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Khadiboli

Khadiboli

Category:Dialects of Hindi Khariboli (also Khadiboli, Khadi-Boli, or Khari dialect), (Hindi: खड़ी बोली; Urdu: كهڑى بولى, khaṛī bolī; lit. 'standing tongue') is a dialect of the Hindi language native to western Uttar Pradesh. This dialect defines the officially approved version of the Hindi language; Hindi is one of the two languages in which the central government of India functions, the other being English. Hindi and is also one of India's eighteen national languages.

Early influences

The region which is native to Khari-boli Hindi is western Uttar Pradesh, which spoke a decidedly rustic and unliterary tongue before the 18th century. The area was however flanked to the west and east respectively by the aristocratic muslim cultures of Delhi and Lucknow; those aristocrats, whose provenance generally lay outside India, patronised a literature that drew largely upon the Persian, Turkish and Arabic languages which they had brought with them to this country. It was by the mingling of these several influences that the Khari-boli dialect of Hindi developed. The area around Delhi has long been the center of power in north India, and naturally, the Khari-boli dialect came to be regarded as being urbane and of a higher standard than the other dialects of Hindi. This view gradually gained ground over the 19th century; before that period, other dialects such as Avadhi and Brij-bhasha were the dialects preferred by litarateurs.

Literature

The earliest examples of Khariboli can be seen in some of Kabir and Amir Khusro's lines. More developed forms of Khariboli can be seen in some mediocre literature produced in early 18th century. Examples are Chand Chhand Varnan Ki Mahima by Gangabhatt, Yogavashishtha by Ramprasad Niranjani, Gora-Badal ki katha by Jatmal, Mandovar ka varnan by Anonymous, a translation of Ravishenacharya's Jain Padmapuran by Daulatram (dated 1824). In 1857, the British East India Company established a college of higher education at Calcutta named the Fort William College. John Gilchrist, a president of that college, encouraged his professors to write in their native tongue; some of the works thus produced were in the Khari Boli dialect of Hindi. These books included Premsagar by Lalloolal; Naasiketopaakhyan by Sadal Mishra; Sukhsagar by Sadasukhlal of Delhi and Rani Ketaki ki kahani by Munshi Inshallah Khan. Munshi Premchand, whose literature was created in the early 20th century, was one of the greatest of those who contributed to Hindi literature. The era is now long past when Khari-boli was regarded as a mixed brogue unworthy of being used in literature. Under government patronage, it has flourished, even as older and previously more literary tongues such as Brij-bhasha, Maithili and Avadhi have declined to virtual non-existance as literary vehicles.

Post-Independence

After India became independent in 1947, the Khari-boli dialect was officially recognized as the approved version of the Hindi language, which was declared the language of central government functioning, in the teeth of strong and persisting opposition from a sizable section of the people of southern and eastern India.

Sanskritization

Under governmental encouragement, the officially sponsered version of the Khari-boli dialect has undergone a sea-change after it was declared the language of central government functioning in 1950. A major change has been the Sanskritisation of Hindi. Three factors motivate this conscious bid to sanskritize Hindi, being:
- As a result of its independence movement, the country developed pride in its ancient culture. Naturally this led to the rediscovery of its ancient classical language, sanskrit;
- The independence of India in 1947 was accompanied by its partition on religious lines; the muslim-majority areas seceeded to become Pakistan. The rejection of Persian and Arabic influence is arguably a reaction to this;
- The people of south India and east India were averse to the rampancy of the language and culture of north India in the affairs of the country. These regions had had no truck with the foreign (Persian, Turkish) cultural influence that had shaped Hindi, but they were very receptive to Sanskrit; Sanskritization was viewed as a means to accommodate their cultural sensibilities

Category:Dialects of Hindi

Category:Hindi Dialects of Hindi

Urdu

Urdu (اردو) is an Indo-European language of the Indo-Aryan family which developed under and Arabic influence in the South Asia during the time of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire (1200-1800). Taken by itself, Urdu is approximately the twentieth most populous natively spoken language in the world, and is the national language of Pakistan as well as one of the 24 national languages of India. However, Urdu is often considered to be part of a wider Hindustani language, in which case it is the fourth most populous language in the world.

Speakers and geographic distribution

In Pakistan, Urdu is spoken as a mother tongue by a majority of urban dwellers in such cities as Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur all in the southern province of Sindh. However, in Sindh Urdu is widely identified as the language of the Mohajir Muslim refugees from India who displaced the largely urban 40% minority of Hindu Sindhis who departed for India after independence in 1947; as such it is widely resented by native Sindhis, who remain a largely rural population, and who continue to regard Urdu as a somewhat foreign element deriving from Delhi and Lucknow. In spite of its status as the national language, only 7.57% [http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/statistics.html] of Pakistanis speak Urdu as their first language, compared to 44.15% [http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/statistics.html] who speak Punjabi as their mother tongue. Urdu is, however, together with English the language of prestige: all signage, and education, is in Urdu and the number of Urdu speakers is increasing quickly in urban centres. That being said, Sindhis complain that they are considerably disadvantaged by the pre-eminence of Urdu in the universities, particularly in the mandatory Muslim religious instruction courses and often they obtain spectacularly poor Islamic studies results -- not at all because they are deficient in their adherence to Islam but only because of the universities' insistence on Urdu rather than Sindhi as the language of religious instruction. In India, Urdu is spoken as a mother tongue in the northern and central states by three times the population it has in Pakistan. While Indian Muslims might ostensibly be seen as identifying more with Urdu, Hindus and Sikhs naturally speak Urdu regardless of religion, especially when they have grown up in such traditional Urdu strongholds as Lucknow and Hyderabad. Indeed, many contend that the language spoken in Bollywood films is closer to Urdu than to Hindi, especially in filmi songs. Urdu is also spoken in urban Afghanistan. Outside the South Asia, it is spoken by large numbers of workers in the major urban centres of the Persian Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia. Urdu is also spoken by large numbers of immigrants and their children in the major urban centres of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Norway and Australia. Countries with large numbers of first-language Urdu speakers:

- India (48.1 million [1997]),
- Pakistan (11.77 million [2005][http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/statistics.html]),
- Bangladesh (750,000),
- United Kingdom (745,000 [2001][http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=273]),
- Saudi Arabia (550,000),
- United Arab Emirates (500,000),
- United States (350,000),
- Nepal (275,000),
- South Africa (200,000 South Asian Muslims, many of which speak Urdu),
- Oman (90,000),
- Canada (80,895 [2001] [http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Analytic/companion/lang/highlights.cfm]),
- Bahrain (80,000),
- Mauritius (74,000),
- Qatar (70,000),

- Germany (40,000),
- Norway (26,950 [2005] [http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/02/01/10/innvbef_en/tab-2005-05-26-02-en.html]),
- France (20,000),
- Spain (18,000 [2004][http://www.pakistanlink.com/Letters/2004/July04/02/10.html]),
- Sweden (10,000 [2001][http://www.answers.com/topic/demographics-of-sweden]), ,
- Thailand (5,000 South Asians),
- Afghanistan,
- Japan,
- Fiji,
- Guyana,
- Australia,
- Denmark,
- Italy,
- New Zealand.

