Hindustani (हिन्दुस्तानी, ,
, , literally: 'of
HindustanHindustan "land of Hind", is one of the popular names of South Asia. Though the meaning of Hindustan has evolved over the years, after the partition of India it primarily refers to the Republic of India.-Etymology:...
') or
Hindi-Urdu is an
Indo-Aryan languageThe Indo-Aryan languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family.SIL International in a 2005 estimate counted a total of 209 varieties, the largest in terms of native speakers being Hindustani , Bengali , Punjabi , Marathi ,...
that spans several closely related dialects in
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
and northern
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
. Although Hindustani is based largely on the
KhariboliKhariboli , Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), (/ ...
dialect, it also includes several
nonstandard dialectA nonstandard dialect is a dialect that does not have the institutional support or sanction that a standardized dialect has.Like any dialect, a nonstandard dialect has its own vocabulary and an internally consistent grammar and syntax; and it may be spoken using a variety of accents. Describing a...
s of the Hindi languages. The language incorporates a large vocabulary taken from several source languages of
SouthSouth Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east...
,
CentralAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
and Western Asia, such as
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
,
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
,
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
and Turkic. A close parallel has been observed with the
English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
, which has developed an extensive vocabulary by similarly drawing upon
GermanicThe Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
,
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
and
CelticThe Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic", a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by Greek and Roman writers to describe tribes in...
sources.
"Hindustani is the basis" of the two national languages, Standard Hindi and Urdu. In other words, Standard Hindi and Urdu are
standardizedA standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status...
registerIn linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, an English speaker may adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal In linguistics, a...
s of Hindustani/Khariboli. They are nearly identical in grammar and share a basic common vocabulary but differ in literary conventions and specialised vocabulary with Urdu retaining Persian, Arabic and Turkic, and Hindi relying heavily on
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
. Before the Partition of British India, the terms Hindustani, Urdu and Hindi were synonymous; all covered what would be called Urdu and Hindi today.
History
The Hindustani dialects emerge out of Middle Indic
apabhramshaApabhraṃśa is a term used by Sanskrit grammarians since Patañjali to refer to dialects of North India that deviate from the norm of Sanskrit grammar. The term in Sanskrit literally means "corrupt" or "non-grammatical language". It is used as a cover term for the dialects forming the transition...
"vernaculars" of North India in the 7th to 13th centuries.
Amir KhusroAb'ul Hasan Yamīn al-Dīn Khusrow , better known as Amīr Khusrow Dehlawī , was an Indian musician, scholar and poet of Persian descent. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent...
in the late 13th century mentions the term
HindaviHindavi , Hindawi, or Hindvi is the mother language of modern standard Urdu and later Hindi. It was formed as a result of the intermingling of Persian loanwords with the native Khariboli language spoken in Delhi and was written in the Perso-Arabic script...
.
Towards the end of the
MughalThe Mughal Empire was an Islamic and Persianate imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century...
period, with the fragmentation of the empire and the elite system,
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
came to gradually replace
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
as the lingua franca among the educated elite in Northern India, though Persian still retained much of its pre-eminence.. For socio-political reasons, though essentially a variant of
KhariboliKhariboli , Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), (/ ...
with Persian vocabulary the emerging prestige dialect becomes known as
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
(properly
zabān-e Urdu-e mo'alla "language of the court").
Originally the term
Hindustani ("of
HindustanHindustan "land of Hind", is one of the popular names of South Asia. Though the meaning of Hindustan has evolved over the years, after the partition of India it primarily refers to the Republic of India.-Etymology:...
") was the name given by the Turco-Persian
MughalThe Mughal Empire was an Islamic and Persianate imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century...
conquerors of India to
KhariboliKhariboli , Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), (/ ...
, the local form of
HindaviHindavi , Hindawi, or Hindvi is the mother language of modern standard Urdu and later Hindi. It was formed as a result of the intermingling of Persian loanwords with the native Khariboli language spoken in Delhi and was written in the Perso-Arabic script...
at their capital,
DelhiDelhi, known locally as Dilli , and also by the official name National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India...
, and nearby cities. As a contact language between the two cultures, Hindustani absorbed large numbers of Persian, Arabic, and Turkic words, and with further Mughal conquest it spread as a
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
across northern India. Written in the
Perso-Arabic ScriptThe Perso-Arabic script is a writing system that is based on the Arabic alphabet. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic script was modified to match the Persian language, adding four letters: پ , چ , ژ , and گ . Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add...
, it remained the primary
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
of northern India for the next four centuries, although it varied significantly in vocabulary depending on the local language, and it achieved the status of a literary language, along with Persian, in the Muslim courts. In time it came to be called
Urdu (
zabān-e Urdu , ज़बान-ए उर्दू, "language of the camp" in Persian, derived from
AltaicAltaic is a language family that is generally held by its proponents to include the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Korean, and Japonic language families . These languages are spoken in a wide arc stretching from northeast Asia through Central Asia to Anatolia and eastern Europe...
Ordū "camp", cognate with English
hordeHorde may refer to:* a clan or army of steppe nomads* the White Horde, formed 1226* the Blue Horde, formed 1227* the Golden Horde, a Tatar-Mongol state established in the 1240s...
), and as the highly Persianized court language,
RekhtaRekhta was the Persianized form of Hindwi, a language that combines Persian, Arabic and Hindī. From the late 17th century till the closing decades of the 18th century, the term also referred to the Urdu-Hindustani language...
, or "mixed".
When the British conquered India from the late 1700s through to the late 1800s, they used the words 'Hindustani' and 'Urdu' interchangeably. They developed it as the language of administration of British India, further preparing it to be the official language of modern
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
.
In recent times, the word
Hindustani has been used for the intentionally neutral language of
BollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the Indian film industry. Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the...
films, which are popular in both India and Pakistan.
Urdu
Urdu is the national language of
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
and an officially recognized regional language of
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
. It is also an official language in the Indian states of
Andhra PradeshAndhra Pradesh , abbreviated A.P., is a state situated on the south-eastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Hyderabad...
,
Jammu and KashmirJammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the Pakistani...
, National Capital Territory of Delhi, and
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
which have significant Muslim populations in India. The word "Urdu" derives from the more formal
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
phrase
zabān-e Urdu-e mo'alla, meaning the "language of the camp". The language began as the common speech of soldiers serving
MughalThe Mughal Empire was an Islamic and Persianate imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century...
lords. The term became transferred to the court language of the Mughal aristocracy, whose dialect was based on the upper-class dialect of
DelhiDelhi, known locally as Dilli , and also by the official name National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India...
. Urdu's historical development was centered on the Urdu poets of the Mughal courts of north Indian metropolises such as Delhi,
LucknowLucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division...
,
LahoreLahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in Pakistan after Karachi. Historically the main city of the undivided Punjab, it is often called the Garden of Mughals because of its rich Mughal heritage...
, and
AgraAgra is a city on the banks of the Yamuna River in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It finds mention in the epic Mahābhārata where it was called Agrevaṇa , or 'the border of the forest'. Legend ascribes the founding of the city to Rājā Badal Singh , whose fort, Badalgarh, stood on or...
. Urdu is written using a modified form of the Arabic script known as the
Perso-Arabic scriptThe Perso-Arabic script is a writing system that is based on the Arabic alphabet. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic script was modified to match the Persian language, adding four letters: پ , چ , ژ , and گ . Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add...
.
Hindi
Standard Hindi, the official language of
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, is based on the
KhariboliKhariboli , Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), (/ ...
dialect of the Delhi region and differs from Urdu in that it is usually written in the indigenous
DevanagariDevanagari , also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal. It is written from left to right, lacks distinct letter cases, and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together. Devanāgarī is the main script used to...
script of India and exhibits less Persian influence than Urdu. Many scholars today employ a Sanskritized form of Hindi developed primarily in
VaranasiVaranasi , also commonly known as Benares or Banaras and Kashi , is a city situated on the left bank of the River Ganga in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, regarded as holy by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains...
, the
HinduA Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, a set of religious, philosophical and cultural systems that originated in the Indian subcontinent. The vast body of Hindu scriptures, divided into Śruti and Smriti , lay the foundation of Hindu beliefs which primarily include dhárma, kárma, ahimsa and saṃsāra...
holy city, which is based on the Eastern Hindi dialect of that region.
Hindustani, is spoken and written in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka by millions of people, mixed with Marathi, and local Dravidian languages. It is called Deccani Urdu. It has a literature of 500 years, with prose, poetry, religion & philosophy, under the Bahmani Kings and later on Khutab Shahi Adil Shahi etc. It is a living language, still prevalent all over Deccan Plateau.
Note that the term "Hindustani" has generally fallen out of common usage in modern India, except to refer to a style of Indian
classical music prevalent in northern IndiaHindustani Classical Music is the Hindustani or erstwhileNorth Indian style of Indian classical music...
. The term used to refer to the language is "Hindi", regardless of the mix of Persian or Sanskrit words used by the speaker. One could conceive of a wide spectrum of dialects, with the highly Persianized Urdu at one end of the spectrum and a heavily
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
based dialect, spoken in the region around
VaranasiVaranasi , also commonly known as Benares or Banaras and Kashi , is a city situated on the left bank of the River Ganga in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, regarded as holy by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains...
, at the other end of the spectrum. In common usage in India, the term "Hindi" includes all dialects, except the Urdu end of the spectrum. Thus, the different meanings of the word "Hindi" include, among others:
- standardized Hindi as taught in schools throughout India,
- formal or official Hindi advocated by Purushottam Das Tandon
Purushottam Das Tandon पुरुशोत्तम दास टंडन , was an independence fighter from Uttar Pradesh in India, of Khatri descent. He is widely remembered for his efforts in achieving the Official Language of India status for Hindi. He was customarily given the title Rajarshi...
and as instituted by the post-independence Indian government, heavily influenced by Sanskrit,
- the vernacular dialects of Hindustani/Hindi-Urdu as spoken throughout India,
- the neutralized 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.
Bazaar Hindustani
In a specific sense, "Hindustani" may be used to refer to the dialects and varieties used in common speech, in contrast with the standardized Hindi and Urdu. This meaning is reflected in the use of the term "
bazaarA bazaar is a permanent merchandising area, marketplace, or street of shops where goods and services are exchanged or sold. The word derives from the Persian word bāzār, the etymology of which goes back to the Middle Persian word baha-char , meaning "the place of prices"...
Hindustani," in other words, the "language of the street or the marketplace", as opposed to the perceived refinement of formal Hindi, Urdu, or even
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
. Thus, the Webster's New World Dictionary defines the term Hindustani as
the principal dialect of Hindi/Urdu, used as a trade language throughout north India and Pakistan.
Hindi and Urdu
While, at the spoken level,
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
and
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
are considered
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
s of a single language (or
diasystemIn linguistics, in the field of structural dialectology, a diasystem is a single genetic language which has two or more standard forms. Some dialects are often divided into separate languages due to different historical and cultural development...
), they differ vastly in literary and formal
vocabularyA person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a language. A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge.- Knowing and using a word :...
