View source for Hindi

{{Short description|Indo-Aryan language}}
{{About|Modern Standard Hindi}}
{{Distinguish|Hindus{{!}}Hindu|Sindhi (disambiguation){{!}}Sindhi}}
{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Hindi
| altname          = Modern Standard Hindi
| nativename       = {{lang|hi|{{Script|Deva|हिन्दी}}}}, {{translit|hi|Hindī}}
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|hi|ˈɦɪndiː|}}
| states           = [[India]]
| ethnicity        = 
| region           = [[Hindi Belt]] ([[Western Uttar Pradesh]], [[Delhi]])
| speakers_label   = Speakers
| speakers         = [[First language|L1]]: {{sigfig|345.365030|3}} million{{efn|speakers of Hindi and various related languages who reported their language as 'Hindi'}} <!--The figures for Hindi in the Census of India are self-reported, not independently confirmed. Perhaps 100 million speakers of closely related languages like Haryanvi, Rajasthani, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Braj Bhasha, Chhattisgarhi, Garhwali, which do not have a separate literary tradition, consider their language to be "Hindi", whereas another 200 million report themselves as speaking one of those languages rather than Hindi. Since the census is unable to determine who is who, all of these languages are lumped together as the group "6 HINDI", with 528M speakers in the published census results.-->
| date             = 2011 census
| speakers2        = [[Second language|L2]]: {{sigfig|263.760000|3}} million (2020)<ref name="e28|hin">{{e28|hin}}</ref><br/>Total: {{sigfig|609.125030|2}} million (2011–2020)<ref name="e28|hin">{{e28|hin}}</ref>
| ref              = <ref>{{cite web |title=Scheduled Languages in descending order of speaker's strength - 2011 |url=http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011Census/Language-2011/Statement-1.pdf |publisher=[[Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India]] |date=29 June 2018}}</ref><ref name="e28|hin">{{e28|hin}}</ref>
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]]
| fam3             = [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]]
| fam4             = [[Central Indo-Aryan languages|Central Indo-Aryan]]
| fam5             = [[Western Hindi languages|Western Hindi]]<ref name=ELL2/>
| fam6             = [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]]<ref name=ELL2>{{ELL2|Hindustani}}</ref>
| ancestor         = [[Shauraseni Prakrit]]
| ancestor2        = [[Apabhraṃśa]]
| ancestor3        = [[Old Hindi]]
| ancestor4        = [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]]
| ancestor5        = [[Rekhta]]
| script           = *[[Devanagari]] (official)
*[[Kaithi]] (historical)
*[[Mahajani]] (historical)
*[[Laṇḍā scripts|Laṇḍā]] (historical)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gangopadhyay|first=Avik|title=Glimpses of Indian Languages|publisher=Evincepub publishing|year=2020|isbn=978-93-90197-82-8|page=43}}</ref>
*[[Devanagari Braille]]
| nation           = *{{IND}}
** [[Andaman and Nicobar Islands]]
** [[Bihar]]
** [[Chandigarh]]
** [[Chhattisgarh]]
** [[Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu]]
** [[Delhi]]
** [[Gujarat]]
** [[Haryana]]
** [[Himachal Pradesh]]
** [[Jammu and Kashmir (union territory)|Jammu and Kashmir]]
** [[Jharkhand]] 
** [[Ladakh]]
** [[Madhya Pradesh]]
** [[Rajasthan]]
** [[Uttar Pradesh]]
** [[Uttarakhand]]
** [[West Bengal]] (additional)
* {{FIJ}}
| minority         = {{bulleted list
|{{SAF}} (protected language)<ref name="auto1">{{cite web|title=Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 – Chapter 1: Founding Provisions|url=http://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/chapter-1-founding-provisions|website=www.gov.za|access-date=6 December 2014}}</ref>
|{{UAE}}(official court language)<ref name="thehindu.com">{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/abu-dhabi-includes-hindi-as-third-official-court-language/article26229023.ece|title=Abu Dhabi includes Hindi as third official court language|newspaper=The Hindu|date=10 February 2019|via=www.thehindu.com}}</ref>
|{{MUS}} (as a cultural language)<ref>{{ cite web| title = Hindi Speaking Union Act |url=https://culture.govmu.org/Pages/Legislations/The%20Hindi%20Speaking%20Union%20%20Act%201994.pdf|website=www.culture.govmu.org}}</ref>}}
| agency           = [[Central Hindi Directorate]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hindinideshalaya.nic.in/english/aboutus/aboutus.html |title= About Us |website=Central Hindi Directorate |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504043836/http://hindinideshalaya.nic.in/english/aboutus/aboutus.html |archive-date=4 May 2012 |access-date=18 February 2014}}</ref>
| iso1             = hi
| iso2             = hin
| iso3             = hin
| lingua           = 59-AAF-qf
| image            = Hindi.svg
| imagescale       = 1.2
| imagecaption     = The word "Hindi" in [[Devanagari]] script
| map              = Hindi 2011 Indian Census by district.svg
| mapcaption       = Distribution of L1 self-reported speakers of Hindi in India as per the 2011 Census
| notice           = Indic
| sign             = [[Indian Signing System]]
| glotto           = hind1269
| glottorefname    = Hindi
}}
{{Hindustani_language}}

'''Modern Standard Hindi''' ({{lang|hi|{{Script|Deva|आधुनिक मानक हिन्दी}}}}, [[Hunterian transliteration|Hunterian]]: {{translit|hi|Ādhunik Mānak Hindī}}),<ref>Singh, Rajendra, and Rama Kant Agnihotri. Hindi morphology: A word-based description. Vol. 9. Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1997.</ref> commonly referred to as '''Hindi''', is an [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan language]] written in the [[Devanagari script]]. It is an [[official language of India|official language]] of the [[Government of India]],  and is the ''[[lingua franca]]'' of most of the country.<ref>Hindi is used as a lingua franca for the northern, central, western, eastern, and parts of northeast.</ref> It is also an official language in the Pacific nation of [[Fiji]]. Hindi is considered a [[Sanskritisation (linguistics)|Sanskritised]] [[Register (sociolinguistics)|register]]<ref name="Constitution of India">{{cite web |title=The Constitution of India |url=http://lawmin.nic.in/olwing/coi/coi-english/coi-indexenglish.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402064301/http://lawmin.nic.in/olwing/coi/coi-english/coi-indexenglish.htm |archive-date=2 April 2012 |access-date=21 March 2012 |website=lawmin.nic.in}}</ref> of Hindustani. Hindustani itself developed from [[Old Hindi]] and was spoken in [[Delhi]] and neighbouring areas. It incorporated a significant number of [[Persian language|Persian]] loanwords.<ref name="NCSU-Hindustani">{{Cite web |url=http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/fl/faculty/taj/hindi/abturdu.htm |title=About Hindi-Urdu |publisher=[[North Carolina State University]] |access-date=9 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090815023328/http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/fl/faculty/taj/hindi/abturdu.htm |archive-date=15 August 2009 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

Hindi is an [[Languages with official status in India|official language]] in ten states ([[Bihar]], [[Chhattisgarh]], [[Gujarat]], [[Haryana]], [[Himachal Pradesh]], [[Jharkhand]], [[Madhya Pradesh]], [[Rajasthan]], [[Uttar Pradesh]], [[Uttarakhand]]), and six [[Union territory|union territories]] ([[Andaman and Nicobar Islands]], [[Delhi]], [[Chandigarh]], [[Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu]], [[Ladakh]] and [[Jammu and Kashmir (union territory)|Jammu and Kashmir]]) and an additional official language in the state of [[West Bengal]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Saravanan |first=Depak |date=9 October 2018 |title=Hindi and the North-South divide |url=https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/perspective/hindi-and-north-south-divide-696931.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123052133/https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/perspective/hindi-and-north-south-divide-696931.html |archive-date=23 November 2022 |website=Deccan Herald}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Pillalamarri |first=Akhilesh |title=India's Evolving Linguistic Landscape |url=https://thediplomat.com/2018/07/indias-evolving-linguistic-landscape/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190601181209/https://thediplomat.com/2018/07/indias-evolving-linguistic-landscape/ |archive-date=1 June 2019 |access-date=22 December 2019 |website=The Diplomat}}</ref> Hindi is also one of the 22 [[Languages with official status in India|scheduled languages of the Republic of India]].<ref>{{cite web |title=PART A Languages specified in the Eighth Schedule (Scheduled Languages) |url=http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029190612/http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement1.htm |archive-date=29 October 2013 |website=Census of India}}</ref>

Apart from the script and formal vocabulary, Modern Standard Hindi is [[Mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] with standard [[Urdu]], which is another recognised register of Hindustani, as both Hindi and Urdu share a core vocabulary base derived from [[Shauraseni Prakrit]].<ref name="GubeGao2019">{{cite book |last1=Gube |first1=Jan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YkWHDwAAQBAJ |title=Education, Ethnicity and Equity in the Multilingual Asian Context |last2=Gao |first2=Fang |date=2019 |publisher=[[Springer Publishing]] |isbn=978-981-13-3125-1 |language=en |quote=The national language of India and Pakistan 'Standard Urdu' is mutually intelligible with 'Standard Hindi' because both languages share the same Indic base and are all but indistinguishable in phonology and grammar (Lust et al. 2000).}}</ref><ref name="ChatterjiSiṃhaPadikkal1997">{{cite book |last1=Chatterji |first1=Suniti Kumar |title=Suniti Kumar Chatterji: a centenary tribute |last2=Siṃha |first2=Udaẏa Nārāẏana |last3=Padikkal |first3=Shivarama |date=1997 |publisher=Sahitya Akademi |isbn=978-81-260-0353-2 |language=en |quote=High Hindi written in Devanagari, having identical grammar with Urdu, employing the native Hindi or Hindustani (Prakrit) elements to the fullest, but for words of high culture, going to Sanskrit. Hindustani proper that represents the basic Khari Boli with vocabulary holding a balance between Urdu and High Hindi.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Primary Language Impact on Second Language and Literacy Learning |date=15 January 2023 |publisher=Lexington Books |editor1-last=Yoon |editor1-first=Bogum |page=198 |language=English |quote=In terms of cross-linguistic relations, Urdu's combinations of Arabic-Persian orthography and Sanskrit linguistic roots provides interesting theoretical as well as practical comparisons demonstrated in table 12.1. |editor2-last=Pratt |editor2-first=Kristen L.}}</ref><ref name="Ahmed2024">{{cite web |date=12 March 2024 |title=Ties between Urdu & Sanskrit deeply rooted: Scholar |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/ties-between-urdu-sanskrit-deeply-rooted-scholar/articleshow/108415962.cms |access-date=8 May 2024 |work=[[The Times of India]] |quote=The linguistic and cultural ties between Sanskrit and Urdu are deeply rooted and significant, said Ishtiaque Ahmed, registrar, Maula Azad National Urdu University during a two-day workshop titled "Introduction to Sanskrit for Urdu medium students". Ahmed said a substantial portion of Urdu's vocabulary and cultural capital, as well as its syntactic structure, is derived from Sanskrit.}}</ref> Hindi is also spoken, to a lesser extent, in other parts of India (usually in a simplified or pidginised variety such as Bazaar [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] or [[Haflong Hindi]]).<ref name="fulllangdatacensus 2011">{{cite news |last=Kawoosa |first=Vijdan Mohammad |date=22 November 2018 |title=How languages intersect in India |url= https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/how-languagesintersect-in-india/story-g3nzNwFppYV7XvCumRzlYL.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221015014438/https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/how-languagesintersect-in-india/story-g3nzNwFppYV7XvCumRzlYL.html |archive-date=15 October 2022 |work= Hindustan Times}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=How many Indians can you talk to? |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/static/iframes/language_probability_interactive/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216113014/https://www.hindustantimes.com/static/iframes/language_probability_interactive/index.html |archive-date=16 December 2019 |access-date=22 December 2019 |website=Hindustan Times}}</ref> Outside India, several other languages are recognised officially as "Hindi" but do not refer to the Standard Hindi language described here and instead descend from other nearby languages, such as [[Awadhi language|Awadhi]] and [[Bhojpuri language|Bhojpuri]].<ref>{{cite web |date=14 September 2018 |title=How Hindi travelled to these five countries from India |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/research/hindi-diwas-2018-hindi-travelled-to-these-five-countries-from-india/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229020952/https://indianexpress.com/article/research/hindi-diwas-2018-hindi-travelled-to-these-five-countries-from-india/ |archive-date=29 December 2022 |website=The Indian Express}}</ref> Examples of this are the Bhojpuri-Hindustani spoken in [[South Africa]], [[Mauritius]], [[Fiji Hindi]], spoken in Fiji, and [[Caribbean Hindustani]], which is spoken in [[Suriname]], [[Trinidad and Tobago]], and [[Guyana]].<ref name="auto">{{cite web |title=Sequence of events with reference to official language of the Union |url=http://rajbhasha.nic.in/IIContent.aspx?t=enevents8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110802071514/http://rajbhasha.nic.in/IIContent.aspx?t=enevents |archive-date=2 August 2011 |website=Department of Official Language}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=रिपब्लिक ऑफ फीजी का संविधान (Constitution of the Republic of Fiji, the Hindi version) |url=http://www.fiji.gov.fj/getattachment/5912a2ce-0260-4df5-98b9-955360cd3aad/Click-here-to-download-the-Fiji-Constitution-(Hind.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101180254/http://www.fiji.gov.fj/getattachment/5912a2ce-0260-4df5-98b9-955360cd3aad/Click-here-to-download-the-Fiji-Constitution-(Hind.aspx |archive-date=1 November 2013 |website=Fiji Government}}</ref><ref name="uniw">{{cite web|url=http://uwispace.sta.uwi.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2139/41235/Caribbean%20Heritage%20Ferreira%202012.pdf?sequence=1|title=Caribbean Languages and Caribbean Linguistics|format=PDF|access-date=16 July 2016|publisher=[[University of the West Indies Press]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220080555/http://uwispace.sta.uwi.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2139/41235/Caribbean%20Heritage%20Ferreira%202012.pdf?sequence=1|archive-date=20 December 2016}}</ref><ref name="Mau">{{cite journal|title=The cultural significance of Hindi in Mauritius|date=8 May 2007|author=Richard K. Barz|journal=South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies|doi=10.1080/00856408008722995|volume=3|pages=1–13}}</ref>

