The great number of languages in India have historically created diverse cultures and traditions at both regional and national levels. 216 languages are spoken by a group of more than 10,000 people; however there are many others which are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people. If these languages were to be included, there are 415 living languages in India.[1] The Constitution of India has stipulated the usage of Hindi and English to be the two official languages of communication for the Union Government. Individual states' own internal communications are usually in the state's language or English. The two major linguistic families in India are those of the Indo-Aryan languages and those of the Dravidian languages, the former being largely confined to North India and the latter to South India. The next largest language family in India is the Austro-Asiatic language group, which contains the Munda languages of central and eastern India as well as the Khasian languages of northeastern India. The fourth largest language family in India is the Tibeto-Burman languages, which are themselves a subgroup of the larger Sino-Tibetan language family.
