Hindustani language

Encyclopedia

Hindi-Urdu also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...

Indo-Aryan languages

The Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family...

and the lingua franca

Lingua franca

A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...

of North India

North India

North India, known natively as Uttar Bhārat or Shumālī Hindustān , is a loosely defined region in the northern part of India. The exact meaning of the term varies by usage...

and Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. It is also known as Hindustani (हिन्दुस्तानी, ہندوستانی, , ɦɪ̃n̪d̪ʊsˈt̪aːni, literally: 'of Hindustan

Hindustan

Hindustan or Indostan, literal translation "Land of River Sindhu ", is one of the popular names of South Asia. It can also mean "the land of the Hindus"...

'), and historically, as Hindavi or Rekhta
Rekhta
Rekhta was the Persianized form of the Khariboli dialect of Hindi now known by the names "Hindustani", "Hindi", and "Urdu", although Rekhta is now almost synonymous with Urdu, as its poetry is still used and made today by Urdu speakers. From the late 17th century till the closing decades of the...

. It derives primarily from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi

Delhi

Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

, western Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

and southern Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand , formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship...

region, and incorporates a large vocabulary from Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

, Persian

Persian language

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

, Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

and Turkic

Turkic languages

The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...

. It is a pluricentric language

Pluricentric language

A pluricentric language is a language with several standard versions, both in spoken and in written forms. This situation usually arises when language and the national identity of its native speakers do not, or did not, coincide.-English:...

, with two official forms, Standard Hindi and Standard Urdu, which are standardized

Standard language

A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...

In linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, when speaking in a formal setting an English speaker may be more likely to adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal...

s of it. However, colloquial Hindi and Urdu are all but indistinguishable, and even the official standards are nearly identical in grammar, though they differ in literary conventions and in academic and technical vocabulary, with Urdu retaining stronger Persian, Central Asian and Arabic influences, and Hindi relying more heavily on Sanskrit. Before the Partition of British India, the terms Hindustani, Urdu and Hindi were synonymous; all covered what would be called Urdu and Hindi today. The term 'Hindustani' is also used for several divergent dialects of the Hindi languages spoken outside of the Subcontinent, including Fijian Hindustani and the Caribbean Hindustani

Caribbean Hindustani

Caribbean Hindustani is a dialect of Bhojpuri spoken in Suriname, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. These three countries put an adjective before the name of the language, so that the local language variant is known for instance as "Sarnami Hindoestani" in Suriname...

of Suriname

Suriname

Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...

and Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...

History

Hindustani emerged from the Middle Indo-Aryan

Middle Indo-Aryan languages

The Middle Indo-Aryan languages are the early medieval dialects of the Indo-Aryan languages, the descendants of the Old Indo-Aryan dialects such as Vedic & Classical Sanskrit, and the predecessors of the late medieval languages such as Apabhramsha or Abahatta, which eventually evolved into the...

apabhramsha
Apabhramsha
Apabhraṃśa is a term used by Sanskrit grammarians since Patañjali to refer to dialects 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 between the late...

vernacular

Vernacular

A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...

s of North India

North India

North India, known natively as Uttar Bhārat or Shumālī Hindustān , is a loosely defined region in the northern part of India. The exact meaning of the term varies by usage...

in the 7th-13th centuries CE. Amir Khusro

Amir Khusro

Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrow , better known as Amīr Khusrow Dehlawī , was an Indian musician, scholar and poet. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent...

, who lived in the 13th century CE during the Delhi Sultanate

Delhi Sultanate

The Delhi Sultanate is a term used to cover five short-lived, Delhi based kingdoms or sultanates, of Turkic origin in medieval India. The sultanates ruled from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, when the last was replaced by the Mughal dynasty...

period in North India, used the Hindustani lingua franca in his writings and referred to the language as Hindavi. The Delhi Sultanate, which comprised several Turkic

Turkic peoples

The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...

and Afghan dynasties that ruled from Delhi, was succeeded by the Mughal Empire

Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

in 1526.

Although the Mughals were of Timurid

Timurid Dynasty

The Timurids , self-designated Gurkānī , were a Persianate, Central Asian Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turko-Mongol descent whose empire included the whole of Iran, modern Afghanistan, and modern Uzbekistan, as well as large parts of contemporary Pakistan, North India, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the...

