). Now, here's a question for you - where else in the Indian subcontinent have you been? I'm guessing Sri Lanka.
Cheers, Vikram. (Got my troika of CCCs!)
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And by Indian members I mean the cool ones that we love, such as: Rajesh Vikram Vasudevan Rama S. Senthil Kumar Nish And I know there are a number of other guys I like, but can't remember their names. Anyway. I've been to India several times. Well, more than several, but several will do. What always amazes me is that wherever I go, whatever I'm doing there's always someone who can come and tell me what I'm doing wrong, in better English than I speak; be it trying to catch a taxi in Mumbai or fending off tigers in some far off village in the sticks. No matter where I am in the sub-continent, there's always some local to give me a disapproving look and explain to me in my own language where I'm going wrong. This is cool, but not my question :) What I want to know is - speaking no Indian language (although I got some swear words in Hindi pretty much nailed) myself - what the relationship between the different languages spoken in India are. Are they as different as, say, French and English, more different or completely different as say French and English vs Japanese? (I asked a couple of Indian friends, when I was over last, what they thought but the last thing I remember was getting very drunk and everything after that got a bit hazy :) )
Following is the list of official languages in India. The part before the first hypen is the name. The second part is the genetic affiliation, so that could give you an idea of which language is similar to which other language - that does not however mean that they can be completely understood by someone within the same region. In fact, in most cases you cannot. Assamese/Axomiya - Indo-Aryan, Eastern Bengali - Indo-Aryan, Eastern Bodo - Tibeto-Burman Dogri - Indo-Aryan, Northern Gujarati - Indo-Aryan, Western Hindi - Indo-Aryan, various Kannada - Dravidian, Southern Kashmiri - Dardic Konkani - Indo-Aryan, Southern Maithili - Indo-Aryan, Eastern Malayalam - Dravidian, Southern Manipuri (also Meitei or Meithei) - Tibeto-Burman Marathi - Indo-Aryan, Southern Nepali - Indo-Aryan, Northern Oriya - Indo-Aryan, Eastern Punjabi - Indo-Aryan Sanskrit - Indo-Aryan Santali - Austro-Asiatic, Munda Sindhi - Indo-Aryan, Northwestern Tamil - Dravidian, Southern Telugu - Dravidian, South-Central Urdu - Indo-Aryan, Central English, although not an official language, is the only common language that can be understood across India. :)
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Let me try: Rajesh, Vasudevan, Senthil speak Tamil. Tamil is considered to be the oldest language and does not have same root as Sanskrit (which is the root for languages including English). Nish speaks Malayalam. Malayalam and Tamil are not radically different. They are similar according to Nish (I have no way of knowing). Now, Vikram speaks Marathi (though he can speak Tamil too) which is similar to Hindi but it is radically different than Tamil. Marathi is derived from Sanskrit. I speak Telugu (though I can also speak Hindi and to some extent Bengali). Telugu shares features of both Sanskrit and Tamil, though it is more closer to Sanskrit that it is to Tamil. So here is my conclusion in terms of programming languages :) Tamil = C++ Malayalam = C# Hindi = Lisp Marathi = Scheme Telugu = F#
Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:
Telugu = F#
So Telugu is the new, shiny cool kid in the block, eh?
