Indic

The Indic languages are descended from Sanskrit, and are written in modifications of that language's Devanagari writing system. Most of the modern Indian scripts preserve the Sanskrit nature of hanging from the line rather than resting on it like the Roman alphabet. Gujarati is not an exception; the line is simply not drawn as in the other scripts. These languages all contain retroflex consonants, made by curling the tip of the tongue up to touch the roof of the mouth, which they seem to have absorbed from the Dravidian family languages of southern India. The Indic languages are a branch of Indo-Iranian (the easternmost branch of Indo-European) which also includes Farsi (the language of Iran) and Kurdish. Some other Indic languages not yet represented are Marathi, Panjabi, and Romany.

Bengali: Notes: The official language of Bangladesh, and also spoken in eastern India around Calcutta. Speaker: Sharif Khan (N)

Gujarati: Notes: Principally spoken in western India. Speaker: Asha (N)

Hindi: Notes: Hindi is principally located in central India, but it is one of the more widely used languages in the country. In school all Indian students learn Hindi, English, and the local language, of which there are over 200. Urdu, although written with Arabic characters, is closely related to Hindi. Speaker: (N)

Nepali: Notes: I don't yet have the orthography. Speaker: Katharine Björk Guneratne (S)

Urdu: Notes: Urdu is spoken in Pakistan. Although they're written in very different scripts, the language is closely related to Hindi. Owing to the current hostilities between Pakistand and India, this fact often comes as an enormous shock to speakers of either language. Speaker: Steve Hewitt (S), Hashaam Sheikh (N)