Languages of Uttar Pradesh

The languages of Uttar Pradesh generally belong to two zones in the Indo-Aryan languages, Central and East. Hindi is the state's official language (Urdu is co-official), and according to census data, it is spoken by 91.32% of the population.[1] However, Hindi is a wide label that covers many dialects, which may or not be considered separate languages and may or may not be fully mutually intelligible. These include Awadhi, Braj Bhasha, Bundeli, Bagheli, Kannauji, Khariboli (all of these belonging Central zone, considered to be the core of the Hindi belt) and Bhojpuri. Bhojpuri belongs to the Bihari languages of the Eastern zone, and its status as a Hindi language is subject to debate.

History

The languages of Uttar Pradesh mainly derive from the Prakrits of the Old Indo-Aryan languages, and ultimately Sanskrit.

Inventories

Linguists generally distinguish the terms "language" and "dialects" on the basis of 'mutual comprehension'. The Indian census uses two specific classifications in its own unique way: (1) 'language' and (2) 'mother tongue'. The 'mother tongues' are grouped within each 'language'. Many 'mother tongues' so defined would be considered a language rather than a dialect by linguistic standards. This is specifically the case for many 'mother tongues' with tens of millions of speakers that are officially grouped under the 'language' Hindi.

Official languages

The languages of state administration are Hindi,[2] established by the Uttar Pradesh Official Language Act, 1951, and Urdu, established by the Amendment to the same in 1989.

Writing systems

Devanagari is the main script used to write Uttar Pradesh languages, although Urdu is written in the Nastaliq style of the Perso-Arabic script. Kaithi was widely used historically.

The Nagari Pracharini Sabha was formed in 1893 to promote the usage of the Devanagari script.[3]

Footnotes and References

  1. ↑ "Report of the Commissioner for linguistic minorities: 52nd report (July 2014 to June 2015)" (PDF). Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India. pp. 49–53.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-06-19. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-04-10. Retrieved 2009-04-10.

See

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