© Lonely Planet Publications 1190 Language Most of India’s languages have their own script, but written English can also be quite CONTENTS common; in some states, such as Gujarat, you’ll hardly see a word of it, whereas in Hindi 1190 Himachal Pradesh virtually everything is in Pronunciation 1190 English. An Rs 5 or larger banknote shows Accommodation 1191 the scripts of 14 of India’s languages. As well Emergencies 1192 as Hindi and English there’s a list of 12 other Conversation & Essentials 1192 languages: from the top, they are Assamese, Directions 1192 Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Ma- Health 1192 layalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Language Difficulties 1193 Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. (See the boxed text, Numbers 1193 opposite, for more information.) Shopping & Services 1193 Major efforts have been made to pro- Time & Dates 1193 mote Hindi as the national language of Transport 1194 India and to gradually phase out English. A Tamil 1194 stumbling block to this plan is that Hindi is Script & Transliteration 1194 the predominant language in the north, but Pronunciation 1194 it bears little relation to the Dravidian lan- Accommodation 1194 guages of the south. Subsequently, very few Emergencies 1195 people in the south speak Hindi. It is from Conversation & Essentials 1195 here, particularly in the state of Tamil Directions 1195 Nadu, that the most vocal opposition to the Numbers 1195 countrywide adoption of Hindi comes, Shopping & Services 1195 along with the strongest support for the Time & Dates 1195 retention of English. Transport 1196 For many educated Indians, English is virtually their first language, and for the large number of Indians who speak more There is no one ‘Indian’ language as such. than one language, English is often their This is part of the reason why English is still second tongue. Thus it’s very easy to get widely spoken more than 50 years after the around India with English, but it’s always British left India and why it’s still the offi- good to know at least a little of the local cial language of the judiciary. language. Eighteen languages are recognised by the constitution, and these fall into two major LANGUAGE groups: Indic, or Indo-Aryan, and Dravidian. HINDI Additionally, over 1600 minor languages Hindi is written from left to right in Deva- and dialects were listed in the latest census. nagari script. While the script may be un- The scope for misunderstanding can be eas- familiar, English speakers will recognise ily appreciated! many of Hindi’s grammatical features. The Indic languages are a branch of the For a far more comprehensive guide to Indo-European group of languages (to Hindi, get a copy of Lonely Planet’s Hindi, which English belongs). The Indic lan- Urdu & Bengali Phrasebook. guages were spoken by the Central Asian peoples who invaded what is now India. PRONUNCIATION The Dravidian languages such as Tamil are Most Hindi sounds are similar to their Eng- native to South India, although they have lish counterparts, but there are a few tricky been influenced by Sanskrit and Hindi over ones. There’s a difference between ‘aspirated’ the years. and ‘unaspirated’ consonants – the aspirated lonelyplanet.com HINDI •• Accommodation 1191 INDIA’S OFFICIAL LANGUAGES Assamese State language of Assam, and spoken by nearly 60% of that state’s population. Dates back to the 13th century. Bengali Spoken by nearly 200 million people (mostly in what is now Bangladesh), and the state language of West Bengal. Developed as a language in the 13th century. Gujarati State language of Gujarat, it is an Indic language. Hindi The most important Indian language, although it is only spoken as a mother tongue by about 20% of the population, mainly in the area known as the Hindi-belt, the cow-belt or Bimaru, which includes Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. This Indic language is the official language of the Indian government, the states already mentioned, plus Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Kannada State language of Karnataka, spoken by about 65% of that state’s population. Kashmiri Kashmiri speakers account for about 55% of the population of Jammu and Kashmir. It is an Indic language written in the Perso-Arabic script. Konkani A Dravidian language spoken by people in the Goa region. Malayalam A Dravidian language, and the state language of Kerala. Manipuri An Indic language of the northeast region. Marathi An Indic language dating back to around the 13th century, Marathi is the state language of Maharashtra. Nepali The predominant language of Sikkim, where around 75% of the people are ethnic Nepalis. Oriya An Indic language, it is the state language of Orissa where it is spoken by around 90% of the population. Punjabi Another Indic language, this is the state language of Punjab. Although based on Devanagari (the same script as Hindi), it is written in a 16th-century script known as Gurumukhi, which was created by the Sikh guru, Guru Angad. Sanskrit One of the oldest languages in the world, and the language of classical India. All the Vedas and classical literature such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana were written in this Indic language. Sindhi A significant number of Sindhi speakers are found in what is now Pakistan, although the greater number are in India. In Pakistan, the language is written in a Perso-Arabic script, while in India it uses the Devanagari script. Tamil An ancient Dravidian language at least 2000 years old, and the state language of Tamil Nadu. It is spoken by 65 million people. Telugu The Dravidian language spoken by the largest number of people, it is the state language of Andhra Pradesh. Urdu This is the state language of Jammu and Kashmir. Along with Hindi, it evolved in early Delhi. While Hindi was largely adopted by