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by akzfowl
4256 days ago
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I think India might be a better test case for any such study. Most Indians are forced to learn at last two languages and in several parts even three. I guess I cannot speak for the all the rural regions where learning just the local dialect of the state language would suffice but education in most tier-2 and metro cities is carried out in English in most places and everybody knows it is the language they must learn if they are to enter the global marketplace at any point in their lives. Not everyone is equally fluent but they tend to know just about enough to communicate.
In North India, the most prevalent language is Hindi. And several of the other state languages are often related in some way to Hindi making them at least partially mutually intelligible. Like Punjabi and Marathi.
South India is a whole other matter. The four predominant languages there are quite different from the Northern ones. Some of them share different forms of similar words but each has its own script.
Having spent varying amounts of time growing up in Delhi, Madras, Madurai and Bangalore, I can speak, read and write in Hindi, Tamil and English. My fluency in each of these areas tends to vary but I can get by in any one of these alone. Also, through my interactions with friends and neighbours, I can understand bits and pieces of few other languages as well |
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