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मानक हिन्दी Mānak Hindī
The word "Hindi" in Devanagari script
Pronunciation /maːn̪ək ɦin̪d̪iː/
Native to India
Significant communities in South Africa, Nepal
Native speakers 180 million[1]  (1991)
Total, including Urdu: 490 million[2]
Language family
Writing system Devanagari
Hindi Braille
Official status
Official language in  India
Regulated by Central Hindi Directorate (India)[4]
Language codes
ISO 639-1 hi
ISO 639-2 hin
ISO 639-3 hin
Linguist List hin-hin
Linguasphere 59-AAF-qf
Brahmi script - Hindi Language


Hindi is widely written, spoken and understood in north India and most other places in India. In 1997, a survey found that 66% of Indians can speak Hindi. The most common form of Hindi is known as Hindustani. It has taken words from the Dravidian languages of South India, many words from the Persian, Arabic, Turkish, English, and Portuguese languages.[source?] Hindustani language is almost the same as Urdu, the most commonly spoken language in Pakistan; the difference is that Urdu is written in the Arabic alphabet from right to left.

Some other dialects of Hindi are: Avadhi, Braj, Bhojpuri, Bundeli, Bagheli, Chhattisgarhi, Dogri and Marwari. Hindi has developed from Sanskrit, the ancient language of India. Hindi started to develop in the 7th century as "Apabhramsha", but became pretty stable by the 10th century. Some famous Hindi poets are Tulsidas and Kabir. Hindi is also spoken with regional accents like Haryanvi, Rajasthani, and Bengali. In the past few years a new Hindi language (with unwritten grammar) has emerged from Mumbai. It is being spread by Hindi films.It is becoming very popular with younger generation.

References[change | change source]

  1. Ethnologue, "Hindi"
  2. BBC: A Guide to Urdu