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Hindi

Indo-Aryan language


Indo-Aryan language

FieldValue
nameHindi
altnameModern Standard Hindi
nativename{{ScriptDevaहिन्दी}},
pronunciation
statesIndia
regionHindi Belt (Western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi)
speakers_labelSpeakers
speakersL1: million
date2011 census
speakers2L2: million (2020)
Total: million (2011–2020)
ref
familycolorIndo-European
fam2Indo-Iranian
fam3Indo-Aryan
fam4Central Indo-Aryan
fam5Western Hindi
fam6Hindustani
ancestorShauraseni Prakrit
ancestor2Apabhraṃśa
ancestor3Old Hindi
ancestor4Hindustani
ancestor5Rekhta
script*Devanagari (official)
*Laṇḍā (historical)<ref>{{Cite booklastGangopadhyayfirst=Aviktitle=Glimpses of Indian Languagespublisher=Evincepub publishingyear=2020isbn=978-93-90197-82-8page=43}}
nation*India
minority{{bulleted list
South Africa (protected language)<ref name"auto1"
United Arab Emirates (official court language)<ref name"thehindu.com"
Mauritius (as a cultural language)<ref>{{ cite webtitleHindi Speaking Union Acturl=https://culture.govmu.org/Pages/Legislations/The%20Hindi%20Speaking%20Union%20%20Act%201994.pdfwebsite=www.culture.govmu.org}}}}
agencyCentral Hindi Directorate
iso1hi
iso2hin
iso3hin
lingua59-AAF-qf
imageHindi.svg
imagescale1.2
imagecaptionThe word "Hindi" in Devanagari script
mapHindi 2011 Indian Census by district.svg
mapcaptionDistribution of L1 self-reported speakers of Hindi in India as per the 2011 Census
noticeIndic
signIndian Signing System
glottohind1269
glottorefnameHindi
Note

Modern Standard Hindi

Total: million (2011–2020)

  • Kaithi (historical)
  • Mahajani (historical)
  • Laṇḍā (historical)
  • Devanagari Braille
    • Andaman and Nicobar Islands
    • Bihar
    • Chandigarh
    • Chhattisgarh
    • Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu
    • Delhi
    • Gujarat
    • Haryana
    • Himachal Pradesh
    • Jammu and Kashmir
    • Jharkhand
    • Ladakh
    • Madhya Pradesh
    • Rajasthan
    • Uttar Pradesh
    • Uttarakhand
    • West Bengal (additional) | South Africa (protected language) |United Arab Emirates (official court language) |Mauritius (as a cultural language)}}

Modern Standard Hindi ({{Script|Deva|आधुनिक मानक हिन्दी}}, Hunterian: ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is an Indo-Aryan language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of the Government of India, and is the lingua franca for most of the northern half of India.

Hindi is an official language in ten states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand), and six union territories (Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir) and an additional official language in the state of West Bengal. Hindi is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India.

Apart from the script and formal vocabulary, Modern Standard Hindi is mutually intelligible with standard Urdu. The common base of the two languages is sometimes referred to as Hindi–Urdu or Hindustani, and Hindi is considered a Sanskritised register of Hindustani. Hindi is also spoken, to a lesser extent, in other parts of India (usually in a simplified or pidginised variety such as Bazaar Hindustani or Haflong Hindi). Outside India, several other languages are recognised officially as "Hindi" but do not refer to the Standard Hindi language described here and instead descend from other nearby languages, such as Awadhi and Bhojpuri. Examples of this are Bhojpuri-Hindustani, which is spoken in South Africa and Mauritius; Fiji Hindi, spoken in Fiji; and Caribbean Hindustani, spoken in Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana.

Hindi is the fourth-most-spoken first language in the world, after Mandarin, Spanish, and English. When counted together with the mutually intelligible Urdu, it is the third most-spoken language in the world, after Mandarin and English. According to reports of Ethnologue (2025), Hindi is the third most-spoken language in the world when including first and second language speakers.

Hindi is the fastest-growing language of India, followed by Kashmiri, Meitei, Gujarati and Bengali, according to the 2011 census of India.

Terminology

The term Hindī was originally used to refer to inhabitants of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It was borrowed from Classical Persian هندی Hindī (Iranian Persian pronunciation: Hendi), meaning (hence, ).