(Gurkānī) Turko-Mongol descent, they were Persianized

Persianization

Persianization or Persianisation is a sociological process of cultural change in which something non-Persian becomes Persianate. It is a specific form of cultural assimilation that often includes linguistic assimilation...

, and Persian had gradually become the state language of the Mughal empire after Babur

Babur

Babur was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of South Asia. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother...

. Towards the end of the Mughal period, with the fragmentation of the empire and the elite system, Urdu

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

came to gradually replace Persian as the lingua franca among the educated elite upper class

Upper class

In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...

particularly in Northern India, though Persian still retained much of its pre-eminence. For socio-political reasons, though essentially a variant of Khariboli

Khariboli

Khariboli , also Khari Boli, Khadiboli, Khadi Boli or simply Khari, is a Western Hindi dialect spoken mainly in the rural surroundings of Delhi, the northern areas of Western Uttar Pradesh and the southern areas of Uttarakhand in India...

with Persian vocabulary, the emerging prestige dialect became known as Urdu (properly zabān-e Urdu-e mo'alla "language of the court").

The term Hindustani ("of Hindustan") was the name given to a variant of Khariboli

Khariboli

, the local dialect at the Mughal capital, Delhi

Delhi

, and nearby cities. As an emerging common dialect, Hindustani absorbed large numbers of Persian, Arabic, and Turkic words, and as Mughal conquests grew it spread as a lingua franca across much of northern India. Written in the Perso-Arabic Script

Perso-Arabic script

The Persian or Perso-Arabic alphabet is a writing system based on the Arabic script. Originally used exclusively for the Arabic language, the Arabic alphabet was adapted to the Persian language, adding four letters: , , , and . Many languages which use the Perso-Arabic script add other letters...

, it remained the primary lingua franca of northern India for the next four centuries (although it varied significantly in vocabulary depending on the local language) and achieved the status of a literary language, alongside Persian, in Muslim courts. Its development was centered on the poets of the Mughal courts of north Indian cities such as Delhi, Lucknow

Lucknow

Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....

, Lahore

Lahore

Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

, and Agra

Agra

Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...

. In time it came to be called Urdu (zabān-e Urdu , ज़बान-ए उर्दू, "language of the camp" in Persian, derived from Turkic

Turkic languages

Ordū "camp", cognate with English horde), due to its origin as the common speech of the Mughal army. The more highly Persianized version later established as a language of the court was called Rekhta
Rekhta
Rekhta was the Persianized form of the Khariboli dialect of Hindi now known by the names "Hindustani", "Hindi", and "Urdu", although Rekhta is now almost synonymous with Urdu, as its poetry is still used and made today by Urdu speakers. From the late 17th century till the closing decades of the...

, or "mixed". John Fletcher Hurst

John Fletcher Hurst

John Fletcher Hurst was a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and first Chancellor of the American University in Washington, D.C.-Biography:...

in his book published in 1891 mentions that the Hindustani or Camp language or Language of the Camps of Moughal

Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

courts at Delhi

Delhi

is not regarded by philogists as distinct language but only as a dialect of Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

with admixture of Persian

Persian language

. He continued: "But it has all the magnitude and importance of separate language. It is linguistic result of Mohammedan invasions of eleventh & twelfth centuries and is spoken (except in rural Bengal

Bengal

Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

) by many Hindu

Hindu

Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

s in North India

North India

North India, known natively as Uttar Bhārat or Shumālī Hindustān , is a loosely defined region in the northern part of India. The exact meaning of the term varies by usage...

and by Musalman population in all parts of India". Next to English it is the official language of British Government of India. It is commonly written in Arabic or Persian characters. It is spoken by approximately 10 crore people.

When the British colonized India from the late 18th through to the late 19th century, 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 India and Pakistan. However, with independence, use of the word 'Hindustani' declined, being largely replaced by 'Hindi' and 'Urdu', or 'Hindi-Urdu' when either of those was too specific. More recently, the word 'Hindustani' has been used for the colloquial language of Bollywood

Bollywood

Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...

films, which are popular in both India and Pakistan and which cannot be unambiguously identified as either Hindi or Urdu.

