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'''Big Pine Creek''' is a stream in [[Inyo County, California]]. It is a major tributary of the [[Owens River]]. The creek's headwaters are in the eastern side of the [[Sierra Nevada (US)|Sierra Nevada Mountains]], near the border with [[Fresno County, California|Fresno County]]. The creek runs below [[The Palisades]], with a hiking trail that affords a good view of that mountain range.
The '''languages of India''' primarily belong to two major [[language family|linguistic families]], [[Indo-European]] (whose branch [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]] is spoken by about 74% of the population) and [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian]] (spoken by about 24%). Other languages spoken in India come from the [[Austro-Asiatic]] and [[Tibeto-Burman]] linguistic families. The [[Andamanese languages]], spoken on the [[Andaman Islands]], are apparently [[language isolate|not related]] to any other language family. The number of [[Indian languages|mother tongues]] in India is as high as 1,652. There are 24 languages which are spoken by a million or more people, in addition to thousands of smaller languages. Three millennia of language contact situation have led to a lot of mutual influence among the four language families in India and South Asia. Three contact languages have played an important role in the [[history of India]]: Sanskrit, Persian and English.<ref name=contact-lingo">Bhatia, Tej K and William C. Ritchie. (2006) Bilingualism in South Asia. In: Handbook of Bilingualism, pp. 780-807. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.</ref> Two [[classical languages]] native to the land are [[Sanskrit]]<ref name=Sanskrit-classical>[http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/28/stories/2005102809281200.htm News item that appeared in "The Hindu" on the Cabinet decision to declare Sanskrit as a classical language].</ref> and [[Tamil language|Tamil]].<ref name="Kalam speech">Item 41 of President Kalam's [http://presidentofindia.nic.in/scripts/eventslatest1.jsp?id=587 address to a joint sitting of both houses of Indian Parliament]</ref><ref name="BBC news">[[BBC]] news item on the [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3667032.stm formal approval by the Indian Cabinet]</ref><ref name="TNgovt"> [[Tamil_as_a_classic_language:_Report_to_Central_Government_by_Tamil_Nadu_Government|the report]] submitted by Tamil Nadu State Government to Central Government of India to claim the Classic Language status.</ref>
From there, it flows east-northeast, passing Crater Mountain and intersecting Big Pine Canal before joining the Owens River near the town of [[Big Pine, California|Big Pine]]. Despite its name, Big Pine Canal does not divert water from Big Pine Creek, it comes from the Owens River upstream. The [[canal]] provides water to the Big Pine area for [[irrigation]], [[recreation]] and [[groundwater]] recharge. There are no storage dams or reservoirs, but the [[Los Angeles Department of Water and Power]] operates a 3.2 MW [[hydroelectricity|hydroelectric]] plant on the creek, which dewaters it. Also, some water is diverted for domestic use and irrigation on nearby [[Indian reservation]]s. The total average runoff from the watershed is 52,000 [[acre foot|acre feet]] (64,000,000 m³), mostly from Big Pine Creek itself.
Article 343 of the [[Indian Constitution]] recognises [[Hindi language|Hindi]] in [[Devanagari|Dēvanāgari script]] as the [[official language]] of the union <ref name=article343>[http://www.constitution.org/cons/india/p17343.html "Part XVII, Chapter 1. Article 343"]. Constitution of India. Government of India.</ref>; the Constitution also allows for the continuation of use of the [[English language]] for official purposes. Article 345 provides constitutional recognition to "regional languages" of the union to include any language adopted by a [[State Legislature]] as the official language of that state. Until the Twenty-First Amendment of the Constitution in 1967, the country recognised 14 official regional languages. The Eighth Schedule and the Seventy-First Amendment provided for the inclusion of [[Sindhi]], [[Konkani]], [[Manipuri]] and [[Nepali]], thereby increasing the number of official regional languages of India to 18 <ref name=constlanguages>[http://www.us-english.org/foundation/research/olp/viewResearch.asp?CID=54&TID=1 "Legislation: Legislation dealing with the use of languages"]. Constitution of India. Articles 29, 30, 120, 210, 343-351 as amended in the 21st and 71st Amendments.</ref>. Individual states, whose borders are mostly drawn on socio-linguistic lines, are free to decide their own language for internal administration and education. The Constitution of India recognises 22 "national languages", spoken throughout the country, namely [[Assamese language|Assamese]], [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Bodo language|Bodo]], [[Dogri language|Dogri]], [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]], [[Hindi language|Hindi]], [[Kannada language|Kannada]], [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]], [[Konkani language|Konkani]], [[Maithili language|Maithili]], [[Malayalam language|Malayalam]], [[Meithei language|Manipuri]], [[Marathi language|Marathi]], [[Nepali language|Nepali]], [[Oriya language|Oriya]], [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]], [[Sanskrit|Sanskrit]], [[Santali language|Santhali]], [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Telugu language|Telugu]] and [[Urdu language|Urdu]]. Hindi, apart from being an official language of the Union of India, is the official language of the states Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and the National Capital Territory of Delhi. English is the co-official language of the Indian Union, and that each of the several states mentioned above may also have another co-official language.
