Hindi

Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language with about 487 million speakers. It is one of the official languages of India and is used as the language of administration, the media, education and literature in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Elsewhere in India, Hindi is used, along side English, as a second language.

Hindi is also spoken in Bangladesh, Belize, Botswana, Canada, Germany, Guyana, Kenya, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Suriname, Trinidad, Uganda, UAE, UK, USA, Yemen, Zambia. Hindi is closely related to Urdu, the main language of Pakistan, which is written with the Arabic script.

Hindi first started to be used in writing during the 4th century AD. It was originally written with the Brahmi script but since the 11th century AD it has been written with the Devanāgarī alphabet. The first printed book in Hindi was John Gilchrist's Grammar of the Hindoostanee Language which was published in 1796.

Devanāgarī alphabet for Hindi

Vowels and vowel diacritics

Consonants

Numerals

Sample text in Hindi

Transliteration
Sarbhī manuṣyōn̐ kō gaurav aur adhikārōn̐ kē māmalē mēn̐ janmajāt svatantratā aur samānatā prāpt hai. Unhēn̐ buḍhi aur antarātmā kī dēn hai aur paraspar unēn̐ bhāīcārē kē bhāv sē bartāv karanā cāhiyē.

Hear a recording of this text by Ganesh Deshmukh

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) ...................