Another name Hindavī (ہندوی/हिन्दवी) () was often used in the past, for example, by Amir Khusrau in his poetry.

The terms Hindi and Hindu trace back to Old Persian, which derived these names from the Sanskrit name Sindhu (सिन्धु), referring to the Indus River. The Greek cognates of the same terms are Indus (for the river) and India (for the land of the river).

The term Modern Standard Hindi is commonly used to specifically refer to the modern literary Hindi language, as opposed to colloquial and regional varieties that are also referred to as Hindi in a wider sense.

History

Middle Indo-Aryan to Hindi

Like other Indo-Aryan languages, Hindi is a direct descendant of an early form of Vedic Sanskrit (not to be confused with the later variety of Classical Sanskrit). This early variety transitioned in medieval India into Shauraseni Prakrit and Śauraseni Apabhraṃśa (from Sanskrit apabhraṃśa "corrupt"), which emerged in the 7th century CE.

The sound changes that characterised the transition from Middle Indo-Aryan to Hindi are:

  • Compensatory lengthening of vowels preceding geminate consonants, sometimes with spontaneous nasalisation: Skt. hasta "hand" Pkt. hattha hāth
  • Loss of all word-final vowels: rātri "night" rattī rāt
  • Formation of nasalised long vowels from nasal consonants (-VNC- -V̄̃C-): bandha "bond" bā̃dh
  • Loss of unaccented or unstressed short vowels (reflected in schwa deletion): susthira "firm" sutthira suthrā
  • Collapsing of adjacent vowels (including separated by a hiatus: apara "other" avara aur
  • Final -m to -ṽ: grāma "village" gāma gāṽ
  • Intervocalic -ḍ- to -ṛ- or -l-: taḍāga "pond" talāv, naḍa "reed" nal.
  • v b: vivāha "marriage" byāh

Hindustani

During the period of Delhi Sultanate in medieval India, which covered most of today's north India, eastern Pakistan, southern Nepal and Bangladesh and which resulted in the contact of Hindu and Muslim cultures, the Sanskrit and Prakrit base of Old Hindi became enriched with loanwords from Persian, evolving into the present form of Hindustani. Hindi achieved prominence in India after it became the official language of the imperial court during the reign of Shah Jahan. It is recorded that Emperor Aurangzeb spoke in Hindvi. The Hindustani vernacular became an expression of Indian national unity during the Indian Independence movement, and continues to be spoken as the common language of the people of the northern Indian subcontinent, which is reflected in the Hindustani vocabulary of Bollywood films and songs.

Standard Hindi is based on the Khariboli dialect, spoken in the Ganges-Yamuna Doab (Delhi, Meerut, and Saharanpur); the vernacular of Delhi and the surrounding region gradually replaced earlier prestige languages such as Awadhi and Braj. Standard Hindi was developed by supplanting foreign loanwords from the Hindustani language and replacing them with Sanskrit words, though Standard Hindi does continue to possess several Persian loanwords. Modern Hindi became a literary language in the 19th century. Earliest examples could be found as Prēm Sāgar by Lallu Lal, Batiyāl Pachīsī of Sadal Misra, and Rānī Kētakī Kī Kahānī of Insha Allah Khan which were published in Devanagari script during the early 19th century.

John Gilchrist was principally known for his study of the Hindustani language, which was adopted as the lingua franca of northern India (including what is now present-day Pakistan) by Britons and Indians alike. He compiled and authored An English-Hindustani Dictionary, A Grammar of the Hindoostanee Language, The Oriental Linguist, and many more. His lexicon of Hindustani was published in the Perso-Arabic script, Nāgarī script, and in Roman transliteration. In the late 19th century, a movement to further develop Hindi as a standardised form of Hindustani separate from Urdu took form. In 1881, Bihar accepted Hindi as its sole official language, replacing Urdu, and thus became the first state of India to adopt Hindi. However, in 2014, Urdu was accorded second official language status in the state.{{cite web | archive-url = https://archive.today/20220616083954/https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/story/19800731-decision-to-make-urdu-second-official-language-in-bihar-provokes-furore-from-maithil-brahmins-821314-2014-01-17 | archive-date = 16 June 2022 }}

Independent India

On 14 September 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted Hindi written in the Devanagari script as the official language of the Republic of India replacing the previous usage of Hindustani in the Perso-Arabic script in the British Indian Empire. To this end, several stalwarts rallied and lobbied pan-India in favour of Hindi, most notably Beohar Rajendra Simha along with Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Kaka Kalelkar, Maithili Sharan Gupt and Seth Govind Das who even debated in Parliament on this issue. As such, on the 50th birthday of Beohar Rajendra Simha on 14 September 1949, the efforts came to fruition following the adoption of Hindi as the official language. Now, it is celebrated as Hindi Day.

