Hindi

The term Hindī was originally used to refer to inhabitants of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It was borrowed from Classical Persian {{lang|fa|هندی}} Hindī (Iranian Persian pronunciation: Hendi), meaning {{gloss|of or belonging to Hind (India)}} (hence, {{gloss|Indian}}).{{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|url-status=dead}}

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.{{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}}{{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=9788184755220}} The term Hinduī (ہندوئی/हिन्दुई) ({{ety|fa|ھندوئی|of or belonging to the Hindu people}}) was also used for the local dialects of the Northern Indian gangetic plain.

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).{{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}}{{cite web|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/india|title=India|publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary}}

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 in a wider sense.

{{further|History of Hindustani}}

Like other Indo-Aryan languages, Hindi is a direct descendant of an early form of Vedic Sanskrit, through Shauraseni Prakrit and Śauraseni Apabhraṃśa (from Sanskrit apabhraṃśa "corrupt"), which emerged in the 7th century CE.{{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|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140306085510/http://hindinideshalaya.nic.in/english/hindi_orgin/briefhistory.html|archive-date=6 March 2014}}

The sound changes that characterised the transition from Middle Indo-Aryan to Hindi are:Masica, pp. 187–211

• 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

During the period of Delhi Sultanate in medieval India, which covered most of today's north India, eastern Pakistan, southern Nepal and BangladeshChapman, 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. and which resulted in the contact of Hindu and Muslim cultures, the Sanskrit and Prakrit base of Old Hindi became enriched with loanwords from Persian, evolving into the present form of Hindustani.{{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.}}{{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'.}}{{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.}}{{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.}}{{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).}}{{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.}} Hindi achieved prominence in India after it became the official language of the imperial court during the reign of Shah Jahan.{{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).}} It is recorded that Emperor Aurangzeb spoke in Hindvi.{{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= 9788185220413 }} The Hindustani vernacular became an expression of Indian national unity during the Indian Independence movement,{{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 }}{{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].}} and continues to be spoken as the common language of the people of the northern Indian subcontinent,{{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.}} which is reflected in the Hindustani vocabulary of Bollywood films and songs.{{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 }}{{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.}}

Standard Hindi is based on the language that was spoken in the Ganges-Yamuna Doab (Delhi, Meerut and Saharanpur) called Khariboli;{{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}} the vernacular of Delhi and the surrounding region came to replace earlier prestige languages such as 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.{{cite book|author=Michael C. Shapiro|title=A PRIMER OF MODERN STANDARD HINDI|url=https://jsis.washington.edu/southasia/publication/a-primer-of-modern-standard-hindi/}}{{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]}} 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 script during the early 19th century.{{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. |pages=41 |language=en}}

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 British colonists and indigenous people. 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 Roman transliteration. In the late 19th century, a movement to further develop Hindi as a standardised form of Hindustani separate from Urdu took form.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SylBHS8IJAUC|title=Language, Religion and Politics in North India|author=Paul R. Brass|publisher=iUniverse, Incorporated|isbn=9780595343942|year=2005}} In 1881, Bihar accepted Hindi as its sole official language, replacing Urdu, and thus became the first state of India to adopt Hindi.Parthasarathy, Kumar, p.120 However, in 2014, Urdu was accorded second official language status in the state.{{cite web

| title = Bihar: The language tussle – Indiascope News – Issue Date: Jul 31, 19…

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After independence, the Government of India instituted the following conventions:{{Original research inline|date=August 2011}}

• Standardisation of grammar: In 1954, the Government of India set up a committee to prepare a grammar of Hindi; The committee's report was released in 1958 as A Basic Grammar of Modern Hindi.{{Cite book |last=Central Hindi Directorate |url=http://archive.org/details/page1-converted-compressed |title=A Basic Grammar of Modern Hindi |date=2011}}
• Standardisation of the orthography, using the Devanagari script, by the Central Hindi Directorate of the Ministry of Education and Culture to bring about uniformity in writing, to improve the shape of some Devanagari characters, and introducing diacritics to express sounds from other languages.

On 14 September 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted Hindi written in the Devanagari script as the official language of the Republic of India replacing the previous usage of Hindustani in the Perso-Arabic script in the British Indian Empire.{{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=9783110888140|language=en}}{{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=9780191058615|language=en}}{{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=9780521637640|language=en}} To this end, several stalwarts rallied and lobbied pan-India in favour of Hindi, most notably 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.{{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|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}} Now, it is celebrated as Hindi Day.{{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}}

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:

(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.

(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.{{cite web|url=http://lawmin.nic.in/coi/coiason29july08.pdf |title=The Constitution of India |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140909230437/http://lawmin.nic.in/coi/coiason29july08.pdf |archive-date=9 September 2014 |df=dmy-all }}

Article 351 of the Indian constitution states:

It shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages.

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),{{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 }} 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 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.{{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}}

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.{{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 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160708012438/http://nclm.nic.in/shared/linkimages/NCLM50thReport.pdf |archive-date= 8 July 2016}} Hindi is an official language of Gujarat, along with Gujarati.{{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}} It acts as an additional official language of West Bengal in blocks and sub-divisions with more than 10% of the population speaking Hindi.{{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}}{{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 }}{{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}} 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.{{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}}{{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}}{{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}} 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.{{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}}{{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}}

Outside Asia, the Awadhi language (an Eastern Hindi dialect) with influence from Bhojpuri, Bihari languages, Fijian and English is spoken in Fiji.{{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}}{{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}} It is an official language in Fiji as per the 1997 Constitution of Fiji,{{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 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090609110318/http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/fj00000_.html |archive-date=9 June 2009 }} where it referred to it as "Hindustani"; however, in the 2013 Constitution of Fiji, it is simply called "Fiji Hindi" as the official language.{{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|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011085543/http://www.fiji.gov.fj/govt--publications/constitution.aspx|archive-date=11 October 2016}} It is spoken by 380,000 people in Fiji.

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.{{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}} 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."{{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 }}

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. 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.{{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 }}

Hindi is adopted as the third official court language in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. 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.{{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}}

{{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.

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.{{cite book|editor1-last=Kothari|editor1-first=Ria|title=Chutnefying English: The Phenomenon of Hinglish|date=2011|publisher=Penguin Books India|isbn=9780143416395|page=128}} In Arunachal Pradesh, Hindi emerged as a lingua franca among locals who speak over 50 dialects natively.{{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|url-status=dead|title=How Hindi became the language of choice in Arunachal Pradesh|first=Abhimanyu|last=Chandra|archive-date=11 December 2016|website=Scroll.in}}

Hindi is quite easy to understand for many Pakistanis, who speak Urdu, which, like Hindi, is a standard register of the Hindustani language; additionally, Indian media are widely viewed in Pakistan.{{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/ |url-status=dead }}

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.{{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|url-status=dead}}{{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.}}

Hindi is also spoken by a large population of Madheshis (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 million in Nepal; 863,077 in the United States of America;{{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 }}{{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}} 450,170 in Mauritius; 380,000 in Fiji; 250,292 in South Africa; 150,000 in Suriname;Frawley, p. 481 100,000 in Uganda; 45,800 in the United Kingdom;{{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}} 20,000 in New Zealand; 20,000 in Germany; 26,000 in Trinidad and Tobago; 3,000 in Singapore.

{{Main|Hindi–Urdu controversy|Hindustani phonology|Hindustani grammar}}

Linguistically, Hindi and Urdu are two registers of the same language and are mutually intelligible.{{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|url-status=dead|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}} Both Hindi and Urdu share a core vocabulary of native Prakrit and Sanskrit-derived words.{{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.}} 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.{{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.}} Because of this, as well as the fact that the two registers share an identical grammar,{{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.}} a consensus of linguists consider them to be two standardised forms of the same language, Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu.{{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.}} Hindi is the most commonly used scheduled language in India and is one of the two official languages of the union,{{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}} the other being English. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan and is one of 22 scheduled languages of India, also having official status in Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Telangana,{{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 |url-status=dead }} Andhra Pradesh{{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}} and Bihar.{{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}}

{{Main|Devanagari}}

Hindi is written in the Devanagari script, an abugida. Devanagari consists of 11 vowels and 33 consonants and is written from left to right. Unlike Sanskrit, Devanagari is not entirely phonetic for Hindi, especially failing to mark schwa deletion in spoken Standard Hindi.{{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=9789004079243}}

{{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.{{Citation |last1=Palakodety |first1=Shriphani |title=Low Resource Machine Translation |date=2021 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5625-5_5 |work=Low Resource Social Media Text Mining |pages=7–9 |place=Singapore |publisher=Springer Singapore |isbn=978-981-16-5624-8 |access-date=24 September 2022 |last2=KhudaBukhsh |first2=Ashiqur R. |last3=Jayachandran |first3=Guha|series=SpringerBriefs in Computer Science |doi=10.1007/978-981-16-5625-5_5 |s2cid=244313560 | issn = 2191-5768 }}

{{Main|Hindustani phonology}}

{|

|- style="vertical-align:top;"

|

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em; text-align: center;"

! colspan="6" | Consonants

|-

! rowspan="2" | IPA

! colspan="3" | Examples

! rowspan="2" | Devanagari representation

! rowspan="2" | English approximation

|-

! Hindi

! Urdu

! ISO 15919

|-

|{{IPA link|k}}

|{{lang|hi|कमज़ोर}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|کمزور}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|kamzor}}

|क्

|scab

|-

|{{IPA link|kʰ}}

|{{lang|hi|खाल}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|کھال}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|khāl}}

|ख्

|cab

|-

| {{IPA link|ɡ}}

| {{lang|hi|गोल}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|گول}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|gol}}

|ग्

|ago

|-

| {{IPA link|ɡʱ}}

| {{lang|hi|घर}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|گھر}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|ghar}}

|घ्

| loghouse

|-

|{{IPA link|ŋ}}

|{{lang|hi|रंग}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|رن٘گ}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|raṅg}}

|ङ्

|bang

|-

| {{IPA link|tʃ}}

| {{lang|hi|चोर}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|چور}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|cor}}

|च्

| catch

|-

| {{IPA link|tʃʰ}}

| {{lang|hi|छोड़ना}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|چھوڑنا}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|choṛnā}}

|छ्

| achoo

|-

| {{IPA link|dʒ}}

| {{lang|hi|जान}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|جان}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|jān}}

|ज्

| budging

|-

| {{IPA link|dʒʱ}}

| {{lang|hi|झड़ना}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|جھڑنا}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|jhaṛnā}}

|झ्

|hedgehog

|-

|{{IPA link|ʈ}}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.

|{{lang|hi|टमाटर}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|ٹماٹر}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|ṭamāṭar}}

|‌‌‌ट्

|stub (but retroflex)

|-

|{{IPA link|ʈʰ}}

|{{lang|hi|ठंड}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|ٹھنڈ}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|ṭhanḍ}}

|ठ्

|tub (but retroflex)

|-

| {{IPA link|ɖ}}

| {{lang|hi|डालना}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|ڈالنا}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|ḍālnā}}

|ड्

|American bird

|-

| {{IPA link|ɖʱ}}

| {{lang|hi|ढक्कन}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|ڈھکّن}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|ḍhakkan}}

|ढ्

|American birdhouse

|-

|{{IPA link|ɳ}}Mainly phonemes of Hindi. Urdu speakers usually replace [ɳ] and [ʂ] with [n] and [ʃ] respectively.

|{{lang|hi|किरण}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|کرن}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|kiraṇ}}

|ण्

|American burn

|-

| rowspan="2" |{{IPA link|t̪|t}}

|{{lang|hi|तालाब}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|تالاب}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|tālāb}}

| rowspan="2" |त्

| rowspan="2" |similar to outthink, Spanish tomar

|-

|लतीफ़ा

|{{Nq|لطیفہ}}

|lat̤īfā

|-

| {{IPA link|tʰ}}

| {{lang|hi|थैला}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|تھیلا}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|thailā}}

|थ्

|tub (but dental)

|-

| {{IPA link|d̪|d}}

| {{lang|hi|दाल}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|دال}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|dāl}}

|द्

|the

|-

| {{IPA link|dʱ}}

| {{lang|hi|धूप}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|دھوپ}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|dhūp}}

|ध्

|adhere (but dental)

|-

|{{IPA link|n}}

|{{lang|hi|नहीं}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|نہیں}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|nahī̃}}

|न्

|panther

|-

|{{IPA link|p}}

|{{lang|hi|पल}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|پل}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|pal}}

|प्

|spot

|-

|{{IPA link|pʰ}}

|{{lang|hi|फल}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|پھل}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|phal}}

|फ्

|pot

|-

|{{IPA link|b}}

|{{lang|hi|बीस}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|بیس}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|bīs}}

|ब्

|cabbie

|-

|{{IPA link|bʱ}}

|{{lang|hi|भालू}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|بھالو}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|bhālū}}

|भ्

|clubhouse

|-

|{{IPA link|m}}

|{{lang|hi|मगर}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|مگر}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|magar}}

|म्

|much

|-

|{{IPA link|j}}

|{{lang|hi|याद}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|یاد}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|yād}}

|य्

|yuck

|-

| rowspan="2" |{{IPA link|r}}{{IPA|/ɾ/}} can surface as a trill {{IPA|[r]}} in word-initial and syllable-final positions. Geminate {{IPA|/ɾː/}} is always a trill.

|{{lang|hi|रस}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|رس}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|ras}}

| rowspan="3" |र्

| rowspan="2" |Trilled ring

|-

|{{lang|hi|ज़र्रा}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|ذرّہ}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|zarra}}

|-

|{{IPA link|ɾ}}

|{{lang|hi|ज़रा}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|ذرا}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|zarā}}

|American atom

|-

|{{IPA link|l}}

|{{lang|hi|लब}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|لب}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|lab}}

|ल्

|leaf

|-

|{{IPA link|ʋ}}{{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.

|{{lang|hi|वर्ज़िश}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|ورزش}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|varziś}}

| rowspan="2" |व्

|vat

|-

|{{IPA link|w}}

|{{lang|hi|पकवान}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|پكوان}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|pakvān}}

|well

|-

|{{IPA link|ʃ}}

|{{lang|hi|काश}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|کاش}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|kāś}}

|श्

|shoe

|-

|{{IPA link|ʂ}}

|{{lang|hi|नष्ट}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|نشٹ}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|naṣṭ}}

|ष्

|shrew

|-

| rowspan="3" |{{IPA link|s}}

|{{lang|hi|सब}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|سب}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|sab}}

| rowspan="3" |स्

| rowspan="3" |sun

|-

|{{lang|hi|साफ़}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|صاف}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|s̤āf}}

|-

|{{lang|hi|साबित}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|ثابت}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|s̱ābit}}

|-

| rowspan="2" | {{IPA link|ɦ}}

| {{lang|hi|हम}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|ہم}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|ham}}

| rowspan="2" |ह्

| rowspan="2" | ahead

|-

|{{lang|hi|हुक्म}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|حکم}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|h̤ukm}}

|-

| {{IPA link|q}}Mainly phonemes of Urdu. Hindi speakers may replace [x], [z], [ʒ], [ɣ] and [q] with [kʰ], [dʒ], [dʒʱ], [g] and [k] respectively.

| {{lang|hi|क़रीब}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|قریب}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|qarīb}}

|‌‌‌क़्

|somewhat like caught

|-

|{{IPA link|x}}

|{{lang|hi|ख़राब}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|خراب}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|k͟harāb}}

|ख़्

|Scottish loch

|-

|{{IPA link|ɣ}}

|{{lang|hi|बाग़}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|باغ}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|bāġ}}

|ग़्

|Similar to the French R

|-

| {{IPA link|z}}

| {{lang|hi|काग़ज़}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|کاغذ}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|kāġaz}}

|ज़्

|zoo

|-

|{{IPA link|ʒ}}{{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 sang, 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 kh, ग़ (غ) as g, ज़ (ظ ,ز, or ض) as z, झ़ (ژ) as zh, and फ़ (ف) as f.}}

| {{lang|hi|अझ़दहा}}{{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}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|اژدہا}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|aždahā}}

|झ़्

|pleasure{{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}}

|-

| {{IPA link|ɽ}}

| {{lang|hi|लड़ना}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|لڑنا}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|laṛnā}}

|ड़

|American garter

|-

| {{IPA link|ɽʱ}}

| {{lang|hi|पढ़ाई}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|پڑھائی}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|paṛhāī}}

|ढ़

|no English equivalent

|-

| {{IPA link|f}}

| {{lang|hi|ख़िलाफ़}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|خلاف}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|k͟hilāf}}

|फ़्

|fuss

|-

|{{IPA link|ʔ}}

|{{lang|hi|एतबार}}

|{{lang|ur|{{nq|اعتبار}}}}

|{{transliteration|inc|ISO|iʻtibār}}

|

|The pause in "uh-oh!", butter "bu'er" (t-glottalizing dialects)

|}

|

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em 2em; text-align: center;"

! colspan="6" | Vowels

|-

! rowspan="2"| IPA

! colspan="3" | Examples

! rowspan="2" | Devanagari representation

! rowspan="2" | English approximation

|-

! Hindi

! Urdu

! ISO 15919

|-

| {{IPA link|ə}}

| {{lang|hi|कल}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|کَل}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|kal}}

| rowspan="2" |अ

|about

|-

| {{IPA link|ɛ}}{{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/}}.

