All Major Indo-Aryan Languages (with a map)

Can you name all the Indo-Aryan languages and dialects on the map below? Dialects with under 1 million speakers, and unique languages with under 100 thousand speakers are not included.
All L1 speaker data taken from each language's Wikipedia page, some figures may be old
I had to make some decisions on my own, when the information I found conflicted itself
Quiz by Jiaozira
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Last updated: March 11, 2021
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First submittedFebruary 23, 2021
Times taken6,364
Average score25.6%
Rating4.95
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Central Zone
 
L1
Language
 

250 m
Hindustani
 
>
Chhattisgarhi
18 m
>
Haryanvi
8.0 m
>
Bundeli
5.6 m
>
Awadhi
4.3 m
>
Bagheli
2.6 m
>
Braj Bhasha
1.6 m
 
 
 
 
 
Eastern Zone
 
L1
Language
 
250 m
Hindi
 
>
Bhojpuri
51 m
>
Magahi
20 m
230 m
Bengali
 
>
Rangpuri
15 m
>
Chittagonian
13 m
>
Sylheti
10 m
35 m
Odia
 
33 m
Maithili
 
14 m
Assamese
 
1.9 m
Tharu
 
766 k
Halbi
 
 
 
 
 
 
Southern Zone
 
L1
Language
 
83 m
Marathi
 
17 m
Sinhala
 
2.3 m
Konkani
 
340 k
Dhivehi
 
 
 
 
 
 
Northern Zone
 
L1
Language
 
250 m
Hindi
 
>
Garhwali
2.5 m
>
Kumaoni
2.0 m
16 m
Nepali
 
5.0 m
Dogri (Pahari)
 
 
 
 
 
 
Northwestern Zone
 
L1
Language
 
125 m
Punjabi
 
>
Saraiki
20 m
>
Hindko
5.0 m
25 m
Sindhi
 
 
 
 
 
 
Western Zone
 
L1
Language
 
250 m
Hindi
 
>
Rajasthani
50 m
56 m
Gujarati
 
3.2 m
Bhili
 
1.8 m
Khandeshi
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dardic
 
L1
Language
 
7.0 m
Kashmiri
 
644 k
Shina
 
400 k
Pashayi
 
290 k
Khowar
 
200 k
Kohistani
 
 
 
A Brief Comparison
EN
I gave my friend her book on the bus.
 
 
 
 
HI
मैंने अपनी दोस्त को बस में उसकी किताब दी।
mainne apni dost ko bus mein uski kitab di.
 
 
BN
আমি আমার বন্ধুকে তার বইটি বাসে দিয়েছি।
Ami amara bandhuke tara baiti buse diyechi.
OR
ମୁଁ ମୋର ବନ୍ଧୁଙ୍କୁ ବସ୍ ରେ ତାଙ୍କ ପୁସ୍ତକ ଦେଲି |
Mu mora bandhuku bus re tanka pustak deli.
 
 
MR
मी माझ्या मित्राला तिला बसमध्ये पुस्तक दिले.
Mi majhya mitrala tila bus madhye pustak dile.
SI
මම මගේ මිතුරියඇගේ පොත බස් රථයේ දුන්නා.
Mama mage mitruriyata age pota bus rathaye dunna.
 
 
NE
मैले मेरी साथीलाई उनको पुस्तक बसमा दिएँ।
Maile meri sathilai unko pustak bus maa diye.
 
 
PA
ਮੈਂ ਆਪਣੇ ਦੋਸਤ ਨੂੰ ਉਸਦੀ ਕਿਤਾਬ ਬੱਸ ਵਿਚ ਦੇ ਦਿੱਤੀ।
Main apne dost nu usdi kitab bus vich de diti.
 
 
GU
મેં મારા મિત્રને તેનું પુસ્તક બસ પર આપ્યું.
Men mara mitrane tenu pustak bus par apyu.
+12
Level 70
Feb 23, 2021

This quiz took quite the research to complete, but it was some great nostalgia to visit these languages again. I had to put a limit to the number of dialects and languages I featured in this quiz, for once you reach the less common tongues the information avaliable on them begins to diminish. Between languages with little to no information easily avaliable, and languages that Wikipedia claims has a 'various' number of speakers, it became virtually impossible to be comprehensive and fair without dedicating my life to this.

I hope that the grammar is more fair than the Slavic languages, on my comparison 'board'. I studied a couple Indo-Aryan languages, and what stood out to me was the grammatical cases that attach themselves to the end of nouns (ladka ko, meaning something along the lines of to the boy to agree with the verb in the sentence). I tried to replicate how people spell the words in English too, rather than Mailē mērō sāthīlā'ī... etc.

+7
Level 70
Feb 23, 2021
Not an important detail but I wanted to get creative with the flags, rather than just have the national flags of each country over and over again + Pakistani regional flags. However, since most South Asian countries don't have subnational flags I chose some historical or cultural flags and I even made my own combination of the Indian and Pakistani flags for Punjabi. I was careful to avoid flags with controversial nationalist or separatist connotations. Just a disclaimer that in adding flags, I am looking for more flavour in my quiz and I am not looking to support any sort of movement.

Also, sadly I could not include any languages with Arabic script in the comparison section. Arabic to Latin Alphabet transliteration proved very difficult due to the former being an abjad. The Urdu is probably very close to the Hindi sentence (which is already influenced by Persian through words like kitab, or dost but unfortunately we lost Sindhi :(

+4
Level 65
Feb 23, 2021
You should make a series will all these quizzes so people can access them faster.