Official status

India

Part XVII of the Indian Constitution deals with the official language of the Indian Union. Under Article 343, the official languages of the Union have been prescribed, which includes Hindi in Devanagari script and English:

(1) The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals. (2) Notwithstanding anything in clause (1), for a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement: Provided that the President may, during the said period, by order authorise the use of the Hindi language in addition to the English language and of the Devanagari form of numerals in addition to the international form of Indian numerals for any of the official purposes of the Union.

It was envisioned that Hindi would become the sole working language of the Union Government by 1965 (per directives in Article 344 (2) and Article 351), with state governments being free to function in the language of their own choice. However, widespread resistance to the imposition of Hindi on non-native speakers, especially in South India (such as those in Tamil Nadu) led to the passage of the Official Languages Act of 1963, which provided for the continued use of English indefinitely for all official purposes, although the constitutional directive for the Union Government to encourage the spread of Hindi was retained and has strongly influenced its policies.

Article 344 (2b) stipulates that the official language commission shall be constituted every ten years to recommend steps for the progressive use of Hindi language and impose restrictions on the use of the English language by the union government. In practice, the official language commissions are constantly endeavouring to promote Hindi but not imposing restrictions on English in official use by the union government.

At the state level, Hindi is the official language of the following Indian states: Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Hindi is an official language of Gujarat, along with Gujarati. It acts as an additional official language of West Bengal in blocks and sub-divisions with more than 10% of the population speaking Hindi. Similarly, Hindi is accorded the status of official language in the following Union Territories: Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

Although there is no specification of a national language in the constitution, it is a widely held belief that Hindi is the national language of India. This is often a source of friction and contentious debate. In 2010, the Gujarat High Court clarified that Hindi is not the national language of India because the constitution does not mention it as such.

Fiji

Hindi is an official language in Fiji as per the 1997, 2012 and 2013 constitution's of Fiji. Two dialects of Hindi are spoken in Fiji, Standard Hindi and Fiji Hindi. The latter dialect traces its origins to Awadhi, an eastern Hindi dialect. However, Standard Hindi is the official variant of Hindi recognized by the constitution and used in all official purposes, education, media and businesses due to Fiji Hindi's lack of standardisation. Hindi is spoken by 380,000 people in Fiji.

Nepal

Hindi is spoken as a first language by about 77,569 people in Nepal according to the 2011 Nepal census, and further by 1,225,950 people as a second language. A Hindi proponent, Indian-born Paramananda Jha, was elected vice-president of Nepal. He took his oath of office in Hindi in July 2008. This created protests in the streets for 5 days; students burnt his effigies, and there was a general strike in 22 districts. Nepal Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that his oath in Hindi was invalid and he was kept "inactive" as vice-president. An "angry" Jha said, "I cannot be compelled to take the oath now in Nepali. I might rather take it in English."

South Africa

Hindi is a protected language in South Africa. According to the Constitution of South Africa, the Pan South African Language Board must promote and ensure respect for Hindi along with other languages. According to a doctoral dissertation by Rajend Mesthrie in 1985, although Hindi and other Indian languages have existed in South Africa for the last 125 years, there are no academic studies of any of them – of their use in South Africa, their evolution and current decline.

United Arab Emirates

Hindi was adopted as the third official court language in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. As a result of this status, the Indian workforce in UAE can file their complaints to the labour courts in the country in their own mother-tongue.

Geographical distribution

Main article: Hindustani-speaking world

Hindi is the lingua franca of northern India (which contains the Hindi Belt), as well as an official language of the Government of India, along with English.

In Northeast India a pidgin known as Haflong Hindi has developed as a lingua franca for the people living in Haflong, Assam who speak other languages natively. In Arunachal Pradesh, Hindi emerged as a lingua franca among locals who speak over 50 dialects natively.

