Hindi Language: Its Popularity and Spread


 Hindi Language: Its Popularity and Spread Around the Globe



 

 Hindi is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, with about 600 million speakers. Hindi is actually spoken by more than 425 million people as a first language, and a significant number of 120 million speak Hindi as their second language? Hindi language stands tall as the fourth most-spoken language in the world after English, Spanish and Mandarin.

Hindi is widely spoken in India but it isn't just limited to our country. There are many other destinations around the world, 20 to be precise, where Hindi has gained an official language status and several locals prefer conversing in it.

 

Countries Where Hindi is Understood Among the General Masses

Here are some of the countries where Hindi is widely spoken, apart from India.

 

Nepal

Nepal has a large Hindi-speaking population. About 80,000 Nepalese speak Hindi natively, and around eight million people understand the language. The official language is Nepali. Hindi is widely understood and spoken, especially in urban areas and among people who consume Indian media. Urdu is also spoken by some in the Muslim communities, in the Terai region.

 

Mauritius

Most nationals speak Hindi, as they are descendants of Indians brought to the country by British rulers. As per the records, Mauritius has around a third of the population speaking Hindi. It constitutes of 450,000 people. The total population is around 13 lakhs.

Although French and English are the country's official parliamentary languages, but Hindi remains an important part of their cultural heritage.

 

Fiji

Hindi is an official language in Fiji, and is spoken by most Fijian citizens of Indian descent.

Fiji has a large population of Indian origin, the reason why around 38% of the population speaks Hindi. It constitutes of around 400,000 people. Many Fijians of Indian ancestry speak Hindi, alongside Fijian and English.

 

Suriname

Hindi is the third most spoken language in Suriname. It's a fusion of Bihari and Eastern Hindi languages, primarily Bhojpuri and Awadhi. It's mainly spoken by the Indo-Surinamese community, who make up about 27% of the population. Out of the population of 600, 000 around 150,000 speak Hindi.

 

Maldives

The official language is Dhivehi. While Hindi is understood by some, especially among those who consume Indian media. With a substantial emigrant community from South Asia, Hindi and Urdu are commonly understood and spoken, especially among the Indian and Pakistani populations. These languages facilitate communication within the community and in various business sectors.

 

Singapore

Hindi is one of the most spoken languages in Singapore, as there are many Indians living there. Hindi is widely understood, making it convenient for Hindi-speaking tourists to communicate, especially in hospitality services. As per the world data info, 1.2 percent of the population speaks Hindi.

 

South Africa           

South Africa has a population of 59,622,350. There are more than 436,000 Hindi speakers. According to the Constitution of South Africa, the Pan South African Language Board must promote and ensure respect for Hindi along with other languages.

 

Sri Lanka

The official languages are Sinhala and Tamil. The primary languages of most Sri Lankans are Sinhala (69%) and Tamil (25.2%) However, there is a significant Tamil-speaking population that may understand Hindi due to the influence of Indian cinema and television. Most people can understand a few sentences of Hindi.  

 

Bhutan

English is widely used in education and government. There is limited exposure to Hindi. But people particularly in border areas and among those who watch Indian media understand Hindi. The official language is Dzongkha.

 

Pakistan

Both Hindi and Urdu originally developed from Khari Boli, a dialect of Delhi region, and the spoken languages are extremely similar to one another. They have the exact same grammatical structure, and at the beginner level they share over 70 - 80% of their vocabulary. Thus all Urdu speaking people can understand and speak Hindi.

 

Bangladesh

Bangladesh: Hindi is widely understood, especially in urban areas and among those who watch Bollywood films. Urdu is spoken primarily within the Urdu-speaking community known as Biharis. Most locals speak and understand Hindi.

 

Afghanistan

The official languages are Dari and Pashto. Due to historical ties and media influence. Urdu is understood by many, especially in urban areas and among some ethnic groups. Officially Hindi is less common but is understood by many being identical to Urdu. People are familiar with the spoken form of Hindi.


Other Countries

Interestingly United States of America has the third largest Hindi speaking population of 863,000 after India and Nepal. Uganda, a country of 50 million people has over 100,000 Hindi speaking people. 45,800 in the United Kingdom; 20,000 in New Zealand; 20,000 in Germany; 16,000 in Trinidad and Tobago out of 15 lakhs population speak Hindi.

 
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Interesting Facts About Hindi

Hindi is not the national language of any country in the world but Hindi is the official language of India and Fiji.  It is also the minority language (third official court language) recognized by the UAE government. In South Africa it has the status of protected language.

Hindi is also spoken in the Gulf region and along with Arabic, and is playing the role of a link language for Arabic-speaking people and Indians speaking various regional (Indian) languages.

 

Almost every possible sound in the world can be written down in Hindi with the use of the alphabet. On the other hand, English needs supplementary symbols. The Hindi language is completely Phonetic; it is pronounced exactly how it is written.

Every day about 25 Hindi magazines and newspapers are published in countries outside India.

Hindi is taught as a language in 176 universities across the world.



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