==References==
The two classical languages [[Sanskrit]] and [[Tamil language|Tamil]] have large collections of literature, with the earliest Sanskrit texts dating from 5000 years ago and the earliest [[Tamil literature]] from 2500 years ago. An official language, and the main language of Hindu liturgy, [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]] is used in rituals and ceremonies or as part of daily prayers in [[Hinduism]]. Though not prevalent in every-day use, it is interestingly being revived as a spoken tongue in the village of [[Mattur]], in the [[Shimoga district]] of [[Karnataka]]. [[Telugu language|Telugu]], a mellifluous language is another language with a notably ancient history and body of literature, and is widely used in [[Carnatic music]].
*[http://ca.water.usgs.gov/archive/reports/wsp2370/d-hydrolsys33-72.pdf United States Geological Survey]
[[Category:Rivers of California]]
== History ==
[[Category:Sierra Nevada]]
{{main|Linguistic history of India}}
The northern Indian languages from the Indo-European family evolved from Old Indo-Aryan such as [[Sanskrit]], by way of the [[Middle Indo-Aryan]] [[Prakrit]] languages and [[Apabhramsha]] of the [[Middle Ages]]. There is no consensus for a specific time where the modern north Indian languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Panjabi, and Bengali emerged, but c. 1,000 AD is commonly accepted.<ref>Shapiro, M: ''Hindi''.</ref> Each language had different influences, with Hindi/Urdu and closely related languages being strongly influenced by Persian and Arabic. <!--Find a source on the influences on Bengali -->
<!-- A similar paragraph is needed on the history of the Dravidian languages and another to cover the rest
-->
== Writing and sound systems ==
Indian languages have corresponding distinct alphabets. The two major families are those of the [[Dravidian languages]] and those of the [[Indo-Aryan languages]], the former largely confined to the [[South India|south]] and the latter to the [[North India|north]]. Urdu and sometimes [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]], [[Sindhi]] and [[Panjabi]] are written in modified versions of the Arabic script. Except for these languages, the alphabets of Indian languages are native to India. There are those scholars who believe the scripts of the Northern languages (like [[Sanskrit]], [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Hindi]] and [[Punjabi]]) to be distant derivations of the [[Aramaic alphabet]], though this is a disputed theory primarily because the number and grouping of sounds and letters are so radically different.
=== Phonetic alphabet ===
A remarkable feature of the alphabets of India is the manner in which they are organised. They are organised according to phonetic principle, unlike the Roman alphabet, which has a random sequence of letters.
The classification is as follows
<table class="wikitable">
<tr>
<td></td>
<td colspan="2" align="center">unvoiced consonants</td>
<td colspan="2" align="center">voiced consonants</td>
<td>nasals</td>
</tr>
<td></td>
<td>unaspirated</td>
<td>aspirated</td>
<td>unaspirated</td>
<td>aspirated</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>velar plosives</td>
<td>k</td>
<td>kh</td>
<td>g</td>
<td>gh</td>
<td>ṅ</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>palatal affricates</td>
<td>c</td>
<td>ch</td>
<td>j</td>
<td>jh</td>
<td>ñ</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>retroflex plosives</td>
<td>ṭ</td>
<td>ṭh</td>
<td>ḍ</td>
<td>ḍh</td>
<td>ṇ</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>dental plosives</td>
<td>t</td>
<td>th</td>
<td>d</td>
<td>dh</td>
<td>n<nowiki>*</nowiki></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>bilabial plosives</td>
<td>p</td>
<td>ph</td>
<td>b</td>
<td>bh</td>
<td>m</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="wikitable">
<tr>
<td>glides and approximants</td>
<td>y</td>
<td>r</td>
<td>l</td>
<td>v</td>
</table>
<table class="wikitable">
<tr>
<td>fricatives</td>
<td>ś</td>
<td>ṣ</td>
<td>s</td>
<td>h</td>
</table>
*The Sanskrit "n" is actually alveolar, although some of the Dravidian languages distinguish between dental and alveolar variants.