Modern Standard Urdu

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan and an officially recognized regional language of India. It is also an official language in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...

, Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu 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...

, National Capital Territory of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

and Bihar

Bihar

Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....

which have significant Muslim populations.

Modern Standard Hindi

Standard Hindi, the official language of India, is based on the Khariboli

Khariboli

dialect of the Delhi region and differs from Urdu in that it is usually written in the indigenous Devanagari

Devanagari

Devanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...

script of India and exhibits less Persian influence than Urdu. Many scholars today employ a Sanskritized form of Hindi developed primarily in Varanasi

Varanasi

-Etymology:The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for the old city lies in the north shores of the Ganga bounded by its two tributaries, the Varuna and the Asi, with the Ganges being to its south...

, the Hindu

Hindu

holy city, which is based on the Eastern Hindi dialect of that region and thus a separate language from official Standard Hindi. 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 the Deccan Plateau

Deccan Plateau

The Deccan Plateau is a large plateau in India, making up the majority of the southern part of the country. It rises a hundred meters high in the north, rising further to more than a kilometers high in the south, forming a raised triangle nested within the familiar downward-pointing triangle of...

.
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 India

Hindustani classical music

Hindustani classical music is the Hindustani or North Indian style of Indian classical music found throughout the northern Indian subcontinent. The style is sometimes called North Indian Classical Music or Shāstriya Sangeet...

. 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 Sanskrit-based dialect, spoken in the region around Varanasi

Varanasi

, at the other end of the spectrum. In common usage in India, the term "Hindi" includes all these dialects except those at 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
Purushottam Das Tandon पुरुषोत्तम दास टंडन , was a freedom fighter from Uttar Pradesh in India, of Punjabi 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 "bazaar

Bazaar

A bazaar , Cypriot Greek: pantopoula) is a permanent merchandising area, marketplace, or street of shops where goods and services are exchanged or sold. The term is sometimes also used to refer to the "network of merchants, bankers and craftsmen" who work that area...

Hindustani", in other words, the "language of the street or the marketplace", as opposed to the perceived refinement of formal Hindi, Urdu, or even Sanskrit. 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, Urdu and Hindi are considered register

s of a single language, they differ vastly in literary and formal vocabulary

Vocabulary

A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...

; where literary Urdu draws heavily on Persian and Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

, literary Hindi draws heavily on Sanskrit and to a lesser extent Prakrit

Prakrit

Prakrit is the name for a group of Middle Indic, Indo-Aryan languages, derived from 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 literary and religious...

. 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, and both have a heavy Persian influence.

The associated registers of Urdu and Hindi are known as "Hindustani". It is perhaps the lingua franca of the west and north of the Indian subcontinent

Indian subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...

, 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 Bollywood

Bollywood

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 Lucknow

Lucknow

Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....

, Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

(known for its beautiful usage of Urdu) and Varanasi

Varanasi

(a holy city for Hindus and thus using highly Sanskritized Hindi) 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 English.

Names

The identity, and therefore the names, of Hindustani have long been tied up with the identities and aspirations of the people of India and Pakistan. The name "Hindustani" itself is linked in the minds of many people with the British colonial administration, and may not be preferred for that reason.

Amir Khusro

Amir Khusro

Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrow , better known as Amīr Khusrow Dehlawī , was an Indian musician, scholar and poet. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent...

ca. 1300 CE referred to this language of his writings as Dahlavi ('of Delhi') or Hindavi (हिन्दवी, ہندوی 'of Hindustan

Hindustan

Hindustan or Indostan, literal translation "Land of River Sindhu ", is one of the popular names of South Asia. It can also mean "the land of the Hindus"...

'). During this period, the language was used by Sufis in promulgating their message across the Indian subcontinent

Indian subcontinent

. After the advent of the Mughals in India, Hindustani acquired more Persian loanwords. Rekhta
Rekhta
Rekhta was the Persianized form of the Khariboli dialect of Hindi now known by the names "Hindustani", "Hindi", and "Urdu", although Rekhta is now almost synonymous with Urdu, as its poetry is still used and made today by Urdu speakers. From the late 17th century till the closing decades of the...

