Identity of Hindi
Hindi is a member of the Indo-Aryan group within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family (Britannia, 2022). Hindi is a direct descendant of Sanskrit through Pali, Prakrit, and Apabhramsha. It has been enriched and highly influenced by Dravidian, Turkish, Farsi, Arabic, Portuguese, and English. It is a highly expressive language. Its script is Devanagari, which is strongly influenced by Sanskrit. Hindi’s standard form is based on the ‘Khari Boli’. It’s a dialect found around the Delhi-Meerut area. It is roughly 1000 years old.
Accoriding to historiens, India was a alluring place from the far past. It was prosperous in terms of its culture, civilization, richness and divers location of climate. Hence, many foreign invasions came. They came from Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Central Asia, and elsewhere. Hindi evolved from the interaction of early speakers of Khari Boli with them. As the new immigrants settled and began to adjust to the Indian social environment, their languages and culture enriched Hindi.
India has several languages. The constitution of the Union of India adopted Hindi as official languages along with English (Article, 343). The 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution lists 22 languages Hindi is one of them. Scheduled languages and given recognition, status and official encouragement.
Hindi is one of the youngest of all Indian languages. Modern standard Hindi is the first official language of India, alongside English. It is spoken as a lingua-franca across the Indian subcontinent and Indian diaspora. It was standardized in 1949.
Basic Linguistic characteristics:
Hindi shares major linguistic features with other Indo-Aryan languages.
Hindi has ten vowels: a, a:, i, i:, u, u:, e, o, ɛ, and ɔ. The length of vowels is phonemic. All vowels can be nasalized, and nasalization is phonemic.
It has 33 consonants (including semi-vowels w and y): p, t, ṭ, k, ph, th, ṭh, kh, b, d, ḍ, g, bh, dh, ḍh, gh, c, ch, j, jh, m, n, ṇ, ŋ, r, ṛ, ṛh, l, s, š, h, w and y.
Grammar:
Hindi nouns are inflected for number, gender, and case. There are two genders; Masculine and feminine. Two numbers; Singular and plural. Two cases; direct and oblique. Nouns are assigned one of the two genders. In the nominal realm, the adjective agrees in number and gender with the noun that it qualifies.
Hindi system of case marking to become simpler, reducing it to a direct form and an oblique form. Postpositions are used to indicate the other case relations.
The verbal inflection of Hindi has only the present and future indicative forms are fully conjugated in Hindi, while other tenses are indicated with the help of perfective and imperfective participles combined with the auxiliary verbs.
The gender of inanimate objects is not predictable from the form or meaning. Pronouns are inflected for number and case. Adjectives are of two types: declinable and indeclinable. The first type (generally, the –a: ending adjectives) is inflected for number, gender, and case, whereas the second type is not. Verbs are inflected for person, number, gender, tense, mood, and aspect. There are three tenses: present, past, and future; three moods: imperative, indicative, and subjunctive; two aspects: imperfective and perfective. Hindi is a verb-final (SOV) language.
Vocabulary:
Hindi has a root from Sanskrit. From muslim invaders to Mughal, European and britishers and many came India. These immigrants settled and began to adjust to the Indian social environment, their languages ultimately lost and they started enricing Khari Boli. In the Mughal court Hindi started taking a shape under the name of Hindustani. This Hindustani assimilated a lot of words from Persian and Arbic. Later on, this language has assimilated a some words form French, Prutugeese and a lot of word form English. All these language enriched Hindi lexicon. Examples:
French oregin; Angrazi (English)
Japanese Origin; Rikshwa
Chinise origine; chai (tea), Lichi (a fruit which looks like strowberi but with a big seed inside)
Portuguese origine; Annanash (pineapple), Almari (Cuppoard), Chabhi (key), tambokoo (tabacoo), Sabun (soap) etc.
Turkish Origin; Badaam (almond), Sawal (question), Jawab (Answer), Dost (friend), Dard (pain), divar (wall), dukan (shop), duniya (world), dushman (enemy), chaku (knife), magar (but), hawa (air), hafta (week), kalam (pen), Kharbooja (watermelon), Kitab (book), इन्सान (Human), कोफ्ता (Cutlet), मासूम (Innocent), मैदान (Ground), नफ़रत (Hate), मुसीबत (Trouble), पनीर (Cheese), सादा (Simple), शीशा (Glass), सिर्फ (Only), शराब (Alcohol), यार (Friend), तवा (Pan), साफ़ (Clean), साहिल (Shore), सब्ज़ी (Vegetable) and पुलाव (Vegetable Rice) etc.