Hindi is quite easy to understand for many Pakistanis, who speak Urdu, which, like Hindi, is a standard register of the Hindustani language; additionally, Indian media are widely viewed in Pakistan.

A sizeable population in Afghanistan, especially in Kabul, can also speak and understand Hindi-Urdu due to the popularity and influence of Bollywood films, songs and actors in the region.

Hindi is also spoken by a large population of Madheshis (people having roots in north-India but having migrated to Nepal over hundreds of years) of Nepal. Apart from this, Hindi is spoken by the large Indian diaspora which hails from, or has its origin from the "Hindi Belt" of India. A substantially large North Indian diaspora lives in countries like the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, South Africa, Fiji and Mauritius, where it is natively spoken at home and among their own Hindustani-speaking communities.

Outside India, Hindi speakers are 8 million in Nepal; 863,077 in the United States of America; 450,170 in Mauritius; 380,000 in Fiji; 250,292 in South Africa; 150,000 in Suriname; 100,000 in Uganda; 45,800 in the United Kingdom; 20,000 in New Zealand; 20,000 in Germany; 26,000 in Trinidad and Tobago; 3,000 in Singapore.

Comparison with Standard Urdu

Main article: Hindi–Urdu controversy, Hindustani phonology, Hindustani grammar

Linguistically, Hindi and Urdu are two registers of the same language and are mutually intelligible. Both Hindi and Urdu share a core vocabulary of native Prakrit and Sanskrit-derived words. However, Hindi is written in the Devanagari script and contains more direct tatsama Sanskrit-derived words than Urdu, whereas Urdu is written in the Perso-Arabic script and uses more Arabic and Persian loanwords compared to Hindi. Because of this, as well as the fact that the two registers share an identical grammar, a consensus of linguists consider them to be two standardised forms of the same language, Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu. Hindi is the most commonly used scheduled language in India and is one of the two official languages of the union, the other being English. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan and is one of 22 scheduled languages of India, also having official status in Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.

Script

Main article: Devanagari

Hindi is written in the Devanagari script, an abugida. Devanagari consists of 11 vowels and 33 consonants and is written from left to right. Unlike Sanskrit, Devanagari is not entirely phonetic for Hindi, especially failing to mark schwa deletion in spoken Standard Hindi.

Romanisation

Main article: Devanagari transliteration

The Government of India uses Hunterian transliteration as its official system of writing Hindi in the Latin script. Various other systems also exist, such as IAST, ITRANS and ISO 15919.

Romanised Hindi, also called Hinglish, is the dominant form of Hindi online. In an analysis of YouTube comments, Palakodety et al., identified that 52% of comments were in Romanised Hindi, 46% in English, and 1% in Devanagari Hindi.

