Hindi: Encyclopedia - Hindi

Hindi

Hindi (हिन्दी hindī) is an Indo-European language spoken mainly in North, Central India and Western India. It is part of a dialect continuum of the Indo-Aryan family, bounded on the northwest and west by Panjābī, Sindhī, and Gujarātī; on the south by Marāthī; on the southeast by Orīya; on the east by Bengālī; and on the north by Nepālī.

Hindi also refers to a standardized register of Hindustani that was made one of the official languages of India. The grammatical description in this article concerns standard Hindi.

Hindi is often contrasted with Urdu, another standardized form of Hindustani that is the official language of Pakistan and some states in India. The primary differences between the two are that Standard Hindi is written in Devanāgarī and has been partially purged of its Persian and Arabic vocabulary, which was replaced by words from Sanskrit; while Urdu is written in a variant of the Persian alphabet and draws heavily on Persian and Arabic vocabulary. The term "Urdu" also includes dialects of Hindustani other than the standardized languages.

Hindi - Area

Hindi is the predominant language in the states and territories of Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttaranchal, Jharkhand, and Chattisgarh. It is spoken and understood in Gujarat, Punjab and Kashmir, states that otherwise have their own native languages. It is also widely spoken in the cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Kolkata, all of which are cosmopolitan cities harbouring large communities of people from various parts of India.

Local variations of Hindi are counted as minority languages in several countries, including Fiji, Mauritius, Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Hindi - Number of Speakers

Hindi is among the more widely spoken languages in the world. According to some estimates, about 500 million people in India and abroad are native speakers of Hindi and the total number of people who understand the language may be as high as 800 million. According to 1991 census^[2] 40.22% of the Indian population can speak Hindi.

More than 180 million people in India regard Standard Hindi as their mother tongue, making it the fourth-most spoken language in the world. Another 300 million use it as second language. Outside India, Hindi speakers number 8 million in Nepal, 890,000 in South Africa, 685,000 in Mauritius, 317,000 in the USA^[3], 233,000 in Yemen, 147,000 in Uganda, 30,000 in Germany, 20,000 in New Zealand and 5,000 in Singapore.

Hindi - History

Hindi evolved from Sanskrit, by way of the Middle Indo-Aryan prakrit languages and Apabhramsha of the Middle Ages.

As a standardised register of India, Hindi became the official language^[4] of India on January 26, 1950, although English and 21 other languages are recognised as official languages by the Constitution of India.

Hindi - Standard Hindi

After independence of India, the Government of India worked on standardizing Hindi, and the following changes took place:

• standardization of Hindi 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"
• standardization of Hindi spelling
• standardization of Devanagari (Devanāgarī) script by the Central Hindi Directorate, Ministry of Education and Culture to bring about uniformity in writing and to improve the shape of some devanagari characters.
• scientific mode of scribing the Devanagari alphabet
• incorporation of diacritics to express sounds from other languages

Hindi - Vocabulary

Standard Hindi derives much of its formal and technical vocabulary from Sanskrit. Standard or shuddha ("pure") Hindi is used only in public addresses and radio or TV news, while the everyday spoken language in most areas is one of several varieties of Hindustani, whose vocabulary contains words drawn from Persian. In addition, spoken Hindi uses words from English and other languages as well.

Vernacular Urdu and Hindi are practically indistinguishable. However, the literary registers differ substantially; in highly formal situations, the languages are barely intelligible to speakers of the other. It bears mention that for centuries past, Sanskrit and Persian had been regarded, to a large extent regardless of their ethnic or religious background, as the languages of the elite.

Hindi - Dialects

Hindi in the broad sense is a dialect continuum without clear boundaries. For example, both Nepali and Panjabi are sometimes considered to be Hindi (based on the high level of mutual intelligibility for Panjabi and Hindi especially), though they are more often considered to be separate languages. Hindi is often divided into Western Hindi and Eastern Hindi, and these are further divided. Following is a list of principal Hindi dialects; boldface indicates an idiom that often classified as a separate language.

