Learn where Hindi is spoken
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Intro |
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| Alisha: Where is Hindi spoken? |
| Shakti: And how many varieties of Hindi are there? |
| Alisha: At HindiPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation. Emma Ebrahim is a college student and she is meeting Tarun Talwar for the first time. Tarun is also a student, and after hearing him speak Hindi, Emma asks, |
| "Where did you learn Hindi?" |
| एमा: आपने हिंदी कहां से सीखी? (aapaNe hiNDii kahaan Se Siikhii?) |
| Dialogue |
| एमा: आपने हिंदी कहां से सीखी? (aapaNe hiNDii kahaan Se Siikhii?) |
| तरुण: नेपाल में। (NepaaL men.) |
| Alisha: Once more with the English translation. |
| एमा: आपने हिंदी कहां से सीखी? (aapaNe hiNDii kahaan Se Siikhii?) |
| Alisha: "Where did you learn Hindi?" |
| तरुण: नेपाल में। (NepaaL men.) |
| Alisha: "In Nepal." |
Lesson focus |
| Alisha: As you might know, Hindi is one of the top five languages spoken in the world. There are 615 million speakers and more than 400 dialects of Hindi, which makes it the third most spoken language globally. Hindi is the official language of India and Fiji, and is also spoken in other countries including Nepal, Mauritius, Suriname, Guyana, and South Africa. |
| Hindi is the lingua franca of northern India, which forms the major part of what is often known as the Hindi belt of India. |
| Shakti: The Hindi belt includes nine major states, which are Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and the National Capital Territory of Delhi. |
| Alisha: Can you tell us the names of some of the popular dialects of Hindi used in the Hindi belt? |
| Shakti: Sure. Braj, Awadhi, Bagheli, Hindustani, Haryanvi, Chattisgarhi, Kannauji, Marwari, and Bhojpuri are some of the most popular dialects used in the Hindi belt. Also, we can't miss the Delhi dialect or the खड़ी बोली (khadii boLii) Khari Boli dialect. |
| Alisha: Yes, Modern Standard Hindi is based on this dialect, spoken in Delhi and the surrounding areas. Besides this, there are some dialects which are spoken in non-Hindi regions as well. |
| Shakti: Yes, for example, Bombay Hindi or बम्बइया हिंदी (bambaiyaa hiNDii) is mostly based on Hindustani, but heavily influenced by Marathi. You will find this language commonly spoken in Mumbai, the commercial capital of India and home to the Hindi movie and TV industry. |
| Practice Section |
| Alisha: Let's review the sentences we've heard in this lesson. I'll say the sentence in English, and then I want you to try and reply in Hindi. Shakti will then model the correct answer—listen to him carefully and repeat, with emphasis on your pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to say "Where did you learn Hindi?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti: आपने हिंदी कहांँ से सीखी? (aapaNe hiNDii kahaan Se Siikhii?) |
| Alisha: Did you get it right? Listen again and repeat. |
| Shakti: आपने हिंदी कहाँ से सीखी? (aapaNe hiNDii kahaan Se Siikhii?) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti: आपने हिंदी कहाँ से सीखी? (aapaNe hiNDii kahaan Se Siikhii?) |
| Alisha: Now for our next sentence. Do you remember how to say "In Nepal." |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti: नेपाल में। (NepaaL men.) |
| Alisha: Listen again and repeat. |
| Shakti: नेपाल में। (NepaaL men.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti: नेपाल में। (NepaaL men.) |
| Cultural Expansion |
| Alisha: Hindi is a direct descendant of a form of Vedic Sanskrit, which dates back to the 7th century CE. With the arrival of Islamic rulers in India, words from Persian and Arabic languages became a part of spoken Hindi. |
| Shakti: During the 12th and 13th centuries CE, different literary works based on Avadhi, Braj, and the Delhi dialect helped the language attain popularity among the people. |
| Alisha: India attained independence from British rule in the year 1947. After independence, the Indian government set up a committee for the standardization of Hindi grammar. In 1958, ‘A Basic Grammar of Modern Hindi' was published as a result of the work of a government-appointed committee. Hindi spelling was standardized, and a standardized system of transcribing the Devanagari alphabet was devised. According to the 2011 Census of India, Hindi is spoken as a first language by more than 43% of the Indian population. |
| Shakti: But this is not the only language spoken in India. For more than 8% of the total population, Bengali is the first language and for more than 7% it is Marathi. Other commonly spoken languages include Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, and Urdu. |
Outro |
| Alisha: That's it for now. Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Shakti: फिर मिलेंगे! (phir miLenge!) |
| Alisha: See you soon! |
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