; where literary Urdu draws heavily on
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
and
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
, literary Hindi draws heavily on
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
and to a lesser extent
PrakritPrakrit is the name for a group of Middle Indic, Indo-Aryan languages, derived from Classical Sanskrit and other Old Indic dialects. The word itself has a flexible definition, being defined sometimes as, "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the...
. The grammar and base vocabulary (most pronouns, verbs, adpositions, etc.) of both Urdu and Hindi, however, are the same and derive from a Prakritic base.
The associated dialects of Urdu and Hindi are known as "Hindustani". It is perhaps the
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
of the west and north of the
Indian subcontinentThe Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent and other terms, is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate south of the Himalayas, forming a peninsula which extends southward into the Indian Ocean...
, though it is understood fairly well in other regions also, especially in the urban areas. A common vernacular sharing characteristics with Urdu, Sanskritized Hindi, and regional Hindi, Hindustani is more commonly used as a vernacular than highly Arabicized/Persianized Urdu or highly Sanskritized Hindi.
This can be seen in the popular culture of
BollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the Indian film industry. Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the...
or, more generally, the vernacular of Pakistanis and Indians which generally employs a lexicon common to both "Urdu" and "Hindi" speakers. Minor subtleties in region will also affect the 'brand' of Hindustani, sometimes pushing the Hindustani closer to Urdu or to Hindi. One might reasonably assume that the language spoken in
LucknowLucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division...
,
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
(known for its beautiful usage of Urdu) and
VaranasiVaranasi , also commonly known as Benares or Banaras and Kashi , is a city situated on the left bank of the River Ganga in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, regarded as holy by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains...
(a holy city for
HinduA Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, a set of religious, philosophical and cultural systems that originated in the Indian subcontinent. The vast body of Hindu scriptures, divided into Śruti and Smriti , lay the foundation of Hindu beliefs which primarily include dhárma, kárma, ahimsa and saṃsāra...
s and thus using highly Sanskritized
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
) is somewhat different.
Hindustani, if both Hindi and Urdu are counted, is the third or second most widely spoken language in the world after Mandarin and possibly
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
.
Official status
Urdu, the original
standardizedA standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status...
registerIn linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, an English speaker may adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal In linguistics, a...
of Hindustani, is the national language of
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
, where it shares
official languageAn official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other territory. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
status with English. Although English is used in most elite circles, and
PunjabiPunjabi or Panjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region ....
has a plurality of native speakers, is the
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
and is expected to prevail. is also one of the official languages of
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, and in the Indian states of
Andhra PradeshAndhra Pradesh , abbreviated A.P., is a state situated on the south-eastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Hyderabad...
,
BiharBihar is a state in eastern India. Bihar is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi , and 3rd largest by population. Close to 85 percent of the population lives in villages...
,
DelhiDelhi, known locally as Dilli , and also by the official name National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India...
,
Jammu and KashmirJammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the Pakistani...
,
UttarakhandUttarakhand , is a state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out of Himalayan and adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000, becoming the 27th state of the Republic of India...
and
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
, has official language status. While the government school system in most other states emphasises Modern Standard Hindi, at universities in cities such as
LucknowLucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division...
,
AligarhAligarh is a city in Aligarh District in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city is located about 90 miles southeast of New Delhi. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh District, Aligarh Police Range and Aligarh Division, and has a population of half a million...
and
HyderabadHyderabad , is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad has a population of over 4 million...
, is spoken and learned and is regarded as a language of prestige.
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
, the other
standardizedA standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status...
registerIn linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, an English speaker may adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal In linguistics, a...
of Hindustani, is declared by the
Constitution of IndiaThe Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishing the structure, procedures, powers and duties, of the government and spells out the fundamental rights, directive principles and duties of citizens...
as the "official language (rājabhāshā) of the Union" (Art. 343(1)) (In this context, 'Union' means the Federal Government and not the entire country - India has 23 official languages). At the same time, however, the definitive text of Federal laws is officially the English text and proceedings in the higher appellate courts must be conducted in English. See Official languages of India. At the state level, Hindi is an official language in nine out of the 28 Indian states (namely
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
,
BiharBihar is a state in eastern India. Bihar is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi , and 3rd largest by population. Close to 85 percent of the population lives in villages...
,
JharkhandJharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar state on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east. of 28,833 sq mi...
,
UttarakhandUttarakhand , is a state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out of Himalayan and adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000, becoming the 27th state of the Republic of India...
,
Madhya PradeshMadhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal. Madhya Pradesh was originally the largest state in India until November 1, 2000 when the state of Chhattisgarh was carved out...
,
RajasthanRājasthān is the largest state of the Republic of India in terms of area. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with Pakistan...
,
ChhattisgarhChhattisgarh , a state in central India, formed when the sixteen Chhattisgarhi-speaking southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh gained statehood on November 1, 2000. Raipur serves as its capital. It is the 10th largest state of India by area of 52,199 sq mi...
,
Himachal PradeshHimachal Pradesh is a state in north India.It is spread over 21,629 sq mi , and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on north, Punjab on west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on south, Uttarakhand on south-east and by Tibet, China on the east...
, and
HaryanaHaryana is a state in northern India. It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south. Eastern border to Uttarakhand & Uttar Pradesh is defined by river Yamuna. Haryana also surrounds Delhi on three sides, forming the northern, western and...
). In the remaining states Hindi is not an official language. In the state of Tamil Nadu studying Hindi is not compulsory in the state curriculum. However an option to take the same as second or third language does exist. In the other states, studying Hindi is usually compulsory in the school curriculum as a third language (the first two languages being the state's official vernacular language and English), though the intensiveness of Hindi in the curriculum varies.
In
FijiFiji , officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands , is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean east of Vanuatu, west of Tonga and south of Tuvalu. The country comprises an archipelago of about 322 islands, of which 106 are permanently inhabited, and 522 islets...
, Hindustani has official status under
Fiji's ConstitutionThe 1997 Constitution of Fiji was the supreme law of Fiji from its adoption in 1997 until 2009 when it was abolished by President Josefa Iloilo. It also was not in force after the 2000 Fijian coup d'état led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama.- Background :...
, along with
Bau FijianFijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 450,000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji, but another 200,000 speak it as a second language...
and
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
; citizens of Fiji have the constitutional right to communicate with any government agency in any of the official languages, with an interpreter to be supplied on request.
Hindustani was the official language of the
British RajThe British Raj was the British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the period of dominion, and even the region under the rule...
up until the
partition of IndiaThe Partition of India was the partition of British India that led to the creation, on August 14, 1947 and August 15, 1947, respectively, of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India...
in 1947; the term was a synonym for Urdu.
Hindustani outside South Asia
Besides being the
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
of
South AsiaSouth Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east...
, Hindustani is spoken among people of the South Asian diaspora and their descendants.
Fijian Hindustani descends from one of the eastern forms of Hindustani, called Awadhi, as well as the Bhojpuri dialect. It has developed some unique features that differentiate it from the spoken on the Indian subcontinent, although not to the extent of hindering mutual understanding. It is spoken by nearly the entire Indo-Fijian community, 38.1% of Fiji's entire population, regardless of ancestry.
Hindustani speakers have a significant number of speakers in
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
n countries such as
SurinameSuriname , officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America....
and
GuyanaGuyana officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and previously known as British Guiana, is a state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean.Guyana was discovered in 1498 by the Europeans,Guyana's past is punctuated by battles fought and won,...
, and
CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts...
countries such as
Trinidad & TobagoThe Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying northeast of the South American country of Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles. It shares maritime boundaries with other nations including Barbados to the northeast, Guyana to the...
and
BelizeBelize , is a country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, composed of many cultures and speaking many languages. Although Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official language...
. The formal name of the language spoken in this region is generally called
Caribbean Hindustani or
Caribbean Hindi, although the Caribbean countries may add an adjective in front of the language name (i.e.
Sarnami Hindustani) even though most individuals commonly refer to it as just
Hindustani or
Hindi. One major country in which Hindustani is spoken is
SurinameSuriname , officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America....
.
Sarnami Hindustani is the second most spoken language in Suriname after
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language, and over 5 million people as a second language.
"1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language...
. This is due to the emigration of East Indians (known locally as
HindoestanenThe Hindoestanen are an ethnic group of South Asian origin in the Netherlands and Suriname. The Hindoestanen began migrating to Suriname in 1873 from what was then British India as indentured labourers, many from the modern-day Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and the surrounding regions...
in Suriname) from the Indian states of
BihārBihar is a state in eastern India. Bihar is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi , and 3rd largest by population. Close to 85 percent of the population lives in villages...
and
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
located in
North IndiaNorth India is a loosely defined region in the northern part of India. The exact meaning of the term varies by usage. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from Tibet and Central Asia...
. The emigration was mainly of Bhojpuri speaking people which has led to the local Hindustani language having various Bhojpuri words and phrases from other
Bihari languagesBihari is a name given to the western group of Eastern Indic languages, spoken in Bihar and neighboring states in India. Bhojpuri and Maithili are spoken in Nepal as well. The Bhojpuri and Maithili speaking population form more than 20% of Nepalese population. Despite the large number of speakers...
. Ethnic Indians form 37% of the population in Suriname, the largest ethnic group there. Hence, Hindustani is spoken frequently in Suriname and Indian culture plays a major role there in general. Hindustani is also spoken among ethnic Indians of Guyana and is popular there as South Asians make up around 45% of Guyana's total population.
ParyaParya is a Central Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Tajuzbeki was an alternative name coined by Bholanath Tivari for the same language. Much of the academic research in documenting and characterizing this Indo-Aryan isolate language was done by prominent Soviet...
(which was called Tadj-Uzbeki or Tajuzbeki by Bholanath Tivari), refers to the Hindustani dialect spoken by Indian immigrants from the 13th century onwards in the border region of
TajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east...
and
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
, especially in the environs of
HisorHisor is a city in western Tajikistan, about 15 km west of Dushanbe. It is the capital of Hisor district, in the Region of Republican Subordination. It lies at an altitude of 799-824 m, surrounded by high mountains...
,
Shehr-e-nauShahrinaw District or Nohiyai Shahrinaw is a district in the Region of Republican Subordination in Tajikistan, lying between Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe and Uzbekistan. The Shahrinaw district borders on Tursunzoda district in the west, Hisor district in the east, and Rudaki district in the south...
, Regar/Tursunzoda and Surchi, located in the
Gissar ValleyGissar Valley in Tajikistan runs east-west along the southern slopes of Gissar Range and on the northern border of Khatlon Province...
of Tajikistan and the
Surkhandarya basinSurxondaryo Province , old spelling Surkhandarya Province is a viloyat of Uzbekistan, located in the extreme south-east of the country. Established on March 6, 1941, it borders on Turkmenistan, Tajikstan, Afghanistan and Qashqadaryo Province. It covers an area of 20,100 km²...
of Uzbekistan. It is based on the
BrajBraj is a region in Uttar Pradesh of India, around Mathura-Vrindavan. Braj, though never a clearly defined political region in India but is very well demarcated culturally, is considered to be the land of Krishna and is derived from the Sanskrit word vraja...