Hindi is the [[List of languages by number of native speakers|fourth most-spoken first language]] in the world, after [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], and [[English language|English]].<ref name="Nationalencyklopedin">Mikael Parkvall, "Världens 100 största språk 2007" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007), in ''[[Nationalencyklopedin]]''. Asterisks mark the [http://www.ne.se/spr%C3%A5k/v%C3%A4rldens-100-st%C3%B6rsta-spr%C3%A5k-2010 2010 estimates] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111051518/http://www.ne.se/spr%C3%A5k/v%C3%A4rldens-100-st%C3%B6rsta-spr%C3%A5k-2010 |date=11 November 2012 }} for the top dozen languages.</ref> When counted together with the mutually intelligible Urdu, it is the third most-spoken language in the world, after Mandarin and English.<ref name="Gambhir1995">{{cite book |last1=Gambhir |first1=Vijay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mB7TQc_OpdcC |title=The Teaching and Acquisition of South Asian Languages |date=1995 |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |isbn=978-0-8122-3328-5 |language=en |quote=The position of Hindi-Urdu among the languages of the world is anomalous. The number of its proficient speakers, over three hundred million, places it in third of fourth place after Mandarin, English, and perhaps Spanish.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/language-linguistics-and-literary-terms/language-and-linguistics/hindustani|title=Hindustani|publisher=[[Columbia University Press]]|via=encyclopedia.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729004822/http://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/language-linguistics-and-literary-terms/language-and-linguistics/hindustani|archive-date=29 July 2017}}</ref> According to reports of ''Ethnologue'' (2025), Hindi is the [[List of languages by total number of speakers#Ethnologue (2022, 25th edition)|third most-spoken language]] in the world when including [[first language|first]] and [[second language]] speakers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What are the top 200 most spoken languages? |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/insights/ethnologue200/ |access-date=31 March 2023 |website=Ethnologue (Free All)}}</ref>

Hindi is the fastest-growing [[Languages of India|language of India]], followed by [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]], [[Meitei language|Meitei]], [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]] and [[Bengali language|Bengali]], according to the [[2011 census of India]].<ref>—{{Cite news |last=R |first=Aishwaryaa |date=6 June 2019 |title=What census data reveals about use of Indian languages |url=https://www.deccanherald.com/india/what-census-data-reveals-about-use-of-indian-languages-738340.html |work=[[Deccan Herald]] |access-date=16 November 2023}}<br />—{{Cite news |last=Pallapothu |first=Sravan |date=28 June 2018 |title=Hindi Added 100Mn Speakers In A Decade; Kashmiri 2nd Fast Growing Language |url=https://www.indiaspend.com/hindi-added-100mn-speakers-in-a-decade-kashmiri-2nd-fast-growing-language-93096/ |website=Indiaspend.com |access-date=16 November 2023}}<br />—{{Cite news |last=IndiaSpend |date=2 July 2018 |title=Hindi fastest growing language in India, finds 100 million new speakers |url=https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/hindi-fastest-growing-language-in-india-finds-100-million-new-speakers-118070200029_1.html |work=Business Standard |access-date=16 November 2023}}<br />—{{cite magazine |last1=Mishra |first1=Mayank |last2=Aggarwal |first2=Piyush |date=11 April 2022 |title=Hindi grew rapidly in non-Hindi states even without official mandate |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/diu/story/hindi-grows-in-non-hindi-states-without-official-mandate-1936196-2022-04-11 |magazine=India Today |access-date=16 November 2023}}</ref>

==Terminology==
The term ''Hindī'' was originally used to refer to inhabitants of the [[Indo-Gangetic Plain]]. It was borrowed from [[Persian language#Classical Persian|Classical Persian]] {{lang|fa|هندی}} ''Hindī'' ([[Iranian Persian]] pronunciation: ''Hendi''), meaning {{gloss|of or belonging to ''[[Hindustan|Hind]]'' (India)}} (hence, {{gloss|Indian}}).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Steingass|first1=Francis Joseph|title=A comprehensive Persian-English dictionary|date=1892|publisher=Routledge & K. Paul |location=London|page=1514|url=http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.7:1:6823.steingass|access-date=13 February 2018|archive-date=21 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200621060529/http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.7:1:6823.steingass}}</ref>

Another name ''Hindavī'' (ہندوی/{{lang|hi|हिन्दवी}}) ({{ety|fa|هندوی|of or belonging to the Indian people}}) was often used in the past, for example, by [[Amir Khusrau]] in his poetry.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Khan|first1=Rajak|title=Indo-Persian Literature and Amir Khusro|url=http://vle.du.ac.in/mod/book/print.php?id=11660|publisher=[[Delhi University]]|access-date=17 February 2018}}{{Dead link|date=October 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yexgmTQIYhUC|title=In the Bazaar of Love: The Selected Poetry of Amir Khusrau|first=Paul E.|last=Losensky|date=15 July 2013|publisher=Penguin UK|via=Google Books|isbn=978-81-8475-522-0}}</ref>

The terms ''Hindi'' and ''Hindu'' trace back to Old Persian, which derived these names from the [[Sanskrit]] name ''Sindhu'' ({{lang|sa|सिन्धु}}), referring to the [[Indus River]]. The Greek cognates of the same terms are ''Indus'' (for the river) and ''India'' (for the land of the river).<ref name="Bose2006">{{cite book|author=Mihir Bose|title=The Magic of Indian Cricket: Cricket and Society in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gyAAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1|date=18 April 2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-24924-4|pages=1–3}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/india|title=India|publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary}}</ref>

The term ''Modern Standard Hindi'' is commonly used to specifically refer to the modern literary Hindi language, as opposed to colloquial and regional varieties that are also referred to as [[Hindi belt|''Hindi'' in a wider sense]].<ref name="kachru"/>

==History==
{{further|History of Hindustani}}

===Middle Indo-Aryan to Hindi===
Like other Indo-Aryan languages, Hindi is a direct descendant of an early form of [[Vedic Sanskrit]] (not to be confused with the later variety of [[Classical Sanskrit]]). This early variety transitioned in [[medieval India]] into [[Shauraseni Prakrit]] and [[Apabhraṃśa|Śauraseni Apabhraṃśa]] (from Sanskrit ''apabhraṃśa'' "corrupt"), which emerged in the 7th century CE.<ref name="de">{{cite web|url=http://hindinideshalaya.nic.in/english/hindi_orgin/briefhistory.html|work=Central Hindi Directorate|title=Brief History of Hindi|access-date=21 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140306085510/http://hindinideshalaya.nic.in/english/hindi_orgin/briefhistory.html|archive-date=6 March 2014}}</ref>

The sound changes that characterised the transition from Middle Indo-Aryan to Hindi are:<ref>Masica, pp. 187–211</ref>
* [[Compensatory lengthening]] of vowels preceding [[geminate]] consonants, sometimes with spontaneous nasalisation: Skt. ''hasta'' "hand" > Pkt. ''hattha'' > ''hāth''
* Loss of all word-final vowels: ''rātri'' "night" > ''rattī'' > ''rāt''
* Formation of nasalised long vowels from nasal consonants (-VNC- > -V̄̃C-): ''bandha'' "bond" > ''bā̃dh''
* Loss of unaccented or unstressed short vowels (reflected in [[schwa deletion]]): ''susthira'' "firm" > ''sutthira'' > ''suthrā''
* Collapsing of adjacent vowels (including separated by a hiatus: ''apara'' "other" > ''avara'' > ''aur''
* Final ''-m'' to ''-ṽ'': ''grāma'' "village" > ''gāma'' > ''gāṽ''
* Intervocalic ''-ḍ-'' to ''-ṛ-'' or ''-l-'': ''taḍāga'' "pond" > ''talāv'', ''naḍa'' "reed" > ''nal''.
* ''v'' > ''b'': ''vivāha'' "marriage" > ''byāh''

