Indo-Aryan

Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics

Branch of Indo-European which belongs to the Indo-Iranian subgroup, with over thirty languages, some of which contain numerous dialects; in total about 650 million speakers. The most significant languages are Hindi-Urdu (over 220 million speakers, official language of India and Pakistan respectively), Bengali (approx. 150 million speakers, official language of Bangladesh), Panjabi (approx. 45 million speakers), Marathi (approx. 52 million speakers), Bihari (a group of languages, approx. 37 million speakers), Gujarati (approx. 33 million speakers), Rajasthani (approx. 25 million speakers), Assamese (approx. 12 million speakers), Sindhi (approx. 12 million speakers, Pakistan), Singhalese (approx. 11 million speakers, official language of Sri Lanka), Nepali (approx. 9.5 million speakers, official language of Nepal). The oldest known form of Indo-Aryan is Sanskrit (richly attested since about 1200 BC in its oldest stage, Vedic, the language of the religious hymns of the Vedas); the older IndoAryan languages have developed from the corresponding everyday language, Prakrit. ‘Middle Indo-Aryan’ is used to refer to the state of the language between the third century BC and the fourth century AD; the most important documents are the Buddhist writings in Pali, the Ašoka inscriptions.

Characteristics: unusual voiced aspirated plosives such as [b^h], as well as retroflexes in the sound system.

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Mayrhofer, M. 1956–80. etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindischen/Concise etymological Sanskrit dictionary, 4 vols. Heidelberg.

——1986–. Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen. Vol. II, 17, 1995. Heidelberg.

Bulletin of the Philological Society of Calcutta Indian Linguistics

Sanskrit

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