I. HISTORY AND LINGUISTICS CLASSIFICATION

A. History

It is very difficult to find out the number of languages spoken in the world. But it has been estimated to be more than three thousand. From the point of view of the sounds, grammar and words, all these languages are classified into several language families. There are twelve language families and Indo-European is one of the most important among them. It is the largest among the other families from the viewpoint of numbers, areas and literatures, etc. This is spread over India to Europe including most of the languages of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran, most of the part of Europe, some parts of America, and Australia. Some of the important languages are Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, English, French, German, Russian, Hindi, Bengali, etc.

Commercially India is one of the most interesting markets in Asia, and linguistically it is the most challenging because of the number of languages spoken. Hindi, the National language of India is regarded as one of the widespread language after English an Mandarin. Hindi belongs to the Indo-Aryan (Indic) languages, a sub-branch of Indo-Iranian. Hindi is a derogatory word, as Hindi and Urdu are different languages or Urdu is a dialect of Hindi. The history of Hindi language is very interesting.

The people from the Middle and West Asia used to come to India from the western frontier of India through the river Sindhu. And the people used to refer India as ‘Sindh’ by the name of the river Sindhu. Among these people, the Iranian and their neighbours could not pronounce ‘s’, so they used to pronounce ‘Sindh’ as ‘Hind’ and the people of India as ‘Hindu’.

The name Hindi was derived from the word ‘Hind’ with the Iranian suffix ‘ik’. Together, the words ‘Hind’ and ‘IK’ formed the word ‘Hindik’. After few decades, the final letter ‘k’ was removed and the people call it ‘Hindi’. So, the meaning of Hindi is ‘of the Hind or the Indian’. People of different countries use the word 'Hindi’ for the language of India.

Though, English enjoys the status of an associate language in India still Hindi is spoken as the mother tongue of more than 30% of the total population. The Indian Constitution considers it as one of the scheduled language. It is the National language of India apart from English. From the point of view of Typology and Area, Hindi is very much rich. Like most of the Indo-Aryan languages, Hindi has the Subject – Object – Verb (SOV) word order. Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language with about 487 million speakers. It is one of the official languages of India and is used as the language of administration, the media, education and literature in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Elsewhere in India, Hindi is used, along side English, as a second language.

Areal: Hindi is also spoken in Bangladesh, Belize, Botswana, Canada, Germany, Guyana, Kenya, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Suriname, Trinidad, Uganda, UAE, UK, USA, Yemen, Zambia. Hindi is closely related to Urdu, the main language of Pakistan, which is written with the Arabic script.

History of Hindi Language:

Hindi belongs to Indo-Aryan Family of languages, which is a subgroup of Indo-European. According to 1981 census, Hindi is spoke natively by 264,189,057 speakers which is the largest number of speakers of any languages in India (Koul, 1994).

The source of modern Hindi is Khariboli, which is direct descendant of Sauraseni, but having many other influences. Apart from the various Apabhramsas, Persian and Arabic have also influenced Khariboli as early as the 13th –14th centuries A.D. as certified by the verses of Amir Khusro. The growth of Urdu by the side of native Hindi resulted in mutual penetration, especially in the field of vocabulary. Many Urdu words found their way in the common spoken style of Hindi, but the grammatical core did not admit much change. With the establishment of British rule in India and the spread of English on a vast scale, Hindi was also influenced by English. On the other hand, with the renaissance movement all through the country in the last quarter of the 19th century, when a Hindi got a new life, it began to draw words from Sanskrit. During the period of the freedom struggle, Mahatma Gandhi, with an idea of evolving a widely acceptable common medium, advocated the development of a simple style of the language, which would absorb simple and commonly used elements of both Urdu and Sanskrit but avoid highly literary words. This was called Hindustani, while the style with Sanskrit leaning was continued to be called Hindi. As the vehicle of analytical through, the elite language has a predominantly Sanskrit vocabulary. Not only Sanskrit words find abundant use in this style to the exclusion of Persion, Arabic and even native Hindi words, but also the derivational and morphophonemic changes are effected to a large extent on the basis of Sanskrit grammar.