===Hindustani===
During the period of [[Delhi Sultanate]] in [[medieval India]], which covered most of today's north India, eastern Pakistan, southern Nepal and Bangladesh<ref>Chapman, Graham. "Religious vs. regional determinism: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh as inheritors of empire." Shared space: Divided space. Essays on conflict and territorial organization (1990): 106–134.</ref> and which resulted in the [[Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb|contact of Hindu and Muslim cultures]], the [[Sanskrit]] and [[Prakrit]] base of [[Old Hindi]] became enriched with loanwords from [[Persian language|Persian]], evolving into the present form of Hindustani.<ref name="Rekhta2020">{{cite web |title=Women of the Indian Sub-Continent: Makings of a Culture – Rekhta Foundation |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/women-of-the-indian-sub-continent-makings-of-a-culture-rekhta-foundation/dwJy7qboNi3fIg?hl=en |publisher=[[Google Arts & Culture]] |access-date=25 February 2020 |language=en |quote=The "Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb" is one such instance of the composite culture that marks various regions of the country.  Prevalent in the North, particularly in the central plains, it is born of the union between the Hindu and Muslim cultures. Most of the temples were lined along the Ganges and the Khanqah (Sufi school of thought) were situated along the Yamuna river (also called Jamuna). Thus, it came to be known as the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb, with the word "tehzeeb" meaning culture. More than communal harmony, its most beautiful by-product was "Hindustani" which later gave us the Hindi and Urdu languages.}}</ref><ref name="MatthewsShackleHusain1985">{{cite book |last1=Matthews |first1=David John |last2=Shackle |first2=C. |last3=Husain |first3=Shahanara |title=Urdu literature |date=1985 |publisher=Urdu Markaz; Third World Foundation for Social and Economic Studies |isbn=978-0-907962-30-4 |language=en |quote=But with the establishment of Muslim rule in Delhi, it was the Old Hindi of this area which came to form the major partner with Persian. This variety of Hindi is called Khari Boli, 'the upright speech'.}}</ref><ref name="Dhulipala2000">{{cite book |last1=Dhulipala |first1=Venkat |title=The Politics of Secularism: Medieval Indian Historiography and the Sufis |date=2000 |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] |page=27 |language=en |quote=Persian became the court language, and many Persian words crept into popular usage. The composite culture of northern India, known as the Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb was a product of the interaction between Hindu society and Islam.}}</ref><ref name="IJSW1943">{{cite book |title=Indian Journal of Social Work, Volume 4 |date=1943 |publisher=[[Tata Institute of Social Sciences]] |page=264 |language=en |quote=... more words of Sanskrit origin but 75% of the vocabulary is common. It is also admitted that while this language is known as Hindustani, ... Muslims call it Urdu and the Hindus call it Hindi. ... Urdu is a national language evolved through years of Hindu and Muslim cultural contact and, as stated by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, is essentially an Indian language and has no place outside.}}</ref><ref name="Mody2008">{{cite book |last1=Mody |first1=Sujata Sudhakar |title=Literature, Language, and Nation Formation: The Story of a Modern Hindi Journal 1900–1920 |date=2008 |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |page=7 |language=en |quote=...Hindustani, Rekhta, and Urdu as later names of the old Hindi (a.k.a. Hindavi).}}</ref><ref name="Kesavan1997">{{cite book |last1=Kesavan |first1=B. S. |title=History Of Printing And Publishing In India |date=1997 |publisher=National Book Trust, India |isbn=978-81-237-2120-0 |page=31 |language=en |quote=It might be useful to recall here that Old Hindi or Hindavi, which was a naturally Persian- mixed language in the largest measure, has played this role before, as we have seen, for five or six centuries.}}</ref> Hindi achieved prominence in India after it became the official language of the [[Government of the Mughal Empire|imperial court]] during the reign of [[Shah Jahan]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Uday|last=Kumar|title=Status of Hindi in India|publisher=Readworthy |isbn=978-93-5018-149-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5QlWmycTKh0C|quote="During the period of Mughal Empire, Hindi was used as an additional official language" (Kansal 1991:48).}}</ref> It is recorded that Emperor [[Aurangzeb]] spoke in [[Hindustani language|Hindvi]].<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=xOGJAAAAMAAJ&q=aurangzeb+hindi+language |title= Language Problem in India |page= 138 |publisher= Institute of Objective Studies |date= 1997 |isbn= 978-81-85220-41-3 }}</ref> The Hindustani vernacular became an expression of Indian national unity during the [[Indian independence movement|Indian Independence movement]],<ref name="Hock1991">{{cite book |author1=Hans Henrich Hock |title=Principles of Historical Linguistics |date=1991 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-012962-5 |page=475 |language=en |quote=During the time of British rule, Hindi (in its religiously neutral, 'Hindustani' variety) increasingly came to be the symbol of national unity over against the English of the foreign oppressor. And Hindustani was learned widely throughout India, even in Bengal and the Dravidian south. ... Independence had been accompanied by the division of former British India into two countries, Pakistan and India. The former had been established as a Muslim state and had made Urdu, the Muslim variety of Hindi–Urdu or Hindustani, its national language.|author1-link=Hans Henrich Hock }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J3RSHWePhXwC&q=masica|title=The Indo-Aryan Languages|last=Masica|first=Colin P.|date=1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-29944-2|pages=430 (Appendix I)|language=en|quote=Hindustani - term referring to common colloquial base of HINDI and URDU and to its function as lingua franca over much of India, much in vogue during Independence movement as expression of national unity; after Partition in 1947 and subsequent linguistic polarization it fell into disfavor; census of 1951 registered an enormous decline (86–98 per cent) in no. of persons declaring it their mother tongue (the majority of HINDI speakers and many URDU speakers had done so in previous censuses); trend continued in subsequent censuses: only 11,053 returned it in 1971...mostly from S India; [see Khubchandani 1983: 90–1].}}</ref> and continues to be spoken as the common language of the people of the northern Indian subcontinent,<ref name="Ashmore1961">{{cite book |last1=Ashmore |first1=Harry S. |title=Encyclopaedia Britannica: a new survey of universal knowledge, Volume 11 |date=1961 |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |page=579 |language=en |quote=The everyday speech of well over 50,000,000 persons of all communities in the north of India and in West Pakistan is the expression of a common language, Hindustani.}}</ref> which is reflected in the [[Hindustani vocabulary]] of [[Bollywood]] films and songs.<ref name="Tunstall2008">{{cite book |last1=Tunstall |first1=Jeremy |title=The media were American: U.S. mass media in decline |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-518146-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/mediawereamerica0000tuns/page/160 160] |language=en |quote=The Hindi film industry used the most popular street level version of Hindi, namely Hindustani, which included a lot of Urdu and Persian words. |url=https://archive.org/details/mediawereamerica0000tuns/page/160 }}</ref><ref name="Hiro2015">{{cite book |last1=Hiro |first1=Dilip |title=The Longest August: The Unflinching Rivalry Between India and Pakistan |date=2015 |publisher=[[PublicAffairs]] |isbn=978-1-56858-503-1 |page=398 |language=en|quote=Spoken Hindi is akin to spoken Urdu, and that language is often called Hindustani. Bollywood's screenplays are written in Hindustani.}}</ref>

Standard Hindi is based on the [[Kauravi dialect|Khariboli]] dialect, spoken in the [[Western Uttar Pradesh|Ganges-Yamuna Doab]] ([[Delhi]], [[Meerut]], and [[Saharanpur]]);<ref name="de"/><ref name="Britannica2000">{{cite book |title=Students' Britannica India |date=2000 |publisher=[[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] |page=299 |language=en |quote=Hindustani developed as lingua franca in the medieval ages in and around Delhi, Meerut and Saharanpur because of the interaction between the speakers of ''Khariboli'' (a dialect developed in this region out of Shauraseni Prakrit) and the speakers of Persian, Turkish, and various dialects of Arabic who migrated to North India. Initially it was known by various names such as ''Rekhta'' (mixed), ''Urdu'' (language of the camp) and ''Hindvi'' or ''Hindustani'' (language of Hindustan). Though ''Khariboli'' supplied its basic vocabulary and grammar, it borrowed quite a lot of words from Persian and Arabic}}</ref> the vernacular of [[Delhi]] and the surrounding region gradually replaced earlier prestige languages such as [[Awadhi language|Awadhi]] and [[Braj]]. Standard Hindi was developed by supplanting foreign loanwords from the Hindustani language and replacing them with [[Sanskrit]] words, though Standard Hindi does continue to possess several Persian loanwords.<ref name="JainCardona2007"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Michael C. Shapiro|title=A PRIMER OF MODERN STANDARD HINDI|work=South Asia Center |url=https://jsis.washington.edu/southasia/publication/a-primer-of-modern-standard-hindi/}}</ref><ref name="Gumperz1971">{{cite book|author=John Joseph Gumperz|title=Language in Social Groups|url=https://archive.org/details/languageinsocial0000gump|url-access=registration|access-date=26 June 2012|year=1971|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-0798-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/languageinsocial0000gump/page/53 53]}}</ref> Modern Hindi became a literary language in the 19th century. Earliest examples could be found as ''Prēm Sāgar'' by [[Lallu Lal]], ''Batiyāl Pachīsī'' of Sadal Misra, and ''Rānī Kētakī Kī Kahānī'' of [[Insha Allah Khan]] which were published in [[Devanagari|Devanagari script]] during the early 19th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=RAHMAN |first=TARIQ |title=From Hindi to Urdu A Social and Political History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |location=Karachi, Pakistan. |page=41 |language=en}}</ref>

[[John Gilchrist (linguist)|John Gilchrist]] was principally known for his study of the [[Hindustani language]], which was adopted as the [[lingua franca]] of northern India (including what is now present-day [[Pakistan]]) by Britons and Indians alike. He compiled and authored ''An English-Hindustani Dictionary'', ''A Grammar of the Hindoostanee Language'', ''The Oriental Linguist'', and many more. His [[lexicon]] of Hindustani was published in the [[Perso-Arabic script]], [[Nāgarī script]], and in [[Romanisation|Roman transliteration]]. 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.<ref>Parthasarathy, Kumar, p.120</ref> However, in 2014, Urdu was accorded second official language status in the state.<ref>{{cite web
 | title       = Bihar: The language tussle – Indiascope News – Issue Date: Jul 31, 19…
 | url         = https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/story/19800731-decision-to-make-urdu-second-official-language-in-bihar-provokes-furore-from-maithil-brahmins-821314-2014-01-17
 | date        = 16 June 2022
| archive-url  = https://archive.today/20220616083954/https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/story/19800731-decision-to-make-urdu-second-official-language-in-bihar-provokes-furore-from-maithil-brahmins-821314-2014-01-17
 | archive-date = 16 June 2022 }}</ref>

===Independent India===

On 14 September 1949, the [[Constituent Assembly of India]] adopted Hindi written in the Devanagari script as the [[Official languages of Union govt of India|official language of the Republic of India]] replacing the previous usage of Hindustani in the Perso-Arabic script in the [[British Indian Empire]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ieMgAAAAQBAJ|title=Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations|last=Clyne|first=Michael|date=24 May 2012|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-088814-0|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QuEmDAAAQBAJ|title=The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution|last1=Choudhry|first1=Sujit|last2=Khosla|first2=Madhav|last3=Mehta|first3=Pratap Bhanu|date=12 May 2016|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-105861-5|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/sikhsofpunjab0000grew|url-access=registration|title=The Sikhs of the Punjab|last=Grewal|first=J. S.|date=8 October 1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-63764-0|language=en}}</ref> To this end, several stalwarts rallied and lobbied pan-India in favour of Hindi, most notably [[:hi:व्यौहार राजेन्द्र सिंह|Beohar Rajendra Simha]] along with [[Hazari Prasad Dwivedi]], [[Kaka Kalelkar]], [[Maithili Sharan Gupt]] and [[Seth Govind Das]] who even debated in Parliament on this issue. As such, on the 50th birthday of Beohar Rajendra Simha on 14 September 1949, the efforts came to fruition following the adoption of Hindi as the official language.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.patrika.com/news/jabalpur/know-hindi-had-the-status-of-national-language-1398330|title=हिन्दी दिवस विशेष: इनके प्रयास से मिला था हिन्दी को राजभाषा का दर्जा|work=Patrika News |date=8 September 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911204803/https://www.patrika.com/news/jabalpur/know-hindi-had-the-status-of-national-language-1398330/|archive-date=11 September 2017}}</ref> Now, it is celebrated as [[Hindi Day]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/research/hindi-diwas-celebration-how-it-all-began/|work=[[The Indian Express]]|title=Hindi Diwas celebration: How it all began|date=14 September 2016|access-date=7 February 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170208134226/http://indianexpress.com/article/research/hindi-diwas-celebration-how-it-all-began/|archive-date=8 February 2017}}</ref>

==Official status==

===India===
Part XVII of the Indian Constitution deals with the official language of the Indian Union. Under Article 343, the official languages of the Union have been prescribed, which includes Hindi in Devanagari script and English:

