Every year, on September 14th, India celebrates Hindi Diwas to commemorate the adoption of Hindustani, a dialect of Hindi, as the official language of India. It is a day to celebrate the beauty and richness of the Hindi language.
Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language that is spoken by approximately 260 million native speakers. It is the fourth most spoken language in the world and is used widely in India and the Indian diaspora. In addition to being a popular language in India, it has also become an important language for international communication.
To celebrate this special day, here are 5 interesting facts about the Hindi language you should know:
1. Hindi is believed to have originated around 1200 BCE with the formation of Sanskrit. Over time, various dialects of it developed, among which modern-day Hindi is one. The written form of Hindi began to emerge around 1000 CE with the emergence of the Devanagari script.
2. There are many dialects of Hindi, including Awadhi, Braj Bhasha, Bundelkhandi, Bhojpuri and Rajasthani. These dialects differ in pronunciation and intonation, but they all share the same written script.
3. Over time, Hindi has taken loanwords from many other languages, including English, Persian and Arabic. As a result, many words from these languages are now an integral part of Hindi vocabulary.
4. Many other Indian languages such as Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi and Punjabi are related to Hindi due to their common ancestry from Sanskrit. As such, many words in these languages are similar or even identical to those used in Hindi.
5. Due to Hindi's widespread use in India and its increasing role as an international language of communication, Hindi has become an important Lingua Franca for many countries in South Asia and the Middle East. Furthermore, it has had a major influence on other languages such as Urdu and Nepali.
These are just some of the interesting facts about the Hindi language that you should know on this day. So let’s take a moment to appreciate this beautiful language and all its nuances. Wishing everyone a very Happy Hindi Diwas.
