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Quiz: Languages and Scripts

Test your understanding of Chapter 6. Choose the best answer, then click Show Answer to check.

Question 1

How many languages are listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India?

  1. 14
  2. 22
  3. 121
  4. 270
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The Eighth Schedule lists 22 languages today. It started with 14 when the Constitution was adopted, and 121 is the number of languages India's 2011 census counted with at least 10,000 speakers, not the number on the official list.

Concept Tested: Eighth Schedule Bloom's Level: Remember

Question 2

Which language family do Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam belong to?

  1. Indo-Aryan
  2. Tibeto-Burman
  3. Austroasiatic
  4. Dravidian
Show Answer

The correct answer is D. These four are the largest Dravidian languages. Many people assume they are Indo-Aryan because they borrowed many Sanskrit words, but their grammar and core vocabulary come from a separate ancestor.

Concept Tested: Dravidian Languages Bloom's Level: Remember

Question 3

Which script is the common ancestor of Devanagari, Bengali-Assamese, Gurmukhi, Tamil and Sinhala?

  1. Brahmi
  2. Kharoshthi
  3. Perso-Arabic
  4. Thaana
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. All five descend from Brahmi, which was in use by the 3rd century BCE. Kharoshthi was a separate script of the northwest that came from Aramaic and died out; it is not their ancestor.

Concept Tested: Brahmi Script Bloom's Level: Remember

Question 4

What does it mean to say that Devanagari is an abugida?

  1. It writes only consonants and leaves all vowels out.
  2. Each letter stands for a whole word.
  3. Each consonant letter carries a built-in "a," and marks change or remove the vowel.
  4. Every vowel is a separate full letter, as in English.
Show Answer

The correct answer is C. In an abugida, क already reads "ka"; adding a mark makes कि ("ki") or कु ("ku"), and the virama makes क् ("k"). Option A describes an abjad, like the Perso-Arabic script, which usually leaves short vowels out.

Concept Tested: Abugida Bloom's Level: Understand

Question 5

Why can Hindi and Urdu speakers usually chat easily but have trouble reading each other's newspapers?

  1. They share everyday grammar and words but use different scripts and different formal vocabulary.
  2. They are unrelated languages that happen to share a few words.
  3. Urdu is written left to right and Hindi right to left, so the letters are reversed.
  4. Hindi has no written form, so newspapers use English.
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. Hindi and Urdu are two standard forms of Hindi-Urdu (Hindustani). Speech is shared, but Hindi uses Devanagari and more Sanskrit-based formal words, while Urdu uses Perso-Arabic script, written right to left, and more Persian and Arabic formal words. Option C has the directions backward.

Concept Tested: Hindi-Urdu (Hindustani) Bloom's Level: Understand

Question 6

Which statement about India's languages is accurate?

  1. Hindi is India's national language under the Constitution.
  2. English is one of the 22 languages in the Eighth Schedule.
  3. Every Indian state must use Hindi as its official language.
  4. The Constitution names no national language; Hindi in Devanagari is the official language of the Union.
Show Answer

The correct answer is D. Article 343 makes Hindi in Devanagari the official language of the central government, English is still used officially, and the Constitution names no national language. Option A is the common "national language" myth, and states choose their own official languages.

Concept Tested: Eighth Schedule Bloom's Level: Understand

Question 7

Ben finds an old family letter from a classmate's grandfather. It's written right to left, in flowing letters, with almost no vowel marks. Which language could it most likely be in?

  1. Tamil
  2. Urdu
  3. Bangla
  4. Gujarati
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Urdu is written in the Perso-Arabic script, right to left, usually without short vowel marks. Tamil, Bangla and Gujarati are written left to right in Brahmi-family abugidas that mark their vowels.

Concept Tested: Perso-Arabic Script Bloom's Level: Apply

Question 8

At dinner, Zara's cousin says, "Ammu, the biryani is so good, aro dao please." Which idea from the chapter best describes what she is doing?

  1. Transliteration
  2. Abugida
  3. Code-switching
  4. Classical language status
Show Answer

The correct answer is C. She moves between English and Bangla in one sentence, which is code-switching. Transliteration is writing one language's words in another script's letters, which is about writing, not about mixing languages while speaking.

Concept Tested: Code-Switching Bloom's Level: Apply

Question 9

Telugu is a Dravidian language and Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language, yet the Telugu and Devanagari scripts are both descendants of Brahmi. What does this best show?

  1. Telugu must really be an Indo-Aryan language.
  2. Language families and script families are separate trees, so unrelated languages can share a script ancestor.
  3. Brahmi was invented for Telugu and later borrowed by Hindi speakers.
  4. All South Asian languages come from Sanskrit.
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. A script can spread to communities speaking unrelated languages. Telugu's grammar and core words are Dravidian, while its script descends from Brahmi. Option D is the "Sanskrit is the mother of all languages" myth.

Concept Tested: Language Family Bloom's Level: Analyze

Question 10

Zara understands her Nanu's Bangla easily but answers in English and reads Bangla slowly. Which conclusion is best supported by the chapter?

  1. She is a heritage speaker, a common pattern in which understanding runs ahead of speaking and reading.
  2. She has lost Bangla and cannot relearn it.
  3. She is code-switching because she doesn't know English well.
  4. Bangla is not her family's language.
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. A heritage language is learned at home while growing up where another language dominates, and heritage speakers often understand more than they speak or read. Option B is the misconception the chapter corrects: understanding is real knowledge to build on.

Concept Tested: Heritage Language Bloom's Level: Analyze