,
HariyaniHaryanvi is the northernmost dialect of the Hindi language. It is most widely spoken in the North Indian state of Haryana, and also in Delhi, particularly by Rors and Jats. According to linguistic research, Haryanvi has 65% lexical similarity with the Bagri language...
and
RajasthaniRajasthani is a language or language cluster of the Indo-Aryan languages family. It is spoken by 36 million people in Rajasthan and other states of India and in some adjacent areas of Pakistan. The number of speakers may be up to 80 million worldwide...
dialects, and is highly influenced by
UzbekUzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 23.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...
,
TajikTajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a modern variety of Persian spoken in Central Asia. Most speakers of Tajik live in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan...
and
Russian languageRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
s.
Hindustani also has a significant number of speakers in
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
,
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
,
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
, and the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
due to immigration by the people of
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
to these continents and regions. In South Africa,
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
and other parts of Africa, older descendents of 18th
centuryA century is one hundred consecutive years.Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages .-Start and end in the Gregorian Calendar:...
sugarSugar is a class of edible crystalline substances, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose. Human taste buds interpret its flavor as sweet. Sugar as a basic food carbohydrate primarily comes from sugar cane and from sugar beet, but also appears in fruit, honey, sorghum, sugar maple , and in many...
cane workers also speak a variety of Bhojpuri as their second
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
.
Hindustani was also spoken widespread in Burma during British rule as the main language of the administration. Many older
BurmeseBurmese may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to Burma, a country in Southeast Asia* A person from Burma, or of Burmese descent. See Burmese people, Demographics of Burma and Culture of Burma. For specific persons, see :Category:Burmese people....
, particularly the Anglo-Indians and
Anglo-BurmeseThe Anglo-Burmese, also known as the Anglo-Burmans, are a community of Eurasians of Burmese and European descent, and emerged as a distinct community through mixed relations between the British and other European settlers and Bamar from 1826 until 1948 when Burma gained its independence from the...
of the country, still speak the language although it has no official status in the country since military rule.
Also see:
Fiji HindiFiji Hindi, also known as Fijian Hindi or Fiji Hindustani, is a language which is spoken in Fiji by most Fijian citizens of Indian descent. It is derived mainly from the Awadhi and Bhojpuri language or dialects of Hindi and also contains words from other Indian languages. It has also borrowed a...
Vocabulary
Standard or
shuddha ("pure") Hindi derives much of its formal and technical vocabulary from
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
while standard Urdu derives much of its formal and technical vocabulary from
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
. Standard Hindi and Urdu are 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
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
and Arabic. In addition, spoken Hindustani includes words from
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
and other languages as well.
Vernacular
{{Mergefrom|Hindavi|date=January 2008}}
{{Merge|Khariboli|date=January 2008}}
Hindustani (हिन्दुस्तानी, {{Nastaliq|ہندوستانی}}, {{IAST|Hindustānī}}, {{IPA2|hɪn̪d̪ʊst̪aːniː}}, literally: 'of HindustanHindustan "land of Hind", is one of the popular names of South Asia. Though the meaning of Hindustan has evolved over the years, after the partition of India it primarily refers to the Republic of India.-Etymology:...
') or
Hindi-Urdu is an
Indo-Aryan languageThe Indo-Aryan languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family.SIL International in a 2005 estimate counted a total of 209 varieties, the largest in terms of native speakers being Hindustani , Bengali , Punjabi , Marathi ,...
that spans several closely related dialects in
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
and northern
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
. Although Hindustani is based largely on the
KhariboliKhariboli , Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), (/ ...
dialect, it also includes several
nonstandard dialectA nonstandard dialect is a dialect that does not have the institutional support or sanction that a standardized dialect has.Like any dialect, a nonstandard dialect has its own vocabulary and an internally consistent grammar and syntax; and it may be spoken using a variety of accents. Describing a...
s of the Hindi languages. The language incorporates a large vocabulary taken from several source languages of
SouthSouth Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east...
,
CentralAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
and Western Asia, such as
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
,
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
,
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
and Turkic. A close parallel has been observed with the
English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
, which has developed an extensive vocabulary by similarly drawing upon
GermanicThe Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
,
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
and
CelticThe Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic", a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by Greek and Roman writers to describe tribes in...
sources.
"Hindustani is the basis" of the two national languages, Standard Hindi and Urdu. In other words, Standard Hindi and Urdu are
standardizedA standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status...
registerIn linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, an English speaker may adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal In linguistics, a...
s of Hindustani/Khariboli. They are nearly identical in grammar and share a basic common vocabulary but differ in literary conventions and specialised vocabulary with Urdu retaining Persian, Arabic and Turkic, and Hindi relying heavily on
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
. Before the Partition of British India, the terms Hindustani, Urdu and Hindi were synonymous; all covered what would be called Urdu and Hindi today.
History
{{main|History of Hindustani}}
The Hindustani dialects emerge out of Middle Indic
apabhramshaApabhraṃśa is a term used by Sanskrit grammarians since Patañjali to refer to dialects of North India that deviate from the norm of Sanskrit grammar. The term in Sanskrit literally means "corrupt" or "non-grammatical language". It is used as a cover term for the dialects forming the transition...
"vernaculars" of North India in the 7th to 13th centuries.
Amir KhusroAb'ul Hasan Yamīn al-Dīn Khusrow , better known as Amīr Khusrow Dehlawī , was an Indian musician, scholar and poet of Persian descent. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent...
in the late 13th century mentions the term
HindaviHindavi , Hindawi, or Hindvi is the mother language of modern standard Urdu and later Hindi. It was formed as a result of the intermingling of Persian loanwords with the native Khariboli language spoken in Delhi and was written in the Perso-Arabic script...
.
Towards the end of the
MughalThe Mughal Empire was an Islamic and Persianate imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century...
period, with the fragmentation of the empire and the elite system,
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
came to gradually replace
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
as the lingua franca among the educated elite in Northern India, though Persian still retained much of its pre-eminence.. For socio-political reasons, though essentially a variant of
KhariboliKhariboli , Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), (/ ...
with Persian vocabulary the emerging prestige dialect becomes known as
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
(properly
zabān-e Urdu-e mo'alla "language of the court").
Originally the term
Hindustani ("of
HindustanHindustan "land of Hind", is one of the popular names of South Asia. Though the meaning of Hindustan has evolved over the years, after the partition of India it primarily refers to the Republic of India.-Etymology:...
") was the name given by the Turco-Persian
MughalThe Mughal Empire was an Islamic and Persianate imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century...
conquerors of India to
KhariboliKhariboli , Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), (/ ...
, the local form of
HindaviHindavi , Hindawi, or Hindvi is the mother language of modern standard Urdu and later Hindi. It was formed as a result of the intermingling of Persian loanwords with the native Khariboli language spoken in Delhi and was written in the Perso-Arabic script...
at their capital,
DelhiDelhi, known locally as Dilli , and also by the official name National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India...
, and nearby cities. As a contact language between the two cultures, Hindustani absorbed large numbers of Persian, Arabic, and Turkic words, and with further Mughal conquest it spread as a
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
across northern India. Written in the
Perso-Arabic ScriptThe Perso-Arabic script is a writing system that is based on the Arabic alphabet. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic script was modified to match the Persian language, adding four letters: پ , چ , ژ , and گ . Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add...
, it remained the primary
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
of northern India for the next four centuries, although it varied significantly in vocabulary depending on the local language, and it achieved the status of a literary language, along with Persian, in the Muslim courts. In time it came to be called
Urdu (
zabān-e Urdu {{rtl-lang|fa|زبان اردو}}, ज़बान-ए उर्दू, "language of the camp" in Persian, derived from
AltaicAltaic is a language family that is generally held by its proponents to include the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Korean, and Japonic language families . These languages are spoken in a wide arc stretching from northeast Asia through Central Asia to Anatolia and eastern Europe...
Ordū "camp", cognate with English
hordeHorde may refer to:* a clan or army of steppe nomads* the White Horde, formed 1226* the Blue Horde, formed 1227* the Golden Horde, a Tatar-Mongol state established in the 1240s...
), and as the highly Persianized court language,
RekhtaRekhta was the Persianized form of Hindwi, a language that combines Persian, Arabic and Hindī. From the late 17th century till the closing decades of the 18th century, the term also referred to the Urdu-Hindustani language...
, or "mixed".
When the British conquered India from the late 1700s through to the late 1800s, they used the words 'Hindustani' and 'Urdu' interchangeably. They developed it as the language of administration of British India, further preparing it to be the official language of modern
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
.
In recent times, the word
Hindustani has been used for the intentionally neutral language of
BollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the Indian film industry. Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the...
films, which are popular in both India and Pakistan.
Urdu
{{main|Urdu}}
Urdu is the national language of
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
and an officially recognized regional language of
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
. It is also an official language in the Indian states of
Andhra PradeshAndhra Pradesh , abbreviated A.P., is a state situated on the south-eastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Hyderabad...
,
Jammu and KashmirJammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the Pakistani...
, National Capital Territory of Delhi, and
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
which have significant Muslim populations in India. The word "Urdu" derives from the more formal
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
phrase
zabān-e Urdu-e mo'alla, meaning the "language of the camp". The language began as the common speech of soldiers serving
MughalThe Mughal Empire was an Islamic and Persianate imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century...
lords. The term became transferred to the court language of the Mughal aristocracy, whose dialect was based on the upper-class dialect of
DelhiDelhi, known locally as Dilli , and also by the official name National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India...
. Urdu's historical development was centered on the Urdu poets of the Mughal courts of north Indian metropolises such as Delhi,
LucknowLucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division...
,
LahoreLahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in Pakistan after Karachi. Historically the main city of the undivided Punjab, it is often called the Garden of Mughals because of its rich Mughal heritage...
, and
AgraAgra is a city on the banks of the Yamuna River in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It finds mention in the epic Mahābhārata where it was called Agrevaṇa , or 'the border of the forest'. Legend ascribes the founding of the city to Rājā Badal Singh , whose fort, Badalgarh, stood on or...
. Urdu is written using a modified form of the Arabic script known as the
Perso-Arabic scriptThe Perso-Arabic script is a writing system that is based on the Arabic alphabet. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic script was modified to match the Persian language, adding four letters: پ , چ , ژ , and گ . Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add...
.
Hindi
{{Main|Hindi}}
Standard Hindi, the official language of
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, is based on the
KhariboliKhariboli , Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), (/ ...
dialect of the Delhi region and differs from Urdu in that it is usually written in the indigenous
DevanagariDevanagari , also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal. It is written from left to right, lacks distinct letter cases, and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together. Devanāgarī is the main script used to...
script of India and exhibits less Persian influence than Urdu. Many scholars today employ a Sanskritized form of Hindi developed primarily in
VaranasiVaranasi , also commonly known as Benares or Banaras and Kashi , is a city situated on the left bank of the River Ganga in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, regarded as holy by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains...
, the
HinduA Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, a set of religious, philosophical and cultural systems that originated in the Indian subcontinent. The vast body of Hindu scriptures, divided into Śruti and Smriti , lay the foundation of Hindu beliefs which primarily include dhárma, kárma, ahimsa and saṃsāra...
holy city, which is based on the Eastern Hindi dialect of that region.
Hindustani, is spoken and written in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka by millions of people, mixed with Marathi, and local Dravidian languages. It is called Deccani Urdu. It has a literature of 500 years, with prose, poetry, religion & philosophy, under the Bahmani Kings and later on Khutab Shahi Adil Shahi etc. It is a living language, still prevalent all over Deccan Plateau.
Note that the term "Hindustani" has generally fallen out of common usage in modern India, except to refer to a style of Indian
classical music prevalent in northern IndiaHindustani Classical Music is the Hindustani or erstwhileNorth Indian style of Indian classical music...
. The term used to refer to the language is "Hindi", regardless of the mix of Persian or Sanskrit words used by the speaker. One could conceive of a wide spectrum of dialects, with the highly Persianized Urdu at one end of the spectrum and a heavily
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
based dialect, spoken in the region around
VaranasiVaranasi , also commonly known as Benares or Banaras and Kashi , is a city situated on the left bank of the River Ganga in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, regarded as holy by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains...
, at the other end of the spectrum. In common usage in India, the term "Hindi" includes all dialects, except the Urdu end of the spectrum. Thus, the different meanings of the word "Hindi" include, among others:
- standardized Hindi as taught in schools throughout India,
- formal or official Hindi advocated by Purushottam Das Tandon
Purushottam Das Tandon पुरुशोत्तम दास टंडन , was an independence fighter from Uttar Pradesh in India, of Khatri descent. He is widely remembered for his efforts in achieving the Official Language of India status for Hindi. He was customarily given the title Rajarshi...
and as instituted by the post-independence Indian government, heavily influenced by Sanskrit,
- the vernacular dialects of Hindustani/Hindi-Urdu as spoken throughout India,
- the neutralized 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.
Bazaar Hindustani
{{main|Hindi dialects}}
In a specific sense, "Hindustani" may be used to refer to the dialects and varieties used in common speech, in contrast with the standardized Hindi and Urdu. This meaning is reflected in the use of the term "
bazaarA bazaar is a permanent merchandising area, marketplace, or street of shops where goods and services are exchanged or sold. The word derives from the Persian word bāzār, the etymology of which goes back to the Middle Persian word baha-char , meaning "the place of prices"...
Hindustani," in other words, the "language of the street or the marketplace", as opposed to the perceived refinement of formal Hindi, Urdu, or even
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
. Thus, the Webster's New World Dictionary defines the term Hindustani as
the principal dialect of Hindi/Urdu, used as a trade language throughout north India and Pakistan.
Hindi and Urdu
While, at the spoken level,
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
and
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
are considered
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
s of a single language (or
diasystemIn linguistics, in the field of structural dialectology, a diasystem is a single genetic language which has two or more standard forms. Some dialects are often divided into separate languages due to different historical and cultural development...
), they differ vastly in literary and formal
vocabularyA person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a language. A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge.- Knowing and using a word :...
; where literary Urdu draws heavily on
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
and
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
, literary Hindi draws heavily on
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
and to a lesser extent
PrakritPrakrit is the name for a group of Middle Indic, Indo-Aryan languages, derived from Classical Sanskrit and other Old Indic dialects. The word itself has a flexible definition, being defined sometimes as, "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the...
. The grammar and base vocabulary (most pronouns, verbs, adpositions, etc.) of both Urdu and Hindi, however, are the same and derive from a Prakritic base.
The associated dialects of Urdu and Hindi are known as "Hindustani". It is perhaps the
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
of the west and north of the
Indian subcontinentThe Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent and other terms, is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate south of the Himalayas, forming a peninsula which extends southward into the Indian Ocean...
, though it is understood fairly well in other regions also, especially in the urban areas. A common vernacular sharing characteristics with Urdu, Sanskritized Hindi, and regional Hindi, Hindustani is more commonly used as a vernacular than highly Arabicized/Persianized Urdu or highly Sanskritized Hindi.
This can be seen in the popular culture of
BollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the Indian film industry. Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the...
or, more generally, the vernacular of Pakistanis and Indians which generally employs a lexicon common to both "Urdu" and "Hindi" speakers. Minor subtleties in region will also affect the 'brand' of Hindustani, sometimes pushing the Hindustani closer to Urdu or to Hindi. One might reasonably assume that the language spoken in
LucknowLucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division...
,
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
(known for its beautiful usage of Urdu) and
VaranasiVaranasi , also commonly known as Benares or Banaras and Kashi , is a city situated on the left bank of the River Ganga in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, regarded as holy by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains...
(a holy city for
HinduA Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, a set of religious, philosophical and cultural systems that originated in the Indian subcontinent. The vast body of Hindu scriptures, divided into Śruti and Smriti , lay the foundation of Hindu beliefs which primarily include dhárma, kárma, ahimsa and saṃsāra...
s and thus using highly Sanskritized
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
) is somewhat different.
Hindustani, if both Hindi and Urdu are counted, is the third or second most widely spoken language in the world after Mandarin and possibly
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
.
{{seealso|Persian and Urdu}}
Official status
Urdu, the original
standardizedA standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status...
registerIn linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, an English speaker may adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal In linguistics, a...
of Hindustani, is the national language of
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
, where it shares
official languageAn official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other territory. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
status with English. Although English is used in most elite circles, and
PunjabiPunjabi or Panjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region ....
has a plurality of native speakers, {{Unicode|Urdu}} is the
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
and is expected to prevail. {{Unicode|Urdu}} is also one of the official languages of
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, and in the Indian states of
Andhra PradeshAndhra Pradesh , abbreviated A.P., is a state situated on the south-eastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Hyderabad...
,
BiharBihar is a state in eastern India. Bihar is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi , and 3rd largest by population. Close to 85 percent of the population lives in villages...
,
DelhiDelhi, known locally as Dilli , and also by the official name National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India...
,
Jammu and KashmirJammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the Pakistani...
,
UttarakhandUttarakhand , is a state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out of Himalayan and adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000, becoming the 27th state of the Republic of India...
and
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
, {{Unicode|Urdu}} has official language status. While the government school system in most other states emphasises Modern Standard Hindi, at universities in cities such as
LucknowLucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division...
,
AligarhAligarh is a city in Aligarh District in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city is located about 90 miles southeast of New Delhi. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh District, Aligarh Police Range and Aligarh Division, and has a population of half a million...
and
HyderabadHyderabad , is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad has a population of over 4 million...
, {{Unicode|Urdu}} is spoken and learned and is regarded as a language of prestige.
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
, the other
standardizedA standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status...
registerIn linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, an English speaker may adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal In linguistics, a...
of Hindustani, is declared by the
Constitution of IndiaThe Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishing the structure, procedures, powers and duties, of the government and spells out the fundamental rights, directive principles and duties of citizens...
as the "official language (rājabhāshā) of the Union" (Art. 343(1)) (In this context, 'Union' means the Federal Government and not the entire country - India has 23 official languages). At the same time, however, the definitive text of Federal laws is officially the English text and proceedings in the higher appellate courts must be conducted in English. See Official languages of India. At the state level, Hindi is an official language in nine out of the 28 Indian states (namely
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
,
BiharBihar is a state in eastern India. Bihar is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi , and 3rd largest by population. Close to 85 percent of the population lives in villages...
,
JharkhandJharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar state on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east. of 28,833 sq mi...
,
UttarakhandUttarakhand , is a state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out of Himalayan and adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000, becoming the 27th state of the Republic of India...
,
Madhya PradeshMadhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal. Madhya Pradesh was originally the largest state in India until November 1, 2000 when the state of Chhattisgarh was carved out...
,
RajasthanRājasthān is the largest state of the Republic of India in terms of area. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with Pakistan...
,
ChhattisgarhChhattisgarh , a state in central India, formed when the sixteen Chhattisgarhi-speaking southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh gained statehood on November 1, 2000. Raipur serves as its capital. It is the 10th largest state of India by area of 52,199 sq mi...
,
Himachal PradeshHimachal Pradesh is a state in north India.It is spread over 21,629 sq mi , and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on north, Punjab on west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on south, Uttarakhand on south-east and by Tibet, China on the east...
, and
HaryanaHaryana is a state in northern India. It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south. Eastern border to Uttarakhand & Uttar Pradesh is defined by river Yamuna. Haryana also surrounds Delhi on three sides, forming the northern, western and...
). In the remaining states Hindi is not an official language. In the state of Tamil Nadu studying Hindi is not compulsory in the state curriculum. However an option to take the same as second or third language does exist. In the other states, studying Hindi is usually compulsory in the school curriculum as a third language (the first two languages being the state's official vernacular language and English), though the intensiveness of Hindi in the curriculum varies.
In
FijiFiji , officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands , is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean east of Vanuatu, west of Tonga and south of Tuvalu. The country comprises an archipelago of about 322 islands, of which 106 are permanently inhabited, and 522 islets...
, Hindustani has official status under
Fiji's ConstitutionThe 1997 Constitution of Fiji was the supreme law of Fiji from its adoption in 1997 until 2009 when it was abolished by President Josefa Iloilo. It also was not in force after the 2000 Fijian coup d'état led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama.- Background :...
, along with
Bau FijianFijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 450,000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji, but another 200,000 speak it as a second language...
and
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
; citizens of Fiji have the constitutional right to communicate with any government agency in any of the official languages, with an interpreter to be supplied on request.
Hindustani was the official language of the
British RajThe British Raj was the British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the period of dominion, and even the region under the rule...
up until the
partition of IndiaThe Partition of India was the partition of British India that led to the creation, on August 14, 1947 and August 15, 1947, respectively, of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India...
in 1947; the term was a synonym for Urdu.
Hindustani outside South Asia
Besides being the
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
of
South AsiaSouth Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east...
{{Fact|date=July 2008}}, Hindustani is spoken among people of the South Asian diaspora and their descendants.
Fijian Hindustani descends from one of the eastern forms of Hindustani, called Awadhi, as well as the Bhojpuri dialect. It has developed some unique features that differentiate it from the {{Unicode|Avadhī}} spoken on the Indian subcontinent, although not to the extent of hindering mutual understanding. It is spoken by nearly the entire Indo-Fijian community, 38.1% of Fiji's entire population, regardless of ancestry.
Hindustani speakers have a significant number of speakers in
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
n countries such as
SurinameSuriname , officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America....
and
GuyanaGuyana officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and previously known as British Guiana, is a state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean.Guyana was discovered in 1498 by the Europeans,Guyana's past is punctuated by battles fought and won,...