Official Status

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. It shares official language status with English. Although English is used in most elite circles, and Punjabi has a plurality of native speakers, Urdu is the lingua franca, and it is commonly expected to prevail. Urdu is also one of the official languages of India, and in the states of Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh, Urdu has official language status. While the government school system in most other states emphasizes Standard , universities in cities such as Lucknow continue to promote Urdu as a language of prestige and learning.

Classification and related languages

Urdu is a member of the Indo Aryan family of languages, which is in turn a branch of the Indo European family. It is part of a dialect continuum which extends across northern South Asia from to . These idioms all have similar grammatical structures and a large portion of their vocabulary in common. Punjabi, for instance, is very similar to Urdu: Punjabi written in the Shahmukhi script can be understood by speakers of Urdu with a little difficulty, but spoken Punjabi has a very different phonology (pronunciation system) and cannot be easily understood by Urdu speakers. However, the language mostly closely linked to Urdu is Standard Hindi. (See below.)

Dialects

Urdu has four recognized dialects, Dakhini, Pinjari, Rekhta, and Modern Vernacular Urdu. Modern Vernacular Urdu is the form of the language that is most widespread and is spoken around Delhi, Lucknow and Lahore. Dakhini (also known as Dakani, Deccani, Desia, Mirgan) is spoken in Maharashtra state in India and around Hyderabad. It has fewer Persian and Arabic words than standard Urdu. In addition, Rekhta (or Rekhti), the language of Urdu poetry, is sometimes counted as a separate dialect.

Grammar

Urdu nouns fall into two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. However, there is disagreement over the gender of some words, particularly words newly introduced from English which do not have genders. In Urdu there is also a singular or a plural noun form.

Levels of formality in Urdu

Urdu in its less formalized register has been referred to as a raikhtha (ریختہ, "rough mixture"). This is essentially Hindustani. The more formal register of Urdu is sometimes referred to as Zaban-e-Urdu-e-Moalla (زبانﹺ اردوﹺ معلہ), the "Language of Camp and Court". The etymology of the word used in the Urdu language for the most part decides how polite or refined your speech is. Urdu speakers would distinguish between paani and aab for example, or between kunwara and mard, or patii and parineeta. If a word is of Persian or Arabic origin, the level of speech is considered to be more formal and grand. Similarly, if Persian or Arabic grammar constructs, such as the Izafat are used in Urdu, the level of speech is also considered more formal and grand. An example of this would be the difference between Jinhe naaz hai Hind par, woh kahaan hai and sanaqaan-e-tasdeeq-e-mashriq kahaan hai.

Politeness

A host of words are used to show respect and politeness. These words are generally used with people who are older in age or with whom you are not acquainted. For example the English pronoun 'you' can be translated into three words in Urdu: the singular forms 'tu' (informal, extremely intimate, or derogatory) and 'tum' (informal) and the plural forms 'aap' (formal and respectful).

Vocabulary

Urdu has a vocabulary rich in words with Indian and Middle Eastern origins. The borrowings are dominated by words from Persian, and Arabic. There are also a number of borrowings from Sanskrit, Turkish, Portuguese and more recently English. Many of the words of Arabic origin have different nuances of meaning and usage than they do in Arabic.

Writing System

English Urdu is written in a derivative of the Persian alphabet, which is itself derivative of the Arabic alphabet. Like Semitic Languages, Urdu script is written from right to left. Urdu is similar in appearance and letters to Arabic, Persian, and Pashto. In their modern incarnation, Urdu differs in appearance from Arabic in that it typically uses the more complex and sinuous Nasta’liq style of script, whereas Arabic is more commonly written in the modernized Naskh style. Nasta’liq is notoriously difficult to typeset, so Urdu newspapers were made from hand-written masters (a.k.a katib or khush-navees) till late 1980s. The daily Jang was the first urdu newspaper composed in Nasta’liq on computer. There are efforts underway to develop more sophisticated and user-friendly Urdu support on computers and internet. Now-a-days, nearly all urdu newspapers, magazines, journals, and periodicals composed on computers via various urdu software. Usually, bare transliterations of Urdu into Roman letters omit many phonemic elements which have no equivalent in English or other languages commonly written in the Latin alphabet. It should be noted that a reasonably comprehensive system has emerged with specific notations to signify non-English sounds, but it can only be properly read by someone already familiar with Urdu, Persian, or Arabic for letters such as:ژ خ غ ط ص or ق and Hindi for letters such as ڑ . This script may be found on the internet, and it allows people understanding the language without knowledge of their written forms to communicate with each other. A list of the Urdu alphabet and pronunciation is given below . Urdu contains many historical spellings from Arabic and Persian, and therefore has many irregularities. The Arabic letters yaa and haa are split in two in Urdu; one of the yaa variants is used at the ends of words for a long ē sound, and one of the haa variants is used to indicate the aspirated consonants. The retroflex consonants needed to be added as well; this was accomplished by placing a superscript ط (toay) above the corresponding dental consonants. Several letters which represent distinct consonants in Arabic are conflated in Persian, and this has carried over to Urdu. Urdu is occasionally also written in the Roman script. Roman Urdu has been used since the days of the British Raj, partly as a result of the availability and low cost of Roman movable type for printing presses. The use of Roman Urdu was common in contexts such as product labels. Today it is regaining popularity among users of text-messaging and Internet services and is developing its own style and conventions. Habib R. Sulemani says, "the younger generation of Urdu speaking people around the world are using [Romanized Urdu] on the Internet and it has become essential for them, because they use the Internet and English is its language. A person from Islamabad chats with another in Delhi on the Internet only in Roman Urdu. They both speak (almost) the same language but with different scripts […]. Moreover, the younger generation of those who are from the English medium schools or settled in the west, can speak Urdu but can’t write it in the traditional Arabic script and thus Roman Urdu is a blessing for such a population."

Examples

Literature

Urdu has only become a literary language in recent centuries, as Persian and Arabic were formerly the idioms of choice for "elevated" subjects. However, despite its late development, Urdu literature boasts some world-recognized artists and a considerable corpus.

Prose

Religious

After Arabic, Urdu holds the largest collection of work on Islamic literature and sharia. These include translations and interpretation of Quran, commentary on Hadidh, Fiqh, history, spirituality, sufism and metaphysics. A great number of classical texts from Arabic and Persian, have also been translated into Urdu. Relatively inexpensive publishing, combined with the use of Urdu as a lingua franca among Muslims of South Asia, has meant that Islam-related works in Urdu far outnumber such works in any other South Asian language. One of the most popular Islamic books was originally written in Urdu, the Faizal-e-Amal.

Literary

Secular prose includes all categories of widely known fiction and non-fiction work, separable into genres. The daastaan, or tale, a traditional story which may have many characters and complex plotting. This has now fallen into disuse. The afsaana, or short story, probably the best-known genre of Urdu fiction. The best-known afsaana writers, or afsaana nigaar, in Urdu are Saadat Hasan Manto, Qurat-ul-Ain Haider, Munshi Premchand, Krishan Chander, Ghulam Abbas, Banu Qudsia and Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi. Premchand, a Hindi writer, became known as a pioneer in the afsaana, though some contend that his were not technically the first as Sir Ross Masood had already written many short stories in Urdu. Novels form a genre of their own, in the tradition of the English novel. Other genres include saférnama, sarguzisht, inshaeya, murasela, and khud navvisht.

