Hindi (Devanagari: हिन्दी, IAST: Hindī), or Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: मानक हिन्दी, IAST: Mānak Hindī) is a standardised and Sanskritised register[7] of the Hindustani language. It is an Indo-Germanic or Indo-European language. It is descended from Sanskrit and is considered part of the New Indo-Aryan subgroup. However, it was also influenced, especially in vocabulary, by various other languages including Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Portuguese, and English. [8]
Along with the English language, it is written in the Devanagari script is the official language of the Government of India.[9] It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India.[10] However, it is not the national language of India because it was not prescribed as such in the Indian constitution.[11][12]
Hindi is the lingua franca of the so-called Hindi belt in India. Outside India, it is an official language which is known as Fiji Hindi in Fiji, and is a recognised regional language in Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname.[13][14][15][16]
Individually, as a linguistic variety, it is the fourth most-spoken first language in the world, after Mandarin, Spanish and English.[17]Alongside Urdu as Hindustani, it is the third most-spoken language in the world, after Mandarin and English.[18]