<blockquote>(1) The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals.<ref name="auto" /><br />
(2) Notwithstanding anything in clause (1), for a period of fifteen years from the commencement of this Constitution, the English language shall continue to be used for all the official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement: Provided that the President may, during the said period, by order authorise the use of the Hindi language in addition to the English language and of the Devanagari form of numerals in addition to the international form of Indian numerals for any of the official purposes of the Union.<ref name="NIC2008">{{cite web|url=http://lawmin.nic.in/coi/coiason29july08.pdf |title=The Constitution of India |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140909230437/http://lawmin.nic.in/coi/coiason29july08.pdf |archive-date=9 September 2014 |df=dmy-all }}</ref></blockquote>

It was envisioned that Hindi would become the sole working language of the Union Government by 1965 (per directives in Article 344 (2) and Article 351),<ref name=eighthschedule>{{cite web|url=http://india.gov.in/govt/documents/hindi/PARTXVII.pdf |title=Rajbhasha |publisher=india.gov.in |language=hi, en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120131084820/http://www.india.gov.in/govt/documents/hindi/PARTXVII.pdf |archive-date=31 January 2012 }}</ref> with state governments being free to function in the language of their own choice. However, widespread resistance to the [[imposition of Hindi]] on non-native speakers, especially in [[South India]] (such as [[anti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu|those in Tamil Nadu]]) led to the passage of the Official Languages Act of 1963, which provided for the continued use of English indefinitely for all official purposes, although the constitutional directive for the Union Government to encourage the spread of Hindi was retained and has strongly influenced its policies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rajbhasha.nic.in/en/official-languages-act-1963|title=The Official Languages Act, 1963 (as Amended, 1967) (Act No. 19 of 1963)|website=Department of Official Language|access-date=9 June 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161216142842/http://www.rajbhasha.nic.in/en/official-languages-act-1963|archive-date=16 December 2016}}</ref>

[[s:Constitution of India/Part XVII|Article 344 (2b)]] stipulates that the official language commission shall be constituted every ten years to recommend steps for the progressive use of Hindi language and impose restrictions on the use of the English language by the union government. In practice, the official language commissions are constantly endeavouring to promote Hindi but not imposing restrictions on English in official use by the union government.

At the state level, Hindi is the official language of the following Indian states: [[Bihar]], [[Chhattisgarh]], [[Haryana]], [[Himachal Pradesh]], [[Jharkhand]], [[Madhya Pradesh]], [[Rajasthan]], [[Uttar Pradesh]] and [[Uttarakhand]].<ref name="langoff">{{cite web|url=http://nclm.nic.in/shared/linkimages/NCLM50thReport.pdf |title=Report of the Commissioner for linguistic minorities: 50th report (July 2012 to June 2013) |publisher=Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India |access-date=26 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160708012438/http://nclm.nic.in/shared/linkimages/NCLM50thReport.pdf |archive-date= 8 July 2016}}</ref> Hindi is an official language of [[Gujarat]], along with [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]].<ref name="Benedikter2009">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vpZv2GHM7VQC&pg=PA89|title=Language Policy and Linguistic Minorities in India: An Appraisal of the Linguistic Rights of Minorities in India|last=Benedikter|first=Thomas|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|year=2009|isbn=978-3-643-10231-7|page=89|access-date=13 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425230812/https://books.google.com/books?id=vpZv2GHM7VQC&pg=PA89|archive-date=25 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> It acts as an additional official language of [[West Bengal]] in blocks and sub-divisions with more than 10% of the population speaking Hindi.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Roy|first1=Anirban|title=West Bengal to have six more languages for official use |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/india/east/story/west-bengal-mamata-banerjee-recognizes-six-non-bengali-languages-134507-2011-05-27 |access-date=10 January 2020 |work=India Today |date=27 May 2011 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=Indiatoday:1>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/pti-feed/story/kamtapuri-rajbanshi-make-it-to-list-of-official-languages-in-1179890-2018-02-28 |title=Kamtapuri, Rajbanshi make it to list of official languages in |last=Roy |first=Anirban |date=28 February 2018 |magazine=[[India Today]] |access-date=16 March 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330143710/https://www.indiatoday.in/pti-feed/story/kamtapuri-rajbanshi-make-it-to-list-of-official-languages-in-1179890-2018-02-28 |archive-date=30 March 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/hindi-the-first-choice-of-people-in-only-12-states/article27459774.ece|title=Hindi the first choice of people in only 12 States|newspaper=The Hindu|date=4 June 2019|last1=Sen|first1=Sumant}}</ref> Similarly, Hindi is accorded the status of official language in the following [[Union Territories]]: [[Delhi]], [[Andaman and Nicobar Islands]] and [[Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu]].

Although there is no specification of a national language in the constitution, it is a widely held belief that Hindi is the national language of India. This is often a source of friction and contentious debate.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Choudhury |first1=Sushmita |last2=Sharma |first2=Rajesh |date=15 September 2021 |title=70 years on, India is still fighting over a national language |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/70-years-on-india-is-still-fighting-over-a-national-language/articleshow/86196740.cms |access-date=19 March 2022 |work=The Times of India}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Swaddle |first=The |date=12 June 2021 |title=Hindi Isn't India's National Language. Why Does the Myth Continue? |url=https://theswaddle.com/hindi-isnt-indias-national-language-why-does-the-myth-continue/ |access-date=19 March 2022 |website=The Swaddle |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.firstpost.com/india/why-hindi-isnt-the-national-language-6733241.html|title=Why Hindi isn't the national language|date=31 May 2019 |work=Firstpost |access-date=19 March 2022}}</ref> In 2010, the [[Gujarat High Court]] clarified that Hindi is not the national language of India because the constitution does not mention it as such.<ref name="National TOI">{{cite news|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Theres-no-national-language-in-India-Gujarat-High-Court/articleshow/5496231.cms|title=There's no national language in India: Gujarat High Court|last=Khan|first=Saeed|date=25 January 2010|location=Ahmedabad|access-date=5 May 2014|newspaper=[[The Times of India]]|publisher=[[The Times Group]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318040319/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Theres-no-national-language-in-India-Gujarat-High-Court/articleshow/5496231.cms|archive-date=18 March 2014}}</ref><ref name="National PTI">{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/hindi-not-a-national-language-court/article94695.ece|title=Hindi, not a national language: Court|date=25 January 2010|work=[[The Hindu]]|location=Ahmedabad|publisher=[[Press Trust of India]]|access-date=23 December 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140704084339/http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/hindi-not-a-national-language-court/article94695.ece|archive-date=4 July 2014}}</ref>

===Fiji===
Hindi is an official language in Fiji as per the 1997, 2012 and 2013 constitution's of Fiji. Two dialects of Hindi are spoken in Fiji, Standard Hindi and [[Fiji Hindi]]. The latter dialect traces its origins to [[Awadhi language|Awadhi]], an eastern Hindi dialect. However, Standard Hindi is the official variant of Hindi recognized by the constitution and used in all official purposes, education, media and businesses due to Fiji Hindi's lack of standardisation.<ref name="ethnologue.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/18/language/hif/|title=Hindi, Fiji|work=[[Ethnologue]]|access-date=17 February 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211075826/http://www.ethnologue.com/18/language/hif/|archive-date=11 February 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.omniglot.com/writing/fijihindi.htm|title=Fiji Hindi alphabet, pronunciation and language|website=www.omniglot.com|access-date=22 June 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608100818/http://www.omniglot.com/writing/fijihindi.htm|archive-date=8 June 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/fj00000_.html |title=Section 4 of Fiji Constitution |publisher=servat.unibe.ch |access-date=3 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090609110318/http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/fj00000_.html |archive-date=9 June 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fiji.gov.fj/govt--publications/constitution.aspx|title=Constitution of Fiji|work=Official site of the Fijian Government|access-date=14 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011085543/http://www.fiji.gov.fj/govt--publications/constitution.aspx|archive-date=11 October 2016}}</ref> Hindi is spoken by 380,000 people in Fiji.<ref name="ethnologue.com"/>

===Nepal===
Hindi is spoken as a first language by about 77,569 people in [[Nepal]] according to the [[2011 Nepal census]], and further by 1,225,950 people as a second language.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nepal.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/Population%20Monograph%20V02.pdf |title=Population Monograph of Nepal, Vol. 2 |year=2014 |place=Kathmandu |publisher=Central Bureau of Statistics |access-date=29 March 2020}}</ref> A Hindi proponent, Indian-born [[Paramananda Jha]], was elected vice-president of Nepal. He took his oath of office in Hindi in July 2008. This created protests in the streets for 5 days; students burnt his effigies, and there was a general strike in 22 districts. Nepal Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that his oath in Hindi was invalid and he was kept "inactive" as vice-president. An "angry" Jha said, "I cannot be compelled to take the oath now in Nepali. I might rather take it in English."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Nalankilli |first1=Thanjai |title=Hindi in Nepal – An Analysis |url=http://www.tamiltribune.com/11/0901.html |website=Tamiltribune.com |access-date=17 December 2022 |archive-date=18 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160318051111/http://www.tamiltribune.com/11/0901.html |url-status=usurped }}</ref>

===South Africa===
Hindi is a protected language in [[South Africa]]. According to the [[Constitution of South Africa]], the [[Pan South African Language Board]] must promote and ensure respect for Hindi along with other languages.<ref name="auto1"/> According to a doctoral dissertation by Rajend Mesthrie in 1985, although Hindi and other Indian languages have existed in South Africa for the last 125 years, there are no academic studies of any of them – of their use in South Africa, their evolution and current decline.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Mesthrie |first1=Rajend |title=A history of the Bhojpuri (or "Hindi") language in South Africa |url=https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/19511 |website=[[University of Cape Town]] |year=1985 |access-date=17 December 2022|type=Doctoral Thesis }}</ref>

===United Arab Emirates===
Hindi is adopted as the third official court language in the [[Emirate of Abu Dhabi]].<ref name="thehindu.com"/> As a result of this status, the Indian workforce in UAE can file their complaints to the labour courts in the country in their own mother-tongue.<ref>{{cite news |title=UAE introduces Hindi as third official language |url=https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/uae-introduces-hindi-as-third-official-language-119021200048_1.html |newspaper=Business Standard India |date=12 February 2019 |access-date=17 December 2022}}</ref>

==Geographical distribution==
{{Main|Hindustani-speaking world}}

Hindi is the [[lingua franca]] of [[northern India]] (which contains the [[Hindi Belt]]), as well as an official language of the Government of India, along with English.<ref name="NIC2008"/>

In [[Northeast India]] a pidgin known as [[Haflong Hindi]] has developed as a ''lingua franca'' for the people living in [[Haflong]], [[Assam]] who speak other languages natively.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Kothari|editor1-first=Ria|title=Chutnefying English: The Phenomenon of Hinglish|date=2011|publisher=Penguin Books India|isbn=978-0-14-341639-5|page=128}}</ref> In [[Arunachal Pradesh]], Hindi emerged as a lingua franca among locals who speak over 50 dialects natively.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://scroll.in/article/675419/how-hindi-became-the-language-of-choice-in-arunachal-pradesh|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161211120138/http://scroll.in/article/675419/how-hindi-became-the-language-of-choice-in-arunachal-pradesh|title=How Hindi became the language of choice in Arunachal Pradesh|first=Abhimanyu|last=Chandra|archive-date=11 December 2016|website=Scroll.in |date=22 August 2014 }}</ref>

