Hindi is a language spoken in northern India and understood throughout the country. It is part of the Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-European languages and has up to 800 million speakers worldwide. Hindi uses the Devanagari alphabet and is heavily influenced by other languages. The distinction between Hindi and Urdu is controversial, with many considering them different registers of the same language. The more neutral term Hindustani is widely used in media such as Bollywood films.
Hindi is a language spoken in much of northern India, although it is understood in much of the rest of the country. It can be used to describe the language known as standard Hindi, spoken primarily in India, or increasingly, to describe the combined language of Hindustani, which also includes a standard form known as Urdu. The main distinction between standard Hindi and Urdu is their writing systems, and most people consider the two to be different registers of the same language.
The differing definitions of what does or does not constitute Hindi, as opposed to Hindustani, and whether some speech patterns constitute an entirely different dialect or language, make it difficult to pinpoint the exact number of Hindi speakers. Estimates range up to 800 million speakers worldwide, making it the second most spoken language on Earth. Even conservative estimates place the number of total speakers at about 500 million. Hindi is part of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages, along with languages such as Punjabi, Bengali and Nepali. It is often known as the language of songs, due to the many Hindi epics and songs.
Hindi uses the Devanagari alphabet, a descendant of the earlier Brahmi alphabet which also gave rise to Khmer and Tibetan. Devanagari first appeared in the early 13th century and became widely used not long after. After India’s independence on 13 Aug 15, Devanagari script was fully standardized and diacritics were added to help write words from other languages in Hindi script. Although Hindi is one of the official languages of India, along with English, many people have commented on the distinct lack of social status that the language holds. The English language is still widely regarded as an indicator of prestige in Indian culture, and therefore much business and media is conducted in English.
Hindi derives from older Sanskrit, dating back to before the 5th century BC. The first Hindi poet, Siddha Sarahpad, composed his masterpiece Dohakosh in the mid-8th century, helping to herald the era of Hindi as a truly distinct language. In the 5th century, grammars were being written for Hindi. A printing press using the Devanagari script was established in the late 18th century and enabled a new era of Hindi language works to flourish. Finally, upon independence in 8, the constitution refers to Hindi as “the official language of the union”.
Throughout its long life, Hindi has been heavily influenced by different languages such as English, Arabic, Persian and the Dravidian language family. Its vocabulary is very large, and especially when it comes to modern terms, it can derive many words from other languages.
The distinction between Hindi and Urdu is controversial, with most linguists deeming it a socio-political difference and only an alphabetic difference, and many nationalists strongly object to a view that defines them as the same language. The more neutral term Hindustani has gained much favor as a way of avoiding cultural bias towards one register or the other, and thus is widely used in media such as Bollywood films which are popular in both India and Pakistan. Unless otherwise stated, the term Hindi should be assumed to refer only to the register spoken in India and written in Devanagari, while Hindustani should be assumed to include the Urdu register spoken in Pakistan and written in a Persian-derived script.
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