Standard Hindi

Name	Standard Hindi
Nativename	Mānak Hindī
Familycolor	Indo-European
States	India
Fam2	Indo-Iranian
Fam3	Indo-Aryan
Fam4	Central zone
Fam5	Western Hindi
Fam6	Khariboli
Fam7	Hindustani
Script	Devanagari
Nation
Agency	Central Hindi Directorate (India),
Iso1	hi
Iso2	hin
Iso3	hin
Notice	Indic}}

Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), also known as Manak Hindi, High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi, is a standardised register of Hindustani as spoken by Hindus. It is the official language of India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government. Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived from the khariboli dialect. By contrast, the spoken Hindi dialects form an extensive dialect continuum of the Indic language family, bounded on the northwest and west by Punjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati and Marathi; on the southeast by Oriya; on the east by Bengali; and on the north by Nepali.

The number of speakers of Standard Hindi is ambiguous. According to the 2001 Indian census, 258 million people in India regarded their native language to be "Hindi". However, this includes large numbers of speakers of Hindi dialects besides Standard Hindi; as of 2009, the best figure Ethnologue could find for Khariboli Hindi was a dated 1991 figure of 180 million.

The regulating authority for Standard Hindi is the Central Hindi Directorate.

This article deals specifically with the standard register of Hindi promulgated since independence. For its earlier history, as well as aspects such as phonology and grammar that it shares with Urdu, see Hindi-Urdu.

Official status

The Constitution of India, adopted in 1950, declares Hindi in the Devanagari script as the official language () of the Union (Article 343(1)). 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. The Constitution of India has stipulated the usage of Hindi and English to be the two languages of communication for the Central Government.

It was envisioned that Hindi would become the sole working language of the central government by 1965 (per directives in Article 344 (2) and Article 351) They include words inherited from Sanskrit via Prakrit which have survived without modification (e.g. Hindustani nām/Sanskrit nāma, "name"), as well as forms borrowed directly from Sanskrit in more modern times (e.g. prārthanā, "prayer"). Pronunciation, however, conforms to Hindi norms and may differ from that of classical Sanskrit. Among nouns, the tatsam word could be the Sanskrit uninflected word-stem, or it could be the nominative singular form in the Sanskrit nominal declension. Ardhātatsam (अर्धातात्सम् / اردهاتاتسم) words: These are words that were borrowed from Sanskrit in the middle Indo-Aryan or early New Indo-Aryan stages. Such words typically have undergone sound changes subsequent to being borrowed.

Tadbhav (तद्भव / تدبھو / born of that) words: These are words which are spelled differently from Sanskrit but are derivable from a Sanskrit prototype by phonological rules (e.g. Sanskrit karma, "deed" becomes Pali kamma, and eventually Hindi kām, "work").

Deshaj (देशज / ديشج) 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.

Videshī (विदेशी / ودیشی) words: these include all words borrowed from sources other than Indo-Aryan. The most frequent sources of borrowing in this category have been Persian, Arabic, Portuguese and English.

Similarly, Urdu treats its own vocabulary, borrowed directly from Persian and Arabic, as a separate category for morphological purposes.

Hindi from which most of the Persian, Arabic and English words have been ousted and replaced by tatsam words is called Shuddha Hindi (pure Hindi). Chiefly, the proponents of Hindutva ideology ("Hindu-ness") are vociferous supporters of Shuddha Hindi.

Excessive use of tatsam words sometimes creates problems for most native speakers. Strictly speaking, the tatsam words are words of Sanskrit and not of Hindi—thus they have complicated consonantal clusters which are not linguistically valid in Hindi. The educated middle class population of India can pronounce these words with ease, but people of rural backgrounds have much difficulty in pronouncing them. Similarly, vocabulary borrowed from Persian and Arabic also brings in its own consonantal clusters and "foreign" sounds, which may again cause difficulty in speaking them.

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): : 1 —

Transliteration (IAST): :

Transcription (IPA): :.

Gloss (word-to-word): :Article 1 — All human-beings to dignity and rights' matter in from-birth freedom acquired is. Them to reason and conscience's endowment acquired is and always them to brotherhood's spirit with behaviour 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.

Common phrases

{| class="wikitable" !English !Hindi (Transliteration) !Hindi (Devanagari) |- ||Hindi|| || |- ||English || || |- ||Yes || || |- ||You¹ || || |- ||You² || || |- ||You³ || || |- ||Your || || |- ||Me || || |- ||My || || |- ||No || || |- ||Not || || |- ||Hi/Hello || || |- ||Goodbye || , || |- ||How are you? || || ? |- ||See you later || || |- ||Thank you || , || |- ||I'm Sorry || || |- ||Why? || || ? |- ||Who? || || ? |- ||What? || || ? |- ||When? || || ? |- ||Where? || || ? |- ||How? || || ? |- ||How much? || || ? |- ||I did not understand || || |- ||Help me (please)
Help me!|| || / |- ||Do you speak English? || || ? |- ||Time please?
Time please?|| || ? / ? |- ||I do not know || || |}

See also

Hindi-Urdu (covers phonology, grammar, and orthography)

Hindi literature

History of Hindustani

Anti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu

Hinglish

Languages of India and Languages with official status in India

List of languages by number of native speakers in India

The and at Wiktionary, the free dictionary

References

Notes

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)

.

Grierson, G. A. Linguistic Survey of India Vol I-XI, Calcutta, 1928, ISBN 81-85395-27-6

McGregor, R. S. (1977), Outline of Hindi Grammar, 2nd Ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford-Delhi, ISBN 0-19-870008-3 (3rd ed.)

. . . . .

Taj, Afroz (2002) A door into Hindi. Retrieved November 8, 2005.

Tiwari, Bholanath ([1966] 2004) हिन्दी भाषा (Hindī Bhāshā), Kitāb Mahal, Allahabad, ISBN 81-225-0017-X.

Dictionaries

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Further reading

Bhatia, Tej K A History of the Hindi Grammatical Tradition. Leiden, Netherlands & New York, NY : E.J. Brill, 1987. ISBN 90-04-07924-6

External links

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The Union: Official Language

Official Unicode Chart for Devanagari (PDF)

Romanized to Unicode Hindi transliterator

English to Hindi Transliteration Editor developed by C-DAC Mumbai.

* Category:Hindustani Category:Indo-Aryan languages Category:Languages of India Hindi