Hindi is quite easy to understand for many [[Pakistan]]is, who speak Urdu, which, like Hindi, is a standard register of the Hindustani language; additionally, Indian media are widely viewed in Pakistan.<ref name="Gandapur2012">{{cite news |last1=Gandapur |first1=Khalid Amir Khan |title=Has Hindi become our national language? |url=https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/13807/has-hindi-become-our-national-language |newspaper=[[The Express Tribune]] |access-date=24 January 2020 |language=en |date=19 September 2012 |archive-date=31 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731213305/https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/13807/has-hindi-become-our-national-language/ }}</ref>

A sizeable population in [[Afghanistan]], especially in [[Kabul]], can also speak and understand Hindi-Urdu due to the popularity and influence of [[Bollywood]] films, songs and actors in the region.<ref name="Hakala2012">{{cite magazine|url=http://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/asia_8.pdf|title=Languages as a Key to Understanding Afghanistan's Cultures|last=Hakala|first=Walter N.|year=2012|magazine=[[National Geographic]]|language=en|access-date=13 March 2018|quote=In the 1980s and '90s, at least three million Afghans—mostly Pashtun—fled to Pakistan, where a substantial number spent several years being exposed to Hindi- and Urdu-language media, especially Bollywood films and songs, and being educated in Urdu-language schools, both of which contributed to the decline of Dari, even among urban Pashtuns.|archive-date=14 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314042412/http://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/asia_8.pdf}}</ref><ref name="Krishnamurthy2013">{{cite web|url=http://www.gatewayhouse.in/kabul-diary-discovering-the-indian-connection/|title=Kabul Diary: Discovering the Indian connection|last=Krishnamurthy|first=Rajeshwari|date=28 June 2013|publisher=Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations|language=en|access-date=13 March 2018|quote=Most Afghans in Kabul understand and/or speak Hindi, thanks to the popularity of Indian cinema in the country.}}</ref>

Hindi is also spoken by a large population of [[Madheshi]]s (people having roots in north-India but having migrated to Nepal over hundreds of years) of [[Nepal]]. Apart from this, Hindi is spoken by the large [[Indian diaspora]] which hails from, or has its origin from the "Hindi Belt" of India. A substantially large North Indian diaspora lives in countries like the [[United States of America]], the United Kingdom, the [[United Arab Emirates]], Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, South Africa, Fiji and [[Mauritius]], where it is natively spoken at home and among their own Hindustani-speaking communities.

Outside India, Hindi speakers are 8&nbsp;million in [[Nepal]]; 863,077 in the [[United States|United States of America]];<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/hindi-most-spoken-indian-language-in-us-telugu-speakers-up-86-in-8-years/articleshow/65893224.cms|title=Hindi most spoken Indian language in US, Telugu speakers up 86% in 8 years |website=The Times of India|date=21 September 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/country/us|title=United States- Languages|work=Ethnologue|access-date=17 February 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211075837/https://www.ethnologue.com/country/us|archive-date=11 February 2017}}</ref> 450,170 in Mauritius; 380,000 in Fiji;<ref name="ethnologue.com"/> 250,292 in South Africa; 150,000 in Suriname;<ref name="bookcitation">Frawley, p. 481</ref> 100,000 in [[Uganda]]; 45,800 in the United Kingdom;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/country/GB|title=United Kingdom- Languages|work=Ethnologue|access-date=17 February 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170201044623/https://www.ethnologue.com/country/GB|archive-date=1 February 2017}}</ref> 20,000 in [[New Zealand]]; 20,000 in [[Germany]]; 26,000 in Trinidad and Tobago;<ref name="bookcitation"/> 3,000 in [[Singapore]].

== Comparison with Standard Urdu ==
{{Main|Hindi–Urdu controversy|Hindustani phonology|Hindustani grammar}}

[[Linguistics|Linguistically]], Hindi and Urdu are two registers of the same language and are mutually intelligible.<ref name="Daniyal2016">{{cite web|url=http://scroll.in/article/809102/the-death-of-urdu-in-india-is-greatly-exaggerated-the-language-is-actually-thriving|title=Hindi and Urdu are classified as literary registers of the same language|date=June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602104222/http://scroll.in/article/809102/the-death-of-urdu-in-india-is-greatly-exaggerated-the-language-is-actually-thriving|archive-date=2 June 2016|access-date=1 June 2016}}</ref> Both Hindi and Urdu share a core vocabulary of native Prakrit and Sanskrit-derived words.<ref name="GubeGao2019"/><ref name="Kuiper2010">{{cite book |last1=Kuiper |first1=Kathleen |title=The Culture of India |date=2010 |publisher=[[Rosen Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-61530-149-2 |language=en |quote=Urdu is closely related to Hindi, a language that originated and developed in the Indian subcontinent. They share the same Indic base and are so similar in phonology and grammar that they appear to be one language.}}</ref><ref name="ChatterjiSiṃhaPadikkal1997"/> However, Hindi is written in the Devanagari script and contains more direct ''tatsama'' [[Sanskrit]]-derived words than Urdu, whereas Urdu is written in the [[Perso-Arabic]] script and uses more Arabic and Persian loanwords compared to Hindi.<ref name="JainCardona2007">{{cite book |last1=Jain |first1=Danesh |last2=Cardona |first2=George |title=The Indo-Aryan Languages |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-79711-9 |language=en |quote=The primary sources of non-IA loans into MSH are Arabic, Persian, Portuguese, Turkic and English. Conversational registers of Hindi/Urdu (not to mentioned formal registers of Urdu) employ large numbers of Persian and Arabic loanwords, although in Sanskritized registers many of these words are replaced by ''tatsama'' forms from Sanskrit. The Persian and Arabic lexical elements in Hindi result from the effects of centuries of Islamic administrative rule over much of north India in the centuries before the establishment of British rule in India. Although it is conventional to differentiate among Persian and Arabic loan elements into Hindi/Urdu, in practice it is often difficult to separate these strands from one another. The Arabic (and also Turkic) lexemes borrowed into Hindi frequently were mediated through Persian, as a result of which a thorough intertwining of Persian and Arabic elements took place, as manifest by such phenomena as hybrid compounds and compound words. Moreover, although the dominant trajectory of lexical borrowing was from Arabic into Persian, and thence into Hindi/Urdu, examples can be found of words that in origin are actually Persian loanwords into both Arabic and Hindi/Urdu.}}</ref> Because of this, as well as the fact that the two registers share an identical grammar,<ref name="PeterDass2019">{{cite book |last1=Peter-Dass |first1=Rakesh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hxmvDwAAQBAJ |title=Hindi Christian Literature in Contemporary India |date=2019 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-00-070224-8 |language=en |quote=Two forms of the same language, Nagarai Hindi and Persianized Hindi (Urdu) had identical grammar, shared common words and roots, and employed different scripts.}}</ref><ref name="GubeGao2019"/><ref name="Kuiper2010"/> a consensus of linguists consider them to be two standardised forms of the same language, [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] or Hindi-Urdu.<ref name="Daniyal2016"/><ref name="PeterDass2019"/><ref name="GubeGao2019"/><ref name="Basu2017">{{cite book |last1=Basu |first1=Manisha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E7gtDQAAQBAJ |title=The Rhetoric of Hindutva |date=2017 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-107-14987-8 |language=en |quote=Urdu, like Hindi, was a standardized register of the Hindustani language deriving from the Delhi dialect and emerged in the eighteenth century under the rule of the late Mughals.}}</ref> Hindi is the most commonly used scheduled language in India and is [[Official languages of india|one of the two official languages of the union]],<ref>{{cite web |title=THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE POLICY OF THE UNION |url=https://rajbhasha.nic.in/en/official-language-policy-union |website=Department of Official Language - Governemtn of India |access-date=7 November 2023}}</ref> the other being English. Urdu is the [[Languages of Pakistan#Major regional languages|national language]] and ''lingua franca'' of [[Pakistan]] and is [[Scheduled languages of India|one of 22 scheduled languages of India]], also having official status in [[Uttar Pradesh]], [[Jammu and Kashmir (union territory)|Jammu and Kashmir]], [[Delhi]], [[Telangana]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/list-of-official-languages-of-indian-states-and-union-territories-1624022980-1 |title=List of Official Languages of Indian States and Union Territories |first=Arfa |last=Javaid |orig-date=18 June 2021 |date=23 June 2021 |website=jagranjosh.com |access-date=27 November 2021 |archive-date=27 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127162819/https://m.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/amp/list-of-official-languages-of-indian-states-and-union-territories-1624022980-1 }}</ref> [[Andhra Pradesh]]<ref>{{Cite news |last= |first= |date=23 March 2022 |title=Bill recognising Urdu as second official language passed |language=en-IN |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/bill-recognising-urdu-as-second-official-languagepassed/article65252966.ece |access-date=4 March 2023 |issn=0971-751X}}</ref> and [[Bihar]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ahmed |first1=Farzand |title=Decision to make Urdu second official language in Bihar provokes furore from Maithil Brahmins |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/story/19800731-decision-to-make-urdu-second-official-language-in-bihar-provokes-furore-from-maithil-brahmins-821314-2014-01-17 |website=India Today |date=17 January 2014 |access-date=17 December 2022}}</ref>

==Script==
{{Main|Devanagari}}

Hindi is written in the Devanagari script, an [[abugida]]. Devanagari consists of 11 [[Devanagari script#Vowels|vowels]] and 33 [[Devanagari script#Consonants|consonants]] and is written from left to right. Unlike Sanskrit, Devanagari is not entirely phonetic for Hindi, especially failing to mark [[Schwa deletion in Indo-Aryan languages|schwa deletion]] in spoken Standard Hindi.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bhatia|first1=Tej K.|title=A History of the Hindi Grammatical Tradition: Hindi-Hindustani Grammar, Grammarians, History and Problems|date=1987|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-07924-3}}</ref>

===Romanisation===
{{main|Devanagari transliteration}}

The [[Government of India]] uses [[Hunterian transliteration]] as its official system of writing Hindi in the Latin script. Various other systems also exist, such as [[IAST]], [[ITRANS]] and [[ISO 15919]].

[[Romanised Hindi]], also called [[Hinglish]], is the dominant form of Hindi online. In an analysis of [[YouTube]] comments, Palakodety et al., identified that 52% of comments were in Romanised Hindi, 46% in English, and 1% in [[Devanagari]] Hindi.<ref name="Palakodety">{{cite book |last1=Palakodety |first1=Shriphani |date=2021 |chapter=Low Resource Machine Translation |title=Low Resource Social Media Text Mining |pages=7–9 |location=Singapore |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-981-16-5624-8 |last2=KhudaBukhsh |first2=Ashiqur R. |last3=Jayachandran |first3=Guha |doi=10.1007/978-981-16-5625-5_5 |s2cid=244313560}}</ref>

== Phonology ==
{{Main|Hindustani phonology}}

{|
|- style="vertical-align:top;" 
|
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em; text-align: center;"
! colspan="6" | [[Consonant]]s
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]
! colspan="3" | Examples
! rowspan="2" | Devanagari representation
! rowspan="2" | English approximation
|-
! [[Devanagari|Hindi]]
! [[Urdu alphabet|Urdu]]
! [[ISO 15919]]
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|k}}</big>
|{{lang|hi|कमज़ोर}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|کمزور}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''k'''amzor}}
|क्
|s'''c'''ab
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|kʰ}}</big>
|{{lang|hi|खाल}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|کھال}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''kh'''āl}}
|ख्
|'''c'''ab
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|ɡ}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|गोल}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|گول}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''g'''ol}}
|ग्
|a'''g'''o
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|ɡʱ}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|घर}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|گھر}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''gh'''ar}}
|घ्
| lo'''gh'''ouse
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|ŋ}}</big>
|{{lang|hi|रंग}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|رن٘گ}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|ra'''ṅ'''g}}
|ङ्
|ba'''ng'''
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|tʃ}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|चोर}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|چور}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''c'''or}}
|च्
| ca'''tch'''
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|tʃʰ}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|छोड़ना}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|چھوڑنا}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''ch'''oṛnā}}
|छ्
| a'''ch'''oo
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|dʒ}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|जान}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|جان}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''j'''ān}}
|ज्
| bu'''dg'''ing
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|dʒʱ}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|झड़ना}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|جھڑنا}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''jh'''aṛnā}}
|झ्
|he'''dgeh'''og
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|ʈ}}</big><ref name="coronal">Hindi and Urdu contrast dental {{IPAblink|t̪|t}} and {{IPAblink|d̪|d}} with apical postalveolar {{IPAblink|ʈ}} and {{IPAblink|ɖ}} (as well as aspirated variants). Both sets sound like {{IPAc-en|t}} and {{IPAc-en|d}} to most English speakers although the dental [t] and [d] are used in place of the English {{IPAc-en|θ}} and {{IPAc-en|ð}} for some speakers with [[th-stopping]].</ref>
|{{lang|hi|टमाटर}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|ٹماٹر}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''ṭ'''amā'''ṭ'''ar}}
|‌‌‌ट्
|s'''t'''ub (but retroflex)
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|ʈʰ}}</big><ref name="coronal" />
|{{lang|hi|ठंड}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|ٹھنڈ}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''ṭh'''anḍ}}
|ठ्
|'''t'''ub (but retroflex)
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|ɖ}}</big><ref name=coronal/>
| {{lang|hi|डालना}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|ڈالنا}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''ḍ'''ālnā}}
|ड्
|[[American English|American]] bir'''d'''
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|ɖʱ}}</big><ref name=coronal/>
| {{lang|hi|ढक्कन}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|ڈھکّن}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''ḍh'''akkan}}
|ढ्
|American bir'''dh'''ouse
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|ɳ}}</big><ref name="Hindi">Mainly phonemes of Hindi. Urdu speakers usually replace [ɳ] and [ʂ] with [n] and [ʃ] respectively.</ref>
|{{lang|hi|किरण}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|کرن}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|kira'''ṇ'''}}
|ण्
|American bur'''n'''
|-
| rowspan="2" |<big>{{IPA link|t̪|t}}</big><ref name="coronal" />
|{{lang|hi|तालाब}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|تالاب}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''t'''ālāb}}
| rowspan="2" |त्
| rowspan="2" |similar to ou'''t'''think, Spanish '''t'''omar
|-
|लतीफ़ा
|{{Nq|لطیفہ}}
|''la'''t̤'''īfā''
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|tʰ}}</big><ref name="coronal" />
| {{lang|hi|थैला}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|تھیلا}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''th'''ailā}}
|थ्
|'''t'''ub (but dental)
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|d̪|d}}</big><ref name="coronal" />
| {{lang|hi|दाल}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|دال}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''d'''āl}}
|द्
|'''th'''e
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|dʱ}}</big><ref name="coronal" />
| {{lang|hi|धूप}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|دھوپ}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''dh'''ūp}}
|ध्
|a'''dh'''ere (but dental)
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|n}}</big>
|{{lang|hi|नहीं}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|نہیں}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''n'''ahī̃}}
|न्
|pa'''n'''ther
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|p}}</big>
|{{lang|hi|पल}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|پل}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''p'''al}}
|प्
|s'''p'''ot
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|pʰ}}</big>
|{{lang|hi|फल}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|پھل}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''ph'''al}}
|फ्
|'''p'''ot
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|b}}</big>
|{{lang|hi|बीस}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|بیس}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''b'''īs}}
|ब्
|ca'''bb'''ie
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|bʱ}}</big>
|{{lang|hi|भालू}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|بھالو}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''bh'''ālū}}
|भ्
|clu'''bh'''ouse
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|m}}</big>
|{{lang|hi|मगर}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|مگر}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''m'''agar}}
|म्
|'''m'''uch
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|j}}</big>
|{{lang|hi|याद}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|یاد}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''y'''ād}}
|य्
|'''y'''uck
|-
| rowspan="2" |<big>{{IPA link|r}}</big><ref name="rhotic">{{IPA|/ɾ/}} can surface as a trill {{IPA|[r]}} in word-initial and syllable-final positions. Geminate {{IPA|/ɾː/}} is always a trill.</ref>
|{{lang|hi|रस}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|رس}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''r'''as}}
| rowspan="3" |र्
| rowspan="2" |Trilled '''r'''ing
|-
|{{lang|hi|ज़र्रा}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|ذرّہ}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|za'''rr'''a}}
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|ɾ}}</big><ref name="rhotic" />
|{{lang|hi|ज़रा}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|ذرا}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|za'''r'''ā}}
|American a'''t'''om
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|l}}</big>
|{{lang|hi|लब}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|لب}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''l'''ab}}
|ल्
|'''l'''eaf
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|ʋ}}</big><ref name="V">{{IPA|[w]}} occurs as an allophone of {{IPA|[ʋ]}} when /{{lang|hi|व}} {{lang|ur|{{nastaliq|و}}}}/ is in an onglide position between an onset consonant and a following vowel while {{IPA|[ʋ]}}, which may phonetically be {{IPAblink|v}}, occurs otherwise.</ref>
|{{lang|hi|वर्ज़िश}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|ورزش}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''v'''arziś}}
| rowspan="2" |व्
|'''v'''at
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|w}}</big><ref name="V" />
|{{lang|hi|पकवान}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|پكوان}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|pak'''v'''ān}}
|'''w'''ell
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|ʃ}}</big>
|{{lang|hi|काश}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|کاش}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|kā'''ś'''}}
|श्
|'''sh'''oe
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|ʂ}}</big><ref name="Hindi" />
|{{lang|hi|नष्ट}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|نشٹ}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|na'''ṣ'''ṭ}}
|ष्
|'''shr'''ew
|-
| rowspan="3" |<big>{{IPA link|s}}</big>
|{{lang|hi|सब}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|سب}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''s'''ab}}
| rowspan="3" |स्
| rowspan="3" |'''s'''un
|-
|{{lang|hi|साफ़}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|صاف}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''s̤'''āf}}
|-
|{{lang|hi|साबित}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|ثابت}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''s̱'''ābit}}
|-
| rowspan="2" | <big>{{IPA link|ɦ}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|हम}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|ہم}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''h'''am}}
| rowspan="2" |ह्
| rowspan="2" | a'''h'''ead
|-
|{{lang|hi|हुक्म}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|حکم}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''h̤'''ukm}}
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|q}}</big><ref name="Urdu">Mainly phonemes of Urdu. Hindi speakers may replace [x], [z], [ʒ], [ɣ] and [q] with [kʰ], [dʒ], [dʒʱ], [g] and [k] respectively.</ref>
| {{lang|hi|क़रीब}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|قریب}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''q'''arīb}}
|‌‌‌क़्
|somewhat like '''c'''aught
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|x}}</big><ref name="Urdu" />
|{{lang|hi|ख़राब}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|خراب}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''k͟h'''arāb}}
|ख़्
|[[Scottish English|Scottish]] lo'''ch'''
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|ɣ}}</big><ref name="Urdu" />
|{{lang|hi|बाग़}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|باغ}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|bā'''ġ'''}}
|ग़्
|Similar to the French R
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|z}}<ref name="Urdu" /></big>
| {{lang|hi|काग़ज़}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|کاغذ}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|kāġa'''z'''}}
|ज़्
|'''z'''oo
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|ʒ}}</big><ref name="Urdu" /><ref name="Morelli2019">{{cite book |last1=Morelli |first1=Sarah |title=A Guru's Journey: Pandit Chitresh Das and Indian Classical Dance in Diaspora |date=20 December 2019 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-05172-2 |language=en |quote=Hindi has a nasal sound roughly equivalent to the ''n'' in the English sa''n''g, transliterated here as ''ṅ'' or ''ṁ'', and has two slightly differing ''sh'' sounds, transliterated as ''ś'' and ''ṣ''. ... A few words contain consonants…from Arabic, Persian, Portuguese, and English: क़ (ق) is transliterated as q, ख़ (خ) as <u>kh</u>, ग़ (غ) as g, ज़ (ظ ,ز, or ض) as z, झ़ (ژ) as zh, and फ़ (ف) as f.}}</ref>
| {{lang|hi|अझ़दहा}}<ref name="Rekhta2023">{{cite web |date=2023 |title=Meaning of azhdaha in English |url=https://www.rekhtadictionary.com/meaning-of-azhdahaa?lang=en |access-date=12 December 2023 |publisher=[[Rekhta Dictionary]] |language=en}}</ref>
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|اژدہا}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|a'''ž'''dahā}}
|झ़्
|plea'''s'''ure<ref name="PandeyMondalAgrawalBangalore2013">{{Cite book |last1=Pandey |first1=Dipti |title=2013 International Conference Oriental COCOSDA held jointly with 2013 Conference on Asian Spoken Language Research and Evaluation (O-COCOSDA/CASLRE) |last2=Mondal |first2=Tapabrata |last3=Agrawal |first3=S. S. |last4=Bangalore |first4=Srinivas |date=2013 |isbn=978-1-4799-2378-6 |page=3 |chapter=Development and suitability of Indian languages speech database for building watson based ASR system |doi=10.1109/ICSDA.2013.6709861 |quote=Only in Hindi 10 Phonemes व /v/ क़ /q/ ञ /ɲ/ य /j/ ष /ʂ/ ख़ /x/ ग़ /ɣ/ ज़ /z/ झ़ /ʒ/ फ़ /f/ |s2cid=26461938}}</ref>
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|ɽ}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|लड़ना}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|لڑنا}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|la'''ṛ'''nā}}
|ड़
|American ga'''rt'''er
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|ɽʱ}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|पढ़ाई}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|پڑھائی}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|pa'''ṛh'''āī}}
|ढ़
|no English equivalent
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|f}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|ख़िलाफ़}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|خلاف}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|k͟hilā'''f'''}}
|फ़्
|'''f'''uss
|-
|<big>{{IPA link|ʔ}}</big>
|{{lang|hi|एतबार}}
|{{lang|ur|{{nq|اعتبار}}}}
|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|iʻtibār}}
|
|The pause in ''"uh-oh!"'', bu'''tt'''er "bu'er" ([[T-glottalization|t-glottalizing dialects]])
|}
|
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em 2em; text-align: center;"
! colspan="6" | [[Vowel]]s
|-
! rowspan="2"| [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]
! colspan="3" | Examples
! rowspan="2" | Devanagari representation
! rowspan="2" | English approximation
|-
! [[Devanagari|Hindi]]
! [[Urdu alphabet|Urdu]]
! [[ISO 15919]]
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|ə}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|कल}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|کَل}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|k'''a'''l}}
| rowspan="2" |अ
|'''a'''bout
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|ɛ}}</big><ref>{{IPA|[ɛ]}} occurs as an allophone of {{IPA|/ə/}} near an {{IPA|/ɦ/}} that is surrounded on both sides by schwas. Usually, the second schwa becomes silent, which results in an {{IPA|[ɛ]}} preceding an {{IPA|/ɦ/}}.</ref>
| {{lang|hi|रहना}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|رہنا}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|r'''ê'''hnā}}
|p'''e'''n
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|äː|aː}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|काम}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|کام}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|k'''ā'''m}}
|आ or ा
|f'''a'''ther
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|i}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|जितना}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|جِتنا}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|j'''i'''tnā}}
|इ or ि
|s'''i'''t
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|iː}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|जीतना}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|جیتنا}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|j'''ī'''tnā}}
|ई or ी
|s'''ea'''t
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|u}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|उन}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|اُن}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''u'''n}}
|उ or ु
|b'''oo'''k
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|uː}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|ऊन}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|اُون}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|'''ū'''n}}
|ऊ or ू
|m'''oo'''n
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|eː}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|जेब}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|جیب}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|j'''e'''b}}
|ए or े
|m'''ai'''l
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|ɛː}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|कैसा}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|کیسا}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|k'''ai'''sā}}
|ऐ or ै
|f'''ai'''ry
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|oː}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|बोलो}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|بولو}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|b'''o'''l'''o'''}}
|ओ or ो
|gr'''ow'''
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|ɔː}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|कौन}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|کَون}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|k'''au'''n}}
|औ or ौ
|j'''o'''b
|-
| rowspan="2" | <big>{{IPA link|◌̃}}</big>
| {{lang|hi|हँस}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|ہن٘س}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|ha'''m̐'''s}}
| rowspan="2" |ँ
| rowspan="2" | nasal vowel fa'''un'''<br />({{IPA|[ãː, õː]}}, etc.)
|-
| {{lang|hi|मैं}}
| {{lang|ur|{{nq|مَیں}}}}
| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|ma'''ī̃'''}}
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em 2em; text-align: center;" 
! colspan="4" | [[Suprasegmental]]s
|-
! [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]
! Example
! Notes
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|ˈ|ˈ◌}}</big>
| {{IPA|[ˈbaːɦər]}}
| style="text-align: left;" | stress<br />(placed before stressed syllable)
|-
| <big>{{IPA link|ː|◌ː}}</big>
| {{IPA|[ˈʊtːəɾ pɾəˈdeːʃ]}}
| style="text-align: left;" | doubled consonant<br />(placed after doubled consonant)
|}
|}

