2 ms·

This is pretty true in India, which is divided into states mostly by linguistic lines. I've heard "dialects" which sound distinct enough to be separate language

This is pretty true in India, which is divided into states mostly by linguistic lines. I've heard "dialects" which sound distinct enough to be separate languages (Marwari versus Hindi) and "languages" that sound similar enough to be dialects (Urdu and Hindi).

nsns 14y ago
"Hindi" is made up of Marwari, Mewati, Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili, Bundeli, awadhi, chhattisgarhi... all of them different language with their own history and literature. This was done in '47 mostly for political reasons, to stop Bangla from becoming the Indian national language. In a way the Italian situation is similar [0]. [0] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Italian_languages.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Italian_l...
- sdqali 14y ago
  I would like to point out that linguistically there is no language called Hindi. The modern Hindi is a Sankritized, modernized register of the Hindustani language - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindustani_language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindustani_language I am not sure if somebody amalgamated all those languages to form Hindi in 1947. The original article 343 of the Indian constitution specified Hindi in Devnagri as the national language, mostly out of the insistence of people like Gopal Krishna Goghale who while agreeing that English is a better language for law-making (http://www.constitution.org/cons/india/p17348.html http://www.constitution.org/cons/india/p17348.html) argued that we should not declare it the national language because of the colonial past. The Official Languages Act of 1963 and subsequent amendments to article 343 cleaned up this mess. Edit: Clarified the correct article of the constitution. I originally said Article XVII, but it should have been Part XVII.
- harichinnan 14y ago
  Hindi is written in Sanskrit letters and Urudu is written in Arabic script. The languages use same words. Hindi is the primary official language for India and Urudu is the primary national language for Pakistan. Two dialects protected by armies navies and nuclear bombs.

nsns 14y ago

"Hindi" is made up of Marwari, Mewati, Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili, Bundeli, awadhi, chhattisgarhi... all of them different language with their own history and literature. This was done in '47 mostly for political reasons, to stop Bangla from becoming the Indian national language. In a way the Italian situation is similar [0]. [0] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Italian_languages.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Italian_l...

sdqali 14y ago
I would like to point out that linguistically there is no language called Hindi. The modern Hindi is a Sankritized, modernized register of the Hindustani language - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindustani_language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindustani_language I am not sure if somebody amalgamated all those languages to form Hindi in 1947. The original article 343 of the Indian constitution specified Hindi in Devnagri as the national language, mostly out of the insistence of people like Gopal Krishna Goghale who while agreeing that English is a better language for law-making (http://www.constitution.org/cons/india/p17348.html http://www.constitution.org/cons/india/p17348.html) argued that we should not declare it the national language because of the colonial past. The Official Languages Act of 1963 and subsequent amendments to article 343 cleaned up this mess. Edit: Clarified the correct article of the constitution. I originally said Article XVII, but it should have been Part XVII.
harichinnan 14y ago
Hindi is written in Sanskrit letters and Urudu is written in Arabic script. The languages use same words. Hindi is the primary official language for India and Urudu is the primary national language for Pakistan. Two dialects protected by armies navies and nuclear bombs.