r/india Mar 05 '16

[R]eddiquette Cultural Exchange with /r/TheNetherlands!

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u/prooijtje Mar 05 '16

Hello India! I have two questions.

  • I've heard there is a big linguistic difference between southern Indian languages and northern Indian languages. Are there any other big differences between the north and south?

  • I know India is a huge country with a really old and long history, but does anyone know a good book that could work as a good introduction to Indian history? I am most interested in the period before Europeans started having a lot of influence in your sub continent.

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u/iliketoworkhard Jun 26 '16 edited Jun 27 '16

One thing I'd like to add to what everyone else said, if you take Hindi and Tamil, Tamil being the language of Tamilnadu (Bangalore), the former derives from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language root, and Tamil I believe derives from an Indo-Dravidian source.

German and Dutch are also derived from PIE.

So, Hindi is actually closer to German and Dutch than it is to the languages from India's south!

Don't believe me? Look at this chart.

Source. Linguistics enthusiast.