Set 1 | Important Languages and Literature of India MCQs 2024

Correct Answer is A.

• The largest of the language families represented in India, in terms of speakers, is the Indo-Aryan language family which belongs to Indo-European branch.
• This language family predominates, accounting for some 790 million speakers, or over 75% of the population, as per data collated during the Census of 2011.
• The most widely spoken languages of this group are Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Assamese and Odia.

Correct Answer is C.

• Dravidian language family is the second largest among other language families in India, accounting for some 215 million speakers or approximately 20%, as per data collected during the census of 2011.
• The Dravidian languages are spoken mainly in southern India and parts of eastern and central India.
• The Dravidian languages with the most speakers are Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam.
• Besides the mainstream population, Dravidian languages are also spoken by small scheduled tribe communities such as Oraon and Gond tribes.
• Only two Dravidian languages are exclusively spoken outside India, Brahui in Pakistan and Dhangar, a dialect of Kurukh, in Nepal.

Correct Answer is B.

• The extinct and endangered languages of the Andaman islands form a fifth- the Great Andamanese language family.
• It comprising two families, the Great Andamanese, which comprises of a number of extinct languages apart from one highly endangered language with a dwindling number of speakers and the Ongan family of the southern Andaman islands, comprising of two extant languages, Onge and Jarawa and one extinct tongue, Jangil.
• In addition, Sentinelese, an unattested language of the Andaman islands, is generally considered to be related and part of the language family.

Correct Answer is D.

• Austro-Asiatic is the 3^rd largest language family in India.
• The Austroasiatic language family is the autochthonous language in South Asia and Southeast Asia, other language families having arrived by migration.
• Austro-Asiatic languages of mainland India are the Khasi and Munda languages, including Santhali.
• The languages of the Nicobar islands also form part of this language family.
• With the exceptions of Khasi and Santhali, all austro-asiatic languages on Indian territory are endangered.

Correct Answer is  A.

• Sino-Tibetan is a 4^th largest language family in India.
• It is well represented in India. However, their interrelationships are not discernible and the family has been described as  “a patch of leaves on the forest floor” rather than with the conventional metaphor of a “family tree”.
• Sino-tibetan langugaes are spoken across the Himalayas in the region of Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Manipur, Tripura and Mizoram.
• Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in India include the scheduled languages Meitei and Bodo, the non-scheduled languages of Karbi, Lepcha and many varieties of several related Tibetan, West Himalayan, Tani, Brahmaputran, Angami-Pochuri, Tangkhul, Zeme, Kukish language groups, amongst many others.

Correct Answer is C.

• Indus Script is also known as the Harappan script, it is a corpus of symbols produced by the Indus Valley Civilization between 3500 and 1900 BCE.
• Most inscriptions containing these symbols are extremely short.
• The script has not yet been deciphered.
• The instructions are thought to have been mostly written from right to left.

Correct Answer is B.

• Brahmi script was deciphered in 1837 by James Princep.
• Brahmi is related to the ancient Kharosthi script, which was used in what is now eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• The best-known Brahmi inscriptions are the rock cut edicts of Ashoka in north-central India.
• The Brahmi script diversified into numerous local variants classified together as the Brahmic scripts.
• The script was associated with its own Brahmi numerals, which are predecessor of Hindu- Arabic numeral system.

Correct Answer is A.

• The primary scripture of Sikhism, Guru Granth Sahib is written in Gurmukhi.
• Gurumukhi is a Sikh script modified, standardized and used by the second Sikh Guru, Guru Angad.
• Punjabi Hindus use either Nagari script or the Gurumukhi.
• Gurumukhi is written from left to right.

Correct Answer is B.

• Shahmukhi is written from right to left.
• It is a Perso-Arabic script used by Muslims in Punjab to write the Punjabi language.
• It is generally written in the Nastaliq Calligraphic hand, which is also used for Urdu.
• Perso-Arabic is one of two scripts used for Punjabi, the other being Gurumukhi.

Correct Answer is D.

• Kalinga script is derived from Brahmi.
• It was used to write an ancient form of the Oriya language.
• By the 12^th century, this script was abandoned.