, and
CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts...
countries such as
Trinidad & TobagoThe Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying northeast of the South American country of Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles. It shares maritime boundaries with other nations including Barbados to the northeast, Guyana to the...
and
BelizeBelize , is a country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, composed of many cultures and speaking many languages. Although Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official language...
. The formal name of the language spoken in this region is generally called
Caribbean Hindustani or
Caribbean Hindi, although the Caribbean countries may add an adjective in front of the language name (i.e.
Sarnami Hindustani) even though most individuals commonly refer to it as just
Hindustani or
Hindi. One major country in which Hindustani is spoken is
SurinameSuriname , officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America....
.
Sarnami Hindustani is the second most spoken language in Suriname after
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language, and over 5 million people as a second language.
"1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language...
. This is due to the emigration of East Indians (known locally as
HindoestanenThe Hindoestanen are an ethnic group of South Asian origin in the Netherlands and Suriname. The Hindoestanen began migrating to Suriname in 1873 from what was then British India as indentured labourers, many from the modern-day Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and the surrounding regions...
in Suriname) from the Indian states of
BihārBihar is a state in eastern India. Bihar is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi , and 3rd largest by population. Close to 85 percent of the population lives in villages...
and
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
located in
North IndiaNorth India is a loosely defined region in the northern part of India. The exact meaning of the term varies by usage. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from Tibet and Central Asia...
. The emigration was mainly of Bhojpuri speaking people which has led to the local Hindustani language having various Bhojpuri words and phrases from other
Bihari languagesBihari is a name given to the western group of Eastern Indic languages, spoken in Bihar and neighboring states in India. Bhojpuri and Maithili are spoken in Nepal as well. The Bhojpuri and Maithili speaking population form more than 20% of Nepalese population. Despite the large number of speakers...
. Ethnic Indians form 37% of the population in Suriname, the largest ethnic group there. Hence, Hindustani is spoken frequently in Suriname and Indian culture plays a major role there in general. Hindustani is also spoken among ethnic Indians of Guyana and is popular there as South Asians make up around 45% of Guyana's total population.
ParyaParya is a Central Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Tajuzbeki was an alternative name coined by Bholanath Tivari for the same language. Much of the academic research in documenting and characterizing this Indo-Aryan isolate language was done by prominent Soviet...
(which was called Tadj-Uzbeki or Tajuzbeki by Bholanath Tivari), refers to the Hindustani dialect spoken by Indian immigrants from the 13th century onwards in the border region of
TajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east...
and
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
, especially in the environs of
HisorHisor is a city in western Tajikistan, about 15 km west of Dushanbe. It is the capital of Hisor district, in the Region of Republican Subordination. It lies at an altitude of 799-824 m, surrounded by high mountains...
,
Shehr-e-nauShahrinaw District or Nohiyai Shahrinaw is a district in the Region of Republican Subordination in Tajikistan, lying between Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe and Uzbekistan. The Shahrinaw district borders on Tursunzoda district in the west, Hisor district in the east, and Rudaki district in the south...
, Regar/Tursunzoda and Surchi, located in the
Gissar ValleyGissar Valley in Tajikistan runs east-west along the southern slopes of Gissar Range and on the northern border of Khatlon Province...
of Tajikistan and the
Surkhandarya basinSurxondaryo Province , old spelling Surkhandarya Province is a viloyat of Uzbekistan, located in the extreme south-east of the country. Established on March 6, 1941, it borders on Turkmenistan, Tajikstan, Afghanistan and Qashqadaryo Province. It covers an area of 20,100 km²...
of Uzbekistan. It is based on the
BrajBraj is a region in Uttar Pradesh of India, around Mathura-Vrindavan. Braj, though never a clearly defined political region in India but is very well demarcated culturally, is considered to be the land of Krishna and is derived from the Sanskrit word vraja...
,
HariyaniHaryanvi is the northernmost dialect of the Hindi language. It is most widely spoken in the North Indian state of Haryana, and also in Delhi, particularly by Rors and Jats. According to linguistic research, Haryanvi has 65% lexical similarity with the Bagri language...
and
RajasthaniRajasthani is a language or language cluster of the Indo-Aryan languages family. It is spoken by 36 million people in Rajasthan and other states of India and in some adjacent areas of Pakistan. The number of speakers may be up to 80 million worldwide...
dialects, and is highly influenced by
UzbekUzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 23.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...
,
TajikTajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a modern variety of Persian spoken in Central Asia. Most speakers of Tajik live in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan...
and
Russian languageRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
s.
Hindustani also has a significant number of speakers in
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
,
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
,
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
, and the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
due to immigration by the people of
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
to these continents and regions. In South Africa,
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
and other parts of Africa, older descendents of 18th
centuryA century is one hundred consecutive years.Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages .-Start and end in the Gregorian Calendar:...
sugarSugar is a class of edible crystalline substances, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose. Human taste buds interpret its flavor as sweet. Sugar as a basic food carbohydrate primarily comes from sugar cane and from sugar beet, but also appears in fruit, honey, sorghum, sugar maple , and in many...
cane workers also speak a variety of Bhojpuri as their second
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
.
Hindustani was also spoken widespread in Burma during British rule as the main language of the administration. Many older
BurmeseBurmese may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to Burma, a country in Southeast Asia* A person from Burma, or of Burmese descent. See Burmese people, Demographics of Burma and Culture of Burma. For specific persons, see :Category:Burmese people....
, particularly the Anglo-Indians and
Anglo-BurmeseThe Anglo-Burmese, also known as the Anglo-Burmans, are a community of Eurasians of Burmese and European descent, and emerged as a distinct community through mixed relations between the British and other European settlers and Bamar from 1826 until 1948 when Burma gained its independence from the...
of the country, still speak the language although it has no official status in the country since military rule.
Also see:
Fiji HindiFiji Hindi, also known as Fijian Hindi or Fiji Hindustani, is a language which is spoken in Fiji by most Fijian citizens of Indian descent. It is derived mainly from the Awadhi and Bhojpuri language or dialects of Hindi and also contains words from other Indian languages. It has also borrowed a...
Vocabulary
{{main|Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) word etymology}}
Standard or
shuddha ("pure") Hindi derives much of its formal and technical vocabulary from
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
while standard Urdu derives much of its formal and technical vocabulary from
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
. Standard Hindi and Urdu are 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
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
and Arabic. In addition, spoken Hindustani includes words from
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
and other languages as well.
Vernacular
{{Mergefrom|Hindavi|date=January 2008}}
{{Merge|Khariboli|date=January 2008}}
Hindustani (हिन्दुस्तानी, {{Nastaliq|ہندوستانی}}, {{IAST|Hindustānī}}, {{IPA2|hɪn̪d̪ʊst̪aːniː}}, literally: 'of HindustanHindustan "land of Hind", is one of the popular names of South Asia. Though the meaning of Hindustan has evolved over the years, after the partition of India it primarily refers to the Republic of India.-Etymology:...
') or
Hindi-Urdu is an
Indo-Aryan languageThe Indo-Aryan languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family.SIL International in a 2005 estimate counted a total of 209 varieties, the largest in terms of native speakers being Hindustani , Bengali , Punjabi , Marathi ,...
that spans several closely related dialects in
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
and northern
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
. Although Hindustani is based largely on the
KhariboliKhariboli , Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), (/ ...
dialect, it also includes several
nonstandard dialectA nonstandard dialect is a dialect that does not have the institutional support or sanction that a standardized dialect has.Like any dialect, a nonstandard dialect has its own vocabulary and an internally consistent grammar and syntax; and it may be spoken using a variety of accents. Describing a...
s of the Hindi languages. The language incorporates a large vocabulary taken from several source languages of
SouthSouth Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east...
,
CentralAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
and Western Asia, such as
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
,
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
,
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
and Turkic. A close parallel has been observed with the
English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
, which has developed an extensive vocabulary by similarly drawing upon
GermanicThe Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
,
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
and
CelticThe Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic", a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by Greek and Roman writers to describe tribes in...
sources.
"Hindustani is the basis" of the two national languages, Standard Hindi and Urdu. In other words, Standard Hindi and Urdu are
standardizedA standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status...
registerIn linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, an English speaker may adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal In linguistics, a...
s of Hindustani/Khariboli. They are nearly identical in grammar and share a basic common vocabulary but differ in literary conventions and specialised vocabulary with Urdu retaining Persian, Arabic and Turkic, and Hindi relying heavily on
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
. Before the Partition of British India, the terms Hindustani, Urdu and Hindi were synonymous; all covered what would be called Urdu and Hindi today.
History
{{main|History of Hindustani}}
The Hindustani dialects emerge out of Middle Indic
apabhramshaApabhraṃśa is a term used by Sanskrit grammarians since Patañjali to refer to dialects of North India that deviate from the norm of Sanskrit grammar. The term in Sanskrit literally means "corrupt" or "non-grammatical language". It is used as a cover term for the dialects forming the transition...
"vernaculars" of North India in the 7th to 13th centuries.
Amir KhusroAb'ul Hasan Yamīn al-Dīn Khusrow , better known as Amīr Khusrow Dehlawī , was an Indian musician, scholar and poet of Persian descent. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent...
in the late 13th century mentions the term
HindaviHindavi , Hindawi, or Hindvi is the mother language of modern standard Urdu and later Hindi. It was formed as a result of the intermingling of Persian loanwords with the native Khariboli language spoken in Delhi and was written in the Perso-Arabic script...
.
Towards the end of the
MughalThe Mughal Empire was an Islamic and Persianate imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century...
period, with the fragmentation of the empire and the elite system,
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
came to gradually replace
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
as the lingua franca among the educated elite in Northern India, though Persian still retained much of its pre-eminence.. For socio-political reasons, though essentially a variant of
KhariboliKhariboli , Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), (/ ...
with Persian vocabulary the emerging prestige dialect becomes known as
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
(properly
zabān-e Urdu-e mo'alla "language of the court").
Originally the term
Hindustani ("of
HindustanHindustan "land of Hind", is one of the popular names of South Asia. Though the meaning of Hindustan has evolved over the years, after the partition of India it primarily refers to the Republic of India.-Etymology:...
") was the name given by the Turco-Persian
MughalThe Mughal Empire was an Islamic and Persianate imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century...
conquerors of India to
KhariboliKhariboli , Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), (/ ...
, the local form of
HindaviHindavi , Hindawi, or Hindvi is the mother language of modern standard Urdu and later Hindi. It was formed as a result of the intermingling of Persian loanwords with the native Khariboli language spoken in Delhi and was written in the Perso-Arabic script...
at their capital,
DelhiDelhi, known locally as Dilli , and also by the official name National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India...
, and nearby cities. As a contact language between the two cultures, Hindustani absorbed large numbers of Persian, Arabic, and Turkic words, and with further Mughal conquest it spread as a
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
across northern India. Written in the
Perso-Arabic ScriptThe Perso-Arabic script is a writing system that is based on the Arabic alphabet. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic script was modified to match the Persian language, adding four letters: پ , چ , ژ , and گ . Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add...
