History of Hindi

Hindi, the national language of India, is among one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. It has its roots in Sanskrit, which is credited to be the mother of all languages. Spoken by 425 million native Indians and 120 million international communities, Hindi is quite widespread. Hindi speaking communities outside of India include Uganda, Bangladesh, Mauritius and Yemen.

Roots

Written in the devanagari script, Hindi belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is influenced primarily by the Khariboli dialect of Delhi and areas in Northern India. Hindi has its own dialects, ranging from Awadhi to Haryanvi. Numerous Indian regional languages trace themselves back to Hindi and are just regional versions of it. They are mostly spoken in the Hindi belt which stretches from South India to Madhya Pradesh. The speakers of this regional language are considered to be native Hindi speakers.

Now that you’ve got a basic idea of the language, here are a few fun facts!

1. You can find traces of Hindi in English.

You already use lots of Hindi words without even realising it! Numerous words in English are taken from Hindi. For example: avatar, bandanna, bungalow, dinghy, jungle, karma, loot, mantra, punch, pyjamas, sorbet, shampoo, thug, typhoon and yoga.

2. 14th September is recognized as World Hindi Day.

World Hindi Day is celebrated every year on the 14th September to commemorate the adoption of Hindi by the Indian Constituent Assembly.

3. It’s referred to as the Language of Unity.

Due to its widespread usage during the Indian Independence struggle, Hindi gained the title of the Language of Unity.

Hindi in itself is a wonderful and beautiful language and you should definitely check it out!

“Hindi has always been such a language that it never boycotted a certain word just because it's of foreign origin.”

- DR. Rajendra Prasad, India’s first President