At 11:17 AM 12/21/2000, you wrote:
>Does anyone know what language or languages people from the country of
>India speak?
>
>Also, is there any term for people from India and surrounding countries
>(Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan etc.)?
Not that I'm aware of, but I wish there was -- even today, in spite of the
geographical boundaries created for administrative/political reasons by the
British, the basic culture across these lands is the same. And, in fact,
IMO, extending to regions North and West.
Some (including me) make reference to "people of the subcontinent". (I'm
from the subcontinent, and a teacher/consultant in
behaviour/culture/organisations).
Oh yes, the term "South Asians" seems lately to have become popular in some
quarters in N. America and W. Europe.
About language -- the subcontinent is a land of several thousand languages
and lots and lots of dialects !! The official language is Hindi (which is
the major language in parts of North India), and English too is an
"official" language since the government uses it extensively.
However, there are several other languages which are spoken by millions,
and in which truly high-class literature is very much alive --
Tamil (major language of the South Indian region known as Tamil Nadu today)
-- major city is Chennai earlier known as "Madras"
Punjabi (likewise, Punjab and Haryana)
Bangla (my language, commonly mis-known as Bengali, and the language of
people of both West Bengal in India, and erstwhile East Bengal,
subsequently East Pakistan and now Bangladesh) -- major cities Calcutta and
Dhaka.
Gujarati (Gujarat) --major city Ahmedabad
Telugu (Andhra Pradesh) -- major city Hyderabad
Malayalam (Kerala) -- major cities Thiruvanantapuram (earlier
Trivandrum), Kochi (earlier "Cochin")
Kannada (Karnataka) -- major city Bangalore.
Marathi (Maharashtra) -- major city Mumbai, earlier known as Bombay.
Oriya (Orissa) -- major cities Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
Ahamiya (mis-known as Assamese, of "Assam")
There are, of course, many, many others including the so-called tribal
languages, for instance Naga (with many versions and dialects -- people and
language of Nagaland), Khasi (likewise of Meghalaya) -- both regions being
of North East India.
Another very widely spoken language is Urdu -- derived from Persian
(mainly) and Hindi, spoken both in Pakistan and in India among people of
the Islamic faith in East and North India principally.
Hope this long response is useful.
Shyamal Gupta
New York, USA.