('mixture') and Hindi (of 'Hindustan') became popular names for the same language until the 18th century. The name Urdu appeared around 1780. During the British Raj

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

, the term Hindustani was used by British officials, from the country's former name Hindustan. In 1796, John Borthwick Gilchrist

John Borthwick Gilchrist

John Borthwick Gilchrist FRSE was a Scottish surgeon and Indologist.-Early life:Gilchrist was born in Edinburgh to merchant Walter Gilchrist, who disappeared the year he was born...

published a "A Grammar of the Hindoostanee Language". Upon partition

Partition of India

The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

, India and Pakistan established national standards which they called Hindi and Urdu, respectively, and attempted to make distinct, with the result that "Hindustani" commonly came to be seen as a mixture of Hindi and Urdu. More recently, Hindu nationalists have used the term Hindvi, derived from older Hindavi, as the name for the unified language.

Official status

Urdu, the original standardized register

of Hindustani, is the national language of Pakistan, where it shares official language

Official language

An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. 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 Punjabi

Punjabi language

Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...

has a plurality of native speakers, Urdu is the lingua franca and is expected to prevail. Urdu is also one of the official languages of India, and in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

, Bihar

Bihar

, Delhi

Delhi

, Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir

, and Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

, Urdu has official language status. While the government school system in most other states emphasises Modern Standard Hindi, at universities in cities such as Lucknow

Lucknow

Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....

, Aligarh and Hyderabad, Urdu is spoken and learned and is regarded as a language of prestige.

Hindi, the other standardized register of Hindustani, is declared by the Constitution of India

Constitution of India

The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishes the structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions, and sets out fundamental rights, directive principles, and the 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. At the state level, Hindi is an official language in ten out of the 28 Indian states and three Union Territories (namely Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

, Bihar

Bihar

, Jharkhand

Jharkhand

Jharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar 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...

, Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand

, Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....

, Rajasthan

Rajasthan

Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. 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...

, Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh is a state in Central India, formed when the 16 Chhattisgarhi-speaking South-Eastern districts of Madhya Pradesh gained separate statehood on 1 November 2000....

, Himachal Pradesh

Himachal Pradesh

Himachal Pradesh is a state in Northern India. It is spread over , and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on the south, Uttarakhand on the south-east and by the Tibet Autonomous Region on the east...

, Arunanchal Pradesh, and Haryana

Haryana

Haryana is a state in India. Historically, it has been a part of the Kuru region in North India. The name Haryana is found mentioned in the 12th century AD by the apabhramsha writer Vibudh Shridhar . It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south...

and UTs are Delhi

Delhi

, Chandigarh

Chandigarh

Chandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...

, Andaman and Nicobar Islands). 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 many other states, studying Hindi is usually compulsory in the school curriculum as a third language (the first two languages being the state's official language and English), though the intensiveness of Hindi in the curriculum varies.

There is a political tussle taking place in Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

regarding the recognition of some form of Hindustani language

Hindustani language

Hindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan. It is also known as Hindustani , and historically, as Hindavi or Rekhta...

Hindustani was the official language of the British Raj

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

up until the partition of India

Partition of India

in 1947; the term was a synonym for Urdu.

Hindustani outside South Asia

Besides being the lingua franca of South Asia of India and Pakistan, Hindustani is spoken among people of the South Asian diaspora and their descendants in North America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Hindustani was also spoken widely in Burma during British rule as the main language of the administration. Many older Burmese, particularly the Anglo-Indians and Anglo-Burmese

Anglo-Burmese

The 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 the indigenous peoples of Burma from 1826 until 1948 when Burma gained...

of the country, still speak the language although it has had no official status in the country since military rule.

"Hindustani" as a term for other Hindi languages

Outside of the subcontinent, the name Hindustani is frequently used in the sense of "Indian", and may be applied to any of several other Hindi languages

Hindi languages

The Hindi languages, also known as Madhya and the Central Zone of the Indo-Aryan languages, is a subset of the varieties of Hindi spoken across northern India that descend from the Madhya prakrits, and includes the official languages of India and Pakistan, Hindi and Urdu...

.

