Hindi (disambiguation)

• Hindi is the name of an Indo-Aryan language or languages descended from Sanskrit, defined with various degrees of scope:

• In the narrowest and in English perhaps most common sense, Hindi is Modern Standard Hindi, a literary style and standardized register of Hindustani.

• In a slightly broader sense, Hindi is spoken Hindustani, as used for example in Hindi Cinema (Bollywood). In this sense Hindi is essentially the same as Urdu.

Hindustani proper (red), including Khari Boli and Kauravi. Dark grey are the other Indo-Aryan languages.

• In an intermediate sense, Hindi is the Central Zone dialects of Western Hindi (including Hindustani) and Eastern Hindi (including Fijian Hindi).

An intermediate scope: Hindi languages (Indic Central Zone)

Western Hindi, including Braj Bhasha, Haryanvi, Bundeli, Bagheli, Awadhi and Kannauji

• In the widest sense, "Hindi" covers the language varieties of the so-called Hindi belt: Western Hindi, Eastern Hindi, Bihari (including Caribbean Hindustani but sometimes excluding Bhojpuri and Maithili), Pahari (excluding Nepali and in recent years Dogri), and often Rajasthani.

The broadest scope: the Hindi belt

Historical Usage

• Historically, Hindi may refer to any Central-Zone Indic literary dialect (Khari Boli), including Urdu, Braj Bhasha, and Awadhi.

Other Usages

The term Hindi may also refer to:

• Bombay Hindi
• Haflong Hindi
• Fiji Hindi
• Urdu (in Malaysia)
• Caribbean Hindustani

The word Hindi is cognate with Hindu, India, Indus and Sindh.

See also

• History of Hindustani
• Hindi literature
• Hindi cinema