India is four times richer than Europe, in terms of language, with Indians able to express themselves in over 850 languages as compared to Europeans who can speak only about 250 languages, according to findings of thePeople's Linguistic Survey of India (PLSI).
"England has not more than four or five languages of its own at the most. Out of those only two - English and Welsh - are doing well. Meanwhile a state like Assam which is more or less the size of England has a good 52 languages," says Ganesh Devy a noted linguist and chairman of PLSI.
"On the other hand Indian courts and offices allow use of 22 languages," says the linguist who recently completed an ambitious survey in the country, which identified 860 Indian languages.
"In India we have several hundred living languages. It could be more than 850, out of which we were able to study 780 languages. And if the benchmark is the 1961 census we have lost 250 languages in last 50 years," he says in the survey carried after over 100 years after George Abraham Grierson under British Raj undertook such an exercise in the country.
"For me, 60 languages which we surveyed in Maharashtra are 60 different sounds (dhwani) through which my state should be identified," he says.
A Unesco Linguapax laureate, 63-year-old Devy says, "We have prepared a baseline and it's a first survey of living languages in India. We have also collected grammars and dictionary of about 400 languages."
The survey, which began in 2010, has compiled a total of 50 volumes and 68 books that document various languages in the country, including sign languages used by transgenders and even thieves.
According to the language survey PLSI found Arunachal to contain the 90 languages but Goa speaks only three languages.
"England has not more than four or five languages of its own at the most. Out of those only two - English and Welsh - are doing well. Meanwhile a state like Assam which is more or less the size of England has a good 52 languages," says Ganesh Devy a noted linguist and chairman of PLSI.
"On the other hand Indian courts and offices allow use of 22 languages," says the linguist who recently completed an ambitious survey in the country, which identified 860 Indian languages.
"In India we have several hundred living languages. It could be more than 850, out of which we were able to study 780 languages. And if the benchmark is the 1961 census we have lost 250 languages in last 50 years," he says in the survey carried after over 100 years after George Abraham Grierson under British Raj undertook such an exercise in the country.
"For me, 60 languages which we surveyed in Maharashtra are 60 different sounds (dhwani) through which my state should be identified," he says.
A Unesco Linguapax laureate, 63-year-old Devy says, "We have prepared a baseline and it's a first survey of living languages in India. We have also collected grammars and dictionary of about 400 languages."
The survey, which began in 2010, has compiled a total of 50 volumes and 68 books that document various languages in the country, including sign languages used by transgenders and even thieves.
According to the language survey PLSI found Arunachal to contain the 90 languages but Goa speaks only three languages.
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