Origin of Hindi Language

Published - Mon, 02 Jan 2023

Origin of Hindi Language

The Origin of the Hindi Language

Hindi language, parallel with the Indo-Aryan Languages, is believed to be a direct descendant of Sanskrit, through Prakrit and Apabhramsha. Being the fourth most-spoken language in the world and the National language of India, Hindi also holds the regionally-acquitted flow of the different languages of four countries like Suriname, Mauritius, Trinidad & Tobago, and Guyana. The origin of the term Hindi goes back to the inhabitants of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It was derived from Classical Persian Hindī (Iranian Persian pronunciation: Hendi), conveying “of or belonging to Hind (India)”. That’s how India was born, carrying forward the ancient dilution of Sanskrit.

Sanskrit - World’s Oldest Language

All European languages happen to be inspired by Sanskrit, the world’s oldest language. Sanskrit has the laurel of the most ancient linguistic connector and the genesis of all the languages the world has in store. Sanskrit has been spoken since 5,000 years prior to the emergence of the Christ era.

Hindi poured in from an early form of Vedic Sanskrit, through Sauraseni Prakrit and ŚauraseniApabhraṃśa (from Sanskrit apabhraṃśa “corrupt”), which surfaced in the 7th century CE. Based on prominent linguistic grounds, Vedic Sanskrit could travel back as far as 1500 BC. By the 10th century A.D., it became more stable. With the advent of Islamic administrative rule in Northern India, Hindi borrowed a handful of loanwords from Arabic, as well as Persian. Awadhi, Braj, and Khari Boli are some of the dialects of Hindi.

As you read through the oldest remnants of Hindi literature, some of the hymns of the Hindu compilation that are known as the Rigveda, were scripted in Vedic Sanskrit. It was only around 800 BC that it was shaped into Classical Sanskrit. This language was the medium for the upper class, which persisted as the classical literary language in India for decades. Though the classical emblem of this sophisticated modulator is hardly spoken now, it is still taught in schools in the same way that Latin is coached as the classical literary language of Europe.

Prakrit

Prakrit languages emerged from Vedic and Classical Sanskrit. The earliest is speculated to be around 500 BC; the latest could be around 800 AD. Linguists are in contradiction as to whether all Middle Indo-Aryan languages should be conglomerated under the umbrella term Prakrit; as it is, many of the Indo-European languages of India flowed from one or more of them.

Some were Dramatic Prakrits, the languages spelled exclusively for plays and literature. They were not to be mixed with the colloquial vocabulary, and very often Sanskrit translations were subtitled so the reader could understand the context. With the course of living, as Sanskrit lost meaning and purpose in certain areas, some dramatic Prakrits transmitted to vernacular languages, such as Maharashtra Prakrit, the ancestor of the Marathi language.

The Prakrit language that stood its firm ground was Ardhmagadhi Prakrit, and its grammar was more of a dedicated standard to teach other Prakrits. In regions where Hindi would soon sweep in, by any means, Sanskrit retained its place, so that the etymology of many Hindi wordings derives straight from Sanskrit rather than through a Prakrit language.

The Future that was the Language Hindi

Around 500 AD the Apabhramsha dialects revolutionized from Prakrit In Northern India. They posed as a lingua franca until the 13th century AD. They were named Hindavi by the Persian rulers of the Delhi Sultanate who were in possession of large mounds of the larger India from 1206 to 1526. The Hindi languages started digressing from Apabramsha around the 11th century AD, most of them being distinct and diverse by the 12th. Interestingly, many regions still kept the conversations going in the Apabhramsha languages.

It was under the realm of the Delhi Sultanate that the Persian language first got stirred with the local Apabhramsha dialects to morph into what would later formulate into the Hindi and Urdu languages.

In the year 1526, the Moghul Empire, the commanding empire of Turko-Mongol descent, superseded the Delhi Sultanate and possessed much of India, making broad ways for even more Persian loanwords to influence the language.

Time flowed. The Moghul Empire slowly dissipated in the 18th century, Khari Boli or Khariboli vernacular, successor dialects to the Apabhramsha languages, had supplanted Persian as the daily language. Consequently, the variant of Khariboli of the upper class in northern India pitched the flag as Hindustani.

Either way, as we eye once again the antiquity of Hindi, learning Hindi still rekindles a literary past and an assured future.

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