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Hindustani language

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See also: Hindustānī classical music.
Hindustānī (/ hindustɑːniː /; हिन्दुस्तानी, ہندوستانی), also known as "Hindī-Urdū," is a term used by linguists to describe several closely related idioms in the northern, central and northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. It encompasses two standardized registers in the form of the official languages of Hindī and Urdū, as well as several nonstandard dialects.

The term has had a complex history, holding different meanings to different people. In Bollywood, for example, the intentionally neutral language of Indian film is often referred to as Hindustānī.

Contents

History of the name

Originally the term Hindustānī (of Hindustān) was the name given by the Turco-Persian Mogul conquerors of India to Kʰaṛībolī, the local form of Hindī at their capital, Delhi, and nearby cities. As a contact language between the two cultures, Hindustānī absorbed large numbers of Persian, Arabic, and Turkic words, and with further Mughal conquest it spread as a lingua franca across northern India. It remained the primary lingua franca of India for the next four centuries, although it varied significantly in vocabulary depending on the local language, and it achieved the status of a literary language, along with Persian, in the Muslim courts. In time it came to be called Urdū (zabān-e urdū ज़बन् ए उर्डु, زبان اردو) "language of the army/camp" in Persian), and as the highly Persianized court language, Rekhta, or "mixed".

When the British conquered India in the late 1800's, they used the words 'Hindustānī' and 'Urdū' interchangeably. They developed it as the language of administration of British India, further preparing it to be the official language of modern India and Pakistan.

With the partition of India in 1947, the new states of Pakistan and India chose Persianized and Sanskritized registers of Hindustānī as their national languages. These they called "Urdū" and "Hindī" respectively. Since this time, the term "Urdū" has ceased to mean the lingua franca, although nonstandard Hindustānī dialects are often still considered dialects of Urdu.

In recent times the word has been used for the intentionally neutral language of Bollywood film, which is popular in both India and Pakistan.

Urdū

Urdū is the national language of Pakistan and an officially recongnized regional language of India. It is also an official language in the Indian states of Āndʰra Pradesh, Jammū and Kashmīr, National Capital Territory of Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh. The word "Urdū" derives from the more formal phrase zabān-e urdū-e mo'alla, a Turco-Persian phrase referring the "language of the camp". (The word has the same root as the English word "horde", a word that owes its existence to the armies of the Mongol ancestors of the Mughals.) The language began as the common speech of soldiers serving Mughal lords. The term became transferred to the court language of the Mughal aristocracy, whose dialect was based on the upper-class dialect of Delhi. Urdū's historical development was centered on the Urdū poets of the Mughal courts of north Indian metropolises such as Delhi, Lukʰnow, Lahore, and Āgrā. Urdū is written using a modified form of the Arabic script.

Hindī

Standard Hindī, the official language of India, is based on the Kʰaṛībolī dialect of the Delhi region and differs from Urdu in that it is usually written in the indigenous Devanāgarī script of India and exhibits less Persian influence than Urdū. Many scholars today employ a Sanskritized form of Hindī developed primarily in Vārāṇasī, the Hindū holy city, which is based on the Eastern Hindī dialect of that region.

Note that, the term "Hindustānī" has largely fallen out of common usage in modern India, except to refer to a style of Indian classical music prevalent in northern India. The term used to refer to the language is "Hindī", regardless of the mix of Persian or Sanskrit words used by the speaker. One could conceive of a wide spectrum of dialects, with the highly Persianized Urdu at one end of the spectrum and a heavily Sanskrit based dialect, spoken in the region around Vārāṇasī, at the other end of the spectrum. In common usage in India, the term "Hindī" includes all dialects, except the Urdū end of the spectrum. Thus, the different meanings of the word "Hindī" include, among others:

  1. standardized Hindī as taught in schools throughout India,
  2. formal or official Hindī advocated by Purushottam Das Tandon and as instituted by the post-independence Indian government, heavily influenced by Sanskrit,
  3. the vernacular dialects of Hindustānī/Hindī-Urdū as spoken throughout India,
  4. the neutralized form of the language used in popular television and films, or
  5. the more formal neutralized form of the language used in broadcast and print news reports.