==Vocabulary==
{{further|Hindustani etymology|List of Sanskrit and Persian roots in Hindi}}
Traditionally, Hindi words are divided into five principal categories according to their etymology:

* '''[[Tatsama|Tatsam]]''' ({{lang|hi|तत्सम}} {{Translation|"same as that"}}) words: These are words which are spelled the same in Hindi as in Sanskrit (except for the absence of final case inflections).<ref name="sirysq">Masica, p. 65</ref> They include words inherited from Sanskrit via [[Prakrit]] which have survived without modification (e.g. Hindi {{lang|hi|नाम}} ''nām'' / Sanskrit {{lang|sa|नाम}} ''nāma'', "name",<ref>Masica, p. 66</ref> as well as forms borrowed directly from Sanskrit in more modern times (e.g. {{lang|hi|प्रार्थना}} ''prārthanā'', "prayer").<ref>Masica, p. 67</ref> Pronunciation, however, conforms to Hindi norms and may differ from that of classical Sanskrit. Amongst nouns, the ''tatsam'' word could be the Sanskrit non-inflected word-stem, or it could be the nominative singular form in the Sanskrit nominal declension.
* '''Ardhatatsam''' ({{lang|hi|अर्धतत्सम}} {{Translation|"semi-tatsama"}}) words: Such words are typically earlier loanwords from Sanskrit which have undergone sound changes subsequent to being borrowed. (e.g. Hindi {{lang|hi|सूरज}} ''sūraj'' from Sanskrit {{lang|sa|सूर्य}} ''sūrya'')
* '''[[Tadbhava|Tadbhav]]''' ({{lang|hi|तद्भव}} {{Translation|"born of that"}}) words: These are native Hindi words derived from Sanskrit after undergoing phonological rules (e.g. Sanskrit {{lang|sa|कर्म}} ''karma'', "deed" becomes [[Shauraseni Prakrit]] {{lang|psu-Deva|कम्म}} ''kamma'', and eventually Hindi {{lang|hi|काम}} ''kām'', "work") and are spelled differently from Sanskrit.<ref name = "sirysq"/>
* '''Deshaj''' ({{lang|hi|देशज}} {{Translation|"of the country"}}) words: These are words that were not borrowings from non-indigenous languages but do not derive from attested Indo-Aryan words either. Belonging to this category are [[onomatopoetic]] words or ones borrowed from local non-[[Indo-Aryan languages]].
* '''Videshī''' ({{lang|hi|विदेशी}} {{Translation|"foreign"}}) words: These include all [[loanwords]] from non-indigenous languages. The most frequent source languages in this category are [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Arabic]], [[English language|English]] and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]. Examples are {{lang|hi|क़िला}} ''qila'' "fort" from Persian, {{lang|hi|कमेटी}} ''kameṭī'' from English ''committee''.

===Prakrit===
Hindi has naturally inherited a large portion of its vocabulary from [[Shauraseni Prakrit]], in the form of ''tadbhava'' words.<ref name="ChatterjiSiṃhaPadikkal1997"/> This process usually involves [[compensatory lengthening]] of vowels preceding consonant clusters in Prakrit, e.g. Sanskrit ''tīkṣṇa'' > Prakrit ''tikkha'' > Hindi ''tīkhā''.

===Sanskrit===
Much of Standard Hindi's vocabulary is borrowed from Sanskrit as ''tatsam'' borrowings, especially in technical and academic fields. The formal Hindi standard, from which much of the Persian, Arabic and English vocabulary has been replaced by [[neologism]]s compounding ''tatsam'' words, is called ''Śuddh Hindi'' (pure Hindi), and is viewed as a more prestigious dialect over other more colloquial forms of Hindi.

Excessive use of ''tatsam'' words sometimes creates problems for native speakers. They may have Sanskrit consonant clusters which do not exist in Hindustani, causing difficulties in pronunciation.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ohala|first1=Manjari|title=Aspects of Hindi Phonology|date=1983|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers|isbn=978-0-89581-670-2|page=38}}</ref>

As a part of the process of [[Sanskritisation]], new words are coined using Sanskrit components to be used as replacements for supposedly foreign vocabulary. Usually these neologisms are [[calque]]s of English words already adopted into spoken Hindi. Some terms such as ''dūrbhāṣ'' "telephone", literally "far-speech" and ''dūrdarśan'' "television", literally "far-sight" have even gained some currency in formal Hindi in the place of the English borrowings ''(ṭeli)fon'' and ''ṭīvī''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Arnold|first1=David|last2=Robb|first2=Peter|title=Institutions and Ideologies: A SOAS South Asia Reader|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-10234-9|page=82}}</ref>

===Persian===
Hindi also features significant [[Persian language|Persian]] influence, standardised from spoken [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]].<ref name="JainCardona2007"/><ref name="kachru">{{cite book|last1=Kachru|first1=Yamuna|title=Hindi|date=2006|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing|isbn=978-90-272-3812-2}}</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2016}} Early borrowings, beginning in the mid-12th century, were specific to [[Islam]] (e.g. ''Muhammad'', ''Islām'') and so Persian was simply an intermediary for Arabic. Later, under the [[Delhi Sultanate]] and [[Mughal Empire]], Persian became the primary administrative language in the Hindi heartland. Persian borrowings reached a heyday in the 17th century, pervading all aspects of life. Even grammatical constructs, namely the [[izafat]], were assimilated into Hindi.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bhatia|first1=Tej K.|last2=Ritchie|first2=William C.|title=The Handbook of Bilingualism|url=https://archive.org/details/handbookbilingua00bhat_489|url-access=limited|date=2006|publisher=John Wiley and Sons|isbn=978-0-631-22735-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/handbookbilingua00bhat_489/page/n797 789]}}</ref>

The status of Persian language then and thus its influence, is also visible in Hindi [[proverb]]s:

{{Verse transliteration-translation
|lang=hi
|हाथ कंगन को आरसी क्या,
पढ़े लिखे को फ़ारसी क्या।
|Hāth kaṅgan ko ārsī kyā,
Paṛhe likhe ko Fārsī kyā.
|What is mirror to a hand with bangles,
What is Persian to a literate.
}}

The emergence of Modern Standard Hindi in the 19th century went along with the Sanskritisation of its vocabulary,<ref>King, Christopher R. (1994). ''One Language, Two Scripts: The Hindi Movement in Nineteenth Century North India''. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.</ref> leading to a marginalisation of Persian vocabulary in Hindi, which continued after [[Partition of India|Partition]] when the Indian government co-opted the policy of Sanskritisation. However, many Persian words (e.g. ''bas'' "enough", ''khud'' "self") have remained entrenched in Standard Hindi, and a larger amount are still used in [[Urdu poetry]] written in the Devanagari script. Many words borrowed from Persian in turn were loanwords from Arabic (e.g. ''muśkil'' "difficult", ''havā'' "air", ''x(a)yāl'' "thought", ''kitāb'' "book").

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Loanwords from Persian derived from Arabic<ref>{{cite web |last1=Khalife |first1=Leyal |date=25 December 2016 |title=9 Hindi words that sound just like Arabic |url=https://stepfeed.com/9-hindi-words-that-sound-just-like-arabic-6921 |access-date=16 December 2022 |website=Stepfeed.com}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=December 2023}}
|-
! Perso-Arabic word !! Hindi word !! Gloss
|-
| {{lang|ar|وقت}} {{transliteration|ar|waqt}} || {{lang|hi|वक़्त}} {{transliteration|hi|vaqt}} || time
|-
| {{lang|ar|قميص}} {{transliteration|ar|qamīṣ}} || {{lang|hi|क़मीज़}} {{transliteration|hi|qamīz}} ||shirt{{Refn|group=Footnote|name=first|ultimately comes from the Latin "camisia" pronunciation reinforced by Portuguese "camisa".}}
|-
| {{lang|ar|كتاب}}<!--Use Arabic, not Urdu characters--> {{transliteration|ar|kitāb}} || {{lang|hi|किताब}} {{transliteration|hi|kitāb}} || book
|-
| {{lang|ar|نصيب}} {{transliteration|ar|naṣīb}} || {{lang|hi|नसीब}} {{transliteration|hi|nasīb}} || destiny
|-
| {{lang|ar|كرسي}}<!--Use Arabic, not Urdu characters--> {{transliteration|ar|kursiyy}} || {{lang|hi|कुर्सी}} {{transliteration|hi|kursī}} || chair
|-
| {{lang|ar|حساب}} {{transliteration|ar|ḥisāb}} || {{lang|hi|हिसाब}} {{transliteration|hi|hisāb}} || calculation
|-
| {{lang|ar|قانون}} {{transliteration|ar|qānūn}} || {{lang|hi|क़ानून}} {{transliteration|hi|qānūn}} || law{{Refn|group=Footnote|name=second|ultimately comes from the Greek κανών (kanōn)}}
|-
| {{lang|ar|خبر}} {{transliteration|ar|ḵabar}} || {{lang|hi|ख़बर}} {{transliteration|hi|xabar}} || news
|-
| {{lang|ar|دنيا}} {{transliteration|ar|dunyā}} || {{lang|hi|दुनिया}} {{transliteration|hi|duniyā}} || world
|}

=== English ===
{{See also|Englishisation#South Asia}}
Hindi also makes extensive use of [[loan translation]] ([[calqueing]]) and occasionally [[phono-semantic matching]] of [[English language|English]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Arnold |first1=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tN0rBgAAQBAJ |title=Institutions and Ideologies: A SOAS South Asia Reader |last2=Robb |first2=Peter |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-10234-9 |page=79}}</ref>

===Portuguese===
Many Hindustani words were derived from Portuguese due to interaction with colonists and missionaries:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Hindi !! Meaning !! Portuguese
|-
| ''anānās'' (अनानास) || pineapple || ananás
|-
| ''pādrī'' (पाद्री) || priest || padre
|-
| ''bālṭī'' (बाल्टी) || bucket || balde
|-
| ''čābī'' (चाबी) || key || chave
|-
| ''girjā'' (गिर्जा) || church || igreja
|-
| ''almārī'' (अलमारी) || cupboard || armário
|-
| ''botal'' (बोतल) || bottle || botelha
|-
| ''aspatāl'' (अस्पताल) || hospital || hospital
|-
| ''olandez'' (ओलंदेज़) || Dutch || holandês
|-
|}

==Media==

===Literature===
{{Main|Hindi literature}}

Hindi literature is broadly divided into four prominent forms or styles, being ''[[Bhakti]]'' (devotional – [[Kabirdas|Kabir]], [[Raskhan]]); ''Śṛṇgār'' (beauty – [[Keshav]], [[Bihari (poet)|Bihari]]); ''Vīgāthā'' (epic); and ''Ādhunik'' (modern).

