Hindi (Devanāgarī: हिन्दी or हिंदी,IAST: Hindī, IPA: [ˈɦɪndiː] is the name given to an Indo-Aryan language, or a dialect continuum of languages, spoken in northern and central India (the “Hindi belt“)
Native speakers of Hindi dialects between them account for 41% of the Indian population (2001 Indian census). As defined in the Constitution of India, Hindi is one of the two official languages of communication (English being the other) for India’s federal government and is one of the 22 scheduled languages specified in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution.Official Hindi is often described as Standard Hindi, which along with English, is used for administration of the central government. Hindustani or Standard Hindi is also an official language of Fiji.
The term Hindi is used from multiple perspectives of language classification; therefore, it must be used with care. Standard Hindi and standard Urdu are considered by linguists to be different formal registers both derived from the Khari Boli dialect: Hindi being Sanskritised and Urdu being additionallyPersianised (written with different writing systems, Devanagari and Perso-Arabic script, respectively).
Contents |
History
Hindi evolved from Prakrit. Though there is no consensus for a specific time, Hindi originated as local dialects such as Braj, Awadhi, and finally Khari Boli after the turn of tenth century (these local dialects are still spoken, each by large
populations). In the span of nearly a thousand years of political subjugation to Muslim rulers (the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire) using Persian as their official language, Khari Boli adopted many Persian and Arabic words. As for the ultimately Arabic words, since almost every one of them came via Persian, their form in Hindi-Urdu does not preserve the original phonology of Arabic.
Current use
Hindi is the most widely spoken of India’s official languages. It is spoken mainly in northern states of Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar, and is
spoken alongside regional languages like Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi or Bengali throughout north and central India. Hindi is also understood in other parts of India as well as in the neighbouring countries of Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Hindustani is spoken by all persons of Indian descent in Fiji. In Western Viti Levu and Northern Vanua Levu, it is a common spoken language and a link language spoken between Fijians of Indian descent and native Fijians. The latter are also the only ethnic group in the world of non Indian descent that includes majority Hindi speakers. Native speakers of Hindi dialects account for 48% of the Fiji population. This includes all people of Indian ancestry including those whose forefathers emigrated from regions in India where Hindi was not generally spoken. As defined in the Constitution of Fiji (Constitution Amendment Act 1997 (Act No. 13 of 1997), Section 4(1), Hindi is one of the three official languages of communication (English and Fijian being the others). Section 4(4)(a)(b)(c)(d) also states that 4) Every person who transacts business with: (a) a department; (b) an office in a state service; or (c) a local authority; has the right to do so in English, Fijian, or Hindustani, either directly or through a competent interpreter.
Hindi and Urdu
The term Urdu arose as far back as the 12th century and gradually merged together with Hindi. The term Hindawi was used in a general sense for the dialects of central and northern India. Urdu is the official language of Pakistan and is also an official language in some parts of India.
There are three fundamental distinctions between standard Urdu and standard Hindi that lead to their being recognised as distinct languages:
- the source of borrowed vocabulary;
- the script used to write them (for Urdu, an adaptation of the Perso-Arabic script written in Nasta’liq style; for Hindi, an adaptation of the Devanagari script);
- Urdu’s use of five consonants borrowed from Persian.
For the most part, Hindi and Urdu have a common vocabulary, and this common vocabulary is heavily Persianised. Beyond this, Urdu contains even more Persian loanwords while Hindi resorts to borrowing from Sanskrit. (It is mostly the learned vocabulary that shows this visible distinction.)
With regard to regional vernaculars spoken in north India, the distinction between Urdu and Hindi is insignificant, especially when little learned vocabulary is being used. Outside the Delhi dialect area, the term “Hindi” is used in reference to the local dialect, which may be different from both standard Hindi and standard Urdu. With regard to the comparison of standard Hindi and standard Urdu, the grammar (word structure and sentence structure) is identical.
The word Hindi has many different uses; confusion of these is one of the primary causes of debate about the identity of Urdu. These uses include:
- standardised Hindi as taught in schools throughout India,
- formal or official Hindi advocated by Purushottam Das Tandon and as instituted by the post-independence Indian government, heavily influenced by Sanskrit,
- the vernacular nonstandard dialects of Hindustani/Hindi-Urdu as spoken throughout much of India and Pakistan, as discussed above,
- the neutralised form of the language used in popular television and films, or
- the more formal neutralized form of the language used in broadcast and print news reports.
The rubric “Hindi” is often used as a catch-all for those idioms in the North Indian dialect continuum that
are not recognised as languages separate from the language of the Delhi region.
