The Southern Indian languages are from the Dravidian own circle of relatives. The Dravidian languages are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent.[26] Proto-Dravidian languages had been spoken in India withinside the 4th millennium BCE and commenced disintegrating into diverse branches round third millennium BCE.[27][page needed] The Dravidian languages are categorised in 4 groups: North, Central (Kolami–Parji), South-Central (Telugu–Kui), and South Dravidian (Tamil-Kannada).[28][page needed]

The Northern Indian languages from the Indo-Aryan department of the Indo-European own circle of relatives developed from Old Indo-Aryan via way of means of manner of the Middle Indo-Aryan Prakrit languages and Apabhraṃśa of the Middle Ages. The Indo-Aryan languages evolved and emerged in 3 stages — Old Indo-Aryan (1500 BCE to six hundred BCE), Middle Indo-Aryan stage (six hundred BCE and a thousand CE), and New Indo-Aryan (among a thousand CE and 1300 CE). The cutting-edge north Indian Indo-Aryan languages all developed into distinct, recognisable languages withinside the New Indo-Aryan Age.[29]

In the Northeast India, a number of the Sino-Tibetan languages, Meitei language (formally referred to as Manipuri language) became the courtroom docket language of the Manipur Kingdom (Meitei: Meeteileipak). It became honoured earlier than and all through the darbar classes earlier than Manipur became merged into the Dominion of the Indian Republic. Its records of lifestyles spans from 1500 to 2000 years consistent with maximum eminent pupils along with Padma Vibhushan awardee Suniti Kumar Chatterji.[30][31] Even consistent with the "Manipur State Constitution Act, 1947" of the as soon as unbiased Manipur, Manipuri and English had been made the courtroom docket languages of the kingdom (earlier than merging into Indian Republic).[32][33]

Persian, or Farsi, became added into India via way of means of the Ghaznavids and different Turko-Afghan dynasties because the courtroom docket language. Culturally Persianized, they, in aggregate with the later Mughal dynasty (of Turco-Mongol origin), encouraged the art, records, and literature of the place for extra than 500 years, ensuing withinside the Persianisation of many Indian tongues, particularly lexically. In 1837, the British changed Persian with English and Hindustani in Perso-Arabic script for administrative functions and the Hindi motion of the nineteenth Century changed Persianised vocabulary with Sanskrit derivations and changed or supplemented the usage of Perso-Arabic script for administrative functions with Devanagari.[18][34]

Each of the northern Indian languages had exceptional influences. For example, Hindustani became strongly encouraged via way of means of Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian, main to the emergence of Modern Standard Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu as registers of the Hindustani language. Bangla alternatively has retained its Sanskritic roots even as closely increasing its vocabulary with phrases from Persian, English, French and different overseas languages.