Languages
If there can be considered a consensus within the dialectology of Hindi proper, it is that it can be split into two sets of dialects: Western and Eastern Hindi. Western Hindi evolved from the Apabhramsa form of Shauraseni Prakrit, Eastern Hindi from Ardhamagadhi.
- Western Hindi
- Braj (Braj Bhasha, Brajbhakha), spoken in western Uttar Pradesh and adjacent districts of Rajasthan and Haryana
- Haryanvi (Bangaru), spoken in the states of Haryana and Delhi.
- Bundeli (Bundelkhandi), spoken in west-central Madhya Pradesh.
- Kannauji, spoken in west-central Uttar Pradesh.
- Khari boli, the standard dialect, generally identified with the grammatical core of Kauravi (vernacular Hindustani), but displaying features of other dialects and adjacent languages, as well as non-Indo-Aryan languages such as Persian. It forms the basis of the Hindustani language, with its standard registers of Urdu and Modern Standard Hindi.
- Eastern Hindi
- Awadhi, spoken in north and north-central Uttar Pradesh and in Fiji (Fijian Hindi).
- Bagheli, spoken in north-central Madhya Pradesh and central Uttar Pradesh.
- Chattisgarhi, spoken in southeast Madhya Pradesh and northern and central Chattisgarh.
To Western HindiEthnologue 16 adds Sansi, Chamari, Bhaya (= Malvi?), Gowli (= Gowlan?), and Ghera (a Pakistani representative of an unidentified Indian language). Sansi is particularly close to Hindustani, but it's not clear the others are actually Central Zone.
Romani and Domari appear to be Central Zone languages that migrated to the Middle East and Europe ca. 500–1000 CE. Parya is a Central Zone language of Central Asia.
This analysis excludes varieties sometimes claimed for Hindi, such as Bihari, Rajasthani, and Pahari.
Read more about this topic: Hindi Languages
Famous quotes containing the word languages:
“I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigree of nations.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can’t pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as “exotic” but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)