• Hindustani, including standard Hindi (or 'High Hindi') and standard Urdu, as well as regional dialects of Urdu. Standard Hindi is the principal official languages of India, while standard Urdu is the official language of Pakistan and the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Urdu has a rich literary history, being the language of the Mughal court second only to Persian
• Khadiboli or Sarhindi, spoken in western Uttar Pradesh; the dialect that forms the basis for Standard Hindi
• Chhattisgarhi (sometimes spelled "Chattisgarhi"; also known as Lahariya or Khalwahi), spoken mostly in the recently created state of Chhattisgarh
• Bagheli, spoken mostly in the Baghelkhand region of the state of Madhya Pradesh
• Awadhi, spoken mostly in central Uttar Pradesh, the area formerly comprising the kingdom of Awadh or "Oudh"
  • Fijian Hindustani, a form of Awadhi spoken by Fijians of Indian descent
• Bihari', mostly spoken in the state of Bihar, which in turn is comprised of several principal dialects:
  • Angika,
  • Bhojpuri
  • Sarnami - a form of Bhojpuri with Awadhi influence spoken by Surinamers of Indian descent
  • Maithili, now an official language of Bihar
  • Magahi,
  • Vajjika,
• Rajasthani, mostly spoken in the state of Rajasthan, and also comprised of several notable (sub)dialects:
  • Marwari
  • Mewati or "Mewari"
  • Jaipuri
• Braj Bhasha, in a vaguely defined region of north central India, centered on Delhi
• Bundeli, mostly spoken in the Bundelkhand region and the Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh
• Hariyanvi, Bangaru or Jatu, mostly spoken in the state of Haryana
• Kanauji, mostly spoken in Kanauj, Uttar Pradesh
• The Eastern Hindi dialect centered on the Hindu holy city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, with a strong influence on the Sanskritized learned vocabulary of standard Hindi
• Bambaiya Hindi, the dialect of the city of Bombay (Mumbai); the basis for the language of the popular Bollywood films

These dialects demonstrate a variety of influences including the adjacent Iranian, Dravidian, and Tibeto-Burman language families.

Bollywood dialects: Hindi movies often use dialects to highlight the regional character of some of the roles. Some of the dialects used include

• Bhojpuri: Movie "Ganga-Jamuna"
• Bhopali: Spoken by Soorma Bhopali in "Sholay"
• Rajasthani: Movie "Paheli"
• Bundeli: Movie "Bandit Queen"
• Awadhi: Movie "Shatranj Ke Khiladi"
• Deccani: Movie "Ankur"
• Bambaiya Hindi: used in numerous movies

Needless to say, dialects used in movies are not always pure.

Hindi - Sounds

There are 11 vowels and 35 consonants in Standard Hindī. They are shown below:

Hindi - Vowels

The vowel /æ/ occurs in English loans and is represented by ऐ, which was originally used in Sanskrit for the 'ai' or 'əi' diphthong. But today in Khariboli, the Standard dialect, the vowel stands for /æ/ in almost all Hindi words. The other ten vowels have phonemic nasal counterparts. The vowel sequences /əi/ and /əu/, both oral and nasal, also occur. Note that the short 'a', often seen at the end of masculine Sanskritized words as well as elsewhere, which makes the non-Hindi speakers to pronounce it as short or long 'a', the back vowel, is actually the neutral vowel schwa 'ə'. The short vowel 'e' as in English 'set' also occurs at some places in urban Hindi in place of schwa, like "rehnā" (रहना. to live), but there is no diacritic to mark it.

Hindi - Consonants

Hindi has a large consonant system, with about 38 distinct consonant phonemes. An exact number cannot be given, since the regional varieties of Hindi differ in the details of their consonant repertoire. To what extent certain sounds that appear only in foreign words should be considered part of Standard Hindi is also a matter of debate. The traditional core of the consonant system, inherited from Sanskrit, consists of a matrix of 25 plosives and 8 sonorants and fricatives. The system is filled out by 7 sounds that originated in Persian, but are now considered Hindi sounds.