2. Script/Scripts used to document the language

The origin of most of the scripts for the Indic languages can be traced to the Brahmi script, which is of the North Semitic Derivation. Devanagari, a development of Brahmi, is used for Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi, Nepali, Kashmiri and the Prakrits. Hindi uses the Devanagari writing system, and the formal vocabulary is borrowed from Sanskrit, de-Persianized and de-Arabicized.

Hindi has 54 alphabets in all including the vowels (14) and the consonants (33). They are given below.

Vowels

अ a	आ  ā	इ i	ई   ī	उ u	ऊ  ū	ए  ē	ऐ  ai	ओ  ō	औ au	ऋ  ṛ

Other symbols are

	अं	aṅ	anusvaara – nasalised vowel 
	अँ	aṃ	chandrabindu / anunāsika – nasalised vowel 
	अः	aḥ	visarga – which adds voiceless breath after vowel

Consonants:

			 
क 	ka	ख 	kha	ग 	ga	घ 	gha	ङ 	ṅa 
च 	ca	छ 	cha	ज 	ja	झ 	jha	ञ 	na 
ट 	ṭa	ठ 	ṭha	ड	ḍa	ढ	ḍha	ण	ṇa 	
त 	ta	थ	tha	द	da	ध	dha	न	na
प	pa	फ	pha	ब	ba	भ	bha	म	ma
य	ya	र	ra	ल	la	व	va	श	śa 	
ष	ṣa	स	sa	ह	ha

Additional Consonants

क़	qa	ख़	kha	ग़	ga	ज़	za	ड़	ṛa	
ढ़	ṛha	फ़	fa

Matras

a	ā	i	ī	u	ū	ṛ	ē	ai	ō	au

Numerals

०	१	२	३	४	५	६	७	८	९	१०
śuna  	ek	do	tīn	cār	pāmc	cha.h	sāt	āt	nau	das

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10

3.Stages of development

Brief History of Hindi in a Chronological Order:

Hindi started to emerge as Apabhramsha in the 7th century and by the 10 century it become stable. Several dialects of Hindi have been used in literature. Braj was the popular literary dialect until it was replaced by Khari Boli in the 19th century.

Background:

The period of Prakrits and Classical Sanskrit (dates are approximate):

  • 750BC: Gradual emergence of post-vedic Sanskrit
  • 500BC: Prakrit texts of Buddhists and Jains originate (Eastern India)
  • 400BC: Panini composes his Sanskrit grammar (Western India), reflecting transition from Vedic to Paninian Sanskrit
  • 322BC: Brahmi script inscriptions by Mauryas in Prakrit (Pali)
  • 250BC: Classical Sanskrit emerges. [Vidhyanath Rao] 100BC-100BC: Sanskrit gradually replaces Prakrit in inscriptions.
  • 320BC: The Gupta or Siddha-matrika script emerges.

Apabhranshas and emergence of old Hindi:

  • 400: Apabhransha in Kalidas’s Vikramorvashiyam
  • 550: Dharasena of Valabhi’s inscription mention Apabhramsha Literature
  • 779: Regional languages mentioned by Udyotan Suri in “Kuvalayamala”
  • 769: Siddha Sarahpad composes Dohakosh, considered the First Hindi poet
  • 800: Bulk of the Sanskrit literature after this time is commentaries.
  • 933: Shravakachar of Devasena, Considered the first Hindi Book
  • 1100: Modern Devanagari script emerges
  • 1145-1229: Hemachadra writes on Apabhransha Grammar

Decline of Apabhransha and emergence of modern Hindi:

  • 1283: Khusro’s pahelis and mukaris. Uses term “Hindavi”
  • 1398-1518: Kabir’s works mark origin of “Nirguna-Bhaki” period
  • 1370: Love-story period originated by “Hansavali” of Asahat
  • 1400-1479:Raighu: last of the great Apabhramsha poets
  • 1450: “Saguna Bhakti” period starts with Ramananda
  • 1580: Early Dakkhini work “Kalmitul-hakayat” of Burhanuddin Janam
  • 1585: “Bhaktamal” of Nabhadas: an account of Hindi Bhakta-poets
  • 1601: “Ardha-Kathanak” by Banarasidas, first autobiography in Hindi
  • 1604: “Adi-Granth” a compilation of works of many poets by Guru Arjan Dev.
  • 1532-1623: “Tulsidas, author of “Ramacharita Manasa”.
  • 1623: “Gora-badal ki katha” of Jatmal, first book in Khari Boli dialect (now the standard dialect)
  • 1643: “Reeti” poetry tradition commences according to Ramachandra Shukla
  • 1645: Shahjehan builds Delhi fort, language in the locality starts to be termed urdu.
  • 1667-1707: Vali’s compositions become popular, Urdu starts replacing Farsi among Delhi nobility. It is often called “Hindi” by Sauda, Meer etc.
  • 1600-1825: Poets (Bihari to Padmakar) supported by rulers of Orchha and other domains.

