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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Asia > India > Hindi

Hindi

A language of India

ISO 639-3: hin

Population	180,000,000 in India (1991 UBS). Population total all countries: 181,676,620.
Region	Throughout north India: Delhi; Uttar Pradesh; Uttarakhand; Rajasthan; Punjab; Madhya Pradesh; northern Bihar; Himachal Pradesh. Also in Bangladesh, Belize, Bhutan, Botswana, Canada, Djibouti, Germany, Kenya, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Yemen, Zambia.
Alternate names	Khadi Boli, Khari Boli
Dialects	Formal vocabulary borrowed from Sanskrit, de-Persianized, de-Arabicized. Literary Hindi, or Hindi-Urdu, has 4 varieties: Hindi (High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, Literary Hindi, Standard Hindi); Urdu; Dakhini; Rekhta. “Hindustani”, though not listed separately in India, refers here to the unofficial lingua franca of northwest India. Has a lexical mixture in varying proportions of Hindi (vocabulary derived from Sanskrit) and Urdu (vocabulary derived from Persian or Arabic).
Classification	Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Central zone, Western Hindi, Hindustani
Language use	Official language. 120,000,000 L2 speakers (Wiesenfeld 1999).
Language development	Fully developed. Bible: 1818–2000.
Writing system	Devanagari script.
Comments	Hindi, Hindustani, Urdu could be considered co-dialects, but have important sociolinguistic differences. SOV. Hindu.

Also spoken in:

Nepal

Language name	Hindi
Population	106,000 in Nepal (2001 census).
Region	South strip of low country.
Language map	Western Nepal, reference number 39
Language use	Language of wider communication. 489,578 L2 speakers in Nepal (1991 census).
Comments	Hindu.

South Africa

Language name	Hindi
Population	361,000 in South Africa (2003).
Region	Mainly Natal.
Comments	Has features of Bhojpuri [bho] in South Africa. Hindu.

Uganda

Language name	Hindi
Population	2,200 in Uganda (1994).
Comments	Migrated to Uganda in the early 20th century. Hindu.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

BAILEY, T., author. Available: 2012; Created: 2005-12. Reading in Hindi and Telugu: observations from the EVS technique.

EATON, Robert D., author. 2012. Predicate nominal constructions in Pahari languages.

JOHN, Matthews, author. 2008. "Jaunsari: a sociolinguistic survey."