LANGUAGES IN INDIA

Question 1

Classify Indian Languages?

Answer 1

1. Indo Aryan Group (largest 74% of Indians speak languages from this group).
2. Dravidian Group
3. Sino Tibetan Group
4. Negroid
5. Austric
6. Others.

Question 2

Asthadhyayi is written by?

Answer 2

The development of Sanskrit grammar began with Panini in 400 B.C. with his book Asthadhyayi.

Question 3

Mahavastu and Lalitavistara belongs to which sect?

Answer 3

• Mahavastu is a treasure of stories of the Hinayana School.
• Lalitavistara is the most sacred Mahayana text.

Question 4

The first evidence of the use of Sanskrit can be found in?

Answer 4

The inscriptions of Rudradamana at Junagarh in the present Southern Gujarat region.

Question 5

Language used in Jain Agamas?

Answer 5

Prakrit and Ardha Magadhi.

Question 6

Which languages are included within Prakrit?

Answer 6

1. Pali
2. Magadhi Prakrit or Ardha Magadhi
3. Shauraseni
4. Maharashtri Prakrit
5. Elu– ancient form of modern Sinhala language of Sri Lanka.
6. Paishachi also called Bhuta Bhasa (dead language)

Question 7

What was the official language of the Satavahana dynasty?

Answer 7

Maharashtri Prakrit.

Question 8

Gaha Kosha is written by?

Answer 8

King Hala in Maharashtri Prakrit.

Question 9

Gaudavaho is written by?

Answer 9

Vakpati in Maharashtri Prakrit.

Question 10

Shatkhandgama is written in which language?

Answer 10

An important text of Digambars, ‘Shatkhandgama’ is written in Shauraseni.

Question 11

Brihatkatha is written by?

Answer 11

Gunadhya in Paisachi language.

Question 12

Name some texts written in Apabhramsa (corrupt or non grammatical) which means dialects other than Sanskrit or Prakrit?

Answer 12

1. Pushpadanta’s Mahapurana (Digambara Jain text).
2. Dhanapala’s Bhavisayattakaha, etc.

Question 13

Four major languages of the Dravidian group are?

Answer 13

1. Telugu (numerically the largest of all Dravidian languages).
2. Tamil (oldest and purest form of language).
3. Kannada
4. Malayalam (smallest and the youngest of the Dravidian group).

Question 14

Most important language from Austric group is?

Answer 14

Santhali.

Question 15

Which languages are endangered from the Austro-asiatic languages?

Answer 15

With the exception of Khasi and Santhali, all Austro-asiatic languages on Indian territory are endangered.

Question 16

Difference between the Indo Aryan group and the Dravidian group of languages?

Answer 16

1. The root words in the two language families are different.
2. There is a different grammatical structure in the two groups.
   - Grammatical structure of Dravidian family is agglutinative, i.e. the combinations in which roots words are united with little or no change of form or loss of words.
   - The grammatical structure of Indo-Aryan group is inflected, i.e. the words ending or its spelling changes according to its grammatical function in a sentence.

Question 17

Languages added through amendment acts to the eighth schedule?

Answer 17

1. Sindhi added as the 15th language through 21st Amendment Act of 1967.
2. Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali added by 71st Amendment Act, 1992.
3. Maithili, Bodo, Dongri and Santhali added by 92nd Amendment Act, 2003.

Question 18

1. The Constitution does not specify the official language to be used by the States for the conduct of official function. States are free to adopt it.
2. The language to be adopted by the States need not be one of those listed in the Eighth Schedule, and several States have adopted official language which are not listed.
   Example:
   - Tripura-Kokborok (belongs to Sino-Tibetan familly)
   - Puducherry -French
   - Mizoram-Mizo
3. English is the official language of Nagaland & Meghalaya.
4. English is not in the list of 22 scheduled languages as per the
   Eighth schedule.
   True/false?

Answer 18

All are True.

Question 19

Criteria to get the status of the Classical language?

Answer 19

1. High antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years.
2. A body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers.
3. The literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community.
4. The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.

Question 20

Enumerate Classical languages of India?

Answer 20

1. Tamil, 2004
2. Sanskrit, 2005
3. Telugu, 2008
4. Kannada, 2008
5. Malayalam, 2013
6. Odia, 2014.

Question 21

Benefits of being included in the classical language of India?

Answer 21

1. Two major international awards for scholars of eminence in Classical Indian Languages to be awarded annually.
2. A ‘Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Languages’ will be set up.
3. The University Grants Commission will be requested to create and to start with at least in the Central Universities, a certain number of Professional Chairs for Classical Languages for scholars of eminence in Classical Indian Languages.

Question 22

What is National Translation Mission, its aims and objectives?

Answer 22

• National Translation Mission (NTM) is a Government of India scheme to facilitate higher education by making knowledge texts accessible to students and academies in Indian languages.
• NTM aims to disseminate knowledge in all Indian languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution through translation.
• Objectives of the mission.
  1. Certification and training of translators in different areas.
  2. Generation and maintenance of databases.
  3. Conducting short-term orientation courses under the Translator Education Programme.
  4. Promotion of machine aided translation between English and Indian languages.
  5. Development of translation tools such as dictionaries and thesauri.
  6. Offer fellowships & grants for Natural Language Processing and translation related research projects
  7. Promote visibility to translators and translation activities by organising events like book launches for translations, regional translation festivals, discussions, book exhibitions, etc.

Question 23

What is Linguistic Diversity Index (LDI)?

Answer 23

• LDI is the probability that two people selected from the population at random will have different mother tongue; it therefore, ranges from 0 (everyone has the same mother tongue) to 1 (no two people have the same mother tongue).
• The Index of Linguistic Diversity (ILD) measures how the LDI has changed over time.
• A global ILD of 0.8 indicates a 20% loss of diversity since 1970, but ratios above 1 are possible, and have appeared in regional indexes.

Question 24

What is Lingua Franca?

Answer 24

Also known as the bridge language, common language, trade language or vehicular language, is a language or dialect systematically used to make communications possible between two persons not sharing a native language or dialect, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both native languages.

Question 25

Oldest writing system used in the Indian subcontinent?

Answer 25

Brahmi.

Question 26

Meaning of abugida?

Answer 26

Meaning that each letter represents a consonant, while vowels are written with obligatory diacritics called mātrās in Sanskrit, except when the vowles commence a word.
Type of writing system whose basic characters denote consonants followed by a particular vowel.

Question 27

Scripts that are mostly written from right to left?

Answer 27

1. Kharosthi Script
2. Urdu Script

Question 28

Gurmukhi is developed from which Script?

Answer 28

Sarada script.

Question 29

Examples of Abugida?

Answer 29

1. Brahmi Script
2. Vatteluttu Script
3. Devanagari Script
4. Kharosthi Script
5. Sarada Script.