| History of the Hindi Language Hindi shares with | | | | the Dev Nagari script, which is common to |
| English and most other European languages the | | | | several other Indian languages as well. Much of |
| same ancestral roots. They evolved from a | | | | the vocabulary of Hindi comes from Sanskrit, |
| language thought to have been spoken in Central | | | | though Hindi also has a special relationship with |
| Asia around 5,000 BC, called by linguists the | | | | Urdu. Their grammar and much of their |
| Indo-European parent language. For this reason | | | | vocabulary are virtually identical. |
| and because of the 200-year influence of the | | | | The development of Hindi into a national language |
| British in India, many basic words in Hindi are the | | | | had its beginnings in the colonial period, when the |
| same as or similar to their equivalent in English. | | | | British began to cultivate it as a standard among |
| English words of Hindi origin include cot, loot, thug, | | | | government officials. Later it was used for literary |
| chintz, bandanna, dungaree, rajali, pundit, coolie, | | | | purposes and has since become the vehicle for |
| tom-tom, and juggernaut. | | | | some excellent prose and poetry. |
| Hindi first started to be used in writing during the | | | | After independence of India, the Government of |
| 4th century AD. It was originally written with the | | | | India worked on standardizing Hindi. |
| Brahmi script but since the 11th century AD it has | | | | In 1954, the Government of India set up a |
| been written with the Devanagari alphabet. The | | | | Committee for preparing a grammar of Hindi. The |
| first printed book in Hindi was John Gilchrist's | | | | committee's report was later released as "A Basic |
| Grammar of the Hindoostanee Language which | | | | Grammar of Modern Hindi" in 1958. |
| was published in 1796. | | | | Hindi became the official language of India on |
| Hindi language has its roots in the classical Sanskrit | | | | January 26, 1965, although English and 21 other |
| language. The language acquired its current form | | | | languages are recognized as official languages by |
| over many centuries, and numerous dialectical | | | | the Constitution of India. |
| variations still exist. Like Sanskrit, Hindi is written in | | | | |