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Hindi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hindi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Standard Hindi)

Hindi ( ), or more precisely
Modern Standard Hindi (
), is a standardised and
Sanskritised register of the
Hindustani language. Hindustani is
the native language of most people
living in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh,
Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh,
Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya
Pradesh, Haryana, and
Rajasthan.[5] Modern Standard
Hindi is one of the official
languages of India.
As of 2009, the best figure
Ethnologue could find for speakers
of actual Hindustani Hindi was
180 million in 1991.[1] In the 2001
Indian census, 258 million
(258,000,000) people in India
reported Hindi to be their native
language,[6] which not only
includes Hindu speakers of
Hindustani, but also people who
identify as native speakers of
related languages who consider
their speech to be a dialect of
Hindi, the Hindi belt.

Hindi
or
Hind or Mnak Hind

The word "Hindi" in Devanagari script

Pronunciation Hindustani pronunciation: [mank in
d
i]
Native to

India
Significant communities in South Africa, Nepal

Native
speakers

180 million (1991)[1]

Language
family

Indo-European

Writing
system

Devanagari (Brahmic)
Hindi Braille

Signed forms

Signed Hindi

Indo-Iranian
Indo-Aryan
Sanskrit
Central Zone (Hindi)
Western Hindi
Hindustani[2]
Khariboli[2]
Hindi

Official status

Contents

Regulated by

Central Hindi Directorate[3]

Language codes

1 Official status

ISO 639-1

hi

2 History

ISO 639-2

hin

3 Comparison with

ISO 639-3

hin

Modern Standard Urdu

Linguist list

hin-hin (http://multitree.linguistlist.org/codes/hin-

4 Script
5 Sanskrit vocabulary
6 Literature
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi

hin)

Glottolog

hind1269
(http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/hind1269)[4]
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7 Internet

Linguasphere

59-AAF-qf

8 Sample text
9 See also
10 References
10.1 Notes
10.2 Bibliography
10.3 Dictionaries
11 Further reading
12 External links

Official status
Areas (red) where Hindustani (Khariboli/Kauravi) is the native language,

The Indian constitution, adopted in

compared to all Indic languages (dark grey)
1950, declares Hindi shall be
written in the Devanagari script
and will be the official language of
the Federal Government of
India.[7] However, English
continues to be used as an official language along with Hindi. Hindi is also enumerated as one of the
twenty-two languages of the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which entitles it to representation
on the Official Language Commission.[8] The Constitution of India has effectively instituted the usage of
Hindi and English as the two languages of communication for the Union Government. Most government
documentation is prepared in three languages: English, Hindi, and the primary official language of the local
state, if it is not Hindi or English.
Article 351 of the Indian constitution stipulates that Hindi language shall be enriched by drawing for its
vocabulary primarily from Sanskrit and secondarily from other languages.[9] The trend is different in Hindi
cinema where more and more English, Persian, Turkish and Arabic vocabulary is preferred. Article 344
stipulates that official language commission shall be constituted every ten years to recommend steps for
progressive use of Hindi language and imposing restrictions on the use of the English language. In practice,
the official language commissions are constantly endeavouring to promote Hindi but not imposing
restrictions on English in official use.
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),[10] 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 the those in Tamil Nadu), Maharashtra, and West Bengal, 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.

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At the state level, Hindi is the official language of the following states: Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana,
Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. Each may also
designate a "co-official language"; in Uttar Pradesh, for instance, depending on the political formation in
power, this language is generally Urdu. Similarly, Hindi is accorded the status of official language in the
following Union Territories: Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman &
Diu, National Capital Territory.
National-language status for Hindi is a long-debated theme. An Indian court clarified that Hindi is not the
national language of India because the constitution does not mention it as such.[11]
Outside of Asia, Hindi is also an official language in Fiji. The Constitution of Fiji states 3 official
languages, namely English, Fijian, and Hindi. The dialect of Hindi spoken there is known as 'Fiji Baat' or
Fiji Hindi.

History
The dialect of Hindustani on which Standard Hindi is based is Khariboli, the vernacular of Delhi and the
surrounding western Uttar Pradesh and southern Uttarakhand . This dialect acquired linguistic prestige in
the Mughal Empire (1600s) and became known as Urdu, "the language of the court". In the late 19th
century, the movement standardising a written language from Khariboli, for the Indian masses in North
India, started to standardise Hindi as a separate language from Urdu, which was learnt by the elite. In 1881
Bihar accepted Hindi as its sole official language, replacing Urdu, and thus became the first state of India to
adopt Hindi.
After independence, the government of India instituted the following conventions:
standardisation of grammar: In 1954, the Government of India set up a committee to prepare a
grammar of Hindi; The committee's report was released in 1958 as "A Basic Grammar of Modern
Hindi"
standardisation of the orthography, using the Devanagari script, by the Central Hindi Directorate of
the Ministry of Education and Culture to bring about uniformity in writing, to improve the shape of
some Devanagari characters, and introducing diacritics to express sounds from other languages.
The Constituent Assembly adopted Hindi as the Official Language of the Union on 14 September 1949.
Hence, it is celebrated as Hindi Day.

Comparison with Modern Standard Urdu

Linguistically, Hindi and Urdu are the same language. Hindi is written in the Devanagari script and uses
more Sanskrit words, whereas Urdu is written in the Persian script and uses more Persian words.

Script
Hindi is mainly written in Devanagari script (
devangar lipi) also called Nagari.
Devanagari consists of 11 vowels and 33 consonants, and is written from left to right.
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Sanskrit vocabulary
Formal Standard Hindi draws much of its academic vocabulary from Sanskrit. Standard Hindi loans words
are divided into five principal categories:
Tatsam ( / same as that) words: These are words which are spelt the same in Hindi as in
Sanskrit (except for the absence of final case inflexions).[12] They include words inherited from
Sanskrit via Prakrit which have survived without modification (e.g. Hindustani nm / Sanskrit nma,
"name"; Hindustani Suraj / Sanskrit Surya, "sun"),[13] as well as forms borrowed directly from
Sanskrit in more modern times (e.g. prrthan, "prayer").[14] Pronunciation, however, conforms to
Hindi norms and may differ from that of classical Sanskrit. Amongst nouns, the tatsam word could be
the Sanskrit uninflected word-stem, or it could be the nominative singular form in the Sanskrit
nominal declension.
Ardhatatsam ( ) words: Such words have typically undergone sound changes subsequent to
being borrowed.
Tadbhav ( / born of that) words: These are words that are spelt differently from in Sanskrit but
are derivable from a Sanskrit prototype by phonological rules (e.g. Sanskrit karma, "deed" becomes
Pali kamma, and eventually Hindi km, "work").[12]
Deshaj (
) words: These are words that were not borrowings but do not derive from attested
Indo-Aryan words either. Belonging to this category are onomatopoetic words.
Videsh (
/ 'Foreign') words: these include all loanwords purportedly from sources other than
Indo-Aryan, but the most frequent sources identified in this category have been not only Persian and
Arabic, but also the Indo-Aryan Portuguese and English.
The Hindi standard, from which much of the Persian, Arabic and English vocabulary has been purged and
replaced by neologisms compounding tatsam words, is called Shuddha Hindi (pure Hindi), and is viewed as
a more prestigious dialect over other more colloquial forms of Hindi.
Similarly, Urdu treats its own vocabulary, borrowed directly from Persian and Arabic, as a separate
category for morphological purposes. Excessive use of tatsam words creates problems for native speakers.
They may have Sanskrit consonant clusters which do not exist in native Hindi. The educated middle class
of India may be able to pronounce such words, but others have difficulty. Persian and Arabic vocabulary
given 'authentic' pronunciations cause similar difficulty.

Literature
Hindi literature is broadly divided into four prominent forms or styles, being Bhakti (devotional Kabir,
Raskhan); Shringar (beauty Keshav, Bihari); Virgatha (extolling brave warriors); and Adhunik (modern).

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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 also in
Khariboli. During the British Raj, Hindustani became the prestige dialect. Hindustani with heavily
Sanskritised vocabulary or Sahityik Hindi (Literary 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 the educated people.
Chandrakanta, written by Devaki Nandan Khatri, is considered the
first authentic work of prose in modern Hindi. The person who
brought realism in the Hindi prose literature was Munshi
Premchand, who is considered as the most revered figure in the
world of Hindi fiction and progressive movement.
The Dwivedi 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 the Modern Hindi language in
poetry and broadening the acceptable subjects of Hindi poetry from
the traditional ones of religion and romantic love.
A Tram in Melbourne with a caution

In the 20th century, Hindi literature saw a romantic upsurge. This is

message in Hindi
known as Chhayavaad (shadowism) and the literary figures
belonging to this school are known as Chhayavaadi. Jaishankar
Prasad, Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala', Mahadevi Varma and Sumitranandan Pant, are the four major
Chhayavaadi poets.

Uttar Adhunik 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 Chhayavaadi movement, and by a return to
simple language and natural themes.

Internet
Hindi has a presence on the internet,[15] but due to lack of standard encoding, search engines cannot be used
to locate text.[16] Hindi is one of the seven languages of India that can be used to make web addresses.
(URLs).[17] Hindi has also impacted the language of technology,[18] with words such as 'avatar' (meaning a
spirit taking a new form) used in computer sciences, artificial intelligence and even robotics.

Sample text
The following is a sample text in High Hindi, of the Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(by the United Nations):
Hindi

Transliteration (IAST)
Anucched 1 Sabh manuy ko gaurav aur adhikr ke vishay m janmajt svatantrat aur
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samnt prpt hai. Unh buddhi aur antartm k den prpt hai aur paraspar unh bhchre ke
bhv se bartv karn chie.
Transcription (IPA)
nted
ek sbi mnj ko r d
ka ke mamle m dnmdat
st
nt
t
a
papt
h. n bd
nt
at
ma ki d
en papt
h psp n baitae ke ba se
bt
a kn tahe.
Gloss (word-to-word)
Article 1 All human-beings to dignity and rights' matter in from-birth freedom and equality
acquired is. Them to reason and conscience's endowment acquired is and always them to
brotherhood's spirit with behavior to do should.
Translation (grammatical)
Article 1 All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with
reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

See also
Hindustani (covers phonology, grammar, and orthography)
Anti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu
List of Sanskrit and Persian roots in Hindi
Languages of India and Languages with official status in India
List of languages by number of native speakers in India
The list of Hindi words at Wiktionary, the free dictionary
List of English words of Hindi or Urdu origin

References
Notes
1. ^ a b Hindi reference (http://archive.ethnologue.com/16/show_language.asp?code=hin) at Ethnologue (16th ed.,
2009)
2. ^ a b Hindustani (2005). Keith Brown, ed. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2 ed.). Elsevier. ISBN 008-044299-4.
3. ^ "Central Hindi Directorate: Introduction" (http://hindinideshalaya.nic.in/english/aboutus/aboutus.html).
4. ^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarstrm, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Hindi"
(http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/hind1269). Glottolog 2.2 (http://glottolog.org/). Leipzig: Max Planck
Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

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5. ^ Hindi (2005). Keith Brown, ed. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2 ed.). Elsevier. ISBN 0-08044299-4.
6. ^ "Data by speakers of language"
(http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement1.htm). Census of India.
2001. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
7. ^ "Sequence of events with reference to official language of the Union" (http://rajbhasha.nic.in/IIContent.aspx?
t=enevents).
8. ^ "The Constitution of India" (http://lawmin.nic.in/coi/coiason29july08.pdf) (PDF). Retrieved 18 February 2013.
9. ^ "Constitution of India" (http://lawmin.nic.in/olwing/coi/coi-english/coi-indexenglish.htm). Retrieved 21 March
2012.
10. ^ "Rajbhasha"
(https://web.archive.org/web/20120131084820/http://www.india.gov.in/govt/documents/hindi/PARTXVII.pdf) (in
Hindi & English). india.gov.in. Archived from the original
(http://india.gov.in/govt/documents/hindi/PARTXVII.pdf) on 19 January 2012.
11. ^ "Hindi, not a national language: Court" (http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/hindi-not-a-national-languagecourt/article94695.ece). The Hindu. 25 January 2010. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
12. ^ a b Masica, p. 65
13. ^ Masica, p. 66
14. ^ Masica, p. 67
15. ^ "Usage of Hindi for websites" (http://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cl-hi-/all/all). W3Techs.com. Retrieved
9 September 2013.
16. ^ Pann Yu Mon, Madhukar Pathak (2012). "Search Engines and Asian Languages"
(http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/netlang_EN_pdfedition.pdf). In Laurent
Vannini, Herv le Crosnier. Net.lang : towards the multilingual cyberspace. Caen: C&F d. coord by Maaya
Network. p. 174. ISBN 978-2-915825-09-1. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
17. ^ Eluvangal, Sreejiraj (4 April 2011). "URLs in 7 regional languages soon"
(http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-urls-in-7-regional-languages-soon-1528401). DNA. Retrieved 9 September
2013.
18. ^ "Silicon Valley gets linguistic enlightenment from India" (http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-10-28/silicon-valleygets-linguistic-enlightenment-india). Retrieved 28 October 2013.

Bibliography
Bhatia, Tej K. (11 September 2002). Colloquial Hindi: The Complete Course for Beginners
(http://books.google.com/books?id=7chEAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT6). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1134-83534-8. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
Grierson, G. A. Linguistic Survey of India Vol I-XI, Calcutta, 1928, ISBN 81-85395-27-6 (searchable
database) (http://joao-roiz.jp/LSI/).
Koul, Omkar N. (2008). Modern Hindi grammar
(http://v2winners.com/Ebooks/spoeng/Spoken%20English/ModernHindiGrammar.pdf). Springfield,
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VA: Dunwoody Press. ISBN 978-1-931546-06-5. Retrieved 19 July 2014.

McGregor, R.S. (1995). Outline of Hindi grammar: With exercises
(https://archive.org/details/OutlineOfHindiGrammar) (3. ed. ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Pr. ISBN 0-19870008-3. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
Masica, Colin (1991). The Indo-Aryan Languages (http://books.google.com/books?
id=J3RSHWePhXwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=indo-aryan+languages). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29944-2.
Ohala, Manjari (1999). "Hindi" (http://books.google.com/books?
id=33BSkFV_8PEC&pg=PA100&vq=%22manjari+ohala%22&dq=%22handbook+of+the+internatio
nal+phonetic+association%22). In International Phonetic Association. Handbook of the International
Phonetic Association: a Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge
University Press. pp. 100103. ISBN 978-0-521-63751-0.
Sadana, Rashmi (2012). English Heart, Hindi Heartland: the Political Life of Literature in India
(http://books.google.com/books?id=U2WNfFpT14IC). University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520-26957-6. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
Shapiro, Michael C. (2001). "Hindi". In Garry, Jane; Rubino, Carl. An encyclopedia of the world's
major languages, past and present. New England Publishing Associates. pp. 305309.
Shapiro, Michael C. (2003). "Hindi" (http://books.google.com/books?
id=jPR2OlbTbdkC&pg=PA250&dq=indo-aryan). In Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh. The IndoAryan Languages. Routledge. pp. 250285. ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5.
Snell, Rupert; Weightman, Simon (1989). Teach Yourself Hindi (2003 ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780-07-142012-9.
Taj, Afroz (2002) A door into Hindi (http://taj.chass.ncsu.edu/). Retrieved 8 November 2005.
Tiwari, Bholanath ([1966] 2004) (Hind Bhasha), Kitab Pustika, Allahabad, ISBN 81225-0017-X.

Dictionaries
John Thompson Platts (1884), A dictionary of Urd, classical Hind, and English
(http://books.google.com/?id=iDtbAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false)
(reprint ed.), LONDON: H. Milford, p. 1259, retrieved 2011-07-06Oxford University
Academic Room Hindi Dictionary Mobile App developed in the Harvard Innovation Lab (iOS,
Android and Blackberry)
McGregor, R.S. (1993), Oxford HindiEnglish Dictionary (2004 ed.), Oxford University Press, USA.

Further reading
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Bhatia, Tej K A History of the Hindi Grammatical Tradition. Leiden, Netherlands & New York, NY:
E.J. Brill, 1987. ISBN 90-04-07924-6
Sadana, Rashmi, "Managing Hindi (http://caravanmagazine.in/books/managing-hindi)," The Caravan.
April 2012.

External links
Hindi (https://www.dmoz.org/World/Hindi) at DMOZ
The Union: Official Language
(http://knowindia.gov.in/knowindia/profile.php?id=33)
Official Unicode Chart for Devanagari (PDF)
(http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0900.pdf)

Hindi edition of
Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Wikivoyage has a
phrasebook for Hindi.

USA Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Hindi basic course

(http://www.fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Hindi)
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