Punjabi, Bihari, and Chhattisgarhi, while sometimes recognised as being distinct
languages, are often considered dialects of Hindi. Many other local idioms, such
as the Bhili languages, which do not have a distinct identity defined by an
established literary tradition, are almost always considered dialects of Hindi.
In other words, the boundaries of “Hindi” have little to do with mutual
intelligibility, and instead depend on social perceptions of what constitutes a
language.
The other use of the word “Hindi” is in reference to Standard Hindi, the Khari Boli register of the Delhi dialect of Hindi (generally called
Hindustani) with its direct loanwords from Sanskrit. Standard Urdu is also a
standardized form of Hindustani. Such a state of affairs, with two standardized
forms of what is essentially one language, is known as a diasystem.
Urdu was earlier called Zabān-e-Urdū-e-Mu`Allah (زبانِ اردوِ معلہ,
ज़बान-ए उर्दू-ए मुअल्लह), lit., the “Exalted Language of the [military] Camp”.
Earlier, the terms “Hindi” and “Urdu” were used interchangeably even by Urdu
poets like Mir and Mirza Ghalib of the early
19th century (more often, however, the terms Hindvi/Hindi were used); while
British officials usually understood the term “Urdu” to refer solely to the
writing system and not to a language at all. By 1850, Hindi and Urdu were no
longer used for the same language. Other linguists such as Sir G. A. Grierson (1903) have also claimed that Urdu is simply
a dialect or style of Western Hindi. Before the Partition of India, Delhi, Lucknow, Aligarh and Hyderabad used to be
the four literary centers of Urdu.
The colloquial language spoken by the people of Delhi is indistinguishable by
ear, whether it is called Hindi or Urdu by its speakers. The only important
distinction at this level is in the script: if written in the Perso-Arabic
script, the language is generally considered to be Urdu, and if written in
Devanagari it is generally considered to be Hindi. However, since independence
the formal registers
used in education and the media have become increasingly divergent in their
vocabulary. Where there is no colloquial word for a concept, Standard Urdu uses
Perso-Arabic vocabulary, while Standard Hindi uses Sanskrit vocabulary. This
results in the official languages being heavily Sanskritized or Persianized, and
nearly unintelligible to speakers educated in the other standard (as far as the
formal vocabulary is concerned).
These two standardised registers of Hindustani have become so entrenched as
separate languages that many extreme-nationalists, both Hindu and Muslim, claim
that Hindi and Urdu have always been separate languages. The tensions reached a
peak in the Hindi–Urdu
controversy in 1867 in the then United
Provinces during the British Raj.
Phonology
| This section requires expansion. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Writing system
| This section requires expansion. |
Hindi is written in the Devanagari script, which was
originally used to write Sanskrit. To represent sounds
that are not found in Sanskrit, additional letters have been coined by choosing
an existing Devanagari letter representing a similar sound and adding a dot
beneath it. For example, the sound ‘z’ is represented by ज़ , which is a
modification of the letter which represents the sound ‘j’ ([ɟ] in IPA).
Grammar
Hindi is a subject-object-verb
language, meaning that verbs usually fall at the end of the sentence rather than
before the object (whereas in English it is often Subject Verb Object). Hindi
also shows split ergativity so
that, in some cases, verbs agree with the object of a sentence rather than the
subject. Unlike English, Hindi has no definite article (the). The numeral
one (एक “ek”) might be used as the indefinite singular article (a/an) if
this needs to be stressed.
In addition, Hindi uses postpositions
(so called because they are placed after nouns) where English uses prepositions.
Other differences include gender, honorifics, interrogatives, 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 Urdū.
The concept of punctuation other than the full stop having been entirely unused
before the arrival 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 also
used.
Genders
In Hindi, there are two genders for nouns. All male human beings and male
animals (and those animals and plants that are perceived to be “masculine”) are masculine. All female human beings and female animals (and those animals
and plants that are perceived to be “feminine”) are feminine. Things,
inanimate articles and abstract nouns are also either masculine or feminine
according to convention. While this is the same as Urdū and similar to many other Indo-European languages such
as, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese, it is a
challenge for those who are used to only the English language, which
although an Indo-European language, has dropped nearly all of its gender
inflection.
Interrogatives
Besides the standard interrogative terms of who (कौन kaun), what (क्या kyaa), why (कयों kyõ), when (कब kab), where (कहाँ kahã), how and what type (कैसा kaisaa), how many (कितना kitnaa), etc, the Hindi word kyaa (क्या) can be used as a generic
interrogative often placed at the beginning of a sentence to turn a statement
into a Yes/No question. This
makes it clear when a question is being asked. Questions can also be formed
simply by modifying intonation, exactly as some questions are in English.
