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I have a question about hindi... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Yishay Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5962 days ago 27 posts - 27 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 1 of 4 17 August 2008 at 1:13am | IP Logged |
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Well, I find India fascinating and hindi looks absolutely fantastic when written(I've always wanted to learn a language that doesn't use the latin alphabet).
I've heard about the many different languages used in India and that Hindi has many dialects and isn't even spoken by everyone in India. So, If one was to learn hindi, would said person be able to communicate with everyone who spoke hindi? Sorry if you can't make sense of the question. Thanks for your time! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fat-tony Nonaglot Senior Member United Kingdom jiahubooks.co.uk Joined 6148 days ago 288 posts - 441 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Russian, Esperanto, Thai, Laotian, Urdu, Swedish, French Studies: Mandarin, Indonesian, Arabic (Written), Armenian, Pali, Burmese | Message 2 of 4 17 August 2008 at 5:50am | IP Logged |
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Firstly, Hindi does have many dialects, but you aren't likely to encounter many major difficulties with these. The
major problem will be speaking to non-native Hindi speakers. I can give you a clearer example regarding Urdu (Hindi's "sister" language"). Virtually all Pakistanis speak Urdu, but most speak a different language at home, e.g. Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto etc, and they will often speak with distinct accents. My first two Urdu instructors were both Punjabis, but after 3 months we got a native of Sindh. It took me a few weeks to get used to the accent but now everything is (usually) clear. It should be noted that the Punjabis also took some time (not as long, obviously) to get used to the differences in speed and intonation. In India the situation is slightly different as there are people who have Hindi as a first language, but the majority will speak it as a second or third language and therefore often have an accent. Hindi is not spoken by every one but, along with English, it is closest, from 22 official languages and two classical languages, to being an Indian national language. I would imagine (but am ready to be corrected) that there are very few Indians who don't understand Hindi because of the film/music industry, but they may not be comfortable using it. On Hindi-Urdu, they are the same language, but the religion of the person you're speaking to will effect your choice of vocabulary (or script if you're writing). If you study Hindi, at most levels you will be able to converse with Urdu speakers too. Finally, Hindi-Urdu is a very forgiving language, most mistakes will not effect understanding and most people are used to hearing spoken less than perfectly, and it is distantly related to English. This means although some forms are odd, the ideas and concepts are very similar to the ones in English. As a result it is much easier than other unrelated Asian languages like Arabic, Tamil, Thai etc. Hope I managed to answer your question. Fat-Tony 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Yishay Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5962 days ago 27 posts - 27 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 3 of 4 20 August 2008 at 8:18pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks a lot Tony! That did answer my question very well. I like this site because you can talk to people who actually are familiar with the languages in question. Thanks again!
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| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5816 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 4 of 4 05 January 2009 at 10:42pm | IP Logged |
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Fat-tony. You answered a lot for me as well. Thanks!
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