Hindi | |
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Hindī |
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The word "Hindi" in Devanagari script
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Pronunciation | Hindustani pronunciation: [ˈɦin̪d̪iː] |
Native to | Northern India |
Native speakers
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260 million (2001) L2 speakers: 120 million (1999) |
Early forms
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Sauraseni Prakrit
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Devanagari Devanagari Braille |
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Signed Hindi | |
Official status | |
Official language in
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India Fiji |
Recognised minority
language in |
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Regulated by | Central Hindi Directorate |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | hi |
ISO 639-2 |
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ISO 639-3 |
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Linguist list
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hin-hin |
Glottolog | hind1269 |
Linguasphere | 59-AAF-qf |
Areas (red) where Hindustani (Khariboli/Kauravi) is the native language, compared to all Indo-Aryan languages (dark grey)
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Hindi (Devanagari: , IAST: Hindī), or Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: मानक हिन्दी, IAST: Mānak Hindī) is a standardised and Sanskritised register of the Hindustani language. Along with the English language, Hindi written in the Devanagari script, is the official language of the Government of India. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India.
Hindi is the lingua franca of the so-called Hindi belt of India. Outside India, it is an official language in Fiji, and is a recognised regional language in Mauritius, Suriname, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Hindi is the fourth most-spoken first language in the world, after Standard Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and English. Apart from specialized vocabulary, Hindi is mutually intelligible with Standard Urdu, another recognized register of Hindustani.