Bazār Hindustānī

In a specific sense, "Hindustānī" may be used to refer to the dialects and varieties used in common speech, in contrast with the standardized Hindī and Urdū. This meaning is reflected in the use of the term "bazār Hindustānī," in other words, the language of the street or the marketplace, as opposed to the perceived refinement of formal Hindī, Urdū, or even Sanskrit. Thus, the Webster's New World Dictionary defines the term Hindustānī as the principal dialect of Hindī/Urdū, used as a trade language throughout north India and Pakistan.

Variants of Hindustānī

Hindustānī has four commonly named varieties:

Hindī and Urdū

While grammatically, Urdū and Hindī are considered dialects of a single language (or diasystem), they differ (in formal tongue) vastly in vocabulary; wherein Urdū draws heavily on Persian and Arabic, Hindī draws heavily on Sanskrit and to a lesser extent Prakrit.

The associated dialects of Urdū and Hindī are known as "Hindustānī". It is perhaps the lingua franca of the west and north of the Indian subcontinent, though it is understood fairly well in other regions also, especially in the urban areas. A common vernacular sharing characteristics with Urdū, Sanskritized Hindī, and regional Hindī, Hindustānī is more commonly used as a vernacular than highly Arabicized/Persianized Urdū or highly Sanskritized Hindī.

This can be seen in the popular culture of Bollywood or, more generally, the vernacular of Pakistanis and Indians which, while utilizing a good deal of Hindī verbiage, is interspersed with large amounts of Urdū, hence making the language of Bollywood movies sound as much Urdū as it is Hindī. Minor subtleties in region will also affect the 'brand' of Hindustānī, sometimes pushing the Hindustānī closer towards Urdū or towards Hindī. One might reasonably assume that the language spoken in Lukʰnow, Uttar Pradesh (known for its beautiful usage of Urdū) and Vārāṇasī (a holy city for Hindūs and thus using highly Sanskritized Hindī) is somewhat different. A humorous way of putting it would be that the Lucknow lehejā (accent in Urdū) is of a different shade than the Vārāṇasī uccʰāran (pronunciation in Hindī).

Hindustānī, if both Hindī and Urdū are counted, is the third or second most widely spoken language in the world after Mandarin and possibly English.

Hindustānī outside South Asia

Besides being the lingua franca of South Asia, Hindustānī is spoken among people of the South Asian diaspora and their descendants.

In Fiji, Hindustānī has official status under Fiji's Constitution. Fijian Hindustānī descends from one of the eastern forms of Hindustānī, called Awadʰī. It has developed some unique features that differentiate it from the Awadʰī spoken on the Indian subcontinent, although not to the extent of hindering mutual understanding. It is spoken by nearly the entire Indo-Fijian community, 38.1% of Fiji's entire population, regardless of ancestry.

Hindustānī speakers have a significant number of speakers in Caribbean countries such as Suriname, Guyana, and Trinidad & Tobago. The formal name of the language spoken in this region is generally called Caribbean Hindustānī, although the Caribbean countries may add an adjective in front of the language name (i.e. Sarnami Hindustānī) even though most individuals commonly refer to it as just Hindustānī. One major country in which Hindustānī is spoken is Suriname. Sarnami Hindustānī is the second most spoken language in Suriname after Dutch. This is due to the emigration of East Indians (known locally as Hindustānīs in Suriname) from the Indian states of Bihār and Uttar Pradesh located in North India. Ethnic Indians form 37% of the population in Suriname, the largest ethnic group there. Hence, Hindustānī is spoken frequently in Suriname and Indian culture plays a major role there in general. Hindustānī is also spoken among ethnic Indians of Guyana and is popular there as South Asians make up around 45% of Guyana's total population.

Hindustānī also has a significant number of speakers in North America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East due to immigration by the people of India and Pakistan to these countries.

Vocabulary

Standard Hindī derives much of its formal and technical vocabulary from Sanskrit while standard Urdū derives much of its formal and technical vocabulary from Persian. Standard or shuddʰa ("pure") Hindī and Urdū are used only in public addresses and radio or TV news, while the everyday spoken language in most areas is one of several varieties of Hindustānī, whose vocabulary contains words drawn from Persian and Arabic. In addition, spoken Hindustānī includes words from English and other languages as well.

Vernacular {{Unicode and Hindī are practically indistinguishable. However, the literary registers differ substantially; in highly formal situations, the languages are barely intelligible to speakers of the other. It bears mention that in centuries past both Sanskrit and Persian have been regarded as the languages of the elite, even by those of differing ethnic and religious backgrounds.

There are two principal categories of words in Standard Hindī:

Similarly, Urdū treats its own vocabulary, borrowed directly from Persian and Arabic, as a separate category for morphological purposes.

Excessive use of tatsam words sometimes creates problems for most native speakers. Strictly speaking, the tatsam words are words of Sanskrit and not of Hindustānī—thus they have complicated consonantal clusters which are not linguistically valid in Hindustānī. The educated middle class population of India can pronounce these words with ease, but people of rural backgrounds have much difficulty in pronouncing them. Similarly, vocabulary borrowed from Persian and Arabic also brings in its own consonantal clusters and "foreign" sounds, which may again cause difficulty in speaking them.

Grammar

Main article: Hindustānī grammar

Despite Hindustānī and English both being Indo-European languages, Hindustānī grammar can be very complex and is different in many ways from what English speakers are used to. Most notably, Hindustānī is a subject-object-verb language, meaning that verbs usually fall at the end of the sentence rather than before the object (as in English). Hindustānī also shows mixed ergativity so that, in some cases, verbs agree with the object of a sentence rather than the subject. Unlike English, Hindustānī has no definite article (the). The numeral ek (ऐक, ایک) might be used as the indefinite singular article (a/an) if this needs to be stressed.

In addition, Hindustānī uses postpositions (so called because they are placed after nouns) where English uses prepositions. Other differences include gender, honorifics, interrogatives, use of cases, and different tenses. While being complicated, Hindustānī grammar is fairly regular, with irregularities being relatively limited. Despite differences in vocabulary and writing, Hindī grammar is nearly identical with Urdū. As a result, a Hindustānī grammar article is appropriate for both Hindī and Urdū. The concept of punctuation having been entirely unknown before the advent of the Europeans, Hindustānī punctuation uses Western conventions for commas, exclamation points, and question marks. Periods are sometimes used to end a sentence, though the traditional "full stop" (a vertical line in Hindī script (।), short horizontal line in Urdū script (-)) is more generally used.

Genders

In Hindustānī, there are only two genders for nouns. All male human beings and male animals (or those animals and plants which are perceived to be "masculine") are masculine. All female human beings and female animals (or those animals and plants which are perceived to be "feminine") are feminine. Things, inanimate articles and abstract nouns are also either masculine or feminine according to convention, which must be memorised by non-Hindustānī speakers if they wish to learn correct Hindustānī. While this is similar to Sanskrit and most other Indo-European languages such as French, it is a very challenging learning requirement for many people in South India who are native speakers of languages which do not feature such inflecton, but are expected by the government to learn Hindī. It is also a challenge for those who are used to only the English language, which although an Indo-European language, has nearly dropped all of its gender inflection.

The ending of a word, if a vowel, usually helps in this gender classification. Among tatsam words, the masculine words of Sanskrit remain masculine in Hindustānī, and same is the case for the feminine. Sanskrit neuter nouns usually become masculine in Hindustānī. Among the tadbʰav words, if a word end in long /αː/, it is normally masculine. If a word ends in /iː/ or /in/, it is normally feminine. The gender of words borrowed from Arabic and Persian is determined either by phonology (usually the last vowel in the word) or by the gender of the nearest Hindustānī equivalent. The gender assignment of Hindustānī words directly borrowed from English (which are numerous) is also usually determined by the gender of the nearest Hindustānī "synonym" or by the ending. Most adjectives ending in a vowel are inflected to agree with the gender of the noun: /meriː beʈiː/ (Hindī script: मेरी बेटी; Urdū script: میری بیٹی) 'my daughter' vs. /merαː beʈαː/ (Hindī script: मेरा बेटा; Urdū script: میرا بیٹا) 'my son'.

Interrogatives

Besides the standard interrogative terms of who (कौन کؤن kaun), what (क्या کیا kyā), why (कयों کیوں kyoⁿ), when (कब کب kab), where (कहाँ کہاںkahāⁿ), how and what type (कैसा کیسا kaisā), how many (कितना کِتنا kitnā), etc., the Hindustānī word kyā (क्या کیا) can be used as a generic interrogative often placed at the beginning of a sentence to turn a statement into a Yes/No question. This makes it clear when a question is being asked. Questions can also be formed simply by modifying intonation, exactly as some questions are in English.

Pronouns

Hindustānī has pronouns in the first, second and third person for one gender only. Thus, unlike English, there is no difference between he or she. More strictly speaking, the third person of the pronoun is actually the same as the demonstrative pronoun (this / that). The verb, upon conjugation, usually indicates the difference in the gender. The pronouns have additional cases of accusative and genitive. There may also be multiple ways of inflecting the pronoun, which are given in parentheses. Note that for the second person of the pronoun (you), Hindustānī has three levels of honorifics: Imperatives (requests and commands) correspond in form to the level of honorific being used, and the verb inflects to show the level of respect and politeness desired. Because imperatives can already include politeness, the word "kripayā" (कृपया کرپیا) or "meharbānī" (मेहर्बनि, مہربانی) which can be translated as "please", is much less common than in spoken English; it is generally only used in writing or announcements, and its use in common speech is usually intended as mockery.

Word order

The standard word order in Hindustānī is, in general, Subject Object Verb, but where different emphasis or more complex structure is needed, this rule is very easily set aside (provided that the nouns/pronouns are always followed by their postpositions or case markers). More specifically, the standard order is 1. Subject 2. Adverbs (in their standard order) 3. Indirect object and any of its adjectives 4. Direct object and any of its adjectives 5. Negation term or interrogative, if any, and finally the 6. Verb and any auxiliary verbs. (Snell, p 93) The standard order can be modified in various ways to impart emphasis on particular parts of the sentence. Negation is formed by adding the word नहीं نہیں (nahīⁿ, "no"), in the appropriate place in the sentence, or by utilizing न ن (na) or मत مت (mat) in some cases. Note that in Hindustani, the adjectives precede the nouns they qualify. The auxiliaries always follow the main verb. Also, Hindustani speakers or writers enjoy considerable freedom in placing words to achieve stylistic and other socio-psychological effects, though not as much freedom as in heavily inflected languages. Bhatia 1996: 32-33.

Tense and aspect of Hindustānī verbs

Hindustānī verbal structure is focused on aspect with distinctions based on tense usually shown through use of the verb honā (होना/ہونا) (to be) as an auxiliary. There are three aspects: habitual (imperfect), progressive (also known as continuous) and perfective. Verbs in each aspect are marked for tense in almost all cases with the proper inflected form of honā. Hindustānī has four simple tenses, present, past, future (presumptive), and subjunctive (referred to as a mood by many linguists). Verbs are conjugated not only to show the number and person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) of their subject, but also its gender. Additionally, Hindustānī has imperative and conditional moods.