This classification is observed in most of the languages under discussion with the notable exception of [[Tamil language|Tamil]], which uses a [[Tamil language#Sounds|different system]]. Additionally, each language has a few special letters signifying sounds specific to that language and some also have symbols representing [[ligature|ligatures]] and [[gemination|geminates]]. In the [[Malayalam script]], there is also a separate set of letters for consonants with no inherent vowel (called cillakṣarams). These symbols exist only for some consonants (generally those that are frequently found at the ends of words), however, and the [[Virama|virama]] is used to strip the vowel from most consonants.
Finally, the list of vowels is separately specified, as follows
:a, ā, i, ī, u, ū, ē (e in IAST), ai, ō (o in IAST), au
The "ē" and the "ō" represent long vowels and there are no corresponding short equivalents in Sanskrit - this is why no macrons are used for them in IAST. However, several other Indian languages have a short "e" and "o" in addition to the vowels listed above. Additionally, in [[Sanskrit]] and Sanskrit-influenced languages (like [[Malayalam]]), the vowels ṛ, ṝ, ḷ and ḹ are included. Note that when considered as pairs the vowels represent shorter and longer versions of "same" (as traditionally classified) vowel. Here the first a is roughly like the "u" in English "bus". In languages of Eastern India like [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Oriya]] and [[Assamese language|Assamese]], the inherent short vowel is pronounced as a short o rather than a.
<!-- Too much detail. Nasalization should be covered if it is used in more languages than Hindi, Panjabi, etc, but not individual symbolsa from one script. ḥ ([[visarga]]) is a special sound found in Sanskrit and Sanskrit-derived words (it functions as a case marker in Sanskrit), occurring in word endings as in duḥkhaḥ, meaning pain or suffering. aṃ ([[anusvara]]) nasalises the preceding vowel in Sanskrit, but the symbol (in addition to the original function) doubles as the cillakṣaram of the letter "ma" in certain Malayalam words. This has led to cases of [[hypercorrection|hypercorrect]] [[spelling pronunciation]] - for example saṃgītaṃ, which should be pronounced as /ˌsɐŋˈgiːt̪əm/, being pronounced /ˌsɐmˈgiːt̪əm/.
-->
The classification of these sounds is universal amongst the [[Indo-Aryan languages]]. Each of these has a corresponding symbol, and also, with some modifications, the corresponding sound. For instance, [[English language|English]] has [[phone]]s similar to the ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, and ḍh of the third row, but these manifest as only two [[phoneme]]s, t and d. In French on the other hand, the third row is absent, but phones similar to the t and d of the fourth row are used.
For nasals, Sanskrit imposes considerable systematics. The above
scheme records that the nasal occurring in conjunction with any given
row has a sound characteristic that row. For instance the nasalisation
occurring in the word "Ganga" is that of the first row, while the
nasalisation occurring in the words "India" or "integral" are character-
istically front palatals. Speakers of any language have to necessarily
speak in this manner though they never realise it. <!--I think this whole paragraph could be replaced by a sentence. The appropriate nasal consonants are naturally formed by the way you say the vowel and the following consonant. There's not really any "systematics" involved -->
The economy of this classification in the fact that effectively
each of the five main rows is generated by one base sound,
the others are systematic modifications of the same. In [[Tamil language|Tamil]], a great simplification of alphabet has been
achieved by having only one symbol for each of the five consonants,
with the specific hardening and aspiration understood from context
while reading. Tamil script indeed spells ''kathai'' (story) and ''gadhai'' (mace - weapon of Bhima) the same.
<!--== Morphology ==
cover the Dravidian languages being much more highly inflected, but IE languages still inflecting moderately. This is an overview article so it needs to be accessible to all so the challenge will be being accurate without too much linguistics. A more understandable section heading than morphology would be helpful
-->
<!--== Syntax (grammar) ==
SOV for Hindi, etc, vs the others. There won't be room for grammar details, just a discussion of the braod similarities and differences. -->
==List of Indian Languages==
There are a large number of languages in India; 216 of them are spoken by a group of 10,000 persons or more.
* [[List of national languages of India]]
* [[List of Indian languages by total speakers]]
==Footnotes and References==
<div class="references-small"><references/></div>
==See also==
*[[Languages of Pakistan]]
== External links ==
*[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=India List of Languages of India]
*[http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/scripts.html Languages and Scripts of India]
*[http://www.languageshome.com Words and phrases in 24 Indian languages]
{{Asia in topic|Languages of}}
{{Life in India}}
[[Category:Languages of India| ]]
[[fr:langues de l'Inde]]
[[ja:インドの言語]]
[[lt:Indijos kalbos]]
[[nl:Talen van India]]
[[pl:Języki Indii]]
[[sl:Seznam uradnih jezikov Indije]]
[[sv:Indiens språk]]
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