Fijian Hindustani (also called Fiji Hindi), for example, descends not from Hindustani proper, but from one of the eastern Hindi languages called Awadhi. It has a strong Bhojpuri influence that differentiates it from the Awadhi spoken on the Indian subcontinent, though not to the extent of hindering mutual understanding. It is spoken by nearly the entire Indo-Fijian community, 38.1% of Fiji's population, regardless of ancestry.

Similarly, Caribbean Hindustani

Caribbean Hindustani

is actually Bhojpuri

Bhojpuri language

Bhojpuri is a language spoken in parts of north-central and eastern India. It is spoken in the western part of state of Bihar, the northwestern part of Jharkhand, and the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh , as well as adjoining parts of the Nepal Terai. Bhojpuri is also spoken in Guyana,...

as spoken in Suriname

Suriname

, Guyana

Guyana

Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

, Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...

, and Belize

Belize

Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...

. Sarnami Hindustani is the second most spoken language in Suriname after Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

. This is due to the emigration of East Indians (known locally as Hindoestanen

Hindoestanen

The Hindoestanen are an ethnic group of South Asian origin in the Netherlands and Suriname. After the Dutch government signed a treaty with the United Kingdom on the recruitment of contract workers, the Hindoestanen began migrating to Suriname in 1873 from what was then British India as indentured...

in Suriname) from the Indian states of Bihar

Bihar

and Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

in North India. Ethnic Indians form 37% of the population in Suriname, the largest ethnic group there. Ethnic Indians also make up around 45% of Guyana's population, but unlike in Suriname they have mostly switched from Bhojpuri to English. In South Africa, Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

and other parts of Africa, older descendants of 18th century sugar cane workers also speak a variety of Bhojpuri as their second language.

Writing system

Contemporarily, Hindustani is primarily written in the Devanagari script or the Perso-Arabic script

Perso-Arabic script

. However, the Kaithi

Kaithi

Kaithi , 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...

script was the historical popular script for the language. Hindi, one standardized register of Hindustani, utilizes the Devanagari script while Urdu, the other standardized register of Hindustani utilizes the Perso-Arabic script, with Nasta`liq

Nasta'liq script

' is one of the main script styles used in writing the Perso-Arabic script, and traditionally the predominant style in Persian calligraphy. It was developed in Iran in the 8th and 9th centuries...

being the preferred calligraphic style for Urdu.

Perso-Arabic script used to write Hindustani (Urdu):

Name of letter	Transcription	IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
alif	-	-
be	b	/b/
pe	p	/p/
te	t	/t̪/
		/ʈ/
se	s	/s/
jīm	j	/d͡ʒ/
che	ch	/t͡ʃ/
	h	/h/
khe	kh	/x/
dāl	d	/d̪/
		/ɖ/
zāl	dh	/z/
re	r	/r/
		/ɽ/
ze	z	/z/
zhe	zh	/ʒ/
sīn	s	/s/
shīn	sh	/ʃ/
su'ād	ṣ	/s/
zu'ād	z̤	/z/
to'e	t	/t/
zo'e	ẓ	/z/
‘ain	'	-
ghain	gh	/ɣ/
fe	f	/f/
qāf	q	/q/
kāf	k	/k/
gāf	g	/ɡ/
lām	l	/l/
mīm	m	/m/
nūn	n	/n/
vā'o	v, o, or ū	/ʋ/, /oː/, /ɔ/ or /uː/
	h	/h/
do chashmī he	h	/ʰ/
hamza	'	/ʔ/
ye	y, i	/j/ or /iː/
bari ye	ai or e	/ɛː/, or /eː/

Devanagari script used to write Hindustani (Hindi):


ə	aː	ɪ	iː	ʊ	uː	eː	ɛː	oː	ɔː

k	q	kʰ	x	ɡ	ɣ	ɡʱ	ŋ

t͡ʃ	t͡ʃʰ	d͡ʒ	z	d͡ʒʱ	ʒ	ɲ

ʈ	ʈʰ	ɖ	ɽ	ɖʱ	ɽʱ	ɳ

t̪	t̪ʰ	d̪	d̪ʱ	n

p	pʰ	f	b	bʱ	m

j	r	l	ʋ

ʃ	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 Urdu

Roman Urdu

Roman 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...

