Languages Spoken
| In 1961, there were 21
languages listed as mother-tongues of the inhabitants of the district; Hindi was spoken by
93.6%, urdu 6.3% and Punjabi by 0.1% of the total population. The number of persons who
spoke other languages as there mother tongues was negligible. In the rural areas Hindi was
found to be the mother tongue of 94.0% of the people and Urdu of 6.0%. In the urban area
Hindi, Urdu and panjabi were the main mother tongues accounting for 71.6 , 24.9 and 2.6%
respectively. The proportion of speakers of other languages was very small (0.9%). The common language of the people of the district is the Avadhi dialect of Eastern Hindi. Avadhi means the language of the region known as Avadh, and since the ancient name of Avadh was Kosala, the language is also called Kosali. The district of Sultanpur lies in the eastern part of Avadh and its dialect is, therefore, called eastern Avadhi. In modern times, however, its place as a literary vehicle has been taken by the standard Hindi called Khari-boli which is also the official language of the State. Following is the indicative break-up (as per census 2001) of the recognised languages being spoken as the mother tongue of the number of people of the district. |
| Sr.No | Language | No of People speaking | Percentage |
| 1 | Hindi | 3056053 | 95.06% |
| 2. | Urdu | 154735 | 4.81% |
| 3. | Panjabi | 1212 | 0.04% |
| 4. | Bangla | 450 | 0.01% |
| 5. | Others | 2382 | 0.07%-- |
| Total | 3214832 | 100% |