, it remained the primary
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
of northern India for the next four centuries, although it varied significantly in vocabulary depending on the local language, and it achieved the status of a literary language, along with Persian, in the Muslim courts. In time it came to be called
Urdu (
zabān-e Urdu {{rtl-lang|fa|زبان اردو}}, ज़बान-ए उर्दू, "language of the camp" in Persian, derived from
AltaicAltaic is a language family that is generally held by its proponents to include the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Korean, and Japonic language families . These languages are spoken in a wide arc stretching from northeast Asia through Central Asia to Anatolia and eastern Europe...
Ordū "camp", cognate with English
hordeHorde may refer to:* a clan or army of steppe nomads* the White Horde, formed 1226* the Blue Horde, formed 1227* the Golden Horde, a Tatar-Mongol state established in the 1240s...
), and as the highly Persianized court language,
RekhtaRekhta was the Persianized form of Hindwi, a language that combines Persian, Arabic and Hindī. From the late 17th century till the closing decades of the 18th century, the term also referred to the Urdu-Hindustani language...
, or "mixed".
When the British conquered India from the late 1700s through to the late 1800s, they used the words 'Hindustani' and 'Urdu' interchangeably. They developed it as the language of administration of British India, further preparing it to be the official language of modern
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
.
In recent times, the word
Hindustani has been used for the intentionally neutral language of
BollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the Indian film industry. Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the...
films, which are popular in both India and Pakistan.
Urdu
{{main|Urdu}}
Urdu is the national language of
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
and an officially recognized regional language of
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
. It is also an official language in the Indian states of
Andhra PradeshAndhra Pradesh , abbreviated A.P., is a state situated on the south-eastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Hyderabad...
,
Jammu and KashmirJammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the Pakistani...
, National Capital Territory of Delhi, and
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
which have significant Muslim populations in India. The word "Urdu" derives from the more formal
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
phrase
zabān-e Urdu-e mo'alla, meaning the "language of the camp". The language began as the common speech of soldiers serving
MughalThe Mughal Empire was an Islamic and Persianate imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century...
lords. The term became transferred to the court language of the Mughal aristocracy, whose dialect was based on the upper-class dialect of
DelhiDelhi, known locally as Dilli , and also by the official name National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India...
. Urdu's historical development was centered on the Urdu poets of the Mughal courts of north Indian metropolises such as Delhi,
LucknowLucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division...
,
LahoreLahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in Pakistan after Karachi. Historically the main city of the undivided Punjab, it is often called the Garden of Mughals because of its rich Mughal heritage...
, and
AgraAgra is a city on the banks of the Yamuna River in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It finds mention in the epic Mahābhārata where it was called Agrevaṇa , or 'the border of the forest'. Legend ascribes the founding of the city to Rājā Badal Singh , whose fort, Badalgarh, stood on or...
. Urdu is written using a modified form of the Arabic script known as the
Perso-Arabic scriptThe Perso-Arabic script is a writing system that is based on the Arabic alphabet. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic script was modified to match the Persian language, adding four letters: پ , چ , ژ , and گ . Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add...
.
Hindi
{{Main|Hindi}}
Standard Hindi, the official language of
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, is based on the
KhariboliKhariboli , Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), (/ ...
dialect of the Delhi region and differs from Urdu in that it is usually written in the indigenous
DevanagariDevanagari , also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal. It is written from left to right, lacks distinct letter cases, and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together. Devanāgarī is the main script used to...
script of India and exhibits less Persian influence than Urdu. Many scholars today employ a Sanskritized form of Hindi developed primarily in
VaranasiVaranasi , also commonly known as Benares or Banaras and Kashi , is a city situated on the left bank of the River Ganga in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, regarded as holy by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains...
, the
HinduA Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, a set of religious, philosophical and cultural systems that originated in the Indian subcontinent. The vast body of Hindu scriptures, divided into Śruti and Smriti , lay the foundation of Hindu beliefs which primarily include dhárma, kárma, ahimsa and saṃsāra...
holy city, which is based on the Eastern Hindi dialect of that region.
Hindustani, is spoken and written in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka by millions of people, mixed with Marathi, and local Dravidian languages. It is called Deccani Urdu. It has a literature of 500 years, with prose, poetry, religion & philosophy, under the Bahmani Kings and later on Khutab Shahi Adil Shahi etc. It is a living language, still prevalent all over Deccan Plateau.
Note that the term "Hindustani" has generally fallen out of common usage in modern India, except to refer to a style of Indian
classical music prevalent in northern IndiaHindustani Classical Music is the Hindustani or erstwhileNorth Indian style of Indian classical music...
. The term used to refer to the language is "Hindi", regardless of the mix of Persian or Sanskrit words used by the speaker. One could conceive of a wide spectrum of dialects, with the highly Persianized Urdu at one end of the spectrum and a heavily
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
based dialect, spoken in the region around
VaranasiVaranasi , also commonly known as Benares or Banaras and Kashi , is a city situated on the left bank of the River Ganga in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, regarded as holy by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains...
, at the other end of the spectrum. In common usage in India, the term "Hindi" includes all dialects, except the Urdu end of the spectrum. Thus, the different meanings of the word "Hindi" include, among others:
- standardized Hindi as taught in schools throughout India,
- formal or official Hindi advocated by Purushottam Das Tandon
Purushottam Das Tandon पुरुशोत्तम दास टंडन , was an independence fighter from Uttar Pradesh in India, of Khatri descent. He is widely remembered for his efforts in achieving the Official Language of India status for Hindi. He was customarily given the title Rajarshi...
and as instituted by the post-independence Indian government, heavily influenced by Sanskrit,
- the vernacular dialects of Hindustani/Hindi-Urdu as spoken throughout India,
- the neutralized 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.
Bazaar Hindustani
{{main|Hindi dialects}}
In a specific sense, "Hindustani" may be used to refer to the dialects and varieties used in common speech, in contrast with the standardized Hindi and Urdu. This meaning is reflected in the use of the term "
bazaarA bazaar is a permanent merchandising area, marketplace, or street of shops where goods and services are exchanged or sold. The word derives from the Persian word bāzār, the etymology of which goes back to the Middle Persian word baha-char , meaning "the place of prices"...
Hindustani," in other words, the "language of the street or the marketplace", as opposed to the perceived refinement of formal Hindi, Urdu, or even
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
. Thus, the Webster's New World Dictionary defines the term Hindustani as
the principal dialect of Hindi/Urdu, used as a trade language throughout north India and Pakistan.
Hindi and Urdu
While, at the spoken level,
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
and
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
are considered
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
s of a single language (or
diasystemIn linguistics, in the field of structural dialectology, a diasystem is a single genetic language which has two or more standard forms. Some dialects are often divided into separate languages due to different historical and cultural development...
), they differ vastly in literary and formal
vocabularyA person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a language. A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge.- Knowing and using a word :...
; where literary Urdu draws heavily on
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
and
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
, literary Hindi draws heavily on
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
and to a lesser extent
PrakritPrakrit is the name for a group of Middle Indic, Indo-Aryan languages, derived from Classical Sanskrit and other Old Indic dialects. The word itself has a flexible definition, being defined sometimes as, "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the...
. The grammar and base vocabulary (most pronouns, verbs, adpositions, etc.) of both Urdu and Hindi, however, are the same and derive from a Prakritic base.
The associated dialects of Urdu and Hindi are known as "Hindustani". It is perhaps the
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
of the west and north of the
Indian subcontinentThe Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent and other terms, is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate south of the Himalayas, forming a peninsula which extends southward into the Indian Ocean...
, though it is understood fairly well in other regions also, especially in the urban areas. A common vernacular sharing characteristics with Urdu, Sanskritized Hindi, and regional Hindi, Hindustani is more commonly used as a vernacular than highly Arabicized/Persianized Urdu or highly Sanskritized Hindi.
This can be seen in the popular culture of
BollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the Indian film industry. Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the...
or, more generally, the vernacular of Pakistanis and Indians which generally employs a lexicon common to both "Urdu" and "Hindi" speakers. Minor subtleties in region will also affect the 'brand' of Hindustani, sometimes pushing the Hindustani closer to Urdu or to Hindi. One might reasonably assume that the language spoken in
LucknowLucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division...
,
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
(known for its beautiful usage of Urdu) and
VaranasiVaranasi , also commonly known as Benares or Banaras and Kashi , is a city situated on the left bank of the River Ganga in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, regarded as holy by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains...
(a holy city for
HinduA Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, a set of religious, philosophical and cultural systems that originated in the Indian subcontinent. The vast body of Hindu scriptures, divided into Śruti and Smriti , lay the foundation of Hindu beliefs which primarily include dhárma, kárma, ahimsa and saṃsāra...
s and thus using highly Sanskritized
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
) is somewhat different.
Hindustani, if both Hindi and Urdu are counted, is the third or second most widely spoken language in the world after Mandarin and possibly
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
.
{{seealso|Persian and Urdu}}
Official status
Urdu, the original
standardizedA standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status...
registerIn linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, an English speaker may adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal In linguistics, a...
of Hindustani, is the national language of
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
, where it shares
official languageAn official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other territory. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
status with English. Although English is used in most elite circles, and
PunjabiPunjabi or Panjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region ....
has a plurality of native speakers, {{Unicode|Urdu}} is the
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
and is expected to prevail. {{Unicode|Urdu}} is also one of the official languages of
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, and in the Indian states of
Andhra PradeshAndhra Pradesh , abbreviated A.P., is a state situated on the south-eastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Hyderabad...
,
BiharBihar is a state in eastern India. Bihar is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi , and 3rd largest by population. Close to 85 percent of the population lives in villages...
,
DelhiDelhi, known locally as Dilli , and also by the official name National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India...
,
Jammu and KashmirJammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the Pakistani...
,
UttarakhandUttarakhand , is a state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out of Himalayan and adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000, becoming the 27th state of the Republic of India...
and
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
, {{Unicode|Urdu}} has official language status. While the government school system in most other states emphasises Modern Standard Hindi, at universities in cities such as
LucknowLucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division...
,
AligarhAligarh is a city in Aligarh District in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city is located about 90 miles southeast of New Delhi. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh District, Aligarh Police Range and Aligarh Division, and has a population of half a million...
and
HyderabadHyderabad , is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad has a population of over 4 million...
, {{Unicode|Urdu}} is spoken and learned and is regarded as a language of prestige.
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
, the other
standardizedA standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status...
registerIn linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, an English speaker may adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal In linguistics, a...
of Hindustani, is declared by the
Constitution of IndiaThe Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishing the structure, procedures, powers and duties, of the government and spells out the fundamental rights, directive principles and duties of citizens...
as the "official language (rājabhāshā) of the Union" (Art. 343(1)) (In this context, 'Union' means the Federal Government and not the entire country - India has 23 official languages). At the same time, however, the definitive text of Federal laws is officially the English text and proceedings in the higher appellate courts must be conducted in English. See Official languages of India. At the state level, Hindi is an official language in nine out of the 28 Indian states (namely
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
,
BiharBihar is a state in eastern India. Bihar is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi , and 3rd largest by population. Close to 85 percent of the population lives in villages...