Pronouns
Hindi has pronouns in the first, second and third person for one gender only.
Thus, unlike English, there is no difference between he or she.
More strictly speaking, the third person of the pronoun is actually the same as
the demonstrative pronoun (this / that). The verb, upon conjugation, usually
indicates the difference in the gender. The pronouns have additional cases of accusative and genitive, but no vocative. There may also be
binary ways of inflecting the pronoun in the accusative case. Note that for the
second person of the pronoun (you), Hindi has three levels of
honorifics:
- आप (/ɑːp/):
Formal and respectable form for you. Has no difference between the
singular and the plural. Used in all formal settings and speaking to persons
who are senior in job or age. Plural could be stressed by saying आप लोग (/ɑːp
loɡ/ you people) or आप सब (/ɑːp
səb/ you all). - तुम (/t̪um/):
Informal form of you. Has no difference between the singular and the
plural. Used in all informal settings and speaking to persons who are junior
in job or age. Plural could be stressed by saying तुम लोग (/t̪um
loɡ/ you people) or तुम सब (/t̪um
səb/ you all). Or “ap sab,” formal form of “you all.” - तू (/t̪uː/):
Extremely informal form of you. Strictly singular, its plural form
being /t̪um/.
Except for very close friends or poetic language involving God, it could be
perceived as offensive in India.
Imperatives (requests and commands) correspond in form to the level of
honorific being used, and the verb inflects to show the level of respect and
politeness desired. Because imperatives can already include politeness, the word
“kripayā”, which can be translated as “please”, is much less common than in
spoken English; it is generally only used in writing or announcements, and its
use in common speech may even reflect mockery.
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 (provided that the nouns/pronouns are always followed by
their postpositions or case markers). 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) Negation is formed by adding the word नहीं (nahī̃, “no”), in the
appropriate place in the sentence, or by utilizing न (na) or मत (mat) in some
cases. Note that in Hindi, the adjectives precede the nouns they qualify. The
auxiliaries always follow the main verb. In general, Hindi speakers or writers
enjoy considerable freedom in placing words to achieve stylistic and other
socio-psychological effects, though not as much freedom as in heavily inflected
languages.
Tense and aspect of
Hindi verbs
Hindi verbal structure is focused on aspect with
distinctions based on tense usually shown
through use of the verb होना (honā – to be) as an auxiliary. There are three
aspects: habitual (imperfect), progressive (also known as continuous) and
perfective. Verbs in each aspect are marked for tense in almost all cases with
the proper inflected form of होना. Hindi has four simple tenses, present, past,
future (presumptive), and subjunctive (referred
to as a mood by many linguists). Verbs are conjugated not only to show the number and person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) of
their subject, but also its gender. Additionally, Hindi has imperative and conditional moods. The
verbs must agree with the person, number and gender of the subject if and only
if the subject is not followed by any postposition. If this condition is not
met, the verb must agree with the number and gender of the object (provided the
object does not have any postposition). If this condition is also not met, the
verb agrees with neither. It is this kind of phenomenon that is called mixed ergativity.
Case
Hindi is a weakly inflected language for case;
the relationship of a noun in a sentence is usually shown by postpositions (i.e., prepositions that follow the noun). Hindi has
three cases for nouns. The Direct case is used for nouns not followed by
any postpositions, typically for the subject case. The Oblique
case is used for any nouns that is followed by a postposition.
Adjectives modifying nouns in the oblique case will inflect that same way. Some
nouns have a separate Vocative case. Hindi has two numbers: singular and
plural—but they may not be shown distinctly in all declensions.
Literature
Hindi films play an important role in popular culture. The dialogues and
songs of Hindi films use Khari Boli and Hindi-Urdu in
general, but the intermittent use of various dialects such as Awadhi, Rajasthani, Bhojpuri, and quite often Bambaiya Hindi, as also
of many English words, is common.
Alam Ara (1931), which ushered in the era of “talkie” films in India,
was a Hindustani film. This film had seven songs in it. Music soon became an
integral part of Hindustani/ Hindi cinema. It is a very important part of
popular culture and now comprises an entire genre of popular music. So
popular is film music that songs filmed even 50–60 years ago are a staple of
radio/TV and are generally very familiar to an Indian.
