Languages
Bengali is the dominant language of West Bengal as well as the whole of East India, spoken by well over 90 million people. Hindi along with Maithili, Magahi and Urdu is the dominant language of Bihar. Hindi and Urdu are the dominant language of Jharkhand, however 34% people of Jharkhand are tribals (2001 Census) and speak their own tribal languages and use Hindi as second language.
Oriya is the dominant language of the state of Orissa.
The Indo-Aryan languages spoken in this region descend from the Magadhi Prakrit, which was spoken in the ancient kingdom of Magadha. Bengali, Oriya and Assamese emerged as distinct languages from Magadhi Prakrit and Maithili around 9 century A.D.
Many of the minority adivasis (indigenous tribal people) of East India belong to the Munda branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family. Major representatives of this group include the Munda, Santal, Oraon and Ho peoples. Santals are the largest tribal group from the region.
Read more about this topic: East India
Famous quotes containing the word languages:
“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“The trouble with foreign languages is, you have to think before your speak.”
—Swedish proverb, trans. by Verne Moberg.
“Wealth is so much the greatest good that Fortune has to bestow that in the Latin and English languages it has usurped her name.”
—William Lamb Melbourne, 2nd Viscount (1779–1848)