Indo-Aryan languages
Branch of the Indo-Iranian languages / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Indo-Aryan languages?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages[lower-alpha 1]) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Nepal .[1] Moreover, apart from the Indian subcontinent, large immigrant and expatriate Indo-Aryan–speaking communities live in Northwestern Europe, Western Asia, North America, the Caribbean, Southeast Africa, Polynesia and Australia, along with several million speakers of Romani languages primarily concentrated in Southeastern Europe. There are over 200 known Indo-Aryan languages.[5]
| Indo-Aryan | |
|---|---|
| Indic | |
| Geographic distribution | South Asia |
Native speakers | c. 800 million (2018)[1]–1.5 billion[2] |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
| Proto-language | Proto-Indo-Aryan |
| ISO 639-2 / 5 | inc |
| Linguasphere | 59= (phylozone) |
| Glottolog | indo1321 |
 | |
Modern Indo-Aryan languages descend from Old Indo-Aryan languages such as early Vedic Sanskrit, through Middle Indo-Aryan languages (or Prakrits).[6][7][8][9] The largest such languages in terms of first-speakers are Hindi–Urdu (c. 330 million),[10] Bengali (242 million),[11] Punjabi (about 120 million),[12] Marathi (112 million), and Gujarati (60 million). A 2005 estimate placed the total number of native speakers of the Indo-Aryan languages at nearly 900 million people.[13] Other estimates are higher suggesting a figure of 1.5 billion speakers of Indo-Aryan languages.[2]