Phonology

Main article: Hindustani phonology

ConsonantsIPAExamplesDevanagari representationEnglish approximationHindiUrduISO 15919
कमज़ोर{{nqکمزور}}incक्s**c**ab
खाल{{nqکھال}}incख्**c**ab
गोल{{nqگول}}incग्a**g**o
घर{{nqگھر}}incघ्lo**gh**ouse
रंग{{nqرن٘گ}}incङ्ba**ng**
चोर{{nqچور}}incच्ca**tch**
छोड़ना{{nqچھوڑنا}}incछ्a**ch**oo
जान{{nqجان}}incज्bu**dg**ing
झड़ना{{nqجھڑنا}}incझ्he**dgeh**og
टमाटर{{nqٹماٹر}}inc‌‌‌ट्s**t**ub (but retroflex)
ठंड{{nqٹھنڈ}}incठ्**t**ub (but retroflex)
डालना{{nqڈالنا}}incड्American bir**d**
ढक्कन{{nqڈھکّن}}incढ्American bir**dh**ouse
किरण{{nqکرن}}incण्American bur**n**
तालाब{{nqتالاب}}incत्similar to ou**t**think, Spanish **t**omar
लतीफ़ा*la**t̤**īfā*
थैला{{nqتھیلا}}incथ्**t**ub (but dental)
दाल{{nqدال}}incद्**th**e
धूप{{nqدھوپ}}incध्a**dh**ere (but dental)
नहीं{{nqنہیں}}incन्pa**n**ther
पल{{nqپل}}incप्s**p**ot
फल{{nqپھل}}incफ्**p**ot
बीस{{nqبیس}}incब्ca**bb**ie
भालू{{nqبھالو}}incभ्clu**bh**ouse
मगर{{nqمگر}}incम्**m**uch
याद{{nqیاد}}incय्**y**uck
रस{{nqرس}}incर्Trilled **r**ing
ज़र्रा{{nqذرّہ}}inc
ज़रा{{nqذرا}}incAmerican a**t**om
लब{{nqلب}}incल्**l**eaf
वर्ज़िश{{nqورزش}}incव्**v**at
पकवान{{nqپكوان}}inc**w**ell
काश{{nqکاش}}incश्**sh**oe
नष्ट{{nqنشٹ}}incष्**shr**ew
सब{{nqسب}}incस्**s**un
साफ़{{nqصاف}}inc
साबित{{nqثابت}}inc
हम{{nqہم}}incह्a**h**ead
हुक्म{{nqحکم}}inc
क़रीब{{nqقریب}}inc‌‌‌क़्somewhat like **c**aught
ख़राब{{nqخراب}}incख़्Scottish lo**ch**
बाग़{{nqباغ}}incग़्Similar to the French R
काग़ज़{{nqکاغذ}}incज़्**z**oo
अझ़दहा{{nqاژدہا}}incझ़्last1=Pandeyfirst1=Diptititle=2013 International Conference Oriental COCOSDA held jointly with 2013 Conference on Asian Spoken Language Research and Evaluation (O-COCOSDA/CASLRE)last2=Mondalfirst2=Tapabratalast3=Agrawalfirst3=S. S.last4=Bangalorefirst4=Srinivasdate=2013isbn=978-1-4799-2378-6page=3chapter=Development and suitability of Indian languages speech database for building watson based ASR systemdoi=10.1109/ICSDA.2013.6709861quote=Only in Hindi 10 Phonemes व /v/ क़ /q/ ञ /ɲ/ य /j/ ष /ʂ/ ख़ /x/ ग़ /ɣ/ ज़ /z/ झ़ /ʒ/ फ़ /f/s2cid=26461938}}
लड़ना{{nqلڑنا}}incड़American ga**rt**er
पढ़ाई{{nqپڑھائی}}incढ़no English equivalent
ख़िलाफ़{{nqخلاف}}incफ़्**f**uss
एतबार{{nqاعتبار}}incThe pause in *"uh-oh!"*, bu**tt**er "bu'er" (t-glottalizing dialects)

|

VowelsIPAExamplesDevanagari representationEnglish approximationHindiUrduISO 15919
कल{{nqکَل}}inc**a**bout
रहना{{nqرہنا}}incp**e**n
काम{{nqکام}}incआ or ाf**a**ther
जितना{{nqجِتنا}}incइ or िs**i**t
जीतना{{nqجیتنا}}incई or ीs**ea**t
उन{{nqاُن}}incउ or ुb**oo**k
ऊन{{nqاُون}}incऊ or ूm**oo**n
जेब{{nqجیب}}incए or ेm**ai**l
कैसा{{nqکیسا}}incऐ or ैf**ai**ry
बोलो{{nqبولو}}incओ or ोgr**ow**
कौन{{nqکَون}}incऔ or ौj**o**b
हँस{{nqہن٘س}}incnasal vowel fa**un**
(, etc.)
मैं{{nqمَیں}}inc
SuprasegmentalsIPAExampleNotes
stress
(placed before stressed syllable)
doubled consonant
(placed after doubled consonant)

|}

Vocabulary

Traditionally, Hindi words are divided into five principal categories according to their etymology:

  • Tatsam (तत्सम ) words: These are words which are spelled the same in Hindi as in Sanskrit (except for the absence of final case inflections). They include words inherited from Sanskrit via Prakrit which have survived without modification (e.g. Hindi नाम nām / Sanskrit नाम nāma, "name", as well as forms borrowed directly from Sanskrit in more modern times (e.g. प्रार्थना prārthanā, "prayer"). Pronunciation, however, conforms to Hindi norms and may differ from that of classical Sanskrit. Amongst nouns, the tatsam word could be the Sanskrit non-inflected word-stem, or it could be the nominative singular form in the Sanskrit nominal declension.
  • Ardhatatsam (अर्धतत्सम ) words: Such words are typically earlier loanwords from Sanskrit which have undergone sound changes subsequent to being borrowed. (e.g. Hindi सूरज sūraj from Sanskrit सूर्य sūrya)
  • Tadbhav (तद्भव ) words: These are native Hindi words derived from Sanskrit after undergoing phonological rules (e.g. Sanskrit कर्म karma, "deed" becomes Shauraseni Prakrit कम्म kamma, and eventually Hindi काम kām, "work") and are spelled differently from Sanskrit.
  • Deshaj (देशज ) words: These are words that were not borrowings from non-indigenous languages but do not derive from attested Indo-Aryan words either. Belonging to this category are onomatopoetic words or ones borrowed from local non-Indo-Aryan languages.
  • Videshī (विदेशी ) words: These include all loanwords from non-indigenous languages. The most frequent source languages in this category are Persian, Arabic, English and Portuguese. Examples are क़िला qila "fort" from Persian, कमेटी kameṭī from English committee.

Prakrit

Hindi has naturally inherited a large portion of its vocabulary from Shauraseni Prakrit, in the form of tadbhava words. This process usually involves compensatory lengthening of vowels preceding consonant clusters in Prakrit, e.g. Sanskrit tīkṣṇa Prakrit tikkha Hindi tīkhā.

Sanskrit

Much of Standard Hindi's vocabulary is borrowed from Sanskrit as tatsam borrowings, especially in technical and academic fields. The formal Hindi standard, from which much of the Persian, Arabic and English vocabulary has been replaced by neologisms compounding tatsam words, is called Śuddh Hindi (pure Hindi), and is viewed as a more prestigious dialect over other more colloquial forms of Hindi.

Excessive use of tatsam words sometimes creates problems for native speakers. They may have Sanskrit consonant clusters which do not exist in Hindustani, causing difficulties in pronunciation.

As a part of the process of Sanskritisation, new words are coined using Sanskrit components to be used as replacements for supposedly foreign vocabulary. Usually these neologisms are calques of English words already adopted into spoken Hindi. Some terms such as dūrbhāṣ "telephone", literally "far-speech" and dūrdarśan "television", literally "far-sight" have even gained some currency in formal Hindi in the place of the English borrowings (ṭeli)fon and ṭīvī.

Persian

Hindi also features significant Persian influence, standardised from spoken Hindustani. Early borrowings, beginning in the mid-12th century, were specific to Islam (e.g. Muhammad, Islām) and so Persian was simply an intermediary for Arabic. Later, under the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire, Persian became the primary administrative language in the Hindi heartland. Persian borrowings reached a heyday in the 17th century, pervading all aspects of life. Even grammatical constructs, namely the izafat, were assimilated into Hindi.

The status of Persian language then and thus its influence, is also visible in Hindi proverbs:

|हाथ कंगन को आरसी क्या, पढ़े लिखे को फ़ारसी क्या। |Hāth kaṅgan ko ārsī kyā, Paṛhe likhe ko Fārsī kyā. |What is mirror to a hand with bangles, What is Persian to a literate.

The emergence of Modern Standard Hindi in the 19th century went along with the Sanskritisation of its vocabulary, leading to a marginalisation of Persian vocabulary in Hindi, which continued after Partition when the Indian government co-opted the policy of Sanskritisation. However, many Persian words (e.g. bas "enough", khud "self") have remained entrenched in Standard Hindi, and a larger amount are still used in Urdu poetry written in the Devanagari script. Many words borrowed from Persian in turn were loanwords from Arabic (e.g. muśkil "difficult", havā "air", x(a)yāl "thought", kitāb "book").

Perso-Arabic wordHindi wordGloss
وقت arवक़्त hitime
قميص arक़मीज़ hishirt
كتاب arकिताब hibook
نصيب arनसीब hidestiny
كرسي arकुर्सी hichair
حساب arहिसाब hicalculation
قانون arक़ानून hilaw
خبر arख़बर hinews
دنيا arदुनिया hiworld

English

Hindi also makes extensive use of loan translation (calqueing) and occasionally phono-semantic matching of English.

