Home>Main Languages>Hindi Hindi Language Resource
Learning Resources - Software - Books
Hindi is the name given to an Indo-Aryan language, or a dialect of a large number of languages, spoken in most of India Native speakers of Hindi are around 40% of the Indian population. Standard Hindi is one of the 22 official languages of India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government. Standard Hindi comes from the khari boli dialect. Urdu is a different (western), Persian influenced, phone of the same dialect. Hindustani is the name given to this conglomerate of languages. Hindi is believed to be evolved from Sanskrit, sometime during the Middle Ages. Though there is no consensus for a specific time, Hindi started as local dialects such as Braj, Awadhi and finally Khari Boli after the tenth century. Over around a thousand years of Islamic influence, as when Muslim rulers controlled northern India during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire, significant Persian and Arabic words were brought into khari boli. Hindi is only differnt from Urdu in the way both are written. Urdu is the official language of Pakistan, but also an in parts of India. The main differences between the two are the way Standard Hindi is written in Devanagari script and gets its vocabulary from Sanskrit, while Urdu is written in Urdu script and relies heavily on Persian and Arabic vocabulary. To an unbiased person, Hindi and Urdu are same, but politics of religion and ethnicity show them as two independant languages as they're written in two completely different scripts. Not surprisingly, if Urdu is written in Devanagiri script, it will be Hindi and vice versa. Hindi can be a difficult language for westerners to learn because, in addition to learning vocabulary, grammer, etc... one must learn how to read and write in a new script (Devanagari or Urdu), when transliterations are not available. Fortunately, the web is here to help - check out the resources below. Start Today! There is no time like the present, and never have so many resources been at your disposal for learning a foreign language. Check out the links and descriptions below to find a program that fits your needs.
Hindi Learning Resources on the Web
Very basic site hosted at a university - offers counting, colors and other basics. Nice feature is that in addition to offering the phoenetic equivalent, it also has an attached wav file (opens in whatever web-plugin you have specified for .wav files) - and this alone makes it worth a visit. Awesome site for learning Devanagari script - one of the best resources on the web. The site is a java applet application that shows how to construct the letters, how they are pronounced, and offers tests and quizzes to track your progress. Truly astounding site - and best of all, it's completely free. Simple site to teach the Hindi Alphabet. Requires realplayer to hear the files. A simple site that teaches basic Hindi words. A nice aspect is that it has the transliterations for Devanagari script thats shown next to the words. This would be a great starting point for anyone with a curious interest in the language. Great site dedicated to learning Hindi. Provides a daily podcast, links to Hindi related resources on the web, and a Hindi-English dictionary!
Hindi SoftwareUnfortunately, there isn't a tremendous amount of Hindi related software out there for the English speaker. I actually find this a bit odd considering the enormous movement (especially in the service sector) to outsource work to native Hindi speaking countries. Perhaps this is because so many in India are secondarily fluent in English? Rosetta Stone V2 Hindi Level 1 Personal Edition (Win/Mac) The highly renowned Rosetta Stone series offers one of the best tools for English speaker learning Hindi. Rosetta Stone software is not cheap, but Amazon has a nice discount vs. ordering direct. Talk Now! Learn Hindi - Beginning Level Not highly rated, but a lot less expensive than the Rosetta Stone series. World Talk - Learn Hindi: Intermediate Level Not a course for beginners (and I am not certain if World Talk actually has software for beginners) EuroTalk Interactive - Talk Now! Learn Hindi Another basic Hindi PC course. This one is nice in that you can select your native language (102 in all) making this a very versatile program for those of all countries (of course your reading this in English, aren't you? ;) Hindi BooksTeach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Script Part of the Teach Yourself series comes this highly rated Devanagari script book. Couple this book with the Hindi Script Tutor!, and .. to get all the tools you need to learn basic Hindi. Lots of stuff here. Check out all the reviews for the mixed opinions. |