Modern Hindi literature emerges:

  • 1796: Earlist type-based Devanageri printing (John Gilchrist, Grammar of the Hindoostanee Language, Calcutta) [Dick Plukker]
  • 1805: Lallo Lal’s Premsagar published for Fort William College, Calcutta.
  • 1813-46: Maharaja Swati Tirunal Rama Varma (Travancore) composed verses in Hindi along with South Indian languages.
  • 1826: “Udanta Martanda” Hindi weekly from Calcutta
  • 1837: Phullori, author of “Om Jai Jagdish Hare” born
  • 1839, 1847: “History of Hindi Literature” by Garcin de Tassy in French {Daisy Rockwell]
  • 1833-86: Gujarati Poet Narmad proposed Hindi as India’s national language
  • 1850: The term “Hindi” no longer used for what is now called “Urdu”.
  • 1854: Samachar Sudhavarshan” Hindi daily from Calcutta
  • 1873: Mahendra Bhattachary’s “Padarth-vigyan” (Chemistry) in Hindi
  • 1877: Novel “Bhagyavati” by Shraddharam Phullori
  • 1886: “Bharatendu period” of modern Hindi literature starts
  • 1893: Founding of the Nagari Pracharni Sabha in Benares [Daisy Rockwell]
  • 1900: “Dvivedi period” start. Nationalist writings
  • 1900: “Indumati” story by Kishorilal Goswami in “Sarasvati”
  • 1913: “Raja Harishchandra” first Hindi movie by Dadasaheb Phalke
  • 1918-1938: “Chhayavad period”
  • 1918: “Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachara Sabha” founded by Gandhi.
  • 1929: “History of Hindi Literature “ by Ramachandra Shukla
  • 1931: “Alam Ara” firs Hindi talking movie
  • 1930’s: Hindi typewriters (“Nagari lekhan Yantra”) [Shailendra Mehta]

Our age:

  • 1949: Official Language Act makes the use of Hindi in Central Government Offices mandatory
  • 1949-50: Hindi accepted as the “official language of the Union” in the constitution.
  • 1952: The Basic Principle Committee of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan recommends that Urdu be the state language.
  • 1965: Opposition to “Hindi-imposition” in Tamilnadu brings DMK to power.
  • 1975: English medium private schools starts asserting themselves socially, politically, financially
  • 1985-6: Devanagari word processor, Devyani DTP software, both Form Data flow (?).
  • 1987-88: Frans Velthuis creates Devanagari metafont. [Shailendra Mahta]
  • 1990: According to World Almanac and Book of Facts Hindi-Urdu has passed English (and Spanish) to become the second most widely spoken language in the world
  • 1991: ITRANS encoding scheme developed by Avinash Chopde allows Hindi documents in Roman and Devanagari on the Internet.
  • 1995: Movie “Hum Aapke Hain Kaun” biggest grosser ever
  • 1997: Prime Minister Deve Gowda emphasises promotion of Hindi and the regional languages, having himself learned Hindi recently.
  • 1997: Hindi Newspaper Nai Dunia on the web (January) (Or was Milap first?)
  • 1998: Karunanithi, the DMK leader, recites a Hindi verse during a political campaign, indicating a change in views.
  • 1998: Sonia Gandhi’s Hindi lessons attract attention. Evolution of Hindi: From ‘boli’ (dialect) to ‘rashtrabhasha’ or ‘rajbhasha’ (National-Official Language)

