The Indo-Aryan or Indic languages are the dominant language family of the Indian subcontinent,
spoken largely by Indo-Aryan people. They constitute a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages,
itself a branch of the Indo-European language family. Indo-Aryan speakers form about one
half of all Indo-European speakers, and more than half of all Indo-European languages recognized
by Ethnologue. The largest in terms of native speakers are
Hindustani, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Oriya, Sindhi, Sinhala, Nepali,
and Assamese, with a total number of native speakers of more than 900 million.
History Indian subcontinent
Old Indic early Old Indic: Vedic Sanskrit
late Old Indic: Epic Sanskrit, Classical Sanskrit
Middle Indo-Aryan or Prakrits [see] Early Modern Indic
early Dakkhini emergence of Khariboli
emergence of "Urdu" at Delhi fort
Old Indo-Aryan The earliest evidence of the group is from
Vedic Sanskrit, the proto-language of the Indo-Aryan languages which is used in the
ancient preserved texts of the Indian subcontinent, the foundational canon of Hinduism known as
the Vedas. The Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni is of similar age to the language of the Rigveda,
but the only evidence of it is a few proper names and specialized loanwords.
In about the 4th century BCE, the Vedic Sanskrit language was codified and standardized by
the grammarian Panini, called "Classical Sanskrit" by convention.
Middle Indo-Aryan Outside the learned sphere of Sanskrit, vernacular
dialects continued to evolve. The oldest attested Prakrits are the Buddhist and Jain canonical
languages Pali and Ardha Magadhi, respectively. By medieval times, the Prakrits had diversified
into various Middle Indo-Aryan dialects. "Apabhramsa" is the conventional cover term for transitional
dialects connecting late Middle Indo-Aryan with early Modern Indo-Aryan, spanning roughly
the 6th to 13th centuries. Some of these dialects showed considerable literary production; the
Sravakachar of Devasena is now considered to be the first Hindi book.
The next major milestone occurred with the Muslim conquests on the Indian subcontinent
in the 13th–16th centuries. Under the flourishing Mughal empire, Persian became very influential
as the language of prestige of the Islamic courts due to adoptation of the foreign language
by the Mughal emperors. However, Persian was soon displaced by Hindustani. This Indo-Aryan
language is a combination with Persian elements in its vocabulary, with the grammar of the
local dialects. The two largest languages that formed from
Apabhramsa were Bengali and Hindustani; others include Gujarati, Oriya, Marathi, and Punjabi.
New Indo-Aryan Dialect continuum
The Indo-Aryan languages of Northern India and Pakistan form a dialect continuum. What
is called "Hindi" in India is frequently Standard Hindi, the Sanskrit-ized version of the colloquial
Hindustani spoken in the Delhi area since the Mughals. However, the term Hindi is also
used for most of the central Indic dialects from Bihar to Rajasthan. The Indo-Aryan prakrits
also gave rise to languages like Gujarati, Assamese, Bengali, Oriya, Nepali, Marathi,
and Punjabi, which are not considered to be part of this dialect continuum.
Standard Hindi-Urdu
In the Hindi-speaking areas, the prestige dialect was long Braj Bhasha, but this was
replaced in the 19th century by Khari Boli–based Hindustani. This state of affairs continued
until the Partition of India in 1947, when Hindi continued as an official language of
India and Pakistan but renamed Urdu in Pakistan. In contemporary times, there is a continuum
of Hindi–Urdu, with heavily-Persianised Urdu at one end and Sanskritised Hindi at
the other, although the basic grammar remains identical. Most speakers of Hindustani speak
something in between these extremes. Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni
Some theonyms, proper names and other terminology of the Mitanni exhibit an Indo-Aryan superstrate,
suggesting that an Indo-Aryan elite imposed itself over the Hurrian population in the
course of the Indo-Aryan expansion. In a treaty between the Hittites and the Mitanni, the
deities Mitra, Varuna, Indra, and Nasatya are invoked. Kikkuli's horse training text
includes technical terms such as aika, tera, panza, satta, na, vartana. The numeral aika
"one" is of particular importance because it places the superstrate in the vicinity
of Indo-Aryan proper as opposed to Indo-Iranian or early Iranian in general
Another text has babru, parita, and pinkara. Their chief festival was the celebration of
the solstice which was common in most cultures in the ancient world. The Mitanni warriors
were called marya, the term for warrior in Sanskrit as well; note mišta-nnu "payment".
