Publisher's Synopsis
The authors show that Indian languages derive strongly from the ethnic community or the territory in which the language is used. They also show the distribution of different language families, and the larger spread of languages such as Hindi, Marwari, Urdu and Telugu. They suggest that in language-contact situations, the incidence of bilingualism is very high. For example, many tribals speak more than three to four languages; moreover, there is evidence of considerable linguistic heterogeneity even within communities.
