Varieties of Hindi

Hindi
Geographic distribution:	South Asia
Linguistic classification:	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Hindi
Subdivisions:	Western Hindi Eastern Hindi (partial) Bihari (partial) Pahari (partial) Rajasthani
The Hindi belt

Hindi, in the broad sense, is a dialect continuum within the Indo-Aryan language family in the northern plains of India, bounded on the northwest and west by Punjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati and Marathi; on the east by Maithili and Bengali; and on the north by Nepali.

This wide definition is the one used in the official Indian census and results in a clear majority of Indians being speakers of Hindi. As defined in the 1991 census, Hindi covers a number of Central, East-Central, Eastern, and Northern Zone languages, including the Bihari languages excepting Maithili, the Rajasthani languages, and the Pahari languages excepting Dogri and Nepali. Linguistically, it is equally possible to classify these as separate languages rather than dialects.

The Central Zone languages, or Hindi proper, are conventionally divided into Western and Eastern Hindi. An even more narrow definition of "Hindi" is Standard Hindi, a standardized register of one of the Central Zone dialects historically based on the Khariboli dialect of 17th-century Delhi.

Demographics

Main article: Hindi belt

The Hindi languages predominate in the Indian states and union territories of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Distinctive non-standard varieties of Hindi are spoken in large, urban areas outside of the Hindi belt. Most notable of these are those spoken in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. Overseas forms of Hindi are found in Fiji, Guyana, Mauritius, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. Recent immigration to the West – Europe, USA, etc. – has resulted in the establishment of Hindi-speaking communities there as well.

Number of speakers

Population data from the 16th (2009) edition of Ethnologue is as follows, counting languages with two million or more speakers:

• Central zone (Hindi proper)
  • Western Hindi (West Central zone)
    • 240 M Hindi-Urdu (Hindustani, Khariboli, numbers out of date)
    • 13 M Haryanvi (numbers out of date)
    • 10 M Kanauji
  • Eastern Hindi (East Central zone)
    • 38 M Awadhi
    • 18 M Chhattisgarhi
    • 8 M Bagheli
• Rajasthani (part of Western Zone, which also includes Gujarati and Bhili) Today Sahitya Akademi, National Academy of Letters and University Grants Commission recognize Rajasthani as a distinct language.
  • 31 M Marwari-Merwari
  • 10 M Malvi
  • 6 M Lambadi
  • 5 M Harauti
  • 3 M Godwari
  • 2 M Bagri
• Bihari languages apart from Maithili (part of Eastern zone, which also includes Bengali and Oriya)
  • 39 M: Bhojpuri (the Hindi of Suriname and Mauritius)
  • 13 M: Magadhi
  • 2 M: Sadri
• Central Pahari (part of Northern zone, which also includes Nepali)
  • 3 M Garhwali
  • 3 M Kumaoni (numbers out of date)
• Western Pahari apart from Dogri (part of Northwestern zone, which also includes Panjabi)
  • 2 M Pahari
  • 2M Kangri

According to the 2001 Indian census, 258 million people in India (25% of the population) regarded their native language to be "Hindi". The government, however, counted 422 million Hindi speakers (41% of the population) by including people who identified their language as Awadhi, Bagheli, Bhojpuri (Bihari), Bundeli, Chhattisgarhi, Garhwali, Harauti, Haryanvi, Khortha (Khotta), Kumauni, Lamani (Lambadi), Magadhi (Bihari), Malvi, Marwari, Mewari, Nimadi, Pahari, Rajasthani, and Sadan (Sadri), as well as numerous other languages with fewer than 2 million self-identified speakers. Note that these figures do not count 52 million Indians who considered their mother tongue to be "Urdu". The numbers are also not directly comparable to the table above; for example, while independent estimates in 2001 counted 37 million speakers of Awadhi, in the 2001 census only 2½ million of these identified their language as "Awadhi" rather than as "Hindi".

Outside the Indian subcontinent

Much of the Hindi spoken outside of the subcontinent is quite distinct from the India-Pakistan standard language. In addition, the language of Muslims is commonly called "Hindi" or "Hindustani" rather than "Urdu".

• Mauritian Hindi, spoken in Mauritius, based on Bhojpuri and influenced by French.
• Sarnami, a form of Bhojpuri with Awadhi influence spoken by Surinamers of Indian descent.
• Fiji Hindi, derived form of Awadhi, Bhojpuri and including many English and native Fijian words, is spoken by Fijians of Indian descent.
• Trinidad Hindi, based on Bhojpuri, and spoken in Trinidad and Tobago by people of Indian descent.
• South African Hindi, based on Bhojpuri, and spoken in South Africa by people of Indian descent.

See also

• History of Hindi
• Languages of India and Official languages of India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers
• List of Central Indo-Aryan languages

References

Bibliography

• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005), "Hindi", Ethnologue: Languages of the World (15th ed.), Dallas: SIL International, http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=hin .
• Grierson, G. A. Linguistic Survey of India Vol I-XI, Calcutta, 1928, ISBN 81-85395-27-6
• Masica, Colin (1991), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521299442, http://books.google.com/books?id=J3RSHWePhXwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=indo-aryan+languages .
• Shapiro, Michael C. (2003), "Hindi", in Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh, The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, pp. 250–285, ISBN 9780415772945, http://books.google.com/books?id=jPR2OlbTbdkC&pg=PA250&dq=indo-aryan .