Linguistic Survey Of India Vol V Part I Indo Aryan Family Eastern Group

2 EASTERN GliOlT,

it is the language of 36,239,967 people* In Assam, Chota Nagpur, and Orksa these
languages are not by any moans th<» only vernaculars of tho country. Thoy are
rather the tongues of the more civilised Battled tracts, the hills being mainly inhabited
by aboriginal tribes who speak their own Tiboio-Burman, Dravidian or Munda dialects.

The total number of speakers of 1he Kastern Group
Tout number of cp*ak«rs. of Imlo. Aryan V(«iacularR in their own homes is thenv

fore as follows :™

Au^'tunt^i: » « L*Mr»,W»!i

ll«-it}*>fcU »»..•*•»* 4l,tV.'tv»N»

<'r>y».....- s.yw,!!::

Hiliuri ,..**,*** St»,VJH'J,M7

TorAi . H^.'U^C?:)

Those figures only relate to those who speak thr above languages in (he aroa»
in which rach is a vwiacuhr, Aa far as Assamese, Bengali, and Oriya aro concerned*
the OHHUH Hepnrt for TSUI givon \wtlm figuros for tho number of wpenkow of each
in other proviueen of India. Unfortunately Kimilar ll^un-s nro not available for
Bihari, tw that language wan not neparately countttd ia tiu» Cen»ti». AV« have bwn
abltj to roughly ofttimat*1 th« Biliiri figurc» for the JProviwvN of Bengal and Awwiut,
but no materialti am available for other province. With HUH ^xoeption, tho fi/llowing
in the total number of ftpeakon of language of the lantern Group in all parts of Tndia>
as abown by tho pages of thin auwy ;—

Amxntw.........l,4i7,5W

! therefore, for the ftpeakoni of Bihari in i>wvinee» other than Bengal
and A taunt, we *haU lw well within the mark if we ctitimat** the total numter of
apeakora of the language of the Eastern Group of thi», Iiulo-Axyau v^raaculars a«
over ninety milUona of pimple.
If \ve compare tltose figures with the populations of European countries, we
may say that tho number of pooplo who apeak Ammar ia about a quarter of the
|x>pulation of Roumania,1 that the number of those wlto «p<*ak Bengali in gn*ater
than the population of Austri^Hungary,1 that the aumbw of them who apeak Oyiya
it equal to more than half the population of Spain/ while thoae who tpeak Bihar!
nearly equal the population of France,* As for the ninety millions who apeak language*
* 6,900,000.
'41,8*9,304,
* 17,565,03*.