Hindi movies and songs are popular in many parts of India, such as Punjab,
Gujarat and Maharashtra, that do not speak Hindi as a native language. Indeed,
the Hindi film industry is largely based at Mumbai, in the Marathi-speaking
state of Maharashtra. Hindi films are
also popular abroad, especially in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh,
Thailand, Iran and the UK, and a fan-base is emerging in the rest of
Asia-Pacific. These days Hindi movies are released worldwide and have large
audiences in the Americas, Europe and Middle Eastern countries too.
The role of radio and television in propagating Hindi beyond its native audience cannot be overstated. Television in India was controlled by the central government until the proliferation of satellite TV made regulation unenforceable. During the era of control, Hindi predominated on both radio and TV, enjoying more air-time than local languages. After the advent of satellite TV, several private channels emerged to compete with the government’s official TV channel. Today, a large number of satellite channels provide viewers with much variety in entertainment. These include soap operas, detective serials, horror shows, dramas, cartoons, comedies, host shows for Hindi songs, Hindu
mythology and documentaries.
See also
References
Notes
- Dhanesh Jain; George Cardona (2003). The Indo-Aryan languages. Routledge. ISBN 9780700711307.
- Central Hindi Directorate regulates the use of Devanagari script and Hindi spelling in India. Source: Central Hindi Directorate: Introduction Constitution of India.
- The Union: Official Languages
- PDF from india.gov.in containing Articles 343 which states so
Bibliography
- Bhatia, Tej K. Colloquial Hindi: The Complete Course for Beginners. London, UK & New York, NY: Routledge, 1996. ISBN 0-415-11087-4 (Book), 0415110882 (Cassettes), 0415110890 (Book & Cassette Course)
- Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005), “Hindi“, written at Dallas, Ethnologue: Languages of the World (15th ed.), SIL International.
- Grierson, G. A. Linguistic Survey of India Vol I-XI, Calcutta, 1928, ISBN 81-85395-27-6
- Hock, Hans H. (1991), Principles of Historical Linguistics, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin–New York, ISBN
3-11-012962-0 - Koul, Omkar N. (1994). Hindi Phonetic Reader.Delhi: Indian Institute of Language Studies.
- Koul, Omkar N. (2008). Modern Hindi Grammar. Springfield: Dunwoody Press.
- McGregor, R. S. (1977), Outline of Hindi Grammar, 2nd Ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford-Delhi, ISBN
0-19-870008-3 (3rd ed.) - Masica, Colin (1991), written at Cambridge, The Indo-Aryan Languages, Cambridge University Press, ISBN
9780521299442, - Ohala, Manjari (1999), “Hindi”, in International Phonetic Association, Handbook of the International Phonetic
Association: a Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, 100–103, ISBN 9780521637510, - Pollock, Sheldon I (ed.) (2003). Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press. ISBN 0520228219. - Shapiro, Michael C. (2001), “Hindi”, in Garry, Jane & Carl Rubino, An encyclopedia of the world’s major languages, past and present, New England Publishing Associates, 305–309.
- Shapiro, Michael C. (2003), “Hindi”, in Cardona, George & Dhanesh Jain, The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, ISBN 9780415772945,
- Snell, Rupert & Simon Weightman (1989), Teach Yourself Hindi (2003 ed.), McGraw-Hill, ISBN 9780071420129.
- Taj, Afroz (2002) A door into Hindi.
- Tiwari, Bholanath ([1966] 2004) हिन्दी भाषा (Hindī Bhāshā), Kitāb Mahal, Allahabad, ISBN 81-225-0017-X.
Dictionaries
- McGregor, R.S. (1993), Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary (2004 ed.), Oxford University Press, USA.
- Dasa, Syamasundara. Hindi sabdasagara. Navina samskarana. Kasi: Nagari Pracarini Sabha, 1965-1975.
- Mahendra Caturvedi. A practical Hindi-English dictionary. Delhi: National Publishing House,
1970.
Further reading
- Bhatia, Tej K A History of the Hindi Grammatical Tradition. Leiden, Netherlands & New York, NY : E.J. Brill, 1987. ISBN 90-04-07924-60
NEPAL
4 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[...] or Gairsain (Hindi: गैरसैण) is a village in the centre of the young Indian state of Uttarakhand, This [...]
[...] (Hindi: देहरादून) pronunciation also sometimes spelled Dehra Doon, is the capital city of [...]
[...] Other languages spoken in India come from the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman linguistic families. Hindi, with the largest number of speakers, is the official language of the union. English is used [...]
[...] her career, Rai has acted in over forty movies in Hindi, English, Tamil and Bengali including the international productions Bride & Prejudice (2003), [...]
Post a Comment