Indo-Aryan languages

From WikiMD's medical encyclopedia

Indo-Aryan languages are a major group of the Indo-European languages, spoken by at least 1.5 billion people primarily in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. They form a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, themselves a branch of the larger Indo-European family.

History

The earliest evidence of the group is from Vedic Sanskrit, the language of the ancient Vedic religion in the late 2nd millennium BCE. The most widely spoken Indo-Aryan languages today are Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu, Marathi, Gujarati, Sindhi, Sinhalese, Assamese, Odia, and Nepali.

Classification

The Indo-Aryan languages are traditionally divided into three main groups: Old Indo-Aryan (1500–600 BCE), Middle Indo-Aryan (600 BCE–1000 CE) and New Indo-Aryan (1000 CE–present). Each of these groups consists of several subgroups and individual languages.

Old Indo-Aryan

The Old Indo-Aryan stage is represented by Vedic Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit. The Rigveda, a collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns, is one of the oldest texts in any Indo-European language.

Middle Indo-Aryan

The Middle Indo-Aryan stage is represented by various Prakrit languages like Pali, Ardhamagadhi Prakrit, and Shauraseni Prakrit, and by the Apabhramsha stage of these languages.

New Indo-Aryan

The New Indo-Aryan stage is represented by the modern Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu, Marathi, Gujarati, Sindhi, Sinhalese, Assamese, Odia, and Nepali.

Phonology

Indo-Aryan languages have a rich and complex phonological system, with a large number of distinct vowel and consonant sounds. They also have a complex system of pitch accent, which is used to distinguish meaning in words.

Grammar

Indo-Aryan languages have a highly inflected grammar, with a complex system of noun declensions and verb conjugations. They also have a rich system of tense, aspect, mood, and voice in their verbs.

Writing systems

Most Indo-Aryan languages are written in one of several Brahmic scripts, including Devanagari, Bengali script, Gurmukhi, Gujarati script, Odia script, Sinhalese script, and Thaana.

See also

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Indo-Iranian languages
Indo-Aryan languages
Historical
Early Medieval
Classical
Modern
Dialects and Creoles
This Indo-Aryan languages related article is a stub.




Iranian languages
Major branches
Eastern Iranian
Western Iranian
Extinct languages
Related topics
This Iranian languages related article is a stub.




Nuristani languages
Major Languages
Minor Languages and Dialects
Language Features
Related Topics
Research and Studies
This Nuristani languages related article is a stub.



Languages of Asia
Central Asia
Kazakh • 
 Kyrgyz • 
 Tajik • 
 Turkmen •
Uzbek
East Asia
South Asia
Bengali • 
 Hindi • 
 Maldivian • 
 Nepali • 
 Sinhala • 
 Tamil •
Urdu
Southeast Asia
Burmese • 
 Filipino • 
 Indonesian • 
 Khmer • 
 Lao • 
 Malay • 
 Thai •
Vietnamese
Western Asia
This Languages of Asia related article is a stub.


  • Indo-Aryan Languages Tree

  • Indo-European migrations

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Contributors: Prab R. Tumpati, MD