Hindi is a modern Indo-Aryan language (belonging to the family of greater Indo-European languages) and is a descendent of Sanskrit, the earliest speech of the Aryan settlers in the north-west frontiers of India. Passing through various stages of evolution over the period of time – from Classical Sanskrit to Pali-Prakrit and Apabhransha, the emergence of Hindi in its earliest form can be traced back to the 10th century A.D. Hindi, sometimes, is also referred to as Hindavi, Hindustani and Khari-Boli. Hindi written in Devanagari script (which is the most scientific writing system among the existing writing systems of the world) is the National Official language of the Republic of India and is ranked as the third most widely spoken languages of the world (Bhatia 1996). In addition, Hindi is also the state language of the state of Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Approximately six hundred million people across the globe speak Hindi as either a first or second language. The literary history of Hindi can be traced back to the twelfth century and in its modern incarnation Hindi has an approximately three hundred year old, well attested rich literary and grammatical tradition.

Three distinct phases in the development of Indo-Aryan languages have been suggested by the scholars. They are: 

	(a)	the Ancient (2400BC – 500 BC),
	(b)	the Medieval (500BC – 1100 AD) and 
	(c)	the Modern (1100 onwards).

The ancient period is the period of the Vedic and Classical Sanskrit which resulted in the evolution of Pali, Prakrit and Apabhransha language during the medieval period. Most of the modern Indo-Aryan languages of South Asia, like Hindi, Bangla, Oriya, Gujarati, Nepali, Marathi, Panjabi, evolved in the ‘modern’ period.

It is very difficult to say as to when exactly Hindi as a language came into picture and scholars are divided in their opinion on this issue. But the trace of Hindi is obvious in the language of the Siddh saints of century 8-9 AD. Noted Hindi scholar Acharya Ramchandra Shukla begins his description of the history of Hindi literature (‘Hindi Sahitya ka Itihas’) In order to make their teaching easily understandable to the common ordinary people, the kind of language Siddha saints used is can undoubtedly be called the one of the authentic earliest forms of Hindi. We can also find the glimpse of early Hindi in the language of the Jain poets (like Hemchandra and Dharma Suri), Vidyapati, Abdurrehman Khankhana and Swayambhu. The more established form of Hindi (the ‘khari boli’) is visible in the creations of Sharfuddin, Khusro, Banda Niwaz Gailurdaz, Wjahi Ali, Sultan Kuli Qutabshah, and Shah Turab etc.

The modern Hindi and its literary tradition evolved towards the end of the 18th century. Fort William College was established in Calcutta by the British East India Company (we need not discuss the reasons for the establishment of the this educational institution here). The principle of this college John Gilchrist wrote a grammar of and compiled a dictionary of Hindi to teach and train the BEIC employees the Hindi language. Some newspapers and journals were published in Hindi around that time, many of them were first Hindi newspaper ‘Udant Martanda’ was published in 1826 from Calcutta. At the same time, authors like Raja Shivprasad Sitare Hind and Raja Lakshman Singh had established new trends in Hindi literature. Later on, Hindi became the national symbol in the fight against the British colonial rule. Many Indian leaders (including Gandhiji), revolutionaries, poet and reformists resorted to Hindi to propagate their ideology.

After independence (Aug 15, 1947), the new constitution was adopted in India on January 26, 1950 which granted to Hindi the status of the Official language of the Republic of India. Today Hindi is world’s third most spoken language and is spreading all over the world. In the era of technological advancements and the ‘global village’, Hindi assumes much importance as it is spoken by a large number of people all across the globe. With liberalized economy and opening of the Indian frontiers to the world market, there is increased interest in the learning and teaching of Hindi.

The Hindi Language:

Hindi is one of the most widely spoken languages of the world, possessing speakers of the same order of magnitude as those of English and Russian. In India it has been accorded the status of “Official Language” and, along with English, is recognized by the Central Government for use for most administrative purposes. It is spoken natively by at least 150 million persons in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar as a second language by a like number in other states of North India. It is also an official language of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh, as well as of the Delhi Union territory. Urdu, a language so closely tongue, is spoken by tens of millions, either as a first or second language, both in Pakistan and India. Members of the emigrant Indian communities the world over use Hindi as a lingua Franca. Hindi enjoys some order of official status in countries as diverse as Fiji, Mauritius, and Huyana.

4.Change of Status/Course due to important event like linguistic state organization:

The Linguistic Status of Hindi:

Hindi belongs to the Indo-Aryan Family of languages, a subgroup of the Indo-European family. It is thus related to such European languages as English, French, German, Russian, etc. The modern Indo-Aryan languages, including Such standardized literary languages as Bengali, Marathi, Konkani, Punjabi, Assamese, Oriya, Nepali, Sinhala (Sinhalese), Sindhi, Kashmiri, Urdu, and Hindi, are historically derived from Sanskrit, the most important vehicle of communication of classical Indian civilization. These modern Indo-Aryan languages stand in approximately the same relation to Sanskrit as do the modern Romance languages (i.e. French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Rumanian, etc.) to Latin. With the exception of Sinhala, spoken in Sri Lanka, the Indo-Aryan languages are spread over approximately the northern two-thirds of the Indian subcontinent. Languages of the Dravidian family, genetically unrelated to those of the Indo-Aryan family, are the primary standardized vernaculars of the remaining third of the subcontinent. The most important of these languages are Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam.

Dialects of Hindi:

In its spoken forms Hindi encompasses a wide range of dialects. Roughly, speaking, these varieties can be divided into ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’ groups, with the former including Braj (Western Uttar Pradesh and adjaccent districts of Haryana, Rajsthan and Madhya Pradesh), Bundeli (North-central Madhya Pradesh and South western Uttar Pradesh), Kanauji (West-central Uttar Pradesh), Bangru (Haryana) and Hindustani (Delhi and its environs), and the latter including Avadhi (north-central Uttar Pradesh), and Chattisgarhi (Chattisgarha). In addition to these western and eastern Hindi dialects, there are several other speech forms that, although counted by some as varieties of Hindi, are properly considered distinct languages. These include a number of Rajasthani languages (of which Marwari is the most widely spoken) and the so-called ‘Bihari’ languages, Maithili, and Bhojpuri, of eastern Uttar Pradesh, western and central Bihar and the Tarai in Nepal.

The standardized form of Hindi, commonly referred to as khaRI bolI (literally standard language), has a somewhat complex history. Before the end of the 19th century Hindi literary works were for the most part written in normalized forms of regional vernaculars. Tulsidas and Surdas, two of Hindi’s greatest medieval devotional poets, wrote in old forms of Avadhi and Braj respectively. The modern standard language (as proposed to regional vernacular or literary dialects) arose through the infusion of considerable external (i.e. non-Hindi) vocabulary into a grammatical skeleton based on the vernacular dialect spoken in the Delhi area. Such non-Hindi vocabulary has included forms from such diverse languages as Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Portuguese and English. Beginning in the 19th century a heavily Sanskritized forms of Hindi, often referred to as ‘suddh’ (or pure) Hindi, began to come into existence. It is this form of Hindi, written in the devanagari writing system, that has been promulgated by the Government of India and that is taught in formal courses of study in India.

Hindi, Urdu and Hindustani:

The terms ‘Urdu’ and Hindustani’ are unfortunately, often used interchangeably with ‘Hindi’, leading to considerable confusion. Urdu, like Hindi is based on the grammar of the vernacular dialect of the Delhi area. Its vocabulary, however, has been enriched by borrowings from Persian and Arabic. In contrast to Hindi, it is written in a form of Arabic script. Whereas devanagari is written from left to tight, Urdu is written from right to left. Literary Urdu can differ quite markedly from literary Hindi. In its most formal varieties the former employees a highly Islamicized vocabulary and may also use a limited set of Persian or Arabic grammatical constructions. Formal Hindi, by contrast, can be extremely Sanskritized, drawing from the rich vocabulary of Sanskrit and employing Sanskrit word building devices such as prefixes, suffixes, and other grammatical markers.

The term Hindustani, easily confusable with Hindi, is used in many different, and often contradictory, senses. The most generally accepted of these is a vernacular speech form that is neither excessively Sanskritized nor Islamicized. Hindustani’s vocabulary consists of a core of ‘native’ lexical items, as well as a number of forms drawn from either the Sanskritic or the Perso-Arabic lexica. It is this Hindustani that is employed by the vast majority of either Hindi or Urdu speakers for conversational purposes. Hindustani is readily understandable both by individuals who use suddh Hindi dor formal written communication and by those who use literary Urdu. Colloquial industani can be easily written in either devanagari or in Urdu script. Since the partition of India in 1947, it has been increasingly common for the citizens of India to write in devanagari and for those of Pakistan to write I Urdu script. Even in India, however, many individuals, particularly those who received their education before the 1950’s or who identify their mother tongues as Urdu continue to write Hindustani in the Urdu script. In Pakistan, Urdu or Hindustani is written almost exclusively in the Urdu script.