Medieval Hindi literature is marked by the influence of [[Bhakti movement]] and the composition of long, epic poems. It was primarily written in other [[Hindi languages|varieties of Hindi]], particularly [[Avadhi]] and [[Braj Bhasha]], but to a degree also in Delhavi, the basis for Standard Hindi. During the [[British Raj]], Hindustani became the prestige dialect.

[[Chandrakanta (novel)|''Chandrakanta'']], written by [[Devaki Nandan Khatri]] in 1888, is considered the first authentic work of prose in modern Hindi.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://scroll.in/article/756105/stop-outraging-over-marathi-hindi-and-english-chauvinism-is-much-worse-in-india|title=Stop outraging over Marathi – Hindi and English chauvinism is much worse in India|date=18 September 2015 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919230723/http://scroll.in/article/756105/stop-outraging-over-marathi-hindi-and-english-chauvinism-is-much-worse-in-india|archive-date=19 September 2015}}</ref> The person who brought realism in Hindi prose literature was [[Munshi Premchand]], who is considered the most revered figure in the world of Hindi fiction and progressive movement. Literary, or ''Sāhityik'', Hindi was popularised by the writings of [[Swami Dayananda Saraswati]], [[Bhartendu Harishchandra]] and others. The rising numbers of newspapers and magazines made Hindustani popular with educated people.{{citation needed|date=February 2018}}

The ''Dvivedī Yug'' ("Age of Dwivedi") in Hindi literature lasted from 1900 to 1918. It is named after [[Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi]], who played a major role in establishing Standard Hindi in poetry and broadening the acceptable subjects of Hindi poetry from the traditional ones of religion and romantic love.

In the 20th century, Hindi literature saw a romantic upsurge. This is known as ''[[Chhayavaad|Chāyāvād]]'' (''shadow-ism'') and the literary figures belonging to this school are known as ''Chāyāvādī''. [[Jaishankar Prasad]], [[Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala']], [[Mahadevi Varma]] and [[Sumitranandan Pant]], are the four major ''Chāyāvādī'' poets.

''Uttar Ādhunik'' is the post-modernist period of Hindi literature, marked by a questioning of early trends that copied the West as well as the excessive ornamentation of the ''Chāyāvādī'' movement, and by a return to simple language and natural themes.

===Internet===
Hindi literature, [[music]], and [[Bollywood|film]] have all been disseminated via the internet. In 2015, Google reported a 94% increase in Hindi-content consumption year-on-year, adding that 21% of users in India prefer content in Hindi.<ref>{{cite news|title=Hindi content consumption on internet growing at 94%: Google|url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/hindi-content-consumption-on-internet-growing-at-94-google/articleshow/48528347.cms|access-date=14 February 2018|agency=The Economic Times|date=18 August 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180215085102/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/hindi-content-consumption-on-internet-growing-at-94-google/articleshow/48528347.cms|archive-date=15 February 2018}}</ref> Many Hindi [[newspaper]]s also offer digital editions.

==Sample text==
{{see also|Urdu#Sample text}}
The following is a sample text in High Hindi, of Article 1 of the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] (by the United Nations):
;Hindi in Devanagari Script
:
:{{Langx|hi|अनुच्छेद १(एक): सभी मनुष्य जन्म से स्वतन्त्र तथा मर्यादा और अधिकारों में समान होते हैं। वे तर्क और विवेक से सम्पन्न हैं तथा उन्हें भ्रातृत्व की भावना से परस्पर के प्रति कार्य करना चाहिए।|label=none}}
;;Transliteration ([[ISO 15919|ISO]]):
:{{transliteration|hi|ISO|Anucchēd 1 (ēk): Sabhī manuṣya janma sē svatantra tathā maryādā aur adhikārō̃ mē̃ samān hōtē haĩ. Vē tark aur vivēk sē sampanna haĩ tathā unhē̃ bhrātr̥tva kī bhāvanā sē paraspar kē pratī kārya karnā cāhiē.}}
;Transcription ([[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]):
:{{IPA|[ənʊtːʃʰeːd eːk {{!}} səbʰiː mənʊʂjə dʒənmə seː sʋət̪ənt̪ɾə t̪ətʰaː məɾjaːd̪aː ɔːɾ əd̪ʰɪkaːɾõː mẽː  səmaːn hoːteː hɛ̃ː‖ ʋeː t̪əɾk ɔːɾ ʋɪʋeːk seː səmpənːə hɛ̃ː t̪ətʰaː ʊnʰẽː bʰɾaːtɾɪt̪ʋə kiː bʰaːʋənaː seː pəɾəspəɾ keː pɾət̪iː kaːɾjə kəɾnaː tʃaːhɪeː‖]}}
;Gloss (word-to-word):
:Article 1 (one) ''–'' All humans birth from independent and dignity and rights in equal are. They logic and conscience from endowed are and they fraternity in the spirit of each other towards work should.
;Translation (grammatical):
:Article 1 ''–'' All humans are born independent and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with logic and conscience and they should work towards each other in the spirit of fraternity.

==See also==
<!-- New links in alphabetical order please -->
*[[Hindi Belt]]
*[[Bengali Language Movement (Manbhum)]]
*[[Hindi Divas]] – the official day to celebrate Hindi as a language.
*[[Languages of India]]
*[[Languages with official status in India]]
* [[Indian states by most spoken scheduled languages]]
*[[List of English words of Hindi or Urdu origin]]
*[[List of Hindi channels in Europe]] (by type)
*[[List of languages by number of native speakers in India]]
*[[List of Sanskrit and Persian roots in Hindi]]
*[[World Hindi Secretariat]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=Footnote}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

===Bibliography===
{{Refbegin|40em}}
* {{cite book|last=Bhatia|first=Tej K.|title=Colloquial Hindi: The Complete Course for Beginners|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7chEAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT6|access-date=19 July 2014|date=11 September 2002|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-134-83534-8}}
* [[George Abraham Grierson|Grierson, G. A.]] [[Linguistic Survey of India|''Linguistic Survey of India'' Vol I-XI]], Calcutta, 1928, {{ISBN|81-85395-27-6}} [http://joao-roiz.jp/LSI/ (searchable database)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230509170342/https://www.joao-roiz.jp/LSI/ |date=9 May 2023 }}.
* {{cite book|last1=Koul|first1=Omkar N.|author-link1=Omkar N. Koul|title=Modern Hindi grammar|date=2008|publisher=Dunwoody Press|location=Springfield, VA|isbn=978-1-931546-06-5|url=http://v2winners.com/Ebooks/spoeng/Spoken%20English/ModernHindiGrammar.pdf|access-date=19 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726150424/http://v2winners.com/Ebooks/spoeng/Spoken%20English/ModernHindiGrammar.pdf|archive-date=26 July 2014}}
* {{cite book|last1=McGregor|first1=R.S.|author-link=R. S. McGregor|title=Outline of Hindi grammar: With exercises|date=1995|publisher=Clarendon Pr.|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-870008-1|edition=3.|url=https://archive.org/details/OutlineOfHindiGrammar|access-date=19 July 2014}}
* {{cite book|last=Frawley|first=William|author-link=William Frawley|year=2003|title=International Encyclopedia of Linguistics: AAVE-Esparanto. Vol.1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sl_dDVctycgC|isbn=978-0-195-13977-8|page=481|publisher=Oxford University Press}}
* {{cite book|last1=Parthasarathy|first1=R.|last2=Kumar|first2=Swargesh|year=2012|title=Bihar Tourism: Retrospect and Prospect|page=120|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dSZ987-0Fb8C|isbn=978-8-180-69799-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Masica|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Masica|year=1991|title=The Indo-Aryan Languages|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-29944-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J3RSHWePhXwC}}
* {{cite book|first=Manjari|last=Ohala|chapter=Hindi|editor=[[International Phonetic Association]]|year=1999|title=Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: a Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet|pages=100–103|publisher=Cambridge University Press|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=33BSkFV_8PEC&pg=PA100|isbn=978-0-521-63751-0}}
* {{cite book|last=Sadana|first=Rashmi|year=2012|title=English Heart, Hindi Heartland: the Political Life of Literature in India|publisher=University of California Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U2WNfFpT14IC|access-date=19 July 2014|isbn=978-0-520-26957-6}}
* {{cite book|last=Shapiro|first=Michael C.|year=2001|chapter=Hindi|editor1-last=Garry|editor1-first=Jane|editor2-last=Rubino|editor2-first=Carl|title=An encyclopedia of the world's major languages, past and present|publisher=New England Publishing Associates|pages=305–309}}
* {{cite book|last=Shapiro|first=Michael C.|year=2003|chapter=Hindi|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iUHfBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT311|editor1-last=Cardona|editor1-first=George|editor2-last=Jain|editor2-first=Dhanesh|title=The Indo-Aryan Languages|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-77294-5|pages=250–285}}
* {{cite book|last1=Snell|first1=Rupert|last2=Weightman|first2=Simon|year=1989|title=Teach Yourself Hindi|publisher=McGraw-Hill|edition=2003|isbn=978-0-07-142012-9|title-link=Teach Yourself}}
* {{cite book|last=Taj|first=Afroz|year=2002|url=http://taj.chass.ncsu.edu/|title=A door into Hindi|access-date=8 November 2005}} 
* {{cite book|last=Tiwari|first=Bholanath|year=2004|orig-date=1966|title=हिन्दी भाषा|trans-title=Hindī Bhasha|publisher=Kitab Pustika|location=Allahabad|isbn=81-225-0017-X}} 

===Dictionaries===
* {{Citation
 | last= McGregor
 | first= R.S.
 | year= 1993
 | title= Oxford Hindi–English Dictionary
 | publisher= Oxford University Press, USA
 | edition= 2004
}}.
* {{Citation|url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/bahri/|title=Learners' Hindi-English dictionary|author=Hardev Bahri|year=1989|publisher=Rajapala|location=Delhi}}
* {{Citation|url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/caturvedi/|title=A practical Hindi-English dictionary|author=Mahendra Caturvedi|year=1970|publisher=National Publishing House|location=Delhi}}
* Academic Room Hindi Dictionary Mobile App developed in the Harvard Innovation Lab (iOS, Android and Blackberry)
* {{Citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iDtbAAAAQAAJ|title=A dictionary of Urdū, classical Hindī, and English|author=John Thompson Platts|year=1884|publisher=H. Milford|edition=reprint|location=LONDON|page=1259|access-date=6 July 2011}}

{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
* {{EI3 |last=Bangha |first=Imre |year=2018 |title=Hindi |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/hindi-COM_30475?s.num=4&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopaedia-of-islam-3&s.q=dynasty+india}}
* Bhatia, Tej K. (1987). ''A History of the Hindi Grammatical Tradition''. Leiden, Netherlands & New YorkY: E.J. Brill. {{ISBN|90-04-07924-6}}.

==External links==
{{InterWiki|code=hi}}
{{Wiktionary|Category:Hindi language}}
{{Wikivoyage|Hindi phrasebook|Hindi|a phrasebook}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140308231234/http://knowindia.gov.in/knowindia/profile.php?id=33 The Union: Official Language]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140901145421/http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0900.pdf Official Unicode Chart for Devanagari (PDF)]

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