Based on the number of speakers:
* Around 22 languages have over 10 million speakers in South Asia.
* Over 100 languages have over 1 million speakers.
Based on official language status:
* 22 countries are located in South Asia, each with their own official language(s).
* Several languages are used as official languages in multiple countries (Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, etc.).
Some of the most widely spoken languages in South Asia include:
* Hindi: Spoken by over 600 million people.
* Bengali: Spoken by over 250 million people.
* Urdu: Spoken by over 170 million people.
* Marathi: Spoken by over 80 million people.
* Telugu: Spoken by over 80 million people.
* Tamil: Spoken by over 80 million people.
* Gujarati: Spoken by over 60 million people.
* Kannada: Spoken by over 50 million people.
* Malayalam: Spoken by over 40 million people.
Important Considerations:
* Linguistic Diversity: South Asia is incredibly diverse, with hundreds of languages spoken across the region.
* Dialect Variation: Within these major languages, there are often numerous dialects, making the total number of distinct varieties even larger.
* Language Families: Many of these languages belong to Indo-Aryan or Dravidian language families, further highlighting the region's linguistic richness.
So, while there are a number of major languages spoken in South Asia, it's impossible to provide a single, absolute number due to the complexity and diversity of the region's linguistic landscape.