BENGALURU:

is third in the country in terms of the percentage of people speaking more than one language while it leads all of south India, thanks to its cosmopolitan capital, multiple cities sharing borders with other states and being among the top states attracting migrants.

The state trails only Maharashtra and Gujarat in the list comprising states in the country that have a population of more than 5 crore. Other than English, the top languages spoken in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka are Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Konkani, Saurashtri, Hindi and Malayalam, according to 2011 census.

An analysis of the data shows that the state has a greater percentage of its total population speaking two or more languages, compared to Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, undivided Andhra and Kerala. The state beat its neighbours in both categories — bilingual and multilingual — by a big margin.

40% in K’taka can speak 2 languages, census reveals

Karnataka’s figures are much higher than the national average of 26% for bilingual people and 7% for trilingual. Of the 6.1 crore people in the state, 40% speak two languages, while 13% speak more than two languages.

Comparatively, it is 28% and 4% in Tamil Nadu; 31% and 6% in Puducherry; 25.5% and 8% in Andhra and 24% and 9.5% in Kerala.

Even among the 10 major states, Karnataka and Gujarat are neck-and-neck while Maharashtra is a clear leader.

Of the 11 crore people in Maharashtra, 51% are bilingual, while 18% speak more than two languages. In Gujarat, 43% of 6.04 crore people speak two languages, while 14% are multilingual.

“The 2021 census is most likely to show a different trend. With cities like Mumbai and Pune having reached saturation point so far as migration goes, and Gujarat’s development likely to slow down, in terms of new constructions and projects, Karnataka is likely to attract more migrants, who will speak different languages,” said professor CM

, head of the Population Research Centre at the Institute for Social and Economic Change. While both Maharashtra and Karnataka have several districts bordering states that officially speak other languages, experts say migration is the main reason for multilingualism.

“If you look at the Gujarati settlement in Maharashtra, it has a history of more than 100 years. Similarly, people from several other parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and more recently those from north India have migrated to the state (Maharashtra). The story is similar with Karnataka, which has seen a major increase in migration post 1999-2000,” professor AR Vasavi, formerly with the National Institute for Advanced Studies said.

Though incomparable with major states in terms of population, some smaller states have a considerable percentage of people speaking more than one language. J&K has 49% (bilingual) and 16% (trilingual), Goa has 77% (bilingual) and 50% (trilingual), Arunachal Pradesh has 64% (bilingual) and 30% (trilingual) while Assam has 46% (bilingual) and 14% (trilingual) people.