Sanskritic interpretations of Mitanni royal names render Artashumara as Arta-smara "who
thinks of Arta/Ṛta", Biridashva as Prītāśva "whose horse is dear", Priyamazda as Priyamedha
"whose wisdom is dear", Citrarata as citraratha "whose chariot is shining", Indaruda/Endaruta
as Indrota "helped by Indra", Shativaza as Sātivāja "winning the race price", Šubandhu
as Subandhu 'having good relatives", Tushratta as *tṷaiašaratha, Vedic Tvastr "whose chariot
is vehement". Romani language
The Romani language is usually included in the Central Indo-Aryan languages. Romani is
conservative in maintaining almost intact the Middle Indo-Aryan present-tense person
concord markers, and in maintaining consonantal endings for nominal case – both features
that have been eroded in most other modern languages of Central India. It shares an innovative
pattern of past-tense person concord with the languages of the Northwest, such as Kashmiri
and Shina. This is believed to be further proof that Romani originated in the Central
region, then migrated to the Northwest. There are no known historical documents about
the early phases of the Romani language. Linguistic evaluation carried out in the nineteenth
century by Pott and Miklosich showed that the Romani language is to be a New Indo-Aryan
language, not a Middle Indo-Aryan, establishing that the ancestors of the Romani could not
have left India significantly earlier than AD 1000.
The principal argument favouring a migration during or after the transition period to NIA
is the loss of the old system of nominal case, and its reduction to just a two-way case system,
nominative vs. oblique. A secondary argument concerns the system of gender differentiation.
Romani has only two genders. Middle Indo-Aryan languages generally had three genders, and
some modern Indo-Aryan languages retain this old system even today.
It is argued that loss of the neuter gender did not occur until the transition to NIA.
Most of the neuter nouns became masculine while a few feminine, like the neuter अग्नि
in the Prakrit became the feminine आग in Hindi and jag in Romani. The parallels
in grammatical gender evolution between Romani and other NIA languages have been cited as
evidence that the forerunner of Romani remained on the Indian subcontinent until a later period,
perhaps even as late as the tenth century. Classification
There can be no definitive enumeration of Indic languages, as their dialects merge into
one another. Named languages are therefore social constructs as much as objective ones.
The major ones are illustrated here; for the details, see the dedicated articles.
The classification follows Masica and Kausen. Dardic
The representative languages are: Pashayi, Khowar, Kohistani, Shina, Kashmiri
Northern Zone Central Pahari
Garhwali, Kumauni Eastern Pahari
Nepali, etc. North-Western Zone
Dogri–Kangri Dogri, Kangri, Mandeali, etc.
Punjabi Lahnda
Sindhi Western Zone
Rajasthani Marwari, Rajasthani
Gujarati Bhil
Khandeshi Central Zone
Western Hindi Hindustani, etc.
Eastern Hindi Fijian Hindi, Chhattisgarhi, etc.
Domari–Romani Eastern Zone
These languages evolved circa 1000–1200 CE from eastern Middle Indo-Aryan dialects
such as the Magadhi Prakrit, Pali, and Ardhamagadhi from a dialect or group of dialects that were
close, but not identical to, Vedic and Classical Sanskrit.
Bihari Bhojpuri, though it is an eastern Indo Aryan
language, it is more similar to Central group. Maithili, Magahi etc.
Tharu Oriya
Halbic Bengali–Assamese
Southern Zone languages These group of languages developed from Maharashtri.
It is not clear if Dakhini is part of Hindustani along with Standard Urdu, or a separate Persian-influenced
development from Marathi. Marathi
Konkani Insular Indic
Sinhalese, Maldivian The insular languages share several characteristics
that set them apart significantly from the continental languages.