Regards Senthil _____________________________ My Home Page |My Blog | My Articles | My Flickr | WinMacro
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Following is the list of official languages in India. The part before the first hypen is the name. The second part is the genetic affiliation, so that could give you an idea of which language is similar to which other language - that does not however mean that they can be completely understood by someone within the same region. In fact, in most cases you cannot. Assamese/Axomiya - Indo-Aryan, Eastern Bengali - Indo-Aryan, Eastern Bodo - Tibeto-Burman Dogri - Indo-Aryan, Northern Gujarati - Indo-Aryan, Western Hindi - Indo-Aryan, various Kannada - Dravidian, Southern Kashmiri - Dardic Konkani - Indo-Aryan, Southern Maithili - Indo-Aryan, Eastern Malayalam - Dravidian, Southern Manipuri (also Meitei or Meithei) - Tibeto-Burman Marathi - Indo-Aryan, Southern Nepali - Indo-Aryan, Northern Oriya - Indo-Aryan, Eastern Punjabi - Indo-Aryan Sanskrit - Indo-Aryan Santali - Austro-Asiatic, Munda Sindhi - Indo-Aryan, Northwestern Tamil - Dravidian, Southern Telugu - Dravidian, South-Central Urdu - Indo-Aryan, Central English, although not an official language, is the only common language that can be understood across India. :)
Abhinav S wrote:
official languages in India
And there are many non-official languages too. For ex, Marwari - spoken by Marwaris. Similar to Gujrati. Bhojpuri - spoken by Biharis. It has again many sub-versions too. Aadivasi - spoken by tribals. Mostly in Jharkhand. And many more. My grandfather could speak about 8 different languages. I can understand many languages like Marwari, Marathi, Gujrati, Bengali but not very good when it comes to talking in these languages. ;P
Abhinav S wrote:
English, although not an official language, is the only common language that can be understood across India
No. You can't actually define a common language here. I think most of the people in India can speak Hindi.
..Go Green..
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Let me try: Rajesh, Vasudevan, Senthil speak Tamil. Tamil is considered to be the oldest language and does not have same root as Sanskrit (which is the root for languages including English). Nish speaks Malayalam. Malayalam and Tamil are not radically different. They are similar according to Nish (I have no way of knowing). Now, Vikram speaks Marathi (though he can speak Tamil too) which is similar to Hindi but it is radically different than Tamil. Marathi is derived from Sanskrit. I speak Telugu (though I can also speak Hindi and to some extent Bengali). Telugu shares features of both Sanskrit and Tamil, though it is more closer to Sanskrit that it is to Tamil. So here is my conclusion in terms of programming languages :) Tamil = C++ Malayalam = C# Hindi = Lisp Marathi = Scheme Telugu = F#
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I can speak Hindi too, and even a bit of Telugu. I have to find out what Scheme is like before making up my mind whether to take offence. :-D
Cheers, Vikram. (Got my troika of CCCs!)
Scheme is my favorite language, you need to feel honored. My point was to show the differences. Malyalam and Tamil are close ( according to nish at least). I find both languages to be tongue twisters. The other languages are quite different than tamil, so i equated them with functional programming languages. Marathi is very similar to Hindi. But Telugu eventhough it shares the same root is quite different: it shares features if Sanskrit and Tamil so equated it with f#.
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To add to what the others said: The four southern states speak Dravidian languages. Eg: Rama - Telugu, Nish - Malayalam, Senthil - Tamil. The languages of the East are mixed. Eg: Oriya is spoken is Orissa. I think Ravi is Bengali (well, he was in Calcutta). The Northeast speaks languages closer to the Tibeto-Burman language family. The rest of India (Western, Northern, and Central), well over 50% in terms of population, speak Indo-Aryan languages. Eg: Me - Marathi, D@nish - Hindi. Also, Rama halved my language skills - my native language is Marathi but I also speak Tamil because I was born and raised in Tamil Nadu, Hindi because I learnt it at school, English (obviously) because that was the medium of instruction at school (and it's influenced me to such an extent I've read a book in no other language) and a bit of Telugu because I have Telugu friends and it's such a nice language (it's called the Italian of the East). Now, here's a question for you - where else in the Indian subcontinent have you been? I'm guessing Sri Lanka.
Cheers, Vikram. (Got my troika of CCCs!)
Vikram A Punathambekar wrote:
Now, here's a question for you - where else in the Indian subcontinent have you been?