Poetry

Novel Urdu has been the premiere language of poetry in South Asia for two centuries, and has developed a rich tradition in a variety of poetic genres.
- Ghazal (غزل), as practiced by many poets in the Arab tradition. Mir, Ghalib, Dagh and Faiz are well-known composers of ghazal.
- Nazm
- Qat'ã
- Rubai
- Masnavi
- Musaddas
- Qaseeda
- Geet
- Sehra
- Marsia
- Shehr aashob
- Doha, Urdu Foreign forms such as the sonnet, azad nazm and haiku have also been used by some modern Urdu poets. Probably the most widely recited, and memorized genre of contemporary Urdu poetry is naat—panegyric poetry written in praise of the Prophet Muhammad. Naat can be of any formal category, but is most commonly in the ghazal form. The language used in Urdu naat ranges from the intensely colloquial to a highly Persianized formal language. The great early twentieth century scholar Imam Ahmad Raza Khan, who wrote many of the most well known naats in Urdu, epitomized this range in a ghazal of nine stanzas (bayt) in which every stanza contains half a line each of Arabic, Persian, formal Urdu, and colloquial Hindi. The same poet composed a salaam—a poem of greeting to the Prophet Muhammad, derived from the unorthodox practice of qiyam, or standing, during the mawlid, or celebration of the birth of the Prophet—Mustafa Jan-e Rahmat, which, due to being recited on Fridays in some Urdu speaking mosques throughout the world, is probably the more frequently recited Urdu poems of the modern era. Another important genre of urdu prose are the poems commemorating the martyrdom of imam Hussain and Battle of Karbala, called noha (نوحہ) and marsia. Anees and Dabeer are famous in this regard.

History

Urdu developed as local Indo-Aryan dialects came under the influence of the Muslim courts that ruled the South Asia from the early thirteenth century on. The official language of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, and their successor states, as well as the cultured language of poetry and literature, was , while the language of religion was . The mingling of these languages led to a vernacular that is the ancestor of today's . Dialects of this vernacular are spoken today in cities and villages throughout Pakistan and northern India. Cities with a particularly strong tradition of Urdu include Hyderabad, Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, and Lucknow. The birthplace of the Urdu language is not known with certainty. Urdu literature has been found from the Delhi Sultanate. One hypothesis proposes that Urdu originated in or around Delhi over a period of several centuries, and that initially it was used and adopted by Muslims. The word urdu itself comes from the word ordu, "tent" or "army", from which we get the word "horde". Hence Urdu is sometimes called "Lashkari zaban" or the language of the Army. Wherever Muslim soldiers and officials settled, they carried Urdu with them. Urdu (along with Persian) enjoyed commanding status in the literary courts of Muslim rulers and nawabs, and flourished under their patronage, partially displacing Sanskrit as the language of religious intellectuals in Indian society. The prestige bestowed upon Urdu at the expense of Sanskrit was a source of irritation for many religious Hindus, and to this day there remains religiously motivated conflict between the languages that sometimes makes dialogue difficult.

Urdu and Hindi

Standard Urdu and Standard Hindi are sometimes considered to be distinct languages, and sometimes dialects of a Hindustani language. There are two fundamental distinctions between them: the source of learned vocabulary (Persian or Sanskrit), and the script used to write them (an adaptation of the Persian script written in Nasta'liq style, or the devanagari alphabet). In colloquial situations in Delhi, where neither learned vocabulary nor writing is used, the distinction between the Urdu and Hindi is nearly meaningless. Outside of the Delhi dialect area, the distinction may be more pronounced even in colloquial speech, for "Hindi" in such cases will often refer to the local dialect. The word 'Hindi' has two uses; confusion of these is one of the primary causes of debate about the identity of Urdu.
- One use of 'Hindi' is to indicate those idioms in the North Indian dialect continuum that are not recognized as separate languages from the language of Delhi. and are not considered Hindi because of their long history as literary languages and because of official recognition. , , and are also often recognized to be distinct languages, though sometimes considered Hindi dialects. However, many other local idioms, such as the languages, which do not have such a distinct identity, are almost always considered to be dialects of Hindi. In other words, the boundaries of "Hindi" have little to do with mutual intelligibility, and instead depend on social perceptions of what constitutes a language.
- The other use of the word is Standard Hindi, the specific form of the Delhi dialect of Hindi (called Hindustani) that is India's foremost national language. Standard Urdu is also a standardized form of Hindustani. Such a state of affairs, with two standardized forms of what is essentially one language, is known as a diasystem. Colloquial Urdu, on the other hand, basically is Hindustani; it can be argued that Standard Hindi is a form of colloquial Urdu, intentionally de-Persianized and de-Arabicized, with its formal vocabulary borrowed instead from Sanskrit. The colloquial language spoken by villagers and the lower classes of Delhi is indistinguishable by ear, whether it is called Hindi or Urdu by its speakers. The only important distinction at this level is in the script: if written in the Arab-Persian script, the language is generally considered to be Urdu, and if written in devanagari it is generally considered to be Hindi. However, since independence the formal registers used in education and the media have become increasingly divergent in their vocabulary. Where there is no colloquial word for a concept, Standard Urdu uses Perso-Arabic vocabulary, while Standard Hindi uses Sanskrit vocabulary. This results in the official languages being heavily Sanskritized or Persianized, and nearly unintelligible to speakers educated in the other standard. These two standardized registers of Hindustani have become so entrenched as separate languages that often nationalists, both Hindu and Muslim, claim that Hindi and Urdu have always been separate languages. However, there are unifying forces as well. For example, it is said that Indian Bollywood films are made in "Hindi", but the language used in most of them is the same as that of Urdu speakers in Pakistan. The dialogue is frequently developed in English and later translated to an intentionally neutral Hindustani which can be easily understood by speakers of most North Indian languages, both in India itself and in Pakistan. The songs, however, are typically pure Urdu, and many of the top Urdu poets make their livings writing for "Hindi" films. That is why Indian films are extremely popular in Pakistan, and Pakistani TV is likewise popular in India.

Footnote

As in Ghalib's famous couplet where he compares himself to his great predecessor, the master poet Mir :

Urdu Script : ریختــہ کے تــم ہـی استــاد نہیں ہـو غــالب : کہتے ہیں اگلے زمانے میں کوئی میر بھی تھا Romanized :Raikhtha kai tum hee ustadh nahee ho Ghalib :Kehthay hain aglay zamaanay main ko'ee Mir bhee thhaa Translation :You, alone, are not the only expert of 'Raikhta', Ghalib :It is said that even once there existed someone named, Mir

