Surging Hindi, shrinking South Indian languages: Nine charts that explain the 2011 language census

So ascendent is Hindi that the data suggests even some Urdu speakers are now identifying themselves as Hindiwalahs.

Shoaib Daniyal

· Jul 04, 2018 · 07:30 am

What Malay works from Patani tell us about the literary and cultural heritage of Southeast Asia

Patani, located on the northeast coast of the Malay peninsula, has long been renowned as a centre for Islamic learning.

Annabel Gallop

· Aug 06, 2017 · 08:30 pm

Why do human beings speak so many languages?

There's little research into origins of the geographic patterns of language diversity.

Michael Gavin, The Conversation

· Jul 22, 2017 · 08:30 pm

The rise of Hinglish: How the media created a new lingua franca for India's elites

Hindi is muscling in where English was the chosen tongue, making speakers of regional Indian languages jittery.

Shoaib Daniyal

· Jun 18, 2017 · 09:00 am

The man behind a 9,000-page, eight-volume Kannada dictionary that took 54 years to write

Professor G Venkatasubbiah, at a sprightly 104, is still the man for all Kannada-related linguistic crises.

Srinath Perur

· Mar 20, 2017 · 11:30 am

Biggest BBC World Service expansion in 40 years aims to extend British soft power

The BBC will add 11 new languages, including Gujarati, Punjabi, Pigdin and Korean.

Abdullahi Abubakar, The Conversation

· Nov 25, 2016 · 11:30 pm

Bongo, Bangla and Bengal: A short guide to the confusing world of Bengali nomenclature

There’s much more to it than musical instruments.

Shoaib Daniyal

· Aug 07, 2016 · 08:00 am

Podcast: Several Indian languages face the risk of dying. Here's what we stand to lose

Several indigenous languages across India are merging with more dominant ones.

Padmaparna Ghosh and Samanth Subramanian

· Jul 28, 2016 · 03:30 pm

No longer lost for words: How researchers rediscovered the mother of all mother tongues

Researchers have developed a method that uses sound waves to rediscover the long-lost Proto-Indo-European language, from which most modern languages evolved.

University of Cambridge

· Jul 25, 2016 · 09:30 pm

How exactly does the Indian media define a terrorist?

The English-language media's use of the term seems to be dictated by muscular nationalism and an anti-Kashmir bias rather than any objective parameters.

Shoaib Daniyal

· Jul 19, 2016 · 08:00 am

If the name 'Bombay' was erased for being a relic of colonial rule, why do we still use 'India'?

A short history, and the politics, of the many names of the country.

Shoaib Daniyal

· Jun 24, 2016 · 08:00 am

Why are Indian Muslims using the Arabic word ‘Ramadan’ instead of the traditional 'Ramzan'?

Increasingly, Indian Muslims are looking to a globalised Saudi brand of Islam for inspiration.

Shoaib Daniyal

· Jun 14, 2016 · 06:30 am