Unclassified The following poorly attested languages are
listed as unclassified within the Indo-Aryan family by Ethnologue 17:
Dhanwar, Kanjari, Od, Vaagri Booli, Darai, Kumhali, Chinali, Andh, Lahul Lohar, Mina,
Bhalay-Gowlan, Bote and Degaru, Sonha. Phonology
Consonants Stop positions
The normative system of New Indo-Aryan stops consists of five points of articulation: labial,
dental, "retroflex", palatal, and velar, which is the same as that of Sanskrit. The "retroflex"
position may involve retroflexion, or curling the tongue to make the contact with the underside
of the tip, or merely retraction. The point of contact may be alveolar or postalveolar,
and the distinctive quality may arise more from the shaping than from the position of
the tongue. Palatals stops have affricated release and are traditionally included as
involving a distinctive tongue position. Widely transcribed as [tʃ], Masica claims [cʃ]
to be a more accurate rendering. Moving away from the normative system, some
languages and dialects have alveolar affricates [ts] instead of palatal, though some among
them retain [tʃ] in certain positions: before front vowels, before , or when geminated.
Alveolar as an additional point of articulation occurs in Marathi and Konkani where dialect
mixture and others factors upset the aforementioned complementation to produce minimal environments,
in some West Pahari dialects through internal developments, and in Kashmiri. The addition
of a retroflex affricate to this in some Dardic languages maxes out the number of stop positions
at seven, while a reduction to the inventory involves *ts > , which has happened in Assamese,
Chittagonian, Sinhala, and Southern Mewari. Further reductions in the number of stop articulations
are in Assamese and Romany, which have lost the characteristic dental/retroflex contrast,
and in Chittagonian, which may lose its labial and velar articulations through spirantization
in many positions. Nasals
Sanskrit was noted as having five nasal-stop articulations corresponding to its oral stops,
and among modern languages and dialects Dogri, Kacchi, Kalasha, Rudhari, Shina, Saurasthtri,
and Sindhi have been analyzed as having this full complement of phonemic nasals , with
the last two generally as the result of the loss of the stop from a homorganic nasal +
stop cluster, though there are other sources as well.
Charts The following are consonant systems of major
and representative New Indo-Aryan languages, as presented in Masica, though here they are
in IPA. Parentheses indicate those consonants found only in loanwords: square brackets indicate
those with "very low functional load". The arrangement is roughly geographical.
Language comparison chart See also
Indo-Aryans Indo-Iranians
Indo-Aryan migration Proto-Vedic Continuity
The family of Brahmic scripts Linguistic history of India
Indo-Aryan loanwords in Tamil References
John Beames, A comparative grammar of the modern Aryan languages of India: to wit, Hindi,
Panjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya, and Bangali. Londinii: Trübner, 1872–1879.
3 vols. Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh, eds., The
Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5 . Madhav Deshpande. Sociolinguistic attitudes
in India: An historical reconstruction. Ann Arbor: Karoma Publishers. ISBN 0-89720-007-1,
ISBN 0-89720-008-X. Chakrabarti,Byomkes. A
comparative study of Santali and Bengali. Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi & Co. ISBN 81-7074-128-9
Erdosy, George.. The Indo-Aryans of ancient South Asia: Language, material culture and
ethnicity. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-014447-6.
Kobayashi, Masato.; & George Cardona. Historical phonology of old Indo-Aryan consonants. Tokyo:
Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign
Studies. ISBN 4-87297-894-3. Masica, Colin, The Indo-Aryan Languages, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29944-2 . Misra, Satya Swarup.. Fresh light on Indo-European
classification and chronology. Varanasi: Ashutosh Prakashan Sansthan.
Misra, Satya Swarup.. The Old-Indo-Aryan, a historical & comparative grammar. Varanasi:
Ashutosh Prakashan Sansthan. Sen, Sukumar.. Syntactic studies of Indo-Aryan
languages. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Foreign Cultures of Asia
and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Vacek, Jaroslav.. The sibilants in Old Indo-Aryan:
A contribution to the history of a linguistic area. Prague: Charles University.
External links The Indo Aryan languages, 10-25-2009
Transliteration of Indic Languages & Scripts Survey of the syntax of the modern Indo-Aryan
languages, February 7, 2003.