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Is there an Indian dialect which is understood by most Indians (Asian)?
I want to be able to understand people from India better. I work with them frequently, and some day I might want to visit India.
What is the best language/dialect to learn? Do you know of a good home study program?
Graham, what do you mean by "colonial"?
3 Answers
- GrahamHLv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
The predominant languages are English and Hindi; but English is a "colonial" language, and Hindi is really only spoken in the North of the country. Although both are taught all over India, in reality the huge majority of Indians are proficient in neither.
Addition: By saying English is a "colonial" language, I meant that it was imposed by former British rule; it now has official status in India but is not spoken by a huge majority of Indian nationals.
- Erik Van ThienenLv 71 decade ago
List of languages by number of native speakers in India :
1. Hindi - 422,048,642 - 41.03% (2001 census)
2. Bengali - 83,369,769 - 8.11%
3. Telugu - 74,002,856 - 7.37%
(Ordered by number of speakers as first language. Indian population in 1991 exhibited 19.4% of bilingualism and 7.2% of trilingualism.)