Hindi phrasebook
Photo: AbhiSuryawanshi, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Hindi (हिन्दी) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in India, Nepal, and throughout the Indian diaspora in Fiji, Singapore, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, Trinidad, Suriname, Guyana, South Africa, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mauritius and other countries. Where there are 22 official languages and over 1,000 dialects of India, Hindi and English take precedence in government affairs. It is a link-language for over half of India's population. It is also one of the 3 official languages of Fiji.
Hindi is descended from Sanskrit, sometimes called "the mother of all languages," or "Latin of the East." Standard Hindi is based on the खड़ी बोली Khaṛī Bolī dialect (lit. "Pure language"). A mixture of Hindi and Urdu, called Hindustani (though this name is also applied to the Caribbean dialect of Hindi), is the form heard in most Bollywood films, trying to appeal to the widest audience possible. Hindustani is different from what is taught at the literary level and what is used by news programs and the government in India.
As per the 2011 census, Hindi is the fastest growing language in India, followed by Kashmiri, Meitei (Manipuri), Gujarati, and Bengali.
A striking fact is that, depending on the source, Hindi is listed anywhere from the 2nd to 5th most widely spoken language in the world. In contrast to languages such as Mandarin or Spanish, there has not been much promotion of learning Hindi as a second language outside of India and some neighbouring South Asian countries such as Bhutan.
WritingHindi is written in the Devanāgarī (देवनागरी) script, like Nepali, Marathi and a number of other Indian languages.
PronunciationMost English speakers find Hindi pronunciation rather challenging, as there are 11 separate vowels and 35 separate consonants, employing a large number of distinctions not found in English.
GrammarGender & The 2nd Person Pronoun: Certain words have different endings depending on your gender. If you are a man, say these with an -आ suffix, and if you're a woman, -ई.
Hindi PhrasesGreetings: There are no time elemental greetings in conversational Hindi such as good morning, good afternoon, etc. And each religion has its own greetings.
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Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "Hindi phrasebook" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo: AbhiSuryawanshi, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons