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Pakistani Defence Forum _ Social & Political Issues Forum _ The Hindustani, Or Hindi, Language

Posted by: Watan-e-Azeem Nov 9 2004, 04:54 AM

The Hindustani, or Hindi, Language
The Greatest Islamic Language in the World

The Hindustani Language, also known as Hindi in short, is the thrid most widely used language in the world and the most widely spoken Islamicate language. It arose during the Islamic Sultanate of Delhi and spread when the Sultanate expanded. It is characterised by extremely simple grammar, the Arabic script and and Islamicate vocabulary.

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The basic section ends here. The advanced section follows below.

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The Hindustany or Hindi Language,
The Greatest Islamicate Language in the World
Table of Contents
1. Dialects of Hindustany
2. Linguistic Characteristics
2.1 Arabic Script
2.2 Grammar
2.3 Islamicate Vocabulary
2.4 Islamic Phonology
3. Historical Development
4. Literature
Appendix I - Full List of Dialects
Appendix II - Sanskrit Origin Impossible
Appendix III - Number of Speakers of Islamic Languages
Appendix IV - History of Hindi
1. Dialects of Hindy
2. Liguistic Characteristics

2.1 Arabic Script
The script utilised for Hindi is the Arabic script.

2.2 Grammar
The grammar of Hindustani is especially simple, consisting of only two cases.

2.3 Islamicate Vocabulary
The vocabulary is 80 % of Islamicate origin, being loand from Arabic, Pharsi and Turkish. Pure Hindustani words account for 10 %, while Sanskrit account for another 10 %.

2.4 Islamic Phonology
Islamicate sounds such as `z', `kh', `gh', `q', and `w' which are absent in Indo-Aryan languages, are part of the Hindustani alphabet. Sanskrit sounds such as `ksh' `sh' the different types of n. the differect `d's, t, d-r etc. are omitted.

3. Historical Development
4. Literature
Appendix I : Full List of Dialects
The full list of dialects and sub-dialects is as follows:
Punjabi
Sharqi of East Bengal
Rohilli
Awadhi
Deccani or Dakhini (Gulbargi, Hyderabadi)
Sindi
Kohistani (incl. Kashmiri)
Sharq in general applied to the East of India, eg. the Delhi Sultan made the Sultan of Jaunpur `Nizam as Sharqi', king of the whole East. It is east both for North Indians as well as Hindu West Bengalis. Sharqi is the Islamic language in general use by half the population of Bangaldesh. It is not to be confused with Vangi or Bengali, the Sanskrit-based language of the Hindus.

Awadhi is not to be confused with Ayodhyi, which is a Sanskrit-derived Prakrit. In like manner Sindi is not to be confused with Saindhava, a Prakrit with its own script in use among non-Muslim Sindis.

