Bombay Hindi, also known as ''Bambaiya Hindi'' or ''Mumbaiya Hindi'',
is the
Hindi
Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
dialect spoken in
Mumbai (Bombay), in the
Konkan region of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
Its vocabulary is largely from Hindustani,
additionally, it has the predominant
substratum of
Marathi-Konkani, which is the official language and is also widely spoken in the
Konkan division
The Konkan division is one of the six administrative divisions of Maharashtra state in India. It comprises the northern and central portions of the greater Konkani region, which were absorbed into Maharashtra owing to the States Reorganisat ...
of Maharashtra.
Bombay Hindi also has elements of
Gujarati
Gujarati may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India
* Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat
* Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them
* Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...
.
General
While many such local dialects have evolved in cosmopolitan cities around the world, Bombay Hindi is widely known throughout India, as a result of its frequent use in
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 ...
movies. Initially, this dialect was used to represent crooks and uncouth characters as, to quote film critic Shoma A. Chatterji, "Indian films have the unique quality of different characters speaking different varieties of Hindi according to their social status, their caste, communal identity, Education in India, education, profession, financial status, etc. [...] The villain's goons, speak in a special vulgarised, Bambaiya Hindi concocted specifically to typify such screen characters in Hindi cinema.". Lately, however, Bambaiya Hindi has become popular and prominent, particular with the success of the Munnabhai movies, in which the lead characters – being members of the Mumbai underworld, Mumbai criminal underworld – speak entirely in this dialect.
Despite this increase in popularity, this dialect has its critics, and is sometimes seen as being disrespectful and demeaning.
Among the more prominent neologisms which originated in Bambaiya Hindi but have spread throughout India are the words wikt:bindaas, bindaas (from Marathi language, Marathi bindhast = without fear, relaxed; this word was incorporated into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2005
[Indian Express, 10 August 2005, '' 'Bindaas' finds its way to the Oxford Dictionary'']
Read online
.) and Gandhigiri (coined in the movie ''Lage Raho Munna Bhai'', a combination of Mohandas Gandhi, Gandhi and ''-giri'', which is similar to the English 'ism' (as in Gandhism, Gandhi-ism), though slightly more informal).
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 ...
has also incorporated many Marathi words in Hindi like thaska, wakda, porgi, navri, navrai, kombdi, mulga/mulgi. Many Hindi songs have some Marathi words added.
Words and expressions of Mumbai Hindi
See also
* Tapori (word)
References
External links
Dialects of HindiMetroblogging Mumbai DictionaryExhaustive List of Bambaiyya Hindi WordsList of Bambaiyya Idioms, Phrases and Expressions
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Hindi languages
Languages of India
Culture of Mumbai
Indian slang
City colloquials
Hindustani-based pidgins and creoles