Country Languages Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The language is Rajasthani.

Sahitya Akademi recognises 24 languages for its awards and programmes: the 22 languages of the Eighth Schedule plus English and Rajasthani. Rajasthani is not in the Eighth Schedule.

Nepali, Konkani and Sindhi are all in the Eighth Schedule, so they do not fit the question.

The Eighth Schedule now lists 22 languages; Konkani and Nepali were added in 1992 by the 71st Amendment and Sindhi in 1967 by the 21st.

Answer: D

The most recent inclusion among these is Dogri.

The Constitution (Ninety-second Amendment) Act, 2003, which came into force in January 2004, added four languages to the Eighth Schedule: Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali. That brought the total to 22 languages.

Kashmiri has been in the Schedule since the Constitution came into force in 1950. Angika and Bhojpuri are not yet in the Eighth Schedule, despite long-standing demands for their inclusion.

Answer: A

The correct matching is (a)-(ii), (b)-(i), (c)-(v), (d)-(vi), (e)-(iv), (f)-(iii).

• Malayalam: Kerala
• Konkani: Goa
• Marathi: Maharashtra
• Gujarati: Gujarat
• Kannada: Karnataka
• Kuduk (Kurukh): Jharkhand, spoken by the Oraon community

The other options pair Malayalam with Goa or Konkani with Kerala, and the second and fourth also send Marathi to Jharkhand and Kuduk to Maharashtra or Gujarat, which is wrong.

Answer: D

The answer is Manipur.

Nagaland has English as its sole official language, Meghalaya has English with Khasi and Garo, and Mizoram has English with Mizo, each by state law. Manipur's Official Language Act names Manipuri (Meiteilon) as the State's official language, and English is not declared alongside it, so Manipur is the State that has not declared English as its official language.

Some reference lists show English as an additional language in Manipur, so the keyed answer rests on the Act naming only Manipuri.

Answer: C

After Hindi, the Indian language with the most speakers is Bengali.

Bengali is the language of Bangladesh as well as West Bengal, Tripura and parts of Assam, which gives it well over 250 million speakers worldwide, the largest number for any Indian language after Hindi. Even within India, the 2011 Census places it second after Hindi.

Telugu (third in India), Tamil and Malayalam all have far fewer speakers worldwide than Bengali.

Answer: D

Lists ii and iii are correct, so the answer is ii and iii are correct.

The South Dravidian (Dakshin Dravida) branch includes Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Tulu and the Nilgiri languages such as Toda, Kota and Badaga. So lists ii (with Tulu) and iii (with Toda) are both made up of South Dravidian languages.

List i is wrong because Gondi belongs to the South-Central branch, and list iv is wrong because Malto, spoken in Jharkhand, belongs to the North Dravidian branch with Kurukh and Brahui. Any option containing i or iv is therefore wrong.

Answer: C

Khasi is the main language of Meghalaya.

Khasi, an Austroasiatic language, is spoken by the Khasi people of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills. Along with Garo it is one of the two main languages of Meghalaya, where English is the official language.

Mizo is the main language of Mizoram, Nagaland has many Naga languages with English as the official language, and Bengali and Kokborok are the main languages of Tripura.

Answer: D

The key's answer is Shekhawati.

Shekhawati, a form of Marwari, is the dialect of the Shekhawati region, centred on Churu, Jhunjhunu and Sikar. The northern districts of Hanumangarh and Ganganagar are usually described as speaking Bagri, which is not an option, so of the four choices Shekhawati fits the list best.

Hadoti is spoken in the Kota-Bundi region, Mewati in Alwar and Bharatpur, and Marwari proper in Jodhpur and western Rajasthan, so none of them covers these districts.

Answer: C

The dialect is Wagadi.

Banswara and Dungarpur form the Vagad region of southern Rajasthan, and the dialect spoken there is Wagadi (Vagdi), a form of Bhili influenced by Gujarati and Mewari.

Mewati is spoken in the Alwar and Bharatpur area, Shekhawati in Sikar, Jhunjhunu and Churu, and Hadoti in Kota, Bundi, Baran and Jhalawar.

Answer: C

Thali and Gorwari are sub-dialects of Marwari.

Marwari, the principal dialect of western Rajasthan, has several regional sub-dialects. Thali is spoken in the Thar desert region and Gorwari (Godwari) in the Pali-Jalore region along the Aravallis.

Hadoti is the dialect of Kota, Bundi and Jhalawar, Shekhawati of Sikar and Jhunjhunu, and Dhundhari of the Jaipur region; Thali and Gorwari belong to none of them.