Not all in the same trip, but I've been to: Goa New Dehli Chennai Mumbai (when it was still called Bombay) Sri Lanka (but only very briefly) and also some very small places I can't remember the names of around Kanha National Park. Amazingly big and diverse place, India. In fact it's just plain amazing :)
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And by Indian members I mean the cool ones that we love, such as: Rajesh Vikram Vasudevan Rama S. Senthil Kumar Nish And I know there are a number of other guys I like, but can't remember their names. Anyway. I've been to India several times. Well, more than several, but several will do. What always amazes me is that wherever I go, whatever I'm doing there's always someone who can come and tell me what I'm doing wrong, in better English than I speak; be it trying to catch a taxi in Mumbai or fending off tigers in some far off village in the sticks. No matter where I am in the sub-continent, there's always some local to give me a disapproving look and explain to me in my own language where I'm going wrong. This is cool, but not my question :) What I want to know is - speaking no Indian language (although I got some swear words in Hindi pretty much nailed) myself - what the relationship between the different languages spoken in India are. Are they as different as, say, French and English, more different or completely different as say French and English vs Japanese? (I asked a couple of Indian friends, when I was over last, what they thought but the last thing I remember was getting very drunk and everything after that got a bit hazy :) )
This thread makes me wonder: If there wasn’t the GB interacting/put a suitable word here/ with the Indian history, nowadays they could have been 25-30 independent countries in the sub-continent with a different languages, customs, culture etc. In the worst scenario some of them oppose each other. The same what had happened in Europe after the Roman Empire’s collapse?
The narrow specialist in the broad sense of the word is a complete idiot in the narrow sense of the word. Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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This thread makes me wonder: If there wasn’t the GB interacting/put a suitable word here/ with the Indian history, nowadays they could have been 25-30 independent countries in the sub-continent with a different languages, customs, culture etc. In the worst scenario some of them oppose each other. The same what had happened in Europe after the Roman Empire’s collapse?
The narrow specialist in the broad sense of the word is a complete idiot in the narrow sense of the word. Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
Yes, You can say that but, addition to that it's the efforts of Mr. Sardar Patel, who convinced more than 150 kings of different parts of lands to join the independent India. Otherwise after the independence same would happened again where every state becomes country. He was just not able to convince the king of Kashmir, who later on decided to merge with India fearing the Pakistan, where 3 countries are still fighting with each other to claim the land.
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And by Indian members I mean the cool ones that we love, such as: Rajesh Vikram Vasudevan Rama S. Senthil Kumar Nish And I know there are a number of other guys I like, but can't remember their names. Anyway. I've been to India several times. Well, more than several, but several will do. What always amazes me is that wherever I go, whatever I'm doing there's always someone who can come and tell me what I'm doing wrong, in better English than I speak; be it trying to catch a taxi in Mumbai or fending off tigers in some far off village in the sticks. No matter where I am in the sub-continent, there's always some local to give me a disapproving look and explain to me in my own language where I'm going wrong. This is cool, but not my question :) What I want to know is - speaking no Indian language (although I got some swear words in Hindi pretty much nailed) myself - what the relationship between the different languages spoken in India are. Are they as different as, say, French and English, more different or completely different as say French and English vs Japanese? (I asked a couple of Indian friends, when I was over last, what they thought but the last thing I remember was getting very drunk and everything after that got a bit hazy :) )
I am from Gujarat, so I know Gujarati, Hindi, little bit Marathi, Punjabi and Rajasthani. These languages are similar as they are derived from Sanskrit. Also Urdu and Hindi when spoken they are mostly the same, but when written its completely different. So I can understand Urdu if someone is speaking, but no clue how to read it. :)
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And for Cobol?
Join the cool kids - Come fold with us[^]
Trollslayer wrote:
And for Cobol?
Sanskrit.
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Vikram A Punathambekar wrote:
Now, here's a question for you - where else in the Indian subcontinent have you been?
Not all in the same trip, but I've been to: Goa New Dehli Chennai Mumbai (when it was still called Bombay) Sri Lanka (but only very briefly) and also some very small places I can't remember the names of around Kanha National Park. Amazingly big and diverse place, India. In fact it's just plain amazing :)
So I was right about India and Sri Lanka :) Thanks, yes, my country is very diverse and that is one of the things I love best about it. I've only been to your country once and although I did not get to visit the Celtic lands, I loved what I saw. I would like to live there, at least for a while. (You have NO idea how much somebody living in Madras yearns for rain! :-D )
Cheers, Vikram. (Got my troika of CCCs!)