Hindi, one of the most scientific languages in the world traces its origin to Sanskrit, the oldest and most scientific language. Hindi language originated in India and has spread with global citizens of India world over. While India has more than 120 million speakers of English, 85% of Indians don't speak english well and 100% of Indians connect emotionally with westerners who speak their mother tongue. With growing prominence of India in the world economy and international affairs in general and specifically in US foreign and trade policy, Hindi becomes a critical lingual link between the two countries.
World's Second Most Spoken Language
Hindi is world's second most spoken/comprehended language in the world after Mandarin. With 370 million native speakers, 120 million using it as second language and another 200 million speakers of various other Indian languages such as Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Urdu comprehending it, Hindi stands at about 690 million worldwide users second only to Mandarin in terms of users. Hindi stands at such a high adoption despite the lack of official enforcement by the government of India in contrast to China's policy of forceful enforcement of Mandarin on its entire population. This is testament to the natural affinity of the general population in world's fastest growing economy towards Hindi language.According to a 2017 study conducted by KPMG Indian language use on the internet grew at a CAGR of 41% between 2011 and 2016 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18% to reach 536 million users by 2021 while English users will grow at 3% to reach 199 million in the same time. According to the same study Hindi internet user base will surpass global English user base on the internet by 2021.
Official Status in US
US department of state has identified 15 languages that are considered critical for national security and prosperity. The department of state offers critical language scholarship program to support US graduate and undergraduate students in learning any of these 15 languages. This list of 15 languages includes 4 Indian languages and Hindi is one of them along with Bangla, Punjabi and Urdu. This program involves 8 to 10 weeks of extensive language and cultural immersion with the target language in the host country. Basically the US government will pay for your international travel, visa and stay in India if you were to be selected to participate in the Hindi language learning under the Critical Language Scholarship program. Refer to critical language scholarship program website for more information on the program.
While the foreign language requirements in United States vary by states, school districts, colleges and universities, most institutions that require foreign language proficiency recognize the ACTFL Assessment of Performance towards Proficiency in foreign Language (AAPPL) as standardized measure of foreign language proficiency. AAPPL is a performance assessment of standards-based language learning as defined by the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning. AAPPL is offered in only a select few foreign languages and Hindi is one of them. As an example Indian Prairie School district 204, CUSD 203 in Illinois and 50 other school districts across Illinois offer seal of bi-literacy to high school students that take the AAPPL test in Hindi or other languages. There are various community organizations in these school districts that offer Hindi language learning at early stages of learning to students, Hindi Gurukul Chicago being one such organization. Hindi Gurukul is federally tax exempt organization under IRS code 501(c)(3) registered in Aurora, IL. They have Illinois State Board of Education certification for meeting the requirements of ethnic language standards. As the Indian immigrant population grows in the US such Hindi learning programs are spreading all across the country, parents can easily prepare their kids for AAPPL test to secure foreign language credentials for their kids.
While the foreign language requirements in United States vary by states, school districts, colleges and universities, most institutions that require foreign language proficiency recognize the ACTFL Assessment of Performance towards Proficiency in foreign Language (AAPPL) as standardized measure of foreign language proficiency. AAPPL is a performance assessment of standards-based language learning as defined by the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning. AAPPL is offered in only a select few foreign languages and Hindi is one of them. As an example Indian Prairie School district 204, CUSD 203 in Illinois and 50 other school districts across Illinois offer seal of bi-literacy to high school students that take the AAPPL test in Hindi or other languages. There are various community organizations in these school districts that offer Hindi language learning at early stages of learning to students, Hindi Gurukul Chicago being one such organization. Hindi Gurukul is federally tax exempt organization under IRS code 501(c)(3) registered in Aurora, IL. They have Illinois State Board of Education certification for meeting the requirements of ethnic language standards. As the Indian immigrant population grows in the US such Hindi learning programs are spreading all across the country, parents can easily prepare their kids for AAPPL test to secure foreign language credentials for their kids.
Official Status in India
The constitution of India recognizes Hindi as the official language of the union of India and has provisions under articles 120, 210, 343, 344, 345, 346 and 350 for use of Hindi in the national parliament, state assemblies, supreme court, high courts, inter state and foreign communication. Effectively Indian constitution directed the parliament to remove the usage of English language within 15 years after Indian constitution was adopted post independence from British colonial rule. While for various political reasons use of English has continued to varying degrees in various government, supreme court and parliament proceedings, all elected prime ministers of the country have been fluent speakers of Hindi. Political success at the national level in India requires Hindi as an undocumented pre-requisite due to the emotional appeal of the language in large parts of the country. Therefore in order to be a successful diplomat conducting foreign policy in India, Hindi gives one an undisputed edge over others, similarly for US businesses to conduct business in India knowledge of Hindi for key people is a clear competitive advantage.Scientific Nature of Hindi Language
Hindi is a highly sophisticated and scientific language. Any scientific language has to have well developed phonology, morphology, syntax and pragmatics. Hindi is highly advanced on all these aspects.
Phonology is codification of meanings in a language into sounds. Hindi is a 100% phonetic language. It is written as it is spoken. Hindi provides for the use of most of the sounds that are used in global languages and these sounds are written in their most basic form using the minimum amount of letters needed. Hindi uses Devanagari script for codifying the sounds which is also the script for Sanskrit. These letters in Devenagari alphabet are grouped by the sound profile they make. Not only they are grouped logically, but the ordering of alphabet is also such that the part of mouth used to make those groups of sounds move progressively from the back to the front. See the chart below listed in the order these groups appear in Hindi alphabet. Within each grouping aspirated and non aspirated sounds that are similar to each other are grouped in adjacent pairs. In addition to the letters below there are compound sounds that appear at the end of the alphabet.
| Group |
Letters
| Part of Mouth |
| Vowels | अ(uh), आ(aa), इ(i), ई(ee), उ (u), ऊ (oo), ए (ay), ऐ(ai), ओ(o), औ (au), अं (an), अः(ah) | Throat |
| Velar | क(ka), ख (kha), ग (ga), घ (gha) | back of the mouth |
| Palatal | च (cha), छ(chha), ज (ja), झ (jha) | mid point of the mouth |
| Retroflex | ट (ta), ठ (tha), ड (da), ढ (dha) | Back in the mouth with tongue curled |
| Dental | त (ta), थ(tha), द (the), ध (dh), न (na) | Tongue touching the teeth |
| Bilabial | प (pa), फ (fa), ब (ba), भ (bha), म (ma) | With lips closed |
Morphology is the study of word formation; how stems, roots and suffixes are combined to form words. Hindi has a very well developed morphology over thousands of years with the enrichment from Sanskrit and other Indian languages. As an illustration below are the forms of the root "kha" (eat) in Hindi. You will notice that Hindi codifies the intimacy of social relationships within its morphemes (intimate, semi-hornorable and honorable relationships).
| Aspect/Mood/Tense | Word |
| Perfective Aspect | Khaya |
| Habitual Aspect | Khata |
| Infinitive | Khana |
| Subjunctive | khaye |
| Future | Khayega |
| Imperative (intimate) | Kha |
| Imperative (semi-honorable) | Khao |
| Imperative (honorable) | Khaeeyay |
Source: Verbal Inflection in Hindi: A Distributed Morphology Approach
Department of Humanities and Sciences, IIT Bombay
Syntax in a language codifies the rules around how words are put together to form sentences. Hindi language has a well defined syntax for simple and complex sentences.
Pragmatics is the ability of a language to enable real life social interactions and human thoughts. Hindi, as I mentioned in the beginning is world's second most widely used language and that is the most potent evidence for advanced pragmatics supported by Hindi language.
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