,
JharkhandJharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar state on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east. of 28,833 sq mi...
,
UttarakhandUttarakhand , is a state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out of Himalayan and adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000, becoming the 27th state of the Republic of India...
,
Madhya PradeshMadhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal. Madhya Pradesh was originally the largest state in India until November 1, 2000 when the state of Chhattisgarh was carved out...
,
RajasthanRājasthān is the largest state of the Republic of India in terms of area. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with Pakistan...
,
ChhattisgarhChhattisgarh , a state in central India, formed when the sixteen Chhattisgarhi-speaking southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh gained statehood on November 1, 2000. Raipur serves as its capital. It is the 10th largest state of India by area of 52,199 sq mi...
,
Himachal PradeshHimachal Pradesh is a state in north India.It is spread over 21,629 sq mi , and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on north, Punjab on west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on south, Uttarakhand on south-east and by Tibet, China on the east...
, and
HaryanaHaryana is a state in northern India. It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south. Eastern border to Uttarakhand & Uttar Pradesh is defined by river Yamuna. Haryana also surrounds Delhi on three sides, forming the northern, western and...
). In the remaining states Hindi is not an official language. In the state of Tamil Nadu studying Hindi is not compulsory in the state curriculum. However an option to take the same as second or third language does exist. In the other states, studying Hindi is usually compulsory in the school curriculum as a third language (the first two languages being the state's official vernacular language and English), though the intensiveness of Hindi in the curriculum varies.
In
FijiFiji , officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands , is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean east of Vanuatu, west of Tonga and south of Tuvalu. The country comprises an archipelago of about 322 islands, of which 106 are permanently inhabited, and 522 islets...
, Hindustani has official status under
Fiji's ConstitutionThe 1997 Constitution of Fiji was the supreme law of Fiji from its adoption in 1997 until 2009 when it was abolished by President Josefa Iloilo. It also was not in force after the 2000 Fijian coup d'état led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama.- Background :...
, along with
Bau FijianFijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 450,000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji, but another 200,000 speak it as a second language...
and
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
; citizens of Fiji have the constitutional right to communicate with any government agency in any of the official languages, with an interpreter to be supplied on request.
Hindustani was the official language of the
British RajThe British Raj was the British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the period of dominion, and even the region under the rule...
up until the
partition of IndiaThe Partition of India was the partition of British India that led to the creation, on August 14, 1947 and August 15, 1947, respectively, of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India...
in 1947; the term was a synonym for Urdu.
Hindustani outside South Asia
Besides being the
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
of
South AsiaSouth Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east...
{{Fact|date=July 2008}}, Hindustani is spoken among people of the South Asian diaspora and their descendants.
Fijian Hindustani descends from one of the eastern forms of Hindustani, called Awadhi, as well as the Bhojpuri dialect. It has developed some unique features that differentiate it from the {{Unicode|Avadhī}} spoken on the Indian subcontinent, although not to the extent of hindering mutual understanding. It is spoken by nearly the entire Indo-Fijian community, 38.1% of Fiji's entire population, regardless of ancestry.
Hindustani speakers have a significant number of speakers in
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
n countries such as
SurinameSuriname , officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America....
and
GuyanaGuyana officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and previously known as British Guiana, is a state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean.Guyana was discovered in 1498 by the Europeans,Guyana's past is punctuated by battles fought and won,...
, and
CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts...
countries such as
Trinidad & TobagoThe Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying northeast of the South American country of Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles. It shares maritime boundaries with other nations including Barbados to the northeast, Guyana to the...
and
BelizeBelize , is a country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, composed of many cultures and speaking many languages. Although Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official language...
. The formal name of the language spoken in this region is generally called
Caribbean Hindustani or
Caribbean Hindi, although the Caribbean countries may add an adjective in front of the language name (i.e.
Sarnami Hindustani) even though most individuals commonly refer to it as just
Hindustani or
Hindi. One major country in which Hindustani is spoken is
SurinameSuriname , officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America....
.
Sarnami Hindustani is the second most spoken language in Suriname after
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language, and over 5 million people as a second language.
"1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language...
. This is due to the emigration of East Indians (known locally as
HindoestanenThe Hindoestanen are an ethnic group of South Asian origin in the Netherlands and Suriname. The Hindoestanen began migrating to Suriname in 1873 from what was then British India as indentured labourers, many from the modern-day Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and the surrounding regions...
in Suriname) from the Indian states of
BihārBihar is a state in eastern India. Bihar is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi , and 3rd largest by population. Close to 85 percent of the population lives in villages...
and
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
located in
North IndiaNorth India is a loosely defined region in the northern part of India. The exact meaning of the term varies by usage. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from Tibet and Central Asia...
. The emigration was mainly of Bhojpuri speaking people which has led to the local Hindustani language having various Bhojpuri words and phrases from other
Bihari languagesBihari is a name given to the western group of Eastern Indic languages, spoken in Bihar and neighboring states in India. Bhojpuri and Maithili are spoken in Nepal as well. The Bhojpuri and Maithili speaking population form more than 20% of Nepalese population. Despite the large number of speakers...
. Ethnic Indians form 37% of the population in Suriname, the largest ethnic group there. Hence, Hindustani is spoken frequently in Suriname and Indian culture plays a major role there in general. Hindustani is also spoken among ethnic Indians of Guyana and is popular there as South Asians make up around 45% of Guyana's total population.
ParyaParya is a Central Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Tajuzbeki was an alternative name coined by Bholanath Tivari for the same language. Much of the academic research in documenting and characterizing this Indo-Aryan isolate language was done by prominent Soviet...
(which was called Tadj-Uzbeki or Tajuzbeki by Bholanath Tivari), refers to the Hindustani dialect spoken by Indian immigrants from the 13th century onwards in the border region of
TajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east...
and
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
, especially in the environs of
HisorHisor is a city in western Tajikistan, about 15 km west of Dushanbe. It is the capital of Hisor district, in the Region of Republican Subordination. It lies at an altitude of 799-824 m, surrounded by high mountains...
,
Shehr-e-nauShahrinaw District or Nohiyai Shahrinaw is a district in the Region of Republican Subordination in Tajikistan, lying between Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe and Uzbekistan. The Shahrinaw district borders on Tursunzoda district in the west, Hisor district in the east, and Rudaki district in the south...
, Regar/Tursunzoda and Surchi, located in the
Gissar ValleyGissar Valley in Tajikistan runs east-west along the southern slopes of Gissar Range and on the northern border of Khatlon Province...
of Tajikistan and the
Surkhandarya basinSurxondaryo Province , old spelling Surkhandarya Province is a viloyat of Uzbekistan, located in the extreme south-east of the country. Established on March 6, 1941, it borders on Turkmenistan, Tajikstan, Afghanistan and Qashqadaryo Province. It covers an area of 20,100 km²...
of Uzbekistan. It is based on the
BrajBraj is a region in Uttar Pradesh of India, around Mathura-Vrindavan. Braj, though never a clearly defined political region in India but is very well demarcated culturally, is considered to be the land of Krishna and is derived from the Sanskrit word vraja...
,
HariyaniHaryanvi is the northernmost dialect of the Hindi language. It is most widely spoken in the North Indian state of Haryana, and also in Delhi, particularly by Rors and Jats. According to linguistic research, Haryanvi has 65% lexical similarity with the Bagri language...
and
RajasthaniRajasthani is a language or language cluster of the Indo-Aryan languages family. It is spoken by 36 million people in Rajasthan and other states of India and in some adjacent areas of Pakistan. The number of speakers may be up to 80 million worldwide...
dialects, and is highly influenced by
UzbekUzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 23.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...
,
TajikTajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a modern variety of Persian spoken in Central Asia. Most speakers of Tajik live in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan...
and
Russian languageRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
s.
Hindustani also has a significant number of speakers in
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
,
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
,
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
, and the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
due to immigration by the people of
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
to these continents and regions. In South Africa,
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
and other parts of Africa, older descendents of 18th
centuryA century is one hundred consecutive years.Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages .-Start and end in the Gregorian Calendar:...
sugarSugar is a class of edible crystalline substances, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose. Human taste buds interpret its flavor as sweet. Sugar as a basic food carbohydrate primarily comes from sugar cane and from sugar beet, but also appears in fruit, honey, sorghum, sugar maple , and in many...
cane workers also speak a variety of Bhojpuri as their second
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
.
Hindustani was also spoken widespread in Burma during British rule as the main language of the administration. Many older
BurmeseBurmese may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to Burma, a country in Southeast Asia* A person from Burma, or of Burmese descent. See Burmese people, Demographics of Burma and Culture of Burma. For specific persons, see :Category:Burmese people....
, particularly the Anglo-Indians and
Anglo-BurmeseThe Anglo-Burmese, also known as the Anglo-Burmans, are a community of Eurasians of Burmese and European descent, and emerged as a distinct community through mixed relations between the British and other European settlers and Bamar from 1826 until 1948 when Burma gained its independence from the...
of the country, still speak the language although it has no official status in the country since military rule.
Also see:
Fiji HindiFiji Hindi, also known as Fijian Hindi or Fiji Hindustani, is a language which is spoken in Fiji by most Fijian citizens of Indian descent. It is derived mainly from the Awadhi and Bhojpuri language or dialects of Hindi and also contains words from other Indian languages. It has also borrowed a...
Vocabulary
{{main|Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) word etymology}}
Standard or
shuddha ("pure") Hindi derives much of its formal and technical vocabulary from
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
while standard Urdu derives much of its formal and technical vocabulary from
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
. Standard Hindi and Urdu are 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
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
and Arabic. In addition, spoken Hindustani includes words from
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
and other languages as well.
Vernacular
{{UnicodeUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
and Hindi are practically indistinguishable. However, the literary registers differ ; in highly formal situations, the languages are intelligible to speakers of the other. It bears mention that in centuries past both Sanskrit and Persian have been regarded as the languages of the elite, even by those of differing ethnic and religious backgrounds.
There are four principal categories of words in Hindustani:
- tatsama
Tatsama are Sanskrit loanwords in modern Indic languages like Bangla or Sinhala. They belong to a higher and more erudite register than common words. That register can be compared to the use of words of Greek origin in English Tatsama are Sanskrit loanwords in modern Indic languages like Bangla or...
(तत्सम/تتسم same as that) words: These are the words which have been directly lifted from Sanskrit to enrich the formal and technical vocabulary of Hindi. Such words (almost exclusively nouns) have been taken without any phonetic or spelling change. 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.
- tadbhav (तद्भव/تدبھو born of that) words: These are the words that might have been derived from Sanskrit or the Prakrits, but have undergone minor or major phonetic and spelling changes as they appear in modern Hindi. They also include words borrowed from the other languages.
- deshaja (देशज/دیشج local): words that are unrelated to any Sanskrit words, and of local origin.
- videshi (foreign): Loan words from non-Indian languages that include Arabic, Persian
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
, Turkic, PortuguesePortuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and northern Portugal. It is derived from the Latin spoken by the romanized Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago...
or EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
.