. As the Bollywood film industry is a great supporter of Roman Script, Roman Urdu is gaining popularity especially among the youth, who use the Internet or are "cyber-citizens."

Sample text

Following is a sample text, Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...

, in the two official registers of Hindustani, Hindi and Urdu. As this is a formal legal text, differences in formal vocabulary are maximized.

Formal Hindi

1 —

Nastaliq transcription:
Transcription (IPA

International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...

ənʊtʃʰːed̪ ek — səbʱi mənʊʃjõ ko ɡɔɾəʋ ɔr əd̪ʱɪkaɾõ ke mamle mẽ dʒənmdʒat̪ sʋət̪ənt̪ɾət̪a pɾapt̪ hɛ. ʊnʱẽ bʊd̪ʱːɪ ɔɾ ənt̪əɾat̪ma kiː d̪en pɾapt̪ hɛ ɔɾ pəɾəspəɾ ʊnʱẽ bʱaitʃaɾe keː bʱaʋ se bəɾt̪aʋ kəɾna tʃahɪe.

Gloss (word-to-word):

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

Translation (grammatical):

Article 1 — All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Formal Urdu:
Devanagari transcription:

Transcription

d̪əfa ek ‖ t̪əmam ɪnsan azad̪ ɔɾ hʊquq o izːət̪ ke ɛt̪əbaɾ se bəɾabəɾ pɛd̪a hʊe hɛ̃. ʊnʱẽ zəmiɾ ɔɾ əql ʋədiət̪ hʊi hɛ̃. ɪslɪe ʊnʱẽ ek d̪usɾe ke sat̪ʰ bʱai tʃaɾe ka sʊluk kəɾna tʃahɪe.

Gloss

Article 1: All humans free[,] and rights and dignity's consideration from equal born are. To them conscience and intellect endowed is. Therefore, they one another's with brotherhood's treatment do must.

Translation

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience. Therefore, they should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Hindustani and Bollywood

The Indian film industry, Bollywood

Bollywood

, located in Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

(Bombay), Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

, uses dialects of Hindi-Urdu, Awadhi, Rajasthani

Rajasthani language

Rajasthani Rajasthani Rajasthani (Devanagari: , Perso-Arabic: is a language of the Indo-Aryan languages family. It is spoken by 50 million people in Rajasthan and other states of India and in some areas of Pakistan. The number of speakers may be up to 80 million worldwide...

, Bhojpuri, Punjabi

Punjabi language

, and quite often Bambaiya Hindi

Bambaiya Hindi

Mumbai Hindi or simply Mumbaiyya is a Hindi pidgin 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 dialogues 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, Devanagari

Devanagari

Devanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...

(used for Hindi) and Perso-Arabic

Perso-Arabic script

(script of Urdu). Many lyrics are in Urdu for songs. Movies based on Delhi Sultanate

Delhi Sultanate

period or on the Mughal Empire

Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

are full of Urdu words. Movies like Mughal-e-Azam
Mughal-e-Azam
Mughal-E-Azam is a 1960 Indian historical epic film produced under the banner of Sterling Investment Corporation Pvt Ltd, and directed by K. Asif. With its unmatched production, K. Asif's magnum opus took nine years and $3 million to complete this movie. This was when a typical Bollywood film...

have used purely Urdu dialogues. Hindu mythological movies generally contain more Sanskrit vocabulary which does not exist in Urdu.

Urdu films and Lollywood

The Pakistani film industry, centred historically in Lahore

Lahore

has seen a rise in Punjabi movies lately. Urdu languages have seen a surge throughout Pakistan specifically Karachi, with new age films and to a lesser extent in Islamabad

Islamabad

Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...

and Lahore.

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.
Janmaanas Ek Hindi Manch(Hindi Language Forum)
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)
The poisonous potency of script: Hindi and Urdu, ROBERT D. KING

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Modern Standard Urdu

Modern Standard Hindi

Bazaar Hindustani

Hindi and Urdu

Names

Official status

Hindustani outside South Asia

"Hindustani" as a term for other Hindi languages

Writing system

Sample text

Hindustani and Bollywood

Urdu films and Lollywood

See also

Further Reading

External links