Public Research: Mothertongue (Indo-European Languages)

[the guy who be short]

question for the vertically challenged individual: how many different languages are spoken in India (approx.)? and are they truly independent languages, or dialectal versions of a mother-tongue?

About 18 major languages, it seems, accord to this here link.

While the languages are all based on a common tongue, Sanskrit, they are all independent, not dialects. Sanskrit is often compared to Latin; it's a tongue little used save in religion, and not spoken as a first language any more.

All the languages in India are, I presume, quite similar. When I listen to Hindi, I can make out odd words, so the relationship makes me think of Dutch and German. I cannot speak for the other 16 languages though.

I believe most of them have individual scripts, too. Gujarati does, anyway.