Guide Note

This page contains resources for learning and studying the Hindi language. Hindi is the name given to an Indo-Aryan language spoken in northern and central India. Hindi is spoken by nearly 790 million people worldwide.

Fast Facts

1. Language Family: Indo-European
2. Number of Speakers: Spoken by 790 million people worldwide
3. Official Language: India, Fiji
4. Regulated by: Central Hindi Directorate (India), National Language Authority (Pakistan), National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language
5. Writing System: Devanagari, Urdu, Kaithi, Latin and Sanskrit

• Hello/Bye: Namaste
• Thank you: Shukriya/Dhanyavad
• How are you?: Aap kaise hain?
• Yes/No: Ha/Nahin
• Please: Kripaya
• Do you speak English?: Kya aap angrezi samajhte hain?
• How much?: Kitneh paise?
• My name is...: Mera naam...

Hindi is believed to have evolved from Sanskrit by way of the Middle Indo-Aryan Prakrit languages in the 10th century. Muslim influence in the region introduced Arabic and Persian words into the Hindi lexicon, thus evolving the Urdu or Hindustani languages. Urdu and Hindi are differentiated through how they are written. Standard Hindi is written in Devanagari and draws its "vocabulary" with words from Sanskrit, while Urdu is written in Urdu script, a variant of the Perso-Arabic script, and draws heavily on Persian and Arabic "vocabulary."