|
 |
Important Indian language after Hindi | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5345 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes  Speaks: Spanish* | Message 9 of 13 02 May 2010 at 5:55pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Tamil is the Dravidian language which has best preserved its uniqueness in the face of Aryan influence. It also boasts the oldest, richest and most distinct literature of the Dravidian tongues.
Again though, there is such a treasure of literature and culture in the fifteen or so main Indian languages, each of them has an abundance to offer to the potential learner. The problem with Indian languages however is access. Obtaining learning material as well as books can be as challenging as learning the languages themselves. Edited by Juаn on 02 May 2010 at 5:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6011 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 10 of 13 02 May 2010 at 8:39pm | IP Logged | ||
|
What is the most important European language after English?
This question is no different to the OP's question. English is the lingua franca of business, tourism, politics and diplomacy in Europe. English and Hindi are the lingua francas of business, tourism, politics and diplomacy in India. Tamil can act as a gateway to the Dravidian languages, but that is equally true of Telugu, Kannada or Malayalam. Similarly, French can act as a gateway to the Romance languages, but so can Spanish, Portuguese, Galician, Catalan, Occitan, Piedmontese, Sardinian, Sicilian, Romanian, etc etc ad nauseum. There is no "most important language in Europe besides English", and there is no "most important language in India besides Hindi and English". What is important depends entirely on exactly where you are. Edited by Cainntear on 02 May 2010 at 8:39pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5651 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 11 of 13 02 May 2010 at 9:54pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I wanted to extend my language knowledge into South Asia and so I was asking the same question as the one which started this thread. I wanted to start with Tamil, but didn't find enough of the resources that I wanted. I eventually settled on Bengali, due to its long and deep literary tradition. I have been able to find enough resources, including dictionaries (Samsad and Bangla Academy, both now set in quite readable type), grammars (including a pricey one due out from Routledge by Hanne-Ruth Thompson in June), a good Teach Yourself by William Radice, and so forth, but I also have access to an excellent university library with whole aisles of Bengali material, in which I've found both Bengali originals and English translations of poetry, stories, novels, and such. After about three months of daily, but not intensive effort I have the writing system under control, sort of, and I'm beginning to "read" poems and simple prose with the help of translations. Just learning to use a dictionary is a higher-magnitude problem than with most languages, due to the writing system, but it's also a lot of fun due to the beauty of the characters and because I happen to enjoy the sounds of the words once I can discern them from the writing.
So, for literary reasons, I would suggest looking at Tamil, which has a trove of early poetry (from around 200-700 CE, as I recall) and Bengali (with Rabindranth Tagore in the early and mid-20th c. and many other great authors), with Bengali seemingly offering more learning resources. I'm sure there are very good reasons to go with any number of other S. Asian languages, however. Whichever way you go, you'll surely enter a new universe of experiences. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6229 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 12 of 13 03 May 2010 at 12:41pm | IP Logged | ||
Very true! Perhaps "important" was not the exact word Jon1991 had in mind. Perhaps he meant the language most frequently used in India outside of Hindi? The most diverse language? I don't know, but I don't think he meant "important" in a derogatory sense towards the other wonderful languages of India. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Delodephius Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 5403 days ago 342 posts - 501 votes Speaks: Slovak*, Serbo-Croatian*, EnglishC1, Czech Studies: Russian, Japanese | Message 13 of 13 03 May 2010 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I think the right question would be: after Hindi and English what other Indian languages with a large number of speakers is used over a larger area rather than just in one or two states?
2 persons have voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