Arabic Origin;
अमीर (Rich), अजीब (Strange), अक्ल (Intelligence), आदत (Habit), औरत (Woman), इज्ज़त (Reputation), ईमारत (Building), इमान (Dignity), किस्मत (Destiny), किस्सा (Event), जलसा (Protest), जनाब (Mister), जवाहर (Gem), तारीख (Date), जहाज़ (Ship), दंगा (Riot), तरक्की (Progress), मतलब (Meaning), राय (Advice), अदाब (Manner), आख़िर (At last), असली (Original), आशिक़ (Lover), शुक्रीया (Thanks), अख़बार (Newspaper), सियासत (Politics), बस (Enough! / That’s all!), क़ानून (Rule), खबर (News), ख़बरदार (Careful), वक़ालत (Advocacy), वक़्त (Time), जिला (District), मुल्क (Country), वतन (Country), तमीज़ (Etiquette), कमीज़ (Shirt), उस्ताज (Mister), शकर (Sugar), जुर्म (Crime), चाय (Tea), ख़्वाब (Dream), फरमाना (To tell), and काफ़ी (Enough/Plenty) etc.
Persian origin;
आबरू (Dignity), आतिशबाजी (Firework), आराम (Rest), आमदनी (Salary), आवारा (Straggler), किनारा (Shore), गिरफ़्तार (Arrest), ज़हर (Poison), जादू (Magic), नौजवान (Young), मुफ़्त (Free), बेईमानी (dishonesty), रंग (Color), सितार (Sitar), हफ़्ता (Week), सफ़ेद (White), नारंगी (Orange), दूर (Far), हमेशा (Ever) , हरदम (Each moment), शायद (Maybe), पास (Near), एकबार (Once), ख़राब (Damaged), ताज़ा (Fresh), गरम (Warm), ईमानदार (Honest), तंग (Tight), शहर (City), सुस्त (Lazy), शहरी (Urban), देहाती (Rural), होशियार (Intelligent), नाराज़ (Upset), हिंदी (Hindi), हिन्दुस्तानी (Indian/Hindi) and कमरा (Room) etc
English origin;
स्कूल (School), स्टेशन (Station), अफ़सर (Officer), इंजन (Engine), डॉक्टर (Doctor), हॉस्पिटल (Hospital), टेलीफ़ोन (Telephone), टेलीविज़न (Television), रेडियो (Radio), बैंक (Bank), टाइम (Time), सिनेमा (Cinema), सर्कस (Circus), नंबर (Number), बेंड (Band), हीरो (Hero), साइकिल (Cycle), ट्रेन (Train), पेंसिल (Pencil), कंप्यूटर (Computer), कार (Car), बस (Bus), पेन (Pen), टिकेट (Ticket), पास (Pass), फेल (Fail), सीट (Seat), बटन (Button), पेपर (Paper), टायर (Tire), ब्लेड (Blade), फाइल (File), बिल (Bill), मोटर (Motor), बल्ब (Bulb), लाइट (Light), लेटर (Letter), कैल्कुलाटर (Calculator), प्रिंसिपल (Principal), वार्ड (Ward), नर्स (Nurse), माइक (Microphone), चार्जर (Charger), बटेरी (Battery), मैच (Match), ग्लास (Glass), टेबल (Table), चेयर (Chair), मशीन (Machine), बेग (Bag), गिटार (Guitar), पोस्टर (Poster), पर्स (Purse), प्लास्टर (Plaster) etc.
Hindi has borrowed a number of prefixes and suffixes from Persian. When combine them with indigenous roots they become new words.
Sentext:
Before the colonization the relative clause of Hindi was placed at either places beginning or at the end of the main clause. Example; one could have said, ‘the girl who worn frock is my sister’ in many ways: wo larki meri bahan hai jo frock pahani thee, literally ‘that girl my sister is who frock worn was’; jo larki frock pahani thee, meri behan thee, literally ‘which girl frock worn was, my sister was’; or wo larki jo frock pahani thee, meri bahan thee. But after colonization Hindi syntax was influenced by English although in a limited way. For example, till the mid-19th, Hindi has no form for indirect narration- one could formerly say Julia ne kaha main nahi aaungi ‘Julia said, “I won’t come.” And now one can also say Juliya ne kaha ki wo nahi aayegi ‘Juliya said that he won’t come.’
After independence (1947) the use of Hindi television hindi and English mixed sentences increased and a new way of expression appeared which called Hinglish. Example; I told you that main baahar hoon. ‘I told that I am out.’
Standardization
The process of making a variety of language conform to a standard variety. This may take place in connection with the writing system or spelling or even pronunciation, and is usually implemented by government authority. The Central Hindi Directorate, a government agency with the mission of standardizing and modernizing Hindi, is moving the language closer to Sanskrit.
Hindi is a very diverse language. As we know its a bouquet of many 'boils' (sub-languages).
In the late 19th century, a movement to further develop Hindi as a standardised form of Hindustani separate from Urdu took form. In 1881, Bihar accepted Hindi as its sole official language, replacing Urdu, and thus became the first state of India to adopt Hindi.
-Manish Patel