The Central Indo-Aryan languages or Hindi languages are a group of related language
varieties Spoken across
North India and
Central India
Central India is a loosely defined geographical region of India. There is no clear official definition and various ones may be used. One common definition consists of the states of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, which are included in almos ...
. These language varieties form the central part of the
Indo-Aryan language
The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, Pa ...
family, itself a part of the
Indo-European language
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dut ...
family. They historically form a
dialect continuum that descends from the Middle
Prakrits. Located in the
Hindi Belt, the Central Zone includes the
Dehlavi (Delhi) dialect (one of several called '
Khariboli') of the
Hindustani language, The
lingua franca of Northern India that is the basis of the
Modern Standard Hindi and
Modern Standard Urdu literary standards. In regards to the Indo-Aryan language family, the coherence of this language group depends on the classification being used; here only Eastern and Western Hindi will be considered.
Languages
If there can be considered a consensus within the dialectology of Hindi proper, it is that it can be split into two sets of dialects: ''Western'' and ''Eastern Hindi''. ''Western Hindi'' evolved from the
Apabhraṃśa
Apabhraṃśa ( sa, अपभ्रंश, , Prakrit: , ta, அவப்பிரஞ்சனம், , ) is a term used by '' vaiyākaraṇāḥ'' (native grammarians) since Patañjali to refer to languages spoken in North India before the ris ...
form of
Shauraseni Prakrit, ''Eastern Hindi'' from
Ardhamagadhi Prakrit
Ardhamagadhi Prakrit was a Middle Indo-Aryan language and a Dramatic Prakrit thought to have been spoken in modern-day Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and used in some early Buddhist and Jain drama. It was likely a Central Indo-Aryan language, related to ...
.
# Western Hindi
#*
Braj
Braj, also known as Vraj, Vraja, Brij or Brijbhoomi, is a region in India on both sides of the Yamuna river with its centre at Mathura-Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh state encompassing the area which also includes Palwal and Ballabhgarh in Hary ...
(1.6 m), spoken in western
Uttar Pradesh and adjacent districts of
Rajasthan and
Haryana
Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
.
#*
Haryanvi (8 m), spoken in
Chandigarh
Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...
,
Haryana
Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
, and as a minority in
Punjab and
Delhi.
#*
Bundeli (3 m), spoken in south-western
Uttar Pradesh and west-central
Madhya Pradesh.
#*
Kannauji (9.5 m), spoken in west-central
Uttar Pradesh.
#*
Hindustani languages, spoken in western
Uttar Pradesh,
Delhi, and after partition in
Pakistan.
#**
Hindi (322 m), a Sanskritized register of Hindustani, the most common language in India
#**
Urdu (275 m), a Perso-Arabicized register of Hindustani, an official language in both India and Pakistan
# Eastern Hindi
#*
Awadhi
Awadhi (; ), also known as Audhi (), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in northern India and Nepal. It is primarily spoken in the Awadh region of present-day Uttar Pradesh, India. The name ''Awadh'' is connected to Ayodhya, the ancient city, ...
(4.35 m), spoken in north and north-central Uttar Pradesh as well as the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean S ...
,
Fiji,
Mauritius and
South Africa
#**
Caribbean Hindustani
Caribbean Hindustani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Indo-Caribbeans and the Indo-Caribbean diaspora. It is mainly based on the Bhojpuri and Awadhi dialects. These Hindustani dialects were the most spoken dialects by the Indians who came as ...
(166 k)
#**
Fiji Hindi (460 k)
#*
Bagheli (8 m), spoken in north-central Madhya Pradesh and south-eastern Uttar Pradesh.
#*
Chhattisgarhi (18 m), spoken in southeast Madhya Pradesh and northern and central
Chhattisgarh
Chhattisgarh (, ) is a landlocked state in Central India. It is the ninth largest state by area, and with a population of roughly 30 million, the seventeenth most populous. It borders seven states – Uttar Pradesh to the north, Madhya Prades ...
.
#**
Surgujia
Surgujia is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Chhattisgarh. It belongs to the Eastern Hindi subgroup.
Speakers
Surgujia is primarily spoken in Surguja, Jashpur, and Koriya districts of Chhattisgarh; and to a lesser extent in Raigarh and Korba ...
(1.7 m), spoken in Chhattisgarh
This analysis excludes varieties sometimes claimed for Hindi for cultural reasons, such as
Bihari,
Rajasthani, and
Pahari.
