Hindi

Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken primarily in northern and central India, as well as in parts of other regions and among Indian communities abroad. It is one of the official languages of India, used in government, education, media, and daily communication alongside English. Modern Standard Hindi, the standardized form, is based on the Khari Boli dialect and is widely studied as a second language. Hindi is recognized as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is spoken by hundreds of millions as a first or second language.

Historically, Hindi developed from Western Hindi dialects within the wider Hindustani linguistic area, tracing its roots to Shauraseni Prakrit and Apabhramsa. The language underwent standardization in the 19th and 20th centuries. The term Hindi emerged in the 19th century to distinguish the language from Urdu; today, Hindi and Urdu are often described as two registers of Hindustani, sharing grammar and core vocabulary. They are written in different scripts: Hindi uses Devanagari, while Urdu uses a Persian-Arabic script.

Linguistically, Hindi relies on postpositions rather than case endings and features gendered nouns and agreement in adjectives and verbs. It uses a subject–object–verb order and marks tense, aspect, and mood through verb inflections. The vocabulary blends native Sanskrit-derived terms with loanwords from Persian, Arabic, and, more recently, English. The language has numerous dialects, including Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Braj, Bundeli, Haryanvi, and Kanauji, among others, with Modern Standard Hindi functioning as the formal, literary, and administrative variety.

Hindi has a global footprint through education, media, and diaspora communities. Outside India, it is spoken in parts of Nepal and among communities in Fiji, Mauritius, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and other countries with Indian heritage.