I love the quiz though :)

Nominated :)

+2
Level 70
Feb 23, 2021
Done! This quiz is a bit different to the rest (in that I can not and will not claim that this is 'All Indo-Aryan Languages').

I'm glad you enjoyed the quiz, I had loads of fun putting this together. Made me relive the days of learning a couple of these. Thanks for playing :)

+2
Level 55
Feb 23, 2021
Just curious. How did you define the boundaries of Hindi?

Great Quiz! Easily nommed. Dravidian Languages coming next?

+1
Level 70
Feb 23, 2021
Thank you very much! I defined the boundaries of Hindi based on what is called the Hindi Belt (possibly the broadest definition of the Hindi language). I would like to do both Uralic and Dravidian languages in future, although from now quizzes won't come out with the same frequency as the first four in the series.
+3
Level 71
May 27, 2021
Turkic languages might be cool too and of course, Sino-Tibetan languages, which are both enormous in terms of diversity and number of speakers alike. I don't know much much research it would require/how difficult it would be to make quizzes on those families, but those are just suggestions!
+1
Level 70
Jun 3, 2021
Thank you for the suggestions! Turkic Languages is certainly a logical next step. Sino-Tibetan scares me (there are so many languages in this family from around North East India and Myanmar, and they are not always well documented).
+2
Level 56
Feb 23, 2021
This was a fabulous quiz! Just like the previous one, it was amazing as well! I got 30, and I am quite satisfied with this score. I appreciate your hard work towards this quiz. I will send this quiz to some of my friends who will surely enjoy this masterpiece. Thanks for such an amazing quiz :D
+1
Level 70
Feb 23, 2021
Many thanks! 30 is a great score, I hope that this quiz is a good challenge, and that your friends enjoy it. Thank you for playing!
+2
Level 55
Feb 23, 2021
wow, fantastic!! not only is the map and grid a masterpiece, but the type-ins are very good! :)
+1
Level 70
Feb 23, 2021
Thank you! Many of the type-ins are actually automatic, even for some of the dialects (probably because of this quiz).
+2
Level 56
Feb 24, 2021
This map is so sick, keep making more like this
+1
Level 70
Feb 24, 2021
Thanks! Planning on it, probably going to do the Uralic languages next but let's see.
+2
Level 73
May 9, 2021
Great quiz! I suggest adding the Andaman and Nicobar Islands into both Hindi and Bengali zones, as both of them are official languages of the union territory (latter being the majority language there).
+1
Level 70
May 10, 2021
You are correct, I would add Bengali in this case as it is most spoken (although I'm aware that indigenous languages are spoken in the majority of the territory). Thanks for playing!
+2
Level 65
May 25, 2021
Maybe do Nordic languages next?
+2
Level 70
May 26, 2021
I do have Germanic languages, which only counts out Finnish and Sami languages.
+2
Level 71
May 27, 2021
Great quiz and great map, nominated! This was incredibly tough--I know plenty of the languages, but the dialects mostly escaped me, especially for Hindustani. As always, I enjoy the comparison, especially because Indo-Aryan languages are somehow incredibly similar and completely different (this becomes even more true when you hear them spoken!)
+2
Level 70
Jun 3, 2021
This one is really tricky, there are so many living dialects and they still have large numbers of speakers (unlike in Europe where the languages became more standardised earlier on). This quiz only scratches the surface.

And that is an excellent way to describe these languages too. Hindi and Nepali have a large number of words that are spelt exactly the same, yet whenever I hear them spoken I can recognise the difference right away. The accents are very distinct, I guess.

+1
Level 70
Feb 1, 2022
Based take on Rohingya.
+1
Level 66
Apr 14, 2022
Please add a write-in for Nepalese.
+1
Level 59
Jan 24, 2023
Great Quiz! (Though I didn't get many.)

Dravidian Next?

+2
Level 65
Feb 20, 2023
I never commented on this but this is an amazing quiz! One interesting thing about Indo-Aryan languages is that their ancestor Sanskrit had a lot of alternate forms, expressions and idioms that have become standard in descendants. For example, āp for formal you in some languages is from ātmā meaning soul in Sanskrit. Inclusive we in Marathi and Gujarati, which got the feature from Dravidian, is also from ātmā. Dravidian influence is also interesting of course. I think these are some of the funnest languages to learn. If you want I can make a translation of this in Telugu :)
+1
Level 70
Feb 22, 2023
This is something very interesting, one difference I always wondered about is how the personal pronouns came to be. For example, comparing Nepali and Hindi the lowest and middle forms (in terms of formality) 'ta' and 'tu', 'timi' and 'tum' have similarities. However 'tapai' and 'aap' seemed to come from different roots.

You can certainly translate this into Telugu, if you like :)

+1
Level 65
Feb 23, 2023
Thanks! Should I make it for your account or post it myself?
+2
Level 23
Sep 6, 2023
no Deccani?
+1
Level 70
Sep 6, 2023
Deccani was included under Hindustani proper (along with Urdu and Hindi).
+1
Level 66
Jan 14, 2024
Since you made a combination of the India and Pakistan flag for Punjabi, I think that you should do the same for Bengali. I know that it's the national language of Bangladesh but there are still more than 100 million Bengali speakers( total speakers) in India. Also, India has a higher percentage of total Bengali speakers worldwide than Punjabi speakers as well.