Romani
Romani may refer to:
Ethnicities
* Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia
** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule
* Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
,
Domari
Domari is an endangered Indo-Aryan language, spoken by Dom people scattered across the Middle East and North Africa. The language is reported to be spoken as far north as Azerbaijan and as far south as central Sudan, in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Palest ...
,
Lomavren
Lomavren ( hy, Լոմավրեն ') is a nearly extinct mixed language spoken by the Lom people, that arose from language contact between a language related to Romani and Domari and the Armenian language.
Names
The language is also known as '' ...
, and
Seb Seliyer (or at least their ancestors) appear to be Central Zone languages that migrated to the
Middle East and
Europe ca. 500–1000 CE in three distinct waves.
Parya is a Central Zone language of Central Asia.
To Western Hindi ''
Ethnologue'' adds
Sansi,
Bagheli, Chamari (a
spurious language
Spurious languages are languages that have been reported as existing in reputable works, while other research has reported that the language in question did not exist. Some spurious languages have been proven to not exist. Others have very li ...
),
Bhaya,
Gowari
Gowari is an Indian caste of cattleman or herdsmen, predominantly living in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The number of scheduled tribal groups in India is more than 700. In which Gowari was also kept. In the censuses conducted ...
(not a separate language), and
Ghera.
Use in culturally non-Hindi regions
*
Urdu is the official language of
Pakistan. Although only the native language of 7% of the population, it is nearly universal as a second language among the literate.
*
Bombay Hindi
Bombay Hindi, also known as ''Bambaiya Hindi'' or ''Mumbaiya Hindi'', is the Hindi dialect spoken in Mumbai (Bombay), in the Konkan region of India. Its vocabulary is largely from Hindustani, additionally, it has the predominant substratum o ...
("Bombay Baat"), the dialect of the city of
Mumbai (Bombay); it is based on
Hindustani but heavily influenced by
Marathi. Technically it is a
pidgin, i.e. neither is it a native language of any people nor is it used in formal settings by the educated and upper social strata. However, it is often used in the films of Hindi cinema (
Bollywood
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
) because Mumbai is the base of the Bollywood film industry.
*
Dakhini
Deccani (also known as Deccani Urdu and Deccani Hindi). https://knowledgehubadda.blogspot.com/2022/02/blog-post_74.html? m=1 or Dakni, Dakhni, Dakhini, Dakkhani and Dakkani (, ''dekanī'' or , ''dakhanī''), is a variety of Hindustani spoken ...
, including
Hyderabadi Urdu
Hyderabadi ( ur, ) is a variety of Dakhini Urdu, spoken in areas of the former Hyderabad State, corresponding to the Indian state of Telangana, the Marathwada region of Maharashtra and the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka.
It is nativ ...
, and Bangalori Urdu, a dialect of Urdu spoken in the present areas of the erstwhile
Hyderabad State, and the historical
Deccan region. There is a small but distinct difference between Dakhini and standard
Hindustani, which is bigger the further south it is spoken.
*
Andaman Creole Hindi
Andaman Creole Hindi is a trade language of the Andaman Islands, spoken as a native language especially in Port Blair and villages to the south. Singh (1994) describes it as a creolization of Hindustani, Bengali and Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* ...
is a trade language of the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated fr ...
.
* Arunachali Hindi is a trade language of
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...
*
Haflong Hindi is a trade language of the areas adjacent to
Haflong in
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur t ...
*
Fiji Hindi is an
Eastern Hindi
The Central Indo-Aryan languages or Hindi languages are a group of related language varieties Spoken across North India and Central India. These language varieties form the central part of the Indo-Aryan language family, itself a part of the ...
lingua-franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
that developed among
Indo-Fijians
Indo-Fijians or Indian-Fijians (also known as Fiji Indians) are Fijian citizens of Indian descent, and include people who trace their ancestry to various regions of the Indian subcontinent.Girmit by Suresh Prasad Although Indo-Fijians constit ...
.
Comparison
The Delhi Hindustani pronunciations commonly have
diphthong
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
al realizations, ranging from to and from to , respectively, in Eastern Hindi varieties and many non-standard Western Hindi varieties.
References
Bibliography
*
{{Central Indo-Aryan languages
Indo-Aryan languages
Languages of India
North India