Case

Hindustānī is a weakly inflected language for case; the relationship of a noun in a sentence is usually shown by postpositions (i.e., prepositions that follow the noun). Hindustānī has three cases for nouns. The Direct case is used for nouns not followed by any postpositions, typically for the subject case. The Oblique case is used for any nouns that is followed by a postposition. Adjectives modifying nouns in the oblique case will inflect that same way. Some nouns have a separate Vocative case. Hindustānī has two numbers: singular and plural — but they may not be shown distinctly in all declinations.

Common difficulties faced in learning Hindustānī

Hindustānī and Bollywood

No mention of Hindustānī may be deemed complete without mentioning the Bollwood films. The mighty Hindī/Urdū film industry Bollywood is located at Mumbai (Bombay), in the Marāṭʰī-speaking state Mahārāshṭra in India. The dialogues and the songs use the dialects of Kʰaṛībolī of Hindī-Urdū, Awadʰī, Rājastʰānī, Bʰojpūrī, Punjābī and quite often Bambaiya Hindi (along with many English words). These movies are full of songs and dances—songs which are almost always upon the lips of any Indian or Pakistani (and often many Afghans, Bangladeshis, Iranians, etc.), whether a native Hindī-Urdū speaker or not. Most of the songs are in Urdū shāyarī style. Some of the hit films include Mahal (1949), Shree 420 (1955), Mother India (1957), Mughal-e-Azam (1960), Guide (1965), Pakeezah (1972), Bobby (1973), Zanjeer (1973), Yaadon ki Baraat (1973), Deewaar (1975), Sholay (1975), Mr. India (1987), Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander (1991), Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994), Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Taal (1999), Kaho Naa...Pyaar Hai (2000), Lagaan (2001), Dil Chahta Hai (2001), Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (2001), Devdas (2002), Saathiya (2002), Munnabhai MBBS (2003), Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), Dhoom (2004), Veer-Zaara (2004), Swades (2004), Salaam Namaste (2005), etc.

Hinglish

Hinglish, a portmanteau of the words Hindustānī and English, is the arbitrary usage of Hindustānī and English, combining both, in one sentence. This is more commonly seen in urban and semi-urban centers of population, but is slowly spreading its root into rural and remote areas via television and word of mouth, slowly achieving vernacular status. Many speakers do not realize that they are incorporating English words into Hindustānī sentences or Hindustānī words into English sentences.

This highly popular mixing of both the languages in most parts of northern and central India as well as Pakistan has grown from the fact that English is a popular language of choice amongst the urbane youth who finds itself comfortable in its lexicon. It is already the medium for imparting education in many schools across the nations. The advent of cable television and its pervasive growth has seen the masses exposed to a wide variety of programming from across the world.

Another factor contributing to the spread of Hinglish is the popularity of Bollywood films.

Examples

Also see Hinglish

See also

alphabetically arranged

Bibliography

External links

Indo-Iranian languages
Indo-Aryan Varieties of Sanskrit: Vedic Sanskrit - Classical Sanskrit | Angika | Assamese | Bengali | Bhojpuri | Dhivehi | Dogri | Gujarati | Hindi | Hindustani | Konkani | Magadhi | Mahl | Maithili | Marathi | Nepali | Oriya | Pāli | Prakrit | Punjabi | Romani | Sindhi | Sinhala | Urdu
Iranian languages>Iranian Avestan | Varieties of Persian: Old Persian - Middle Persion (Pahlavi) - Modern Persian (Fārsī) - Darī (Afghanistan) - Tājikī | Bactrian | Balochi | Dari (Zoroastrianism) | Gilaki | Kurdish | Mazandarani | Ossetic | Pamiri | Pashto | Saka | Scythian | Sogdian | Talysh | Tat | Yagnobi
Dardic languages>Dardic Dameli | Domaaki | Gawar-Bati | Kalasha | Kashmiri | Khowar | Kohistani | Nangalami | Pashayi | Palula | Shina | Shumashti
Nuristani languages>Nuristani Ashkun | Kamviri | Kati | Prasuni | Tregami | Waigali

 

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