Bibliography

- Asher, R. E. (Ed.). (1994). The Encyclopedia of language and linguistics. Oxford: Pergamon Press. ISBN 0-0803-5943-4.
- Azim, Anwar. (1975). Urdu a victim of cultural genocide. In Z. Imam (Ed.), Muslims in India (p. 259).
- Chatterji, Suniti K. (1960). Indo-Aryan and Hindi (rev. 2nd ed.). Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay.
- Dua, Hans R. (1992). Hindi-Urdu as a pluricentric language. In M. G. Clyne (Ed.), Pluricentric languages: Differing norms in different nations. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3-1101-2855-1.
- Dua, Hans R. (1994b). Urdu. In Asher (Ed.) (pp. 4863-4864).
- Dua, Hans R. (1994a). Hindustani. In Asher (Ed.) (pp. 1554).
- Kelkar, A. R. (1968). Studies in Hindi-Urdu: Introduction and word phonology. Poona: Deccan College.
- Khan, M. H. (1969). Urdu. In T. A. Sebeok (Ed.), Current trends in linguistics (Vol. 5). The Hague: Mouton.
- Narang, G. C.; & Becker, D. A. (1971). Aspiration and nasalization in the generative phonology of Hindi-Urdu. Language, 47, 646-767.
- Ohala, M. (1972). Topics in Hindi-Urdu phonology. (PhD dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles).
- Rai, Amrit. (1984). A house divided: The origin and development of Hindi-Hindustani. Delhi: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-1956-1643-X.
See also
alphabetically arranged
- Ghazal
- India
- Languages of India
- Languages of Pakistan
- List of Urdu poets
- Muhajir
- Pakistan
- Persian and Urdu
- Urdu poetry
External links

Sites About Urdu

- [http://www.crulp.org/English%20Site/main.html CRULP] Center for research in Urdu language processing
- [http://www.urdustan.com/ Urdustan.com : oldest Urdu language website]
- [http://dsal.uchicago.edu/digbooks/dig_toc.html?BOOKID=PK1983.N2_1999_V1 Introductory Urdu (Volume 1)]
- [http://dsal.uchicago.edu/digbooks/dig_toc.html?BOOKID=PK1983.N2_1999_V2 Introductory Urdu (Volume 2)]
- [http://ur.wiktionary.org Urdu Wiktionary]
- [http://wikitravel.org/en/Hindi-Urdu_phrasebook Wikitravel Hindi-Urdu Phrasebook]
- [http://www.shaikhsiddiqui.com/urdu.html History of Urdu Literature ]
- [http://www.neosense.com/products/urdu-extension/ NeoSense Urdu Extension for Ligature Parsing]
Online Use of Urdu

- [http://www.shairy.com Shairy.com:] Largest collection of Online Urdu poetry,Urdu Shairee, Shairy and forum
- [http://www.alqamaronline.com/ Al Qamar Online Urdu Network from London]
- [http://www.urduweb.org/wiki/ UrduWiki]
- [http://urdu-ke-naam.blogspot.com Collaborative blog discussing the Urdu language and the affiliated culture]
- [http://www.urduweb.org/wiki/BloggingInUrdu Blogging In Urdu]
- [http://www.urduweb.org/wiki/UrduBlogsDirectory List of blogs in Urdu]
- [http://urdutemplates.blogspot.com/ Templates for blogging in Urdu]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/ BBC News in Urdu]
- [http://www.boriat.com Roznama Boriat Karachi] - Spoof News in Urdu Category:Languages of India Category:Languages of Pakistan Category:Urdu ko:우르두어 ms:Bahasa Urdu ja:ウルドゥー語 th:ภาษาอูรดู

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh (Hindi: उत्तर प्रदेश, Urdu: اتر پردیش), also popularly known by its acronym UP, is the most populous and fifth largest state in the Union of India. Uttar Pradesh covers a large part of the densely populated Gangetic plain. It shares an international border with Nepal and is bounded by the Indian states of Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar. The administrative and legislative capital of Uttar Pradesh is Lucknow; its high court is based at Allahabad. Other notable cities in Uttar Pradesh include Agra, Aligarh, Varanasi (Benares), Gorakhpur, Kanpur and Meerut.

Creation

In the second half of the 18th century, a series of battles gave the British East India Company (HEIC) mastery over the area that is now Uttaranchal and western UP. The HEIC established an administration controlled by its senior officer in the region, the “Resident” of Delhi, to administer a political entity whose sovereignty was as ill-defined as its borders. For several reasons, the seat of administration was moved to Agra in 1834 and a “president” was appointed to govern the area. In 1836, the “North-western Provinces” was created, the name indicative of the fact that the area comprised the north-western frontier of British India at that time. While that circumstance changed almost immediately afterwards, the name persisted until 1877. Meanwhile, in 1856, the HEIC annexed Avadh (Oudh), a large principality which covered much of what is now eastern UP; this area was merged with the existing British province to create a behemoth that was given a name commensurate with its size: the “United Provinces of the north-west and Oudh”. In 1871, the district of Ajmer-Merwara, a British Indian enclave surrounded by native princely states of the Rajputana agency, was detached from this province and constituted a separate commissionership. In 1877, the province was renamed the “United Provinces of Agra and Oudh”, dropping the now glaringly misplaced reference to the “northwest”. However, it was generally referred to merely as “The United Provinces”; in 1902, the province was formally given that name. After India attained independence in 1947, the province was renamed "Uttar Pradesh", Hindi for "North Province". "Uttar" means "north" and "Pradesh" means "region" or "state". This name was proposed by Govind Ballabh Pant, noted freedom fighter and first chief minister of Uttar Pradesh; one reason for its adoption was certainly the fact that the acronym “U.P.” by which the province had been referred to for a century, was retained. In 2000, the north-western hill districts of Uttar Pradesh were constituted into a separate state named Uttaranchal.

Population

With nearly 176 million inhabitants, Uttar Pradesh is not only the most populous state in India but also the most populous subnational entity in the world. Only five countries (the People's Republic of China, India itself, the USA, Indonesia and Brazil) have higher populations (see List of countries by population). It is also one of the most economically and socially backward states in India. On virtually every index of social development, whether literacy, infant mortality or unemployment, Uttar Pradesh ranks among the lowest in India; the situation is compounded by the fact that figures for females is invaribly much lower than for males on every parameter.

History

India Uttar Pradesh plays an extremely important role in the history and growth of Hinduism, and in the history of ancient India. Indeed, the region has been vital to the power and stability of all of India's empires and kingdoms, of Hindus, Muslims and Europeans. Although the Rig veda was composed on the banks of the Sindhu and Saraswati rivers, the other three holy Vedas were said to have been composed by the banks of the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and others. The region came to be known as Aryavarta (Land of the Aryans), the earliest Aryan state in India. Lord Rama, the eighth Avatara of Vishnu, is the most popular Hindu God-King, and the legend of the Ramayana, the world's oldest and largest epic emanates from His life, and his reign as King of Bharat from Kosala, from the city of Ayodhya. The ancient Hindu kingdom of Kosala in Ayodhya, where Lord Rama of the Ramayana reigned was located in the modern day state. The holiest Hindu cities of Varanasi, Ayodhya, Mathura, Haridwar and Allahabad, by the holiest rivers - Ganga and Yamuna are all located in the state. The state hosts a Kumbha Mela every 12 years, where over 10 million Hindus congregate - the largest gathering of human beings in the world. Lord Krishna, the revered ninth Avatara of Vishnu, was born in the city of Mathura. He leads the Pandava brothers in the holy war of the Mahabharata over the ancient kingdom of Hastinapura, rumored to have existed on the banks of the Ganga or Yamuna. The ancient capital city of Indraprastha once stood close to the are where the modern national capital of Delhi today stands. The U.P.'s political importance was diminished with the rise of Maghada and the Mauryan Empire and the Gupta Dynasty, but it soon became an important region to the Muslim invaders of India. The region was subjugated with barbaric wars, pogroms and plunders, and thousands of Hindu temples were destroyed in the Middle Ages of Indian history. Agra and Fatehpur Sikri were also important as the capital city of Akbar, the great Mughal Emperor of India. The city of Lucknow was founded in the 18th century by the Muslim rulers of the province. The U.P. was especially important in modern Indian history as a hotbed of the Indian Independence Movement, and the city of Allahabad was home to prominent nationalists such as Motilal Nehru, Purushottam Das Tandon and Lal Bahadur Shastri. Allahabad was also home to a record five Prime Minister of India: Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Vishwanath Pratap Singh and Rajiv Gandhi. Uttar Pradesh covers the area of the former princely state of Awadh (Oudh) and the British Province of Agra. The Province of Agra was originally the western-most British possession, after they expanded from Bengal, and thus was known as the North-West Province. The North-West Province was renamed the Province of Agra, and merged in 1858 with the Province of Oudh to form the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, known after 1902 as the United Provinces. Two princely states, Rampur and Tehri, were under the authority of the provincial governor. With the advent of Indian independence, the United Provinces was renamed "Uttar Pradesh," or "northern province", by Govind Ballabh Pant, the first chief minister. This preserved the commonly used abbreviation U.P. In 2000, the northwestern districts of Uttar Pradesh became the new state of Uttaranchal.

