• Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Not to take away from this but often these 4 are very similar languages that could be easily interpreted as dialects if not the identity politics.

    • stappern@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      you could say the same about italian-spanish-french-romanian they still counts as separate languages

      • panCat@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Well most indian languages are not even mutually intelligible so idk if its about identity politics or what not !

    • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      It is complicated. India has at least four language families - Indo-European, Dravidian, Austroasiatic and Sino-Tibetan. So Hindi (I-E) is closer related to English or Greek than to Tamil (Dra), Santali (AA) or Zeme (S-T). While it is rare for people to speak languages belonging to all four families, I know at least three people who can passably speak six languages from two or three families.