Portuguese

Many Hindustani words were derived from Portuguese due to interaction with colonists and missionaries:

HindiMeaningPortuguese
*anānās* (अनानास)pineappleananás
*pādrī* (पाद्री)priestpadre
*bālṭī* (बाल्टी)bucketbalde
*čābī* (चाबी)keychave
*girjā* (गिर्जा)churchigreja
*almārī* (अलमारी)cupboardarmário
*botal* (बोतल)bottlebotelha
*aspatāl* (अस्पताल)hospitalhospital
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Media

Literature

Main article: Hindi literature

Hindi literature is broadly divided into four prominent forms or styles, being Bhakti (devotional – Kabir, Raskhan); Śṛṇgār (beauty – Keshav, Bihari); Vīgāthā (epic); and Ādhunik (modern).

Medieval Hindi literature is marked by the influence of Bhakti movement and the composition of long, epic poems. It was primarily written in other varieties of Hindi, particularly Avadhi and Braj Bhasha, but to a degree also in Delhavi, the basis for Standard Hindi. During the British Raj, Hindustani became the prestige dialect.

Chandrakanta, written by Devaki Nandan Khatri in 1888, is considered the first authentic work of prose in modern Hindi. The person who brought realism in Hindi prose literature was Munshi Premchand, who is considered the most revered figure in the world of Hindi fiction and progressive movement. Literary, or Sāhityik, Hindi was popularised by the writings of Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Bhartendu Harishchandra and others. The rising numbers of newspapers and magazines made Hindustani popular with educated people.

The Dvivedī Yug ("Age of Dwivedi") in Hindi literature lasted from 1900 to 1918. It is named after Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi, who played a major role in establishing Standard Hindi in poetry and broadening the acceptable subjects of Hindi poetry from the traditional ones of religion and romantic love.

In the 20th century, Hindi literature saw a romantic upsurge. This is known as Chāyāvād (shadow-ism) and the literary figures belonging to this school are known as Chāyāvādī. Jaishankar Prasad, Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala', Mahadevi Varma and Sumitranandan Pant, are the four major Chāyāvādī poets.

Uttar Ādhunik is the post-modernist period of Hindi literature, marked by a questioning of early trends that copied the West as well as the excessive ornamentation of the Chāyāvādī movement, and by a return to simple language and natural themes.

Internet

Hindi literature, music, and film have all been disseminated via the internet. In 2015, Google reported a 94% increase in Hindi-content consumption year-on-year, adding that 21% of users in India prefer content in Hindi. Many Hindi newspapers also offer digital editions.

Sample text

The following is a sample text in High Hindi, of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (by the United Nations): ;Hindi in Devanagari Script : : ;;Transliteration (ISO): :hi ;Transcription (IPA): : ;Gloss (word-to-word): :Article 1 (one) All humans birth from independent and dignity and rights in equal are. They logic and conscience from endowed are and they fraternity in the spirit of each other towards work should. ;Translation (grammatical): :Article 1 All humans are born independent and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with logic and conscience and they should work towards each other in the spirit of fraternity.

Notes

References

Bibliography

Dictionaries

  • {{Citation
  • Academic Room Hindi Dictionary Mobile App developed in the Harvard Innovation Lab (iOS, Android and Blackberry)

References

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  105. Mainly phonemes of Hindi. Urdu speakers usually replace [ɳ] and [ʂ] with [n] and [ʃ] respectively.
  106. {{IPA. /ɾ/ can surface as a trill {{IPA. [r] in word-initial and syllable-final positions. Geminate {{IPA. /ɾː/ is always a trill.
  107. {{IPA. [w] occurs as an allophone of {{IPA. [ʋ] when /{{lang. hi. व {{lang. ur. {{nastaliq. و/ is in an onglide position between an onset consonant and a following vowel while {{IPA. [ʋ], which may phonetically be {{IPAblink. v, occurs otherwise.
  108. Mainly phonemes of Urdu. Hindi speakers may replace [x], [z], [ʒ], [ɣ] and [q] with [kʰ], [dʒ], [dʒʱ], [g] and [k] respectively.
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  112. {{IPA. [ɛ] occurs as an allophone of {{IPA. /ə/ near an {{IPA. /ɦ/ that is surrounded on both sides by schwas. Usually, the second schwa becomes silent, which results in an {{IPA. [ɛ] preceding an {{IPA. /ɦ/.
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