Hindi (Central Zone) |
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Madhya | |
Geographic distribution |
South Asia |
Linguistic classification |
Indo-European
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Subdivisions |
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Glottolog |
None west2812 (Western Hindi) east2726 (Eastern Hindi) |
The Central Zone or Madhya languages are the central varieties of the Hindi Belt, spoken across northern India, of the Indo-Aryan languages. It is a dialect continuum that descends from the Madhya Prakrits. The Western Hindi languages include Hindustani, of which Modern Standard Hindi and Urdu, are mutually intelligible standardizations of the Khariboli dialect, the prestige dialect of Hindustani. The coherence of this group depends on the classification being used; here only Eastern and Western Hindi will be considered.
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 Apabhramsa form of Shauraseni Prakrit, Eastern Hindi from Ardhamagadhi.
Romani, Domari, Lomavren, 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, Powari, Chamari (a spurious language), Bhaya, Gowli (not a separate language), and Ghera.