In recent years Hindi has come to enjoy a position of preeminence among South Asian vernacular languages. It has become widely studied throughout India as a result of official efforts in its behalf. Except for English, it is the most commonly employed lingua franca in the subcontinent. Hindi films, manufactured in great number in Mumbai, are widely shown in India and to overseas Indian communities. Hindi film songs are enjoyed by hundreds of millions of Indians, and even by the speakers of non-Indian languages, throughout the world. Hindi is an important medium for publication of all kinds, from popular novels to literary works and text books. In recent years foreign literature has been extensively translated into Hindi.

Strata of Hindi Vocabulary:

The vocabulary of Modern Standard Hindi is both rich and diverse. It draws from the vast lexical resources of Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Portuguese, English, and other languages with which Hindi has come into contact. Indian grammarians have found it useful to classify some of the different types of vocabulary items that coexist in the language. Those words that are borrowed directly from Sanskrit with little or no phonetic alternation are classified as tatsama: e.g. paksi ‘bird’, jal ‘water’, karya ‘work, deed’, agni ‘Fire’. Items that are ultimately of Sanskrit origin but that have undergone continual phonetic change in the course of their historical evolution are designated as tadbhava, e.g. ag ‘fire’, sab ‘all’ (Sanskrit sarva), uccha ‘high, tall’ (Sanskrit ucca). The Indian grammarians also recognize a class of vocabulary items intermediate between tatsama and tadbhava forms. These words, categorized as arddha-tatsama (or half-tatsama), are direct borrowings from Sanskrit (as are tatsama forms), but show some degree of phonetic modification (like tadbhava vocabulary), e.g. agin ‘fire’ (Sanskrit agni), sanicar ‘Saturday’ (Sanskrit sanaiscara). The tatsama, ardha-tatsama, and tadbhava vocabularies of Hindi are historically Indi-Aryan, owing their origins to Sanskrit in one way or another. In this sense they contrast with borrowing from such non-Indo-Aryan languages as English, Portuguese, Persian, Turkish, and Arabic.

It is not uncommon to find in Hindi sets of synonyms or near-synonyms used for expressing a given concept. For instance, the notion ‘to wait’ can be translated into Hindi as pratiksa karna (literally ‘to do waiting) with the tatsama form pratiksa ‘waiting’, intazar karna (with the Arabic-derived noun intazar ‘waiting), or as the tadbhava verb thaharna. The English noun water is rendered into Hindi by the tadbhava form pani, by the tatsama word jal, by the Arabic ab, as well as by other words of more limited occurrence.

Description of the Hindi Sounds:

1. Velar Consonants:

All the velar consonants are made with the back of the tongue striking the back of the roof of the mouth (the velum). The velar consonants all share this tongue position but vary in other ways. This tongue position is very similar to the position of the English sound ‘k’.

  • /ka/ ↝ This differs from the English ‘k’ by having no aspiration (no puff of air following it). You can practice this by trying to make a ‘k’ whilst restraining your outward breath, making a sound a little bit like a ‘g’.
  • /kha/ ↝ This sound differs from the English ‘k’ by having a lot of aspiration (puff of air following it). You can practice this by trying to make a ‘k’ whilst breathing out heavily, which will sound like a breathy ‘ch’.
  • /ga/ ↝ This sound is very much similar to the English ‘g’.
  • /gha/ ↝ This sound differs from English ‘g’ by having a lot of aspiration (puff of air following it). You can practice this by trying to make a ‘g’ whilst breathing out heavily which will sound like a breathy ‘g’.
  • /am/ ↝ This is a nasal sound made with the tongue at the velar position. It sounds like the last sound of the English word ‘sing’.

II. Palatal Consonants:

All the palatal consonants are made with the top of the tongue striking the roof of the mouth (the palate). The palatal consonants all share this tongue position but vary in other ways. This tongue position is very similar to the position of the English sound ‘j’.

  • /cha/ ↝ This sound differs from the English ‘ch’ by having no aspiration (no puff of air following it). You can practice it by trying to make a ‘ch’ whilst restraining your outward breath which will sound like a ‘j’.
  • /chha/ ↝ This sound differs from the English ‘ch’ by having a lot of aspiration (puff of air following it). You can practice this by trying to make a ‘ch’ whilst breathing out heavily which will sound like a breathy ‘ch’.
  • /ja/ ↝ This sound is made at the palatal position described above and is similar to English ‘j’.
  • /jha/ ↝ This sound differs from English ‘j’ by having a lot of aspiration (puff of air following it). You can practice it by trying to make a ‘j’ whilst breathing out heavily which will sound like a breathy ‘j’.
  • /nya/ ↝ This sound differs from the English ‘j’ by having a lot of aspiration (puff of air following it). You can practice this by trying to make a ‘j’ whilst breathing out heavily which will sound like a breathy ‘j’.

III. Retroflex Consonants:

All the retroflex consonants are made with the very tip of the tongue fixed back against the palate. This means that the underside of the tip of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth.

  • /Ta/ ↝ This sound has no aspiration (no puff of air following it). You can practice this by restraining your outward breath as you produce this retroflex ‘t’ sound.
  • /Tha/ ↝ This sound has a lot of aspiration (putt of air following it). You can practice this by making a retroflex ‘Ta’ sound and breathing out heavily.
  • /Da/ ↝ This is a retroflex ‘d’ sound.
  • /Dha/ ↝ This is a retroflex ‘d’ sound with a puff of air following it.
  • /Na/ ↝ This is a nasal sound at the retroflex position. You can practice it by making an ‘n’ sound at the retroflex position.
  • /c÷/ ↝ This sound is made by flapping the tongue down from the retroflex position.
  • /gø/ ↝ This sound is made by flapping the tongue down from the retroflex position accompanied by a breath of air.

IV. Dental Consonants:

All the dental consonants are made with the very tip of the tongue between the two front teeth. The dental consonants all share this tongue position but vary in other ways. The English sound ‘th’ is a dental consonant.

  • /ta/ ↝ This sound differs from the English ‘t’ by having no aspiration (no puff of air following it). You can practice this by trying to make a dental ‘t’ whilst restraining your outward breath which will almost sound like a ‘d’.
  • /tha/ ↝ This sound differs from the English ‘p’ by having a lot of aspiration (puff of air following it). You can practice it by trying to make a ‘p’ whilst breathing out heavily which will sound like a breathy ‘p’.
  • /da/ ↝ This sound is made at the dental position described above and is similar to the English ‘d’.
  • /dha/ ↝ This sound differs from the English ‘d’ by having a lot of aspiration (puff of air following it). You can practice it by trying to make a dental ‘d’ whilst breathing out heavily to make a breathy ‘d’.
  • /na/ ↝ This is a dental nasal, which can be practiced by making a ‘n’ sound at the dental position.

V. Labial Consonants:

Labial consonants are made by contact of two lips. The labial consonants all share this tongue position but vary in other ways. The English sounds ‘p’, ‘b’, and ‘m’ are labial sounds.

  • /pa/ ↝ This sound differs from the English ‘p’ by having no aspiration (no puff of air following it). You can practice this by trying to make a ‘p’ whilst restraining your outward breath, which will almost make it sound.
  • /pha/ ↝ This sound differs from the English ‘p’ by having a lot of aspiration (puff of air following it). You can practice this by trying to make a ‘p’ whilst breathing out heavily which will sound like a breathy ‘p’.
  • /ba/ ↝ This sound is very much similar to English ‘b’
  • /bha/ ↝ This is an aspirated labial consonant.
  • /ma/ ↝ This sound is very much similar to the English ‘m’.

B. Linguistic Classification:

1. Genetic:

Genetically, Hindi is a New Indo Aryan language that has evolved from the Indo European through Indo Iranian.

2. Typological:

Typologically, Hindi is an in flexional analytic languages as well as agglutinative and isolating language.

3. Areal:

All over the world there are 495 million people who know hindi but in India the hindi speaking regions are Utterpradesh, Madhyapradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Himachalpradesh, Hariyana and Delhi.

Top
top

Copyright CIIL-India Mysore