Excessive use of
tatsam words sometimes creates problems for most native speakers. The educated middle class population of India may be familiar with these words due to education, but less-educated persons or people of rural backgrounds lack familiarity with more formal registers. The issue also exists with high-register vocabulary borrowed from
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
and Arabic.
Writing system
{{Main|Hindustani orthography}}
Contemporarily, Hindustani is primarily written in the Devanagari script or the
Perso-Arabic scriptThe Perso-Arabic script is a writing system that is based on the Arabic alphabet. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic script was modified to match the Persian language, adding four letters: پ , چ , ژ , and گ . Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add...
. However, the
KaithiKaithi , also called "Kayathi" or "Kayasthi", is the name of a historical script used widely in parts of North India, primarily in the former North-Western Provinces & Oudh and Bihar. It was used to write legal, administrative, and private records...
script was the historical popular script for the language. Hindi, one
standardizedA standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status...
registerIn linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, an English speaker may adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal In linguistics, a...
of Hindustani, utilizes the Devanagari script while Urdu, the other
standardizedA standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status...
registerIn linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, an English speaker may adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal instead of an alveolar nasal In linguistics, a...
of Hindustani utilizes the
Perso-Arabic scriptThe Perso-Arabic script is a writing system that is based on the Arabic alphabet. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic script was modified to match the Persian language, adding four letters: پ , چ , ژ , and گ . Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add...
, with
Nasta`liq' is one of the main genres and traditionally the predominant style in Persian calligraphy It was developed in Iran in the 14th and 15th centuries...
being the preferred calligraphic style for Urdu.
Perso-Arabic scriptThe Perso-Arabic script is a writing system that is based on the Arabic alphabet. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic script was modified to match the Persian language, adding four letters: پ , چ , ژ , and گ . Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add...
used to write Hindustani (Urdu):
| جھ |
ڄ |
ج |
پ |
ث |
ٺ |
ٽ |
ٿ |
ت |
ڀ |
ٻ |
ب |
ا |
| ɟʱ}} |
ʄ}} |
ɟ}} |
p}} |
s}} |
ʈʰ}} |
ʈ}} |
tʰ}} |
t}} |
bʱ}} |
ɓ}} |
b}} |
* |
| ڙ |
ر |
ذ |
ڍ |
ڊ |
ڏ |
ڌ |
د |
خ |
ح |
ڇ |
چ |
ڃ |
| ɽ}} |
r}} |
z}} |
ɖʱ}} |
ɖ}} |
ɗ}} |
dʱ}} |
d}} |
x}} |
h}} |
cʰ}} |
c}} |
ɲ}} |
| ڪ |
ق |
ڦ |
ف |
غ |
ع |
ظ |
ط |
ض |
ص |
ش |
س |
ز |
| k}} |
x}} |
pʰ}} |
f}} |
ɣ}} |
∅}} |
z}} |
t}} |
z}} |
s}} |
? |
s}} |
z}} |
|
ي |
ه |
و |
ڻ |
ن |
م |
ل |
ڱ |
گھ |
ڳ |
گ |
ک |
| * |
h}} |
* |
ɳ}} |
n}} |
m}} |
l}} |
ŋ}} |
ɡʱ}} |
ɠ}} |
ɡ}} |
kʰ}} |
Devanagari script used to write Hindustani (Hindi):
| अ |
आ |
इ |
ई |
उ |
ऊ |
ए |
ऐ |
ओ |
औ |
| a |
ā |
i |
ī |
u |
ū |
e |
ai |
o |
au |
| क |
ख |
ख़ |
ग |
ॻ |
ग़ |
|
घ |
|
ङ |
| k}} |
kʰ}} |
x}} |
ɡ}} |
ɠ}} |
ɣ}} |
|
ɡʱ}} |
|
ŋ}} |
| च |
छ |
|
ज |
ॼ |
ज़ |
|
झ |
|
ञ |
| c}} |
cʰ}} |
|
ɟ}} |
ʄ}} |
z}} |
|
ɟʱ}} |
|
ɲ}} |
| ट |
ठ |
|
ड |
ॾ |
ड़ |
|
ढ |
ढ़ |
ण |
| ʈ}} |
ʈʰ}} |
|
ɖ}} |
ɗ}} |
ɽ}} |
|
ɖʱ}} |
ɽʱ}} |
ɳ}} |
| त |
थ |
|
द |
ध |
|
न |
| t}} |
tʰ}} |
|
d}} |
|
dʱ}} |
|
n}} |
| प |
फ |
फ़ |
ब |
ॿ |
भ |
|
म |
| p}} |
pʰ}} |
f}} |
b}} |
ɓ}} |
|
bʱ}} |
|
m}} |
| य |
र |
ल |
व |
| j}} |
r}} |
l}} |
ʋ}} |
|
| श |
ष |
स |
ह |
| sh}} |
ʂ}} |
s}} |
h}} |
|
Because of Anglicization and international use of the Roman script, Hindustani is also sometimes written in the Roman alphabet. This adaptation is called
Roman UrduRoman Urdu is the name used for the Urdū language written with the Roman alphabet.According to the famous Urdū scholar Habib R. Sulemani: "Roman Urdu is strongly opposed by the traditional Arabic script lovers...
. Despite opposition from
DevanagariDevanagari , also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal. It is written from left to right, lacks distinct letter cases, and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together. Devanāgarī is the main script used to...
and
Perso-Arabic scriptThe Perso-Arabic script is a writing system that is based on the Arabic alphabet. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic script was modified to match the Persian language, adding four letters: پ , چ , ژ , and گ . Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add...
lovers,
Roman UrduRoman Urdu is the name used for the Urdū language written with the Roman alphabet.According to the famous Urdū scholar Habib R. Sulemani: "Roman Urdu is strongly opposed by the traditional Arabic script lovers...
is gaining popularity especially among the youth, who use the Internet or are "cyber-citizens."{{Fact|date=March 2009}}
Also see: Devanagari alphabet and
Perso-Arabic scriptThe Perso-Arabic script is a writing system that is based on the Arabic alphabet. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic script was modified to match the Persian language, adding four letters: پ , چ , ژ , and گ . Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add...
Hindustani and Bollywood
{{see|List of popular Bollywood films}}
The Indian film industry,
BollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the Indian film industry. Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the...
, located in
MumbaiMumbai, formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The city proper is the most-populous in the world, with approximately 14 million inhabitants. Along with the neighbouring suburbs of Navi Mumbai and Thane, it forms the world's 4th largest urban agglomeration, with around...
(Bombay),
MaharashtraMaharashtra is a state located on the western coast of India. Maharashtra is a part of Western India. It is India's third largest state by area and second largest by population....
, uses dialects of
KhariboliKhariboli , Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect, also known as Kauravi (Devanagari: कौरवी); identified as Hindi by SIL Ethnologue), (/ ...
of Hindi-Urdu, Awadhi,
RajasthaniRajasthani is an adjective formed from the proper-noun Rajasthan.It can refer to:* Rajasthani language* Rajasthani architecture* Rajasthani cuisine* Rajasthani music...
, Bhojpuri,
PunjabiPunjabi or Panjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region ....
, and quite often
Bambaiya HindiBambaiyya Hindi is a dialect of Hindi commonly spoken in and around the city of Mumbai, India. It incorporates words and pronunciations from Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Marathi, Konkani and English....
(along with many English words) for the dialoguies and songs in the movies produced. These movies are full of songs and dances—songs, some of them in the Urdu
Shayari style.
Generally the name of the movie is shown in three scripts Roman Script,Devanagri (used for
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
) and
Perso-ArabicPerso-Arabic may refer to*the syncretism of Persian and Arabic culture during the Caliphate era, see Islamization in Iran*Arabic influence on the Classic Persian language...
Script of
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
.Many lyrics are in
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
for songs. Movies based on
Delhi SultanateThe Delhi Sultanate was one of many Muslim states that ruled in India from 1206 to 1526. Several Turkic and Afghan dynasties ruled from Delhi: the Mamluk dynasty , the Khilji dynasty , the Tughlaq dynasty , the Sayyid dynasty , and the Lodi dynasty...
period or on mighty
Mughal EmpireThe Mughal Empire was an Islamic and Persianate imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of Hindustan by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century...
are full of
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
words. Movies like
Mughal-e-AzamMughal-e-Azam is a 1960 Indian epic film produced and directed by K. Asif. With its lavish production, K. Asif's magnum opus took nine years and Rs 10.5 million to finish...
has used purely
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
dialogues. Mythological movies of Hindus generally contain pure
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
vocabulary which are not there in
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
language. So, it would be better to call Bollywood as
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
-
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
film industry.
Urdu Films and Lollywood
The Pakistani Film industry, centred historically in
LahoreLahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in Pakistan after Karachi. Historically the main city of the undivided Punjab, it is often called the Garden of Mughals because of its rich Mughal heritage...
and has seen a rise in Punjabi movies lately. Urdu languages have again seen a surge in throughout
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
specifically Karachi, with new age films and to a lesser extent in
IslamabadIslām ābād is the capital of Pakistan, and is the tenth largest city in Pakistan with an estimated population of over 673,766 in 2009...
and Lahore.
See also
Alphabetically arranged
- Languages of India
The languages of India belong to several major linguistic families, the two largest being the Indo-European languages—Indo-Aryan —and the Dravidian languages...
- Languages of Pakistan
Pakistan has two official languages: Urdu and English. In addition there are five major provincial languages: Punjabi, Pashto, Saraiki, Sindhi and Balochi....
- List of Hindi authors
- List of Urdu writers
- Macrolanguage
- Mutually intelligible languages
- TIHUS - The International Hindi-Urdu Script
The International Hindi Urdu Script, TIHUS, is a transliteration system for writing Urdu/HindiTIHUS was designed to meet the growing need of speakers of Urdu/Hindi who enjoy reading in English more than in the Urdu or Hindi scripts....
External links
- Shakespear, John. A Dictionary, Hindustani and English. 3rd ed., much enl. London: Printed for the author by J.L. Cox and Son: Sold by Parbury, Allen, & Co., 1834.
- Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition: Hindostani
- Hindi, Urdu, Hindustani, khaRî bolî
- Hindi-Urdu FAQ
- Hindustani as an anxiety between Hindi-Urdu Commitment
- Hindi? Urdu? Hindustani? Hindi-Urdu?
- History of Hindustani
- Hindi/Urdu-English-Kalasha-Khowar-Nuristani-Pashtu Comparative Word List
- Ethnologue Report for Hindustani
- GRN Report for Hindustani
- Hindustani Poetry
- Hindi-Urdu online resources
- Biggest Hindustani-Indian poetry forum
- Hindi-Urdu Wikitravel Hindi-Urdu Phrasebook
- National Language Authority (Urdu), Pakistan (muqtadera qaumi zaban)
{{Hindi topics}}
{{Urdu topics}}
{{Indo-Iranian languages}}
{{Languages of South Asia}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hindustani Language}}