| {{lang|hi|रहना}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|رہنا}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|rêhnā}}

|pen

|-

| {{IPA link|äː|aː}}

| {{lang|hi|काम}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|کام}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|kām}}

|आ or ा

|father

|-

| {{IPA link|i}}

| {{lang|hi|जितना}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|جِتنا}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|jitnā}}

|इ or ि

|sit

|-

| {{IPA link|iː}}

| {{lang|hi|जीतना}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|جیتنا}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|jītnā}}

|ई or ी

|seat

|-

| {{IPA link|u}}

| {{lang|hi|उन}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|اُن}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|un}}

|उ or ु

|book

|-

| {{IPA link|uː}}

| {{lang|hi|ऊन}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|اُون}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|ūn}}

|ऊ or ू

|moon

|-

| {{IPA link|eː}}

| {{lang|hi|जेब}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|جیب}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|jeb}}

|ए or े

|mail

|-

| {{IPA link|ɛː}}

| {{lang|hi|कैसा}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|کیسا}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|kaisā}}

|ऐ or ै

|fairy

|-

| {{IPA link|oː}}

| {{lang|hi|बोलो}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|بولو}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|bolo}}

|ओ or ो

|grow

|-

| {{IPA link|ɔː}}

| {{lang|hi|कौन}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|کَون}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|kaun}}

|औ or ौ

|job

|-

| rowspan="2" | {{IPA link|◌̃}}

| {{lang|hi|हँस}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|ہن٘س}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|ham̐s}}

| rowspan="2" |ँ

| rowspan="2" | nasal vowel faun
({{IPA|[ãː, õː]}}, etc.)

|-

| {{lang|hi|मैं}}

| {{lang|ur|{{nq|مَیں}}}}

| {{transliteration|inc|ISO|maī̃}}

|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em 2em; text-align: center;"

! colspan="4" | Suprasegmentals

|-

! IPA

! Example

! Notes

|-

| {{IPA link|ˈ|ˈ◌}}

| {{IPA|[ˈbaːɦər]}}

| style="text-align: left;" | stress
(placed before stressed syllable)

|-

| {{IPA link|ː|◌ː}}

| {{IPA|[ˈʊtːəɾ pɾəˈdeːʃ]}}

| style="text-align: left;" | doubled consonant
(placed after doubled consonant)

|}

|}

{{further|Hindustani etymology|List of Sanskrit and Persian roots in Hindi}}

Traditionally, Hindi words are divided into five principal categories according to their etymology:

• 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).Masica, p. 65 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",Masica, p. 66 as well as forms borrowed directly from Sanskrit in more modern times (e.g. {{lang|hi|प्रार्थना}} prārthanā, "prayer").Masica, p. 67 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)
• 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.
• 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, Arabic, English and Portuguese. Examples are {{lang|hi|क़िला}} qila "fort" from Persian, {{lang|hi|कमेटी}} kameṭī from English committee.

Hindi has naturally inherited a large portion of its vocabulary from Shauraseni Prakrit, in the form of tadbhava words. This process usually involves compensatory lengthening of vowels preceding consonant clusters in Prakrit, e.g. Sanskrit tīkṣṇa > Prakrit tikkha > Hindi tīkhā.

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 neologisms 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.{{cite book|last1=Ohala|first1=Manjari|title=Aspects of Hindi Phonology|date=1983|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers|isbn=9780895816702|page=38}}

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 calques 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.{{cite book|last1=Arnold|first1=David|last2=Robb|first2=Peter|title=Institutions and Ideologies: A SOAS South Asia Reader|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136102349|page=82}}

Hindi also features significant Persian influence, standardised from spoken Hindustani.{{cite book|last1=Kachru|first1=Yamuna|title=Hindi|date=2006|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing|isbn=9789027238122}}{{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.{{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=9780631227359|page=[https://archive.org/details/handbookbilingua00bhat_489/page/n797 789]}}

The status of Persian language then and thus its influence, is also visible in Hindi proverbs:

{{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,King, Christopher R. (1994). One Language, Two Scripts: The Hindi Movement in Nineteenth Century North India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. leading to a marginalisation of Persian vocabulary in Hindi, which continued after 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{{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}}{{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}} {{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}} {{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

|}

{{See also|Englishisation#South Asia}}

Hindi also makes extensive use of loan translation (calqueing) and occasionally phono-semantic matching of English.{{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=9781136102349 |page=79}}

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

|-

|}

{{Main|Hindi literature}}

Hindi literature is broadly divided into four prominent forms or styles, being Bhakti (devotional – Kabir, Raskhan); Śṛṇgār (beauty – Keshav, 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 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, written by Devaki Nandan Khatri in 1888, is considered the first authentic work of prose in modern Hindi.{{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}} 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 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.

Hindi literature, music, and 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.{{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}} Many Hindi newspapers also offer digital editions.

{{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):

:{{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 (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.

• 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

{{reflist|group=Footnote}}

{{Reflist}}

{{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}}
• Grierson, G. A. 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|url-status=dead}}
• {{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}}

• {{Citation

| last= McGregor

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• {{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}}

• {{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}}.

{{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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