Hindi Divas on September 14: Facts you need to know about the language

Hindi Divas is observed all over the country on September 14. It was on September 14, 1949 when the Constitution-makers of the country decided to accord the status of Official Language of the Union to Hindi.

Hindi is credited to be the vehicle of Indian thought and culture. The language is also a link between our traditional knowledge, ancient civilization and modern progress.

Millions of Indian diaspora around the world are using Hindi as a link language. This has given a new identification to Hindi at the international level.

Here are some facts you need to know about Hindi

• Hindi got its name from the Persian word Hind, meaning 'land of the Indus River'.

• Hindi is spoken by over 400 million people as first language while 120 million use Hindi as second language.

• Hindi is mainly spoken by people of Bihar, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand.

• Apart from India, Hindi is also spoken by people in Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad, Tobago and Nepal.

• Hindi is a direct descendent of the ancient Indian language Sanskrit. It has evolved in its present form through Prakrit and Apabhramsa languages.

• Hindi is written in Devanagari script, the modern Devanagari script came into existence in the 11th century.

• Prem Sagar by Lalloo Lal was published in 1805 is considered the first published Hindi book. It tells the deeds of Lord Krishna.

• Hindi belongs to the India group of the Indo-Iranian sub-family of the Indo-European family of languages.

• The Hindi has been influenced and enriched by Turkish, Persian, Arabic, Portuguese, English and South Indian Dravidian languages.

• Many English word like guru, jungle, karma, yoga, bungalow, cheetah, looting, thug, avatar and other words have been derived from Hindi.