The 25 plosives occur in five groups, with each group sharing the same position of articulation. These positions in their traditional order are: velar, retroflex, palatal, dental, and bilabial. In each position, there are five varieties of consonant, with four oral stops and one nasal stop. An oral stop may be voiced, aspirated, both, or neither. This four-way opposition is the hardest aspect of Hindi pronunciation for a speaker of English.

The voiced, unaspirated consonants are the easiest for English-speakers to pronounce. The initial sounds of "get", "jet", "debt", and "bet" are perfect examples of the velar, palatal, dental, and bilabial positions, respectively. The apico-domal or retroflex position is the hardest for an English speaker: the apex of the tongue must be curled backward and brought into contact with the dome of the palate, well behind the gum-line. In casual Hindi, however, bringing the tongue slightly above the alveolar ridge will also do.

The voiceless, unaspirated consonants are similar to those in French or in English words like "skin", "spin", and "stand". Aspirated voiceless consonants are similar to those in the English words "pat", "cat", "chat", and "tap" (though they are typically more heavily aspirated than in English). The voiced, aspirated consonants are the hardest to pronounce, but can be approximated by following the unaspirated version with an audible "h" sound. The nasal sounds are the same as in English.

The 4 resonants are y, r, l, and v. These are similar to English, except that r is a tap as in Spanish, not an approximant, and v is usually between English "v" and "w", though it may vary as either of those English sounds.

The native fricatives of Hindi are s and sh, which are pronounced as in English. There is also a breathy voice ɦ which is generally considered a fricative as well, and it is more or less like English "h" in "home".

There is a fourth fricative in the orthography, written ष, which is sometimes transcribed as "ssa" or "sha2". It was originally pronounced as [ʂ] in Sanskrit, and still is to some extent, but in many modern Hindi speakers it has merged with [ʃ].

Hindi - Borrowed sounds

The sounds /f/, /z/, and /ʃ/ occur only in loanwords. The additional sounds /q/, /χ/, and /ʁ/ may be found in some loanwords, but is more common in Urdu and among Indian Muslims.

Hindi - Writing system

The Devanagari script represents the sounds of spoken Hindi very closely, so that a person who knows the Devanagari letters can sound out a written Hindī text comprehensibly, even without knowing what the words mean.

• The anuswara (dot placed above a vowel) may represent one of these consonants: rda, nda, na, ma. These are pronounced after the vowel. This style is deprecated.
• The visarga (:) placed after a vowel represents ha.
• The anuswara (.) and visarga (:) are often included in list of vowel letters, but according to the standardized form of Hindi, they are consonants.
• A chandra-bindu sign is placed above a vowel to indicate nasalized vowel (anunasika).
• An ardha chandra-bindu placed above the vowel aa indicates 'o' sound of English (as in "office", "college"). Some people also use this sign, placed above a, to indicate 'e' (as in "bet") sound of English.

Hindi - Grammar

Hindi grammar can be very complex and is different in many ways from what English speakers are used to. A simple and obvious difference is that for expressing relationship of nouns, Hindi uses postpositions where English would use a preposition. Other differences include gender, honorifics, interrogatives, word order, use of cases, and different tenses. While being complicated, Hindi grammar is fairly regular, with irregularities being relatively limited. Despite differences in vocabulary and writing, Hindi grammar is nearly identical with Urdu. The concept of punctuation having been entirely unknown before the advent of the Europeans, Hindi punctuation uses western conventions for commas, exclamation points, and question marks. Periods are sometimes used to end a sentence, though the traditional "full stop" (a vertical line) is more generally used.

Nouns in Hindi have gender, and are either masculine or feminine. There are no overall rules for whether a word will be masculine or feminine so they simply need to be memorized. Adjectives and verbs agree in gender and number with nouns, so proper use of gender is required for conversation. Many masculine nouns end in a long aa (आ) sound and many feminine nouns end in a long ii (ई) sound, though many nouns will have neither of those endings and exceptions occur even for common words. All inanimate objects are either male or female; again, there is neither a neuter gender nor any rule that governs the established "sex" of inanimates

Besides the standard interrogative terms of who, what, why, when, where, how, how many, what type, etc, the Hindi word kyaa (क्या), which can also mean "what", can be used as a generic interrogative often placed at the beginning of a sentence to turn a statement into a question. This makes it clear when a question is being asked. Questions can also be formed simply by modifying intonation, exactly as English some questions are.

