Hindi

Hindi is a major Indo-Aryan language spoken predominantly in North India and serves as one of the two official languages of the Government of India, alongside English. It is a standardized and Sanskritized register of the Hindustani language, which also forms the basis for Urdu, and boasts one of the world's largest speaker bases. The language's modern form evolved through Apabhraṃśa and Old Hindi, heavily influenced by Persian, Arabic, and Turkish during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire, before standardization efforts in the colonial and post-independence eras.

Etymology and history

The term "Hindi" historically derives from Persian *Hindī*, meaning "of or belonging to Hind (India)". Its direct ancestor is Old Hindi, which began to develop around the 7th century CE from Shauraseni Prakrit and Apabhraṃśa vernaculars. A pivotal early literary work is Chand Bardai's epic Prithviraj Raso. The language underwent significant transformation following the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate and later the Mughal Empire, absorbing a substantial volume of Persian, Arabic, and Turkish vocabulary, leading to the emergence of Hindustani. The modern standard was crystallized in the 19th century through the efforts of scholars like Bharatendu Harishchandra and institutions such as the Fort William College in Kolkata, with post-independence language reforms further shaping its contemporary form.

Geographical distribution

Hindi is the primary lingua franca of the Hindi Belt, a region encompassing states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi. It is also widely spoken and understood in other regions including Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Punjab. As a result of the Indian diaspora, significant communities of Hindi speakers exist in Nepal, Fiji, Mauritius, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Within India, it serves as a link language for inter-regional communication, facilitated by its prominence in Bollywood cinema and national media.

Official status

Under Article 343 of the Constitution of India, Hindi in the Devanagari script was declared the official language of the Union of India, with English as an associate official language for a transitional period. The Official Languages Act, 1963 continues this bilingual arrangement. Hindi is one of the 22 scheduled languages listed in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India. It is also an official language in the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. Additionally, Hindi is recognized as a minority language in Oman and used for religious purposes in Fiji.

Phonology and grammar

Standard Hindi possesses a phonemic inventory typical of Indo-Aryan languages, featuring a series of retroflex consonants like /ʈ/ and /ɖ/, and a distinction between aspirated and unaspirated consonants. Its vowel system includes both short and long vowels, and nasalization is phonemic. Grammatically, it is a relatively analytic language with a subject-object-verb (SOV) basic word order. It employs postpositions rather than prepositions and features a complex system of verb aspect and honorifics. Nouns are marked for grammatical case, number, and grammatical gender, with two genders (masculine and feminine), and verbs agree in gender and number with their subjects.

Writing systems

The primary script for Hindi is the Devanagari script, an abugida derived from the ancient Brahmi script. Devanagari is written from left to right and is characterized by a distinctive horizontal top line (shirorekha) connecting letters within a word. Historically, before standardization, varieties of Hindi were also written in scripts like Kaithi and Mahajani, particularly in administrative contexts. While the Persian alphabet is used for its sister register Urdu, the use of Devanagari for Hindi was solidified as a symbol of linguistic and cultural identity during the Hindi-Urdu controversy and post-independence language policy.

Literature and media

Hindi literature is traditionally divided into periods such as Adi Kal (early period), Bhakti Kal (devotional period), Riti Kal (scholastic period), and Adhunik Kal (modern period). Key figures include Kabir, Tulsidas (author of Ramcharitmanas), Surdas, Mirza Ghalib (who wrote in both Persian and Urdu), and modern luminaries like Munshi Premchand, Mahadevi Verma, and Harivansh Rai Bachchan. In contemporary media, Hindi dominates the Indian film industry, particularly Bollywood, and is the principal language for national television networks like Doordarshan, major newspapers such as Dainik Jagran and Amar Ujala, and a vast array of radio programming on All India Radio.

Dialects and related languages

Within the Hindi dialect continuum, several major varieties exist, including Awadhi, Braj Bhasha, Bhojpuri, Bundeli, Haryanvi, and Rajasthani. These are often considered separate languages by linguists but are frequently subsumed under the broader Hindi label for political and census purposes. The closest relative to Standard Hindi is Urdu, the two being largely mutually intelligible in their colloquial forms but differentiated by script and higher-register vocabulary. Other notable Indo-Aryan relatives include Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, and Sindhi, all descending from Sanskrit.

Category:Languages of India