Hindi language: Origin and History
Hindi as a language originated from the Indo-European language tree, it is the part of Indo-Aryan group. Although it is known to be the official language of India, most of the businesses are still being done in either English or any other regional language recognized in the constitution of India. Hindi is the first language of over 430 million Indians and the second language for over 120 million people.
Apart from India, Hindi language is also utilized for communication by several communities of Yamen, Uganda, South Africa, Bangladesh, and Mauritius.
The origin of the Hindi language
The Devanagari writing script of Hindi is highly influenced by Sanskrit. Khari Boli dialect that is mostly used in the eastern and northern part of Delhi is its standard form. Some of the other popular literary mediums that are treated as the dialect of Hindi are Braj Bhasha, Bagheli, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Bundeli, Chattishgarh, Haryanawi, Garhwali, Kumayuni, Kanauji, Marwari, and Magahi. However, one thing that you should keep in mind is that these dialects are considered to be the regional languages or Hindi belt of India. Hindi zone is the part of India that comprises the approximate region of north India all the way to Madhya Pradesh.
In the “Hindi belt” region the resemblance of all these Hindi dialects to the standard Hindi varies a lot. Maithili, a dialect that is utilized in the easternmost part of the belt has a great resemblance to Bengali than the traditional and standard Hindi. Similarly, the westernmost dialect of this belt, Rajasthani has more resemblance to Gurajati than standard Hindi. In spite of all this, every local of these regions consider they a speaker of the Hindi dialect.
Most of these dialects or languages were classified in the Hindi group during the early stages of British rule to classify the languages easily. In addition to this, Hindi was picked as the communication medium for the kids’ up-to-the elementary levels. It is due to this colonial policy, middle class, urban, and educated villagers claim to be the speaker of the Hindi language because speaking the usual dialect outside the circle of family and friends is considered to be a sign of illiteracy.
Hence, speaking a proper and standard form of Hindi in the regions of the Hindi belt gives the speaker status that is equivalent to that of English speakers in south India; both are considered to be a sign of upward mobility in the society. That is why; speaking standard Hindi while looking for jobs, marriages are the norm of society. Since the 1950s, due to the prevalence of mass media, television, and radio, youngsters often have passive knowledge about their regional dialect and mostly use standard Hindi.
So, this is a brief history of how all these different dialects of the Hindi language came to be and the roots of the language. We hope that this article will help you solve any of the problems that you might be having with learning the Hindi language.