Appendix II : Sanskrit Origin Impossible
Sanskrit is not the mother of Hindi. This is a false myth propagated by Nehru and Gandhi. Sanskrit has 8 cases, Hindi only 2. Hindi grammar is much simpler than Sanskrit, but due to Sanskritization it is made artificially difficult. Sanskrit is a primitive language, one word meaning several things and many words meaning teh same thing. It is also highly inflected, just as the languages of primitive peoples. The number of letters of the Devanagari alphabet are also unneccessarily more and more complex. When printed they occupy more space and reading and writing is much slower, because the Brahmins had nothing better to do. It should be abolished and replaced by either the Arabic or Latin alphabets. [ MadanGopal 99ff.]
Appendix III : Number of Speakers of Islamic Languages
The most widely spoken world languages are given as follows by Chatterji:
North Chinese
English
Hindustani
Spanish
Russian
German
Japanese
Indonesian or Malay
Bengali
French
Arabic
-- [ Chat. 145 ]
Appendix IV - History of Hindi
The origin of Urdu, the precursor of Hindi or Hindustani, lies at the start of the establishment of the Indo-Islamic Empire under Mahmud of Ghazni.
` Tilak, the son of Jai Sen ... studied (p.253) in Kashmir, [then worked as an] interpreter first to Kadi Shirazi Bulhasan Ali, a high civil officer under Mahumd and masud (Elliott ii.117,123), then to Ahmad Ibn Hasan of Maimand, who was grand vizier, 1007 AD-25 ... and then 1030-1033 under Mahmud and Masud, and rose afterwards to be a commanding officer in the army (Elliott ii.125-127). This class of men spoke and wrote Hindi (of course with Arabic characters) and Persian (perhaps also Turkish, as this language prevailed in the army), and it is probably in these circles that we must look for the origin of Urdu or Hindustani. The first author who wrote in this language, the Dante of Muhammedan India, is one Masud, who died a little more than a century after the death of King Mahmud (525AH=1131 AD), cf A.Springer, `Catalogue of the Arabic, Persian and Hindustani manuscripts of the libraries of the King of Oudh' Calc.1854 pp.407,485. If we had any of the Hindi writings of those times, they would probably exhibit the same kind of Indian speech as found in Alberuni's book'
-- [ al-Bir ii p.258 ]
Here once again we see that Hindi arose out of the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni and is hence not of 18th century origin as some scholars claim.
`The birth of Urdu language was the direct result of the synthesis between the invading armies of Mahmud of Ghazni with the civilian population of the indian cities. The word Urdu itself means Lashkar, derived from teh Turkish language meanign armies... In the south of India it flourished under the name of Dakhani and southwest as Gurjari while in Delhi its name changed from Hindi to hindavi and Hindustani. The people of Delhi have called it Delhvi or Zuban-e-Delhvi or Urdu-e-Mualla. There are various theories where exactly it was born, One theory is that it originated in basti Nizamuddin of Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusrau. Another theory is that it was born in the seminary of Baba Shaikh Farid at Pak Patan in the 13th century and its old name is Multani or Old Lahori... When Babur came to India, he did not find anything exclusively Hindu or exclusivley muslim. He talked of the Hindustani way of life.'
-- [Khullar]
Incontestible evidence of a Hindustani author is Malik Muhammed Jaisi.
` He [ Malik Muhammed Jainsi ] is the oldest verse poet of Hindi of whose works we have uncontested evidence.'
[ Ashraf 118 ]
Later, during the medieval period, Urdu-spaeking areas were denoted Hindustan.
` I have polished the Urdu language
And made Bengal a Hindustan '
-- [ Amman Prologue xi ]
Punjabi is a dialect of Hindustani and thus Punjab is included within the real Hindustan (India north of the Narmada).
` If more than 60% of the words are common in Punjabi and Urdu (Shriram 1928:67) it is due to the influence of Persian'
[ Zaidi 103,116 ]
Hindustani is essentially a simplified form of Urdu, and has been generally considered as such. It was adopted by the non-Muslims (erroneously referred to as Hindus) also -
` Mr. John Gilchrist ... , kindly urged me to render this tale into pure Hindustani which the Urdu people, the Hindus and the Muslims, men and women, young and old, and high and low use in common parlance. As desired by him, I have written it in the conversational style.'
-- [ Amman Prologue xiv ]
Even during the end of the colonial era the Muslims supported the Hindustani language. Only under pressure from Hindu fundamentalists, who wanted Khari Boli declared official language, did the Muslims then press for the purer (since containing less Sanskrit) Urdu.
` But the Muslims objected to Hindi being the national language. Hindustani, they said, must be the national language...(p.72) but htis was not enough. Urdu, it was claimed, must be the national language.'
[Munshi 71]
Hindi and Urdu are one language, and not separate.
Urdu was known in its initial stages as Hindi or the language of Hind or India, ie. North India, and also as Hindawi or Hindwi, the langugae of the Indians. It also acquired the name of Hindustani, first among the people of the Deccan, as a language diffferent from Dakhni or its sister dialect in the Deccan ... This language, as was current in and around Delhi, aminly adopted the grammar of the East Punjab and Delhi area. With the spread of the Sufis to ... Gujarat and the Deccan, this new Indian language also travelled to different corneres of the country and accepted freely various regional and local influences, so that the incipient Urdu language ... was called Gurjari, Dakhni or Dekhani according to the region concerned ... The literary speech that developed in the south came to be called Dakhni or Dakhni Urdu.'
- [ Hasan p.642-644]
Many erroneously ascribe the origin of Hindi to either a later Islamic period or to a period proir to the Islamic. Both are equally erroneous.
`A few words about the Urdu language. I have it from my ancestros that Delhi, acording to the Hindus, has existed since the creation of the world. The rajas and their subjects lived there from teh earliest times and had their own bhaka (dialect). A thousand years ago, the muslims became the masters there. Mahmud of Ghazni was the first, and after him the Ghurs and Lodis became the rulers. This led to an intermingling of the languages of the Hindus and Muslims. Finally, Amir Timur (in whose family the empire remains to this day) conquered India. As he camped with his troops in the city, its harbor or marketplace came to be known as Urdu. Then after the establishment of Mughal rule Humayun, distressed at the hands of the Pathans, went to Persia. When he returned and punished the troublemakers ... Mr John Gilchrist, with his profound knowledge and insight ... compiled books of grammar. The language of Hindustan became common throughout the country and got a new elegance and polish.'
[ Amman Prologue xv-xvi ]
Deccani Hindustani also developed quite early on.
The earliest known writer in Deccani Urdu is Shaikh Ganjulilm (b.1393) Next came Khwaja Banda Nawaz (1320-1422); his `Mirajul Ashiqeen' is a Sufistic treatise in prose. Mulla Wajhi's `Qutb Mustari' (1609) masnavi and his `Subras' (1634), a rhyming prose allegory, are gems of Urdu literature in the South.'
--[ Manorama 482 ]

when i will get time i will read above topic inshallah.

Posted by: Watan-e-Azeem Nov 9 2004, 04:55 AM

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/1335/Lang/hndy_lg.html

Posted by: Asim Aquil Nov 9 2004, 09:45 AM

Slightly offtopic:

Urdu's a derived variant of Hindi and IMO it'll supercede all other languages one day, why? Because its the most simplest language to learn. Even Hindi's slowly being converted into Urdu.

On another note, people say Urdu's derived from this, that n bla, but Ithink its actually Hindi that was derived from a gazillion languages, and Urdu simply further replaced all the sanskrit words with arabic or persian words making it even more easy.

Visit a multi-cultural/ethnic city like Dubai with a heavy south Asian influence and you'll be amazed at what all nationalities speak Urdu with ease.

Posted by: fa_siddiqui_ksa Nov 10 2004, 03:36 AM

i totally agree with asim aquil, i'd also like to add something, in saudi arabia, where i was born and raised, people have the same ease speaking urdu and also reading it since it's scripture is similar to that of arabic. indians (indian muslims and hindus) agree upon the fact that in modern day hindi (full of slangs), there are so many words derived from urdu. the word urdu basically means lashkar or caravan in english. our ancestors chose this word because urdu is a combination of words from different languages. these languages are;

1. arabic
2. sanskrit
3. turkish and
4. persian

for further clarification, please read this article.

http://www.eurdubazaar.com/history_of_urdu.htm