The history of Hindi is fascinating and very multifaceted, as my presentation (attached) demonstrates in discussing different periods during the development of Hindi. From this presentation, I learned that the linguistic ancestor of Hindi is Sanskrit, and that colloquial spoken Hindi is mutually intelligible with spoken Urdu. Although I have heard the similarities of both languages, I did not know that the two were mutually intelligible on a colloquial level. Hindi is considered a "Central Zone" language, meaning that it was originally spoken in Central India. In 250 BC, classical Sanskrit emerged, and in 400 AD, Apabhransha, which is a derivative of Sanskrit, emerged in literature -- considered to be "old Hindi" (medieval period). In 800 - 900 AD, the Siddh saints started using an early form of Hindi to make their teachings understandable in the vernacular, and in 1100 AD, modern Devanagari script started to emerge. In the late 1700s, modern Hindi, as we now understand it, emerged.
I really enjoyed learning more about the history of Hindi because it also made me realize how formative colonialism was is linguistic history. For instance, during the fight against British rule in India, many revolutionaries spoke only Hindi as a national symbol -- against the English spoken by the British. However, many medical terms and technological inventions (TV, radio, etc) are still referred to nowadays in English.
"Hindi" words of English origin:
-TV
-Osteoporosis
-School (although there is an older Hindi term for school...patshala)
-Radio
-Wheatish (a term used when describing a certain skin color)
-University
-Mess (dining hall)
-Engineer
-Computer (कंप्यूटर)
-Jungle
And here is my presentation:
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