Hindi

Hindi, or to be more specific, Modern Standard Hindi, is an Indo-Aryan language that is mostly spoken in the area of India known as the Hindi Belt. This region includes portions of India's northern, central, eastern, and western regions. It has been said that Hindi is a standardised and Sanskritized register of the Hindustani language, which is itself based mostly on the Khariboli dialect that is spoken in Delhi and the districts that are neighbouring it in Northern India. One of the two official languages used by the Government of India, together with English, is the language of Hindi, which is written using the Devanagari script. There are a total of nine states and three union territories that recognise it as an official language, in addition to the three states that recognise it as an extra official language. Additionally, the Republic of India officially recognises Hindi as one of its 22 scheduled languages.

The region known as the Hindi Belt uses Hindi as its primary language. Other regions of India also use it, but to a much lower level, as their primary language (usually in a simplified or pidginised variety such as Bazaar Hindustani or Haflong Hindi). The language known as Standard Hindi is spoken in India, however there are a number of other languages that are recognised legally as being "Hindi." These other languages, such as Awadhi and Bhojpuri, are the source of these other "Hindi" languages that are spoken outside of India. One example of such a language is Fiji Hindi, which is recognised as an official language of Fiji. Another example is Caribbean Hindustani, which is spoken in Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname. Both standard Hindi and standard Urdu, which are both recognised registers of Hindustani, have a shared colloquial foundation, making them mutually comprehensible with one another. The only differences between the two are the script and the formal vocabulary.

After Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and the English language, the form of Hindi that is spoken as a first language is the fourth most common in the world. Urdu and Hindi together make up the language family known as Hindustani. After Mandarin Chinese and English, Hindustani is the third most spoken language in the world.