Constituent regions

The state comprises the regions of Rohilkhand in the northwest, The Doab, or Brij (Braj) (Braj-bhoomi) in the southwest, Awadh (Oudh) (the historic country of Koshal) in the centre, the northern parts of Bagelkhand & Bundelkhand in the south, and the south-western part of the Bhojpur country, commonly called Purvanchal ("Eastern Province"), in the east. In 1991, the Uttar Pradesh government set up development funds, known as nidhis, for Bundelkhand (7 districts) and Purvanchal (28 districts), to "ensure the twin objectives of balanced development and reducing inter-regional disparities and backwardness". Note: The purvanchal as an administrative unit is not the same as the ethnic purvanchal region. Ethnically purvanchal/ bhojpuri speaking areas are those that are contiguous with North western Bihar. Many of the 28 districts in the above Purvanchal list are traditional Awadhi or Baghel Khandi bastions.

Divisions and districts

See also: Districts of Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh state consists of 70 districts, which are grouped into 17 divisions: Agra, Azamgarh, Allahabad, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Chitrakoot, Jhansi, Devipatan, Faizabad, Bahraich, Bareilly, Basti, Mirzapur, Moradabad, Meerut, Lucknow, Varanasi, and Saharanpur.

Languages

The languages of the different regions are distinct, and the language of the western parts, called (Khadiboli) is the basis for the official Hindi language, created during the late 19th century. The most commonly spoken language in urban areas is Urdu/Hindi. Regardless of the script used, the language of Lucknow is called Lucknowie Urdu. It is a pure form of literary Urdu used by most Urdu poets. Urdu is one of the two official languages of the state. Other languages are Koshali, Braj (which is more than two thousand years old), Koeli, Bagheli, Bundeli and Bhojpuri. The Bhojpuri ethnic homeland is divided between Nepal in the north, Bihar state in the east and Uttar Pradesh in the west.

Politics

See also: List of political parties in the state The current chief minister of Uttar Pradesh is Mulayam Singh Yadav, one of the leaders of the Samajwadi Party (Socialist Party). The former Prime Minister of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee, represents the constituency of Lucknow. Unfortunately, the state has been marred by a lot of caste based politics, which has been hindering a sound economic development of the state. The state has a large number of village councils known as Panchayats just like the other states of India. One of the Most Develop Panchayat during 2001-2005 is Shahabad in Maharajganj District of Uttar Pradesh.

Education

Panchayat The State of U.P. has made investments over the years in all sectors of education and has achieved some success. The female literacy situation in Uttar Pradesh is dismal. Only one out of four in the 7+ age group was able to read and write in 1991. This figure goes down to 19 % for rural areas, 11 % for the scheduled castes, 8 % for scheduled castes in rural areas, and 8 % for the entire rural population in the most educationally backward districts. Possibly Bihar is the only state in India which fares worse than U.P. in education. In terms of more demanding criteria of educational attainment on the completion of primary or secondary education, in Uttar Pradesh, in 1992-1993 only 50 % of literate males and 40 % of literate females could complete the cycle of eight years of schooling involved in the primary and middle stages. One other notable feature of the Uttar Pradesh education system is the persistence of high level of illiteracy in the younger age group. Within that age group, the illiteracy was endemic in the rural areas. In the late 1980s, the incidence of illiteracy in the 10-14 age group was as high as 32 % for rural males and 61 % for rural females, and more than two-thirds of all rural girls in the 12-14 age group never went to school. The problems of education system is exacting. Due to public apathy the schools are in disarray, privately run school (including those run by Christian missionaries) are functional, but beyond the reach of ordinary people. The State government has taken programmes to make the population totally literate. There are special programmes like World Bank aided DPEP. Steps are being taken with the help of NGOs and other organizations to raise popular participation. As a result, some progress in adult education has been made and the [http://www.upgov.nic.in/upinfo/census01/cen01-5.htm census] of 2001 indicates a male literacy rate of 70.23 % and a female literacy rate of 42.98 %. At the level of higher education and technical education Uttar Pradesh has 16 general universities, famous among those are Allahabad University, Banaras Hindu University and Aligarh Muslim University, one prestigeous Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur), one Indian Institute of Management (Lucknow), one Indian Institute of Information Technology (Allahabad), one National Institute of Technology (Allahabad) [http://www.mnnit.ac.in] and large number polytechnics, engineering institutes and industrial training institutes.

Tourism

Indian Institute of Technology Uttar Pradesh attracts a large number of both national and international visitors. There are two regions in the state where a majority of the tourists go. These are the city of Agra and the holy cities on the banks of the Ganges River that include Kanpur, Allahabad and Varanasi. A vast number of tourists visit the Taj Mahal in Agra. Other important tourist attractions in Agra are the Agra Fort. Also famous is a 16th century capital city built by the Mughal emperor Akbar known as Fatehpur Sikri near Agra. Millions of tourists and piligrims visit the cities of Allahabad and Varanasi, as they are considered to be two of the holiest cities in India. Every year thousands gather at Allahabad to take part in the festival on the banks of the Ganges, the Magh Mela. The same festival is organised in a larger scale every 12th year and attracts millions of people and is called the Kumbha Mela. Varanasi is widely considered to be the second oldest city in the world after Jerusalem. It is famous for its ghats (steps along the river) which are populated year round with people who want to take a dip in the holy Ganges River. About 13 km from Varanasi is the historically important town of Sarnath. Gautama Buddha gave his first sermon at Sarnath after his enlightenment and hence is an important pilgrimage site for the Buddhists. Also at Sarnath are the Ashoka Pillar and the Lion Capital, both important archeological artifacts which have national significance.

Arts and crafts

Uttar Pradesh is famous for its arts and crafts. Specific regions such as Varanasi for its saris and silk, Mirzapur for its carpets, Agra and Kanpur for their leathercraft, Moradabad for its metalware, Lucknow for its clothwork and embroidery, and the entire state for its pottery are not only famous in India but around the world.