Hindi has three levels of honorifics, or politeness. As reflected in the personal pronoun "you", aap (आप) is the most formal and respectful; tum (तुम) is mid level and usual; and tu (तू) is very informal, verging on the impolite. "Aap" is grammatically plural like the English "you"; adjective and verb agreement follows that. Imperatives (commands or suggestions) typically have four levels, the first three corresponding to the three levels of honorifics, and the last expressing an additional level of politeness akin to "would you be so kind as to..." that might be used in English. The "tu" imperative is simply the verb stem formed by removing the infinitive particle "na". The "tum" imperative is formed by adding "o" to the verb stem, and the "aap" imperative is formed by adding "ie" or "iye" to the stem. The additional form adds "gaa" to the "aap" form. Because imperatives can already include politeness, the word "kripaya", which can be translated as "please", is much less common than in spoken English; it is generally only used in writing, and its use in common speech is usually intended as mockery.

Hindi - Word order

The standard word order in Hindi is, in general, Subject Object Verb, but where different emphasis or more complex structure is needed, this rule is very easily set aside. More specifically, the standard order is 1) Subject 2) Adverbs (in their standard order) 3) Indirect object and any of its adjectives 4) Direct object and any of its adjectives 5) Negation term or interrogative, if any, and finally the 6) Verb and any auxiliary verbs. (Snell, p93) The standard order can be modified in various ways to impart emphasis on particular parts of the sentence. Negation is formed by adding the word "nahiin" ("no"), in the appropriate place in the sentence, or by utilizing the particle "na" in some cases.

Hindi - Common tenses and aspect

Some of the most common verb tenses include the present imperfect, present continuous, past imperfect, past continuous, past perfect, and future. Present imperfect is used for habitual actions or states of being. The present continuous is used for ongoing actions, while the past continuous reflects actions that were occurring at a particular time. The past imperfect is used for past habitual actions or conditions, while the past perfect reflects completed actions and has three forms including simple past perfect and two forms akin to where English would use have or had [done].

See also: Grammatical aspect.

Hindi - Case

Nouns in Hindi have two cases, the direct and the oblique. The direct case is the standard form of the noun as found in the dictionary; the oblique is the form that is used along with postpositions, such as in "in the room". For example, the direct form of the word "room" is "kamraa"; in the oblique, it is "kamrey". So "in the room" is "kamrey maen". Pronouns also change in the oblique in similar fashion, and some interrogatives have oblique forms.

Hindi - Literature

Main article: Hindi literature

The beginnings of Hindi literature can be traced to the Prakrits of classical Sanskrit plays. Tulasidas's Ramacharitamanas attained wide popularity. Modern litterateurs include Jaishankar Prasad, Sumitranandan Pant, Maithili Sharan Gupta, Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala', Mahadevi Varma, Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayana 'Ajneya' and Munshi Premchand.

Hindi - Common difficulties faced in learning Hindi

• the phonetic mechanism of some sounds peculiar to Hindi (eg. rda, dha etc) The distinction between aspirated and unaspirated consonants will be difficult for English speakers. In addition, the distinction between dental and alveoloar (or retroflex) consonants will also pose problems. English speakers will find that they need to carefully distinguish between four different d-sounds and four different t-sounds.
• pronunciation of vowels: In English, unstressed vowels tend to have a "schwa" quality. The pronunciation of such vowels in English is changed to an "uh" sound; this is called reducing a vowel sound. The second syllable of "unify" is pronounced "uh" not "ee." The same for the unstressed second syllabe of "person" which is also pronounced "uh" rather than "oh." In Hindi, English-speakers must constantly be careful not to reduce these vowels. *In this respect, probably the most important mistake would be for English speakers to reduce final "ah" sounds to "uh." This can be especially important because an English pronunciation will lead to misunderstandings about grammar and gender. In Hindi, "vo bolta hai" is "he talks" whereas "vo bolti hai" is "she talks." A typical English pronunciation in the first sentence would be "vo boltuh hai," which will be understood as "she talks" by most Hindi-native speakers.
• The 'a' ending of many Sanskrit and Sanskrit borrowed gender-masculine words, due to Romanization, is highly confused by non-native speakers. It should never be pronounced as long back vowel "ā", but as the neutral schwa "ə". In Sanskrit, the so-written "Shiva (शिव)" should be pronounced as "Shivə" and never "Shivā", as the latter stands for the the feminine derivative of "Shiva" (compare Phillip-Phillipa), and could be understood to refer to Parvati, the wife of Shiva. In Hindi, the ending 'ə' of such masculine words is altogether dropped, or pronounced very feebly if the penultimate consonant is a cluster of two or more consonants. eg. In Hindi, "Shiva" is "Shiv", "Krishna" is usually "Krishn", "dharma" is "dhərm", "karma" is "kərm", "VaruNa" is "VəruN", etc. There are exceptions, of course, if the devanagari script itself dictates the additional diacritical mark for the vowel "ā" at the end of certain masculine words, like Brahmā (ब्रह्मा).
• the Verbal concordance; Hindi exhibits split ergativity; see Ergative-absolutive language for an example.
• Postpositions (ne)
• Relative-correlative constructions. In English interrogative and relative pronouns are the same word. In "Who are you?" the word "who" is an interrogative, or question, pronoun. In "My friend who lives in Chicago can speak Hindi," the word "who" is not an interrogative, or question, pronoun. It is a relative, or linking, pronoun. We find this pattern with other words: where, when, why, etc. are used both to ask questions and to link words. In Hindi, there are different words for each. The interrogative pronoun tends to start with the "k" sound:" kab = when?, kahaaN = where?, kitna = how much? The relative pronouns are usually very similar but start with "j" sounds: jab = when, jahaaN = where, jitna = how much. Hindi uses these j-sound pronouns where English uses relative pronouns and clauses. In English we say, "I study where she studies" but in Hindi we say this differently. "jahaaN vo padhti hai (she studies) vahaaN main padhta hoon (I study)." Here "jahaaN" means "where" and "vahaaN" means there.
• Honorifics. For many English speakers, the fact that Hindi uses a three-part system of honorifics in the second person pronoun ("you") is deeply mystifying. It shouldn't be. The more formal pronouns are used in situations in which it's proper to express a degree of social respect. The less formal pronouns depart from this and indicate, on the one hand, intimacy, or on the other, an absence of social respect. The most formal is "aap" and is the safest for foreigners to use in all situations. It is used in situations that range from deeply respectful to the merely businesslike. When first meeting adults, whether at the bank, hotel or a restaurant, we should use "aap." The more intimate "tum" would be acceptable in talking with children or with adults with whom one is on more intimate terms. The safest thing with adults is wait and see what pronoun they use with you. They will almost certainly start off with "aap," but might, over time, start to use "tum" if your relationship becomes more like that of close friends. If your Hindi is too weak to determine whether they are using "aap" or "tum," then by all means, you should use "aap." Many grammars say that foreigners will rarely have the chance to use "tum" with Indian colleagues, but that is true only if one behaves like a "memsahib" or "sahib." The most intimate pronoun is "tu", which is only used in situations where there is a total absence of human formality: it is used in addressing servants, very close friends and younger siblings. The use of "tu" with another adult may express the intimacy of lovers (but even here "tum" is safer) or extraordinary anger. What's the connection? All of these situations involve the lack of social respect.
• Direct and Oblique inflections
• Optative and Conditional moods
• Compound verbs

See also

• Hindi literature
• Origin of some common Hindi words
• Complex Text Layout languages
• Where is Hindi on the Internet?
• Languages of India
• List of national languages of India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers
• History of Hindi: a detailed chronology

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Hindi", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki