Did you know that only 43% of Indians are
native Hindi speakers?
With over 1.35 billion people comes great diversity, including linguistic diversity. Which is probably why India has identified 270 languages with more than 10,000 speakers according to their 2011 census. But 96.7% of India’s population speaks one of its 22 scheduled (official) languages natively.
What
are
these
languages?
Here are the top 10 most spoken
languages in India
Other languages include
Assamese: 15 million speakers
Maithili: 13.5 million speakers
Santhali: 7.3 million speakers
Tamil: 6.9 million speakers
Kashmiri: 6.8 million speakers
Nepali: 2.9 million speakers
Sindhi: 2.7 million speakers
Konkani: 2.3 million speakers
Manipuri: 1.7 million speakers
Dogri: 1.6 million speakers
Bodo: 1.4 million speakers
Sanskrit: 24,000 speakers*
* Despite the low number of modern native speakers, Sanskrit is a sacred language of Hinduism and classical Hindu philosophy. Its ancient origins can be traced to writings as early as 1500 BCE!
In addition to Hindi, English serves as a second official language of the Indian government.
Because of linguistic diversity, clients from India may speak a number of languages, including English. But it should never be assumed which language they feel most comfortable speaking when dealing with serious legal matters.
When in doubt, always ask. Then call us! We have experienced and qualified interpreters, regardless of which language your LEP needs.