References

- [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/India_BrProvinces.htm Provincial History]

External links

- [http://www.upgov.nic.in/ Official Website of the government of Uttar Pradesh]
- [http://mapsofindia.com/maps/uttarpradesh/h3s3105.htm Railway Map]
- A very useful site: [http://www.upgov.nic.in/upinfo/poli_hist.html/ Political History] Category:States and territories of India

Hindi

left Hindi (हिन्दी) is an Indo-European language spoken mainly in North and Central India. It is part of a dialect continuum of the Indo-Aryan family, bounded on the northwest and west by Panjābī, Sindhī, and Gujarātī; on the south by Marāthī; on the southeast by Orīya; on the east by Bengālī; and on the north by Nepālī. Hindi also refers to a standardized register of Hindustani that was made one of the official languages of India. The grammatical description in this article concerns standard Hindi. Hindi is often contrasted with Urdu, another standardized form of Hindustani that is the official language of Pakistan and some states in India. The primary differences between the two are that Standard Hindi is written in Devanāgarī and has been partially purged of its Persian and Arabic vocabulary, which was replaced by words from Sanskrit; while Urdu is written in a variant of the Persian alphabet and draws heavily on Persian and Arabic vocabulary. The term "Urdu" also includes dialects of Hindustani other than the standardized languages.

Area

Hindi is the predominant language in the states and territories of Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttaranchal, Jharkhand, and Chattisgarh. It is spoken and understood in Gujarat, Punjab and Kashmir, states that otherwise have their own native languages. It is also widely spoken in the cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Kolkata, all of which are cosmopolitan cities harbouring large communities of people from various parts of India. Local variations of Hindi are counted as minority languages in several countries, including Fiji, Mauritius, Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Number of Speakers

Hindi in the broader sense is among the more widely spoken languages in the world. According to some estimates, about 500 million people in India and abroad are native speakers of Hindi and the total number of people who understand the language may be as high as 800 million. According to 1991 census^{[http://www.censusindia.net/cendat/language/lang_table5.PDF]} 40.22% of the Indian population can speak Hindi. More than 180 million people in India regard Standard Hindi as their mother tongue, making it the fourth-most spoken language in the world. Another 300 million use it as second language. Outside India, Hindi speakers number 8 million in Nepal, 890,000 in South Africa, 685,000 in Mauritius, 317,000 in the USA^{[http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-29.pdf]}, 233,000 in Yemen, 147,000 in Uganda, 30,000 in Germany, 20,000 in New Zealand and 5,000 in Singapore.

History

Hindi evolved from Sanskrit, by way of the Middle Indo-Aryan prakrit languages and Apabhramsha of the Middle Ages. As a standardised register of Hindustani, Hindi became the official language^{[http://indiaimage.nic.in/languages.htm]} of India on January 26, 1965, although English and 21 other languages are recognised as official languages by the Constitution of India.

Standard Hindi

After independence of India, the Government of India worked on standardizing Hindi, and the following changes took place:
- standardization of Hindi 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"
- standardization of Hindi spelling
- standardization of Devanagari (Devanāgarī) script by the Central Hindi Directorate, Ministry of Education and Culture to bring about uniformity in writing and to improve the shape of some devanagari characters.
- scientific mode of scribing the Devanagari alphabet
- incorporation of diacritics to express sounds from other languages The popularity of the Urdu and Hindi languages has been helped by Bollywood (the Hindi film industry) where poetry in songs have always been dominated by Urdu. These movies are not only popular in most parts of India but also have an international appeal.

Vocabulary

Standard Hindi derives much of its formal and technical vocabulary from Sanskrit. Standard or shuddha ("pure") Hindi is used only in public addresses and radio or TV news, while the everyday spoken language in most areas is one of several varieties of Hindustani, whose vocabulary contains words drawn from Persian through Urdu. In addition, spoken Hindi uses words from English and other languages as well. Vernacular Urdu and Hindi 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 for centuries past, Sanskrit and Persian had been regarded, to a large extent regardless of their ethnic or religious background, as the languages of the elite.

Dialects

Hindi in the broad sense is a dialect continuum without clear boundaries. For example, both Nepali and Panjabi are sometimes considered to be Hindi (based on the high level of mutual intelligibility for Panjabi and Hindi especially), though they are more often considered to be separate languages. Hindi is often divided into Western Hindi and Eastern Hindi, and these are further divided. Following is a list of principal Hindi dialects; boldface indicates an idiom that often classified as a separate language.
- Hindustani, including standard Hindi (or 'High Hindi') and standard Urdu, as well as regional dialects of Urdu. Standard Hindi is the principal official languages of India, while standard Urdu is the official language of Pakistan and the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Urdu has a rich literary history, being the language of the Mughal court second only to Persian
- Khadiboli or Sarhindi, spoken in western Uttar Pradesh; the dialect that forms the basis for Standard Hindi
- Chhattisgarhi (sometimes spelled "Chattisgarhi"; also known as Lahariya or Khalwahi), spoken mostly in the recently created state of Chhattisgarh
- Bagheli, spoken mostly in the Baghelkhand region of the state of Madhya Pradesh
- Awadhi, spoken mostly in central Uttar Pradesh, the area formerly comprising the kingdom of Awadh or "Oudh"
- Fijian Hindustani, a form of Awadhi spoken by Fijians of Indian descent
- Bihari', mostly spoken in the state of Bihar, which in turn is comprised of several principal dialects:
- Angika,
- Bhojpuri
- Sarnami - a form of Bhojpuri with Awadhi influence spoken by Surinamers of Indian descent
- Maithili, now an official language of Bihar
- Magahi,
- Vajjika,
- Rajasthani, mostly spoken in the state of Rajasthan, and also comprised of several notable (sub)dialects:
- Marwari
- Mewati or "Mewari"
- Jaipuri
- Braj Bhasha, in a vaguely defined region of north central India, centered on Delhi
- Bundeli, mostly spoken in the Bundelkhand region and the Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh
- Hariyanvi, Bangaru or Jatu, mostly spoken in the state of Haryana
- Kanauji, mostly spoken in Kanauj, Uttar Pradesh
- The Eastern Hindi dialect centered on the Hindu holy city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, with a strong influence on the Sanskritized learned vocabulary of standard Hindi
- Bambaiya Hindi, the dialect of the city of Bombay (Mumbai); the basis for the language of the popular Bollywood films These dialects demonstrate a variety of influences including the adjacent Iranian, Dravidian, and Tibeto-Burman language families. Bollywood dialects: Hindi movies often use dialects to highlight the regional character of some of the roles. Some of the dialects used include
- Bhojpuri: Movie "Ganga-Jamuna"
- Bhopali: Spoken by Soorma Bhopali in "Sholay"
- "Madrasi" Hindi: Spoken by Mehmud in "Padosan"
- Rajasthani: Movie "Paheli"
- Bambaiya Hindi: used in numerous movies Needless to say, dialects used in movies are not always pure.

Sounds

There are 11 vowels and 35 consonants in Standard Hindī. They are shown below:

Vowels

Bambaiya Hindi The vowel occurs in English loans and is represented by ऐ, which was originally used in Sanskrit for the 'ai' or 'əi' diphthong. But today in Khariboli, the Standard dialect, the vowel stands for in almost all Hindi words. The other ten vowels have phonemic nasal counterparts. The vowel sequences and , both oral and nasal, also occur. Note that the short 'a', often seen at the end of masculine Sanskritized words as well as elsewhere, which makes the non-Hindi speakers to pronounce it as short or long 'a', the back vowel, is actually the neutral vowel schwa 'ə'. The short vowel 'e' as in English 'set' also occurs at some places in urban Hindi in place of schwa, like "rehnā" (रहना. to live), but there is no diacritic to mark it.

Consonants

Hindi has a large consonant system, with about 38 distinct consonant phonemes. An exact number cannot be given, since the regional varieties of Hindi differ in the details of their consonant repertoire. To what extent certain sounds that appear only in foreign words should be considered part of Standard Hindi is also a matter of debate. The traditional core of the consonant system, inherited from Sanskrit, consists of a matrix of 25 plosives and 8 sonorants and fricatives. The system is filled out by 7 sounds that originated in Persian, but are now considered Hindi sounds. The 25 plosives occur in five groups, with each group sharing the same position of articulation. These positions in their traditional order are: velar, retroflex, palatal, dental, and bilabial. In each position, there are five varieties of consonant, with four oral stops and one nasal stop. An oral stop may be voiced, aspirated, both, or neither. This four-way opposition is the hardest aspect of Hindi pronunciation for a speaker of English. The voiced, unaspirated consonants are the easiest for English-speakers to pronounce. The initial sounds of "get", "jet", "debt", and "bet" are perfect examples of the velar, palatal, dental, and bilabial positions, respectively. The apico-domal or retroflex position is the hardest for an English speaker: the apex of the tongue must be curled backward and brought into contact with the dome of the palate, well behind the gum-line. In casual Hindi, however, bringing the tongue slightly above the alveolar ridge will also do. The voiceless, unaspirated consonants are similar to those in French or in English words like "skin", "spin", and "stand". Aspirated voiceless consonants are similar to those in the English words "pat", "cat", "chat", and "tap" (though they are typically more heavily aspirated than in English). The voiced, aspirated consonants are the hardest to pronounce, but can be approximated by following the unaspirated version with an audible "h" sound. The nasal sounds are the same as in English. The 4 resonants are y, r, l, and v. These are similar to English, except that r is a tap as in Spanish, not an approximant, and v is usually between English "v" and "w", though it may vary as either of those English sounds. The native fricatives of Hindi are s and sh, which are pronounced as in English. There is also a breathy voice which is generally considered a fricative as well, and it is more or less like English "h" in "home". There is a fourth fricative in the orthography, written ष, which is sometimes transcribed as "ssa" or "sha2". It was originally pronounced as in Sanskrit, and still is to some extent, but in many modern Hindi speakers it has merged with .

Borrowed Sounds

The khutma or Nukta, a dot placed below various consonant letters, indicates Persian and English sounds that are not present in Sanskrit. The sounds f, z, rd, and rdh are found only in loanwords. The first two are as in English. The latter two are retroflex taps, and never begin a word. The additional sounds //, //, and // may be found in some loanwords. Some of the borrowed sounds are difficult for Hindi speakers to pronounce and many Hindi speakers will simply ignore the dot and pronounce the word as if it wasn't there.

Writing system

The Devanagari script represents the sounds of spoken Hindi very closely, so that a person who knows the Devanagari letters can sound out a written Hindī text comprehensibly, even without knowing what the words mean.
- The anuswara (dot placed above a vowel) may represent one of these consonants: rda, nda, na, ma. These are pronounced after the vowel. This style is deprecated.
- The visarga (:) placed after a vowel represents ha.
- The anuswara (.) and visarga (:) are often included in list of vowel letters, but according to the standardized form of Hindi, they are consonants.
- A chandra-bindu sign is placed above a vowel to indicate nasalized vowel (anunasika).
- An ardha chandra-bindu placed above the vowel aa indicates 'o' sound of English (as in "office", "college"). Some people also use this sign, placed above a, to indicate 'e' (as in "bet") sound of English.

Grammar

Hindi grammar can be very complex and is different in many ways from what English speakers are used to. A simple and obvious difference is that for expressing relationship of nouns, Hindi uses postpositions where English would use a preposition. Other differences include gender, honorifics, interrogatives, word order, use of cases, and different tenses. While being complicated, Hindi grammar is fairly regular, with irregularities being relatively limited. Despite differences in vocabulary and writing, Hindi grammar is nearly identical with Urdu. The concept of punctuation having been entirely unknown before the advent of the Europeans, Hindi 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) is more generally used. Nouns in Hindi have gender, and are either masculine or feminine. There are no overall rules for whether a word will be masculine or feminine so they simply need to be memorized. Adjectives and verbs agree in gender and number with nouns, so proper use of gender is required for conversation. Many masculine nouns end in a long aa (आ) sound and many feminine nouns end in a long ii (ई) sound, though many nouns will have neither of those endings and exceptions occur even for common words. All inanimate objects are either male or female; again, there is neither a neuter gender nor any rule that governs the established "sex" of inanimates Besides the standard interrogative terms of who, what, why, when, where, how, how many, what type, etc, the Hindi word kyaa (क्या), which can also mean "what", can be used as a generic interrogative often placed at the beginning of a sentence to turn a statement into a question. This makes it clear when a question is being asked. Questions can also be formed simply by modifying intonation, exactly as English some questions are. Hindi has three levels of honorifics, or politeness. As reflected in the personal pronoun "you", aap (आप) is the most formal and respectful; tum (तुम) is mid level and usual; and tu (तू) is very informal, verging on the impolite. "Aap" is grammatically plural like the English "you"; adjective and verb agreement follows that. Imperatives (commands or suggestions) typically have four levels, the first three corresponding to the three levels of honorifics, and the last expressing an additional level of politeness akin to "would you be so kind as to..." that might be used in English. The "tu" imperative is simply the verb stem formed by removing the infinitive particle "na". The "tum" imperative is formed by adding "o" to the verb stem, and the "aap" imperative is formed by adding "ie" or "iye" to the stem. The additional form adds "gaa" to the "aap" form. Because imperatives can already include politeness, the word "kripaya", which can be translated as "please", is much less common than in spoken English; it is generally only used in writing, and its use in common speech is usually intended as mockery.

Word order

The standard word order in Hindi is, in general, Subject Object Verb, but where different emphasis or more complex structure is needed, this rule is very easily set aside. 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, p93) 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 "nahiin" ("no"), in the appropriate place in the sentence, or by utilizing the particle "na" in some cases.

Common tenses and aspect

Some of the most common verb tenses include the present imperfect, present continuous, past imperfect, past continuous, past perfect, and future. Present imperfect is used for habitual actions or states of being. The present continuous is used for ongoing actions, while the past continuous reflects actions that were occurring at a particular time. The past imperfect is used for past habitual actions or conditions, while the past perfect reflects completed actions and has three forms including simple past perfect and two forms akin to where English would use have or had [done]. See also: Grammatical aspect.

Case

Nouns in Hindi have two cases, the direct and the oblique. The direct case is the standard form of the noun as found in the dictionary; the oblique is the form that is used along with postpositions, such as in "in the room". For example, the direct form of the word "room" is "kamraa"; in the oblique, it is "kamrey". So "in the room" is "kamrey maen". Pronouns also change in the oblique in similar fashion, and some interrogatives have oblique forms.

Literature

Main article: Hindi literature The beginnings of Hindi literature can be traced to the Prakrits of classical Sanskrit plays. Tulasidas's Ramacharitamanas attained wide popularity. Modern litterateurs include Jaishankar Prasad, Sumitranandan Pant, Maithili Sharan Gupta, Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala', Mahadevi Varma, Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayana 'Ajneya' and Munshi Premchand.

Common difficulties faced in learning Hindi

- the phonetic mechanism of some sounds peculiar to Hindi (eg. rda, dha etc) The distinction between aspirated and unaspirated consonants will be difficult for English speakers. In addition, the distinction between dental and alveoloar (or retroflex) consonants will also pose problems. English speakers will find that they need to carefully distinguish between four different d-sounds and four different t-sounds.
- Even pronunciation of vowels: In English, unstressed vowels tend to have a "schwa" quality. The pronunciation of such vowels in English is changed to an "uh" sound; this is called reducing a vowel sound. The second syllable of "unify" is pronounced "uh" not "ee." The same for the unstressed second syllabe of "person" which is also pronounced "uh" rather than "oh." In Hindi, English-speakers must constantly be careful not to reduce these vowels.
- In this respect, probably the most important mistake would be for English speakers to reduce final "ah" sounds to "uh." This can be especially important because an English pronunciation will lead to misunderstandings about grammar and gender. In Hindi, "vo bolta hai" is "he talks" whereas "vo bolti hai" is "she talks." A typical English pronunciation in the first sentence would be "vo boltuh hai," which will be understood as "she talks" by most Hindi-native speakers.
- The 'a' ending of many Sanskrit and Sanskrit borrowed gender-masculine words, due to Romanization, is highly confused by non-native speakers. It should never be pronounced as long back vowel "ā", but as the neutral schwa "ə". In Sanskrit, the so-written "Shiva (शिव)" should be pronounced as "Shivə" and never "Shivā", as the latter stands for the the feminine derivative of "Shiva" (compare Phillip-Phillipa), and could be understood to refer to Parvati, the wife of Shiva. In Hindi, the ending 'ə' of such masculine words is altogether dropped, or pronounced very feebly if the penultimate consonant is a cluster of two or more consonants. eg. In Hindi, "Shiva" is "Shiv", "Krishna" is usually "Krishn", "dharma" is "dhərm", "karma" is "kərm", "VaruNa" is "VəruN", etc. There are exceptions, of course, if the devanagari script itself dictates the additional diacritical mark for the vowel "ā" at the end of certain masculine words, like Brahmā (ब्रह्मा).
- the Verbal concordance; Hindi exhibits split ergativity; see Ergative-absolutive language for an example.
- Postpositions (ne)
- Relative-correlative constructions. In English interrogative and relative pronouns are the same word. In "Who are you?" the word "who" is an interrogative, or question, pronoun. In "My friend who lives in Chicago can speak Hindi," the word "who" is not an interrogative, or question, pronoun. It is a relative, or linking, pronoun. We find this pattern with other words: where, when, why, etc. are used both to ask questions and to link words. In Hindi, there are different words for each. The interrogative pronoun tends to start with the "k" sound:" kab = when?, kahaaN = where?, kitna = how much? The relative pronouns are usually very similar but start with "j" sounds: jab = when, jahaaN = where, jitna = how much. Hindi uses these j-sound pronouns where English uses relative pronouns and clauses. In English we say, "I study where she studies" but in Hindi we say this differently. "jahaaN vo padhti hai (she studies) vahaaN main padhta hoon (I study)." Here "jahaaN" means "where" and "vahaaN" means there.
- Honorifics. For many English speakers, the fact that Hindi uses a three-part system of honorifics in the second person pronoun ("you") is deeply mystifying. It shouldn't be. The more formal pronouns are used in situations in which it's proper to express a degree of social respect. The less formal pronouns depart from this and indicate, on the one hand, intimacy, or on the other, an absence of social respect. The most formal is "aap" and is the safest for foreigners to use in all situations. It is used in situations that range from deeply respectful to the merely businesslike. When first meeting adults, whether at the bank, hotel or a restaurant, we should use "aap." The more intimate "tum" would be acceptable in talking with children or with adults with whom one is on more intimate terms. The safest thing with adults is wait and see what pronoun they use with you. They will almost certainly start off with "aap," but might, over time, start to use "tum" if your relationship becomes more like that of close friends. If your Hindi is too weak to determine whether they are using "aap" or "tum," then by all means, you should use "aap." Many grammars say that foreigners will rarely have the chance to use "tum" with Indian colleagues, but that is true only if one behaves like a "memsahib" or "sahib." The most intimate pronoun is "tu", which is only used in situations where there is a total absence of human formality: it is used in addressing servants, very close friends and younger siblings. The use of "tu" with another adult may express the intimacy of lovers (but even here "tum" is safer) or extraordinary anger. What's the connection? All of these situations involve the lack of social respect.
- Direct and Oblique inflections
- Optative and Conditional moods
- Compound verbs

References

- Snell, Rupert Teach yourself Hindi: A complete guide for beginners. Lincolnwood, IL : NTC Publishing Group, 1992. ISBN 0844238635
- Taj, Afroz (2002) http://www.ncsu.edu/project/hindi_lessons/ A door into Hindi. Retrieved November 8, 2005.

External links

- [http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/06/free-software-tools-and-fonts-cd.html Request free Hindi Fonts and Devanagari Tools CD from Indian Government]
- [http://www.it-c.dk/people/pfw/hindi/ A short introduction to Hindi grammar]
- [http://hi.wiktionary.org Hindi Wiktionary]
- [http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=HND Ethnologue on Hindi]
- [http://www.lorem-ipsum.info/_hindi Generator for Hindi typographical filler text]
- [http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/hindilinks.html Hindi Language Resources]
- [http://sanskrit.gde.to/hindi Hindi documents and dictionary]
- [http://ltrc.iiit.net/showfile.php?filename=downloads/ International Institute of Information Technologies IIIT], online and downloadable dictionaries cross referenced in English for Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Kannada, Telugu languages. Includes Classical Hindi Literature, writings of Meera, Suradas, Tulasidas, Premchand, Rahim et cetera.
- [http://www.aczone.com/itrans/online/ Online Itrans] to generate Hindi/Devanagari output.
- [http://www.goidirectory.nic.in Government of India website]
- [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0900.pdf Official Unicode Chart for Hindi (PDF)]
- [http://www.bhashaindia.com Website of Microsoft to Provide Solutions for Hindi Language on net]
- [http://www.iit.edu/~laksvij/language/hindi.html Romanized to Unicode Hindi transliterator]
- [http://www.wordanywhere.com Hindi Dictionary]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Hindi-english/ Hindi English Dictionary] from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition Category:Languages of India Category:Hindi ko:힌디어 ja:ヒンディー語 simple:Hindi

English

As an adjective, English refers to anything from or pertaining to England. It may also refer to more than one article:
- the English language
- the English people It is also the name given to:
- English, Indiana a city in the United States
- English studies, an academic discipline
- English, a typeface
- English, a programming language derived from SQL
- The English, a book written by Jeremy Paxman
- Johnny English a comic movie, starring Rowan Atkinson simple:English th:อังกฤษ

Khadiboli

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Literature

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Sanskritization

See also

Category:Dialects of Hindi

Urdu

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English

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