Hindi language: its value:

Hindi or Modern Standard Hindi, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in India and across the Indian subcontinent. Modern Hindi is the standardized and Sanskritised register of the Hindustani language, which itself is based primarily on the Khariboli dialect of Delhi and other nearby areas of Northern India. Hindi, written in the Devanagari script, is one of the two official languages of the Government of India, along with the English language. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India.  Contrary to the popular belief, Hindi is not the national language of India because no language was given such a status in the Indian Constitution. Hindi language: its value

Pronunciation	Hindi
Native to	India
Region	Northern, Eastern, Western and Central India
Ethnicity	No specific ethnicity or community
Native Speakers	L1 speakers; 322 million speakers of Hindi and various related languages reported their language as ‘Hindi’ (2011 census) L2 speakers: 270 million (2016)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-IranianIndo-AryanCentral ZoneKhariboliHindustaniHindi
Regulated by	Central Hindi Directorate

Hindi is the lingua franca of the Hindi belt and to a lesser extent other parts of India. Outside India, several other languages are recognized officially as “Hindi” but do not refer to the Standard Hindi language described here and instead descend from other dialects of Hindustani, such as Awadhi and Bhojpuri. Such languages include Fiji Hindi, which is official in Fiji, and Caribbean Hindustani, which is a recognized language in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname. Apart from specialized vocabulary, spoken Hindi is mutually intelligible with Standard Urdu, another recognized register of Hindustani.

As a linguistic variety, Hindi is the fourth most-spoken first language in the world, after Mandarin, Spanish and English. Alongside Urdu as Hindustani, it is the third most-spoken language in the World, after Mandarin and English.

History:

Like other Indo-Aryan languages, Hindi is a direct descendant of an early form of Vedic Sanskrit, through Sauraseni Prakit and Sauraseni Apabhramsa, which emerged in the 7^th century.

Before the standardization of Hindi on the Khariboli dialect, various dialects and languages of the Hindi belt attained prominence through literary standardization, such as Avadh and Braj Bhasha. Early Hindi literature came about in the 12^th and 13^th centuries CE. This body of work included the early Rajasthani epics such as renditions of the Dhola Maru, the Prithviraj Raso in Braj Bhasha, and the works of Amir Khusrow in the Khariboli of Delhi.

Basis of Modern Standard Hindi:

Modern Standard Hindi is based on the Khariboli dialect, the vernacular of Delhi and the surrounding region, which came to replace earlier prestige dialects such as Awadh, Maithili and Braj. Urdu-another form of Hindustani acquired linguistic prestige in the later Mughal period (the 1800s), and underwent significant Persian influence. Modern Hindi and its literary tradition evolved towards the end of the 18th century. John Gilchrist is principally known for his study of the Hindustani language, which led to its being adopted as the lingua franca of northern India by British Colonists and indigenous people. He compiled and authored An English Hindustani Dictionary, A Grammar of The Hindoostanee Language, the Oriental Linguist, and many more.

Official Use:

His Lexicon of Hindustani was published in Arabic Script, and in Roman transliteration. He is also known for his role in the foundation of University College London and for endowing the Gilchrist Educational Trust. In the late 19th century, a movement to further develop Hindi as a standardized form of Hindustani separate from Urdu took form. In 1881, Bihar accepted Hindi as its sole official language, replacing Urdu, and thus became the first state of India to adopt Hindi. Modern Standard Hindi is one of the youngest Indian languages in this regard.

Assembly of India adopted Hindi written in the Devanagari script as the official language of the Republic of India replacing Urdu’s previous usage in British India. To this end, several stalwarts rallied and lobbied pan-India in favor of Hindi, most notably Beohar Rajendra Simha along with Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Kaka Kaleikar, Maithili Sharan Gupt and Seth Govinda Das who even debated in Parliament on this issue. As such, one of the 50^th birthday of Beohar Rajendra Simha on 14 September  1949, the efforts came to fruition following the adoption of Hindi as the official language. Now, it is celebrated as Hindi Day. Hindi Language: its value

Use Outside the Hindi Belt:

In Northeast India, a pidgin known as Haflong Hindi has developed as a lingua franca for the people living in Haflong, Assam who speak other languages natively. In Arunachal Pradesh, Hindi emerged as a lingua franca among locals who speak over 50 dialects natively.

Etymology:

The term Hindi originally was used to refer to inhabitants of the region east of the Indus. It was borrowed from Classical Persian Hindi, meaning “Indian”, From the proper noun Hind (“India”).

Comparison with Modern Standard Urdu:

Linguistically, Hindi and Urdu are two registers of the same language and are mutually intelligible. It is written in the Devanagari script and uses more Sanskrit words, whereas Urdu is written in the perso-Arabic script and uses more Arabic and Persian words. Hindi is the most commonly used official language in India. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan and is one of 22 official languages of India. The comparison of Hindi and Urdu as separate languages is largely motivated by politics, namely the Indo-Pakistan rivalry.

Script:

Hindi is written in the Devanagari script, an abugida. Devnagari consists of 11 vowels and 33 consonants and is written from left to right. Unlike for Sanskrit, Devnagari is not entirely phonetic for Hindi, especially failing to mark schwa dropping in spoken Standard Hindi.

Romanization:

The Government of India uses Hunterian transliteration as its official system of writing Hindi in the Latin script. Various other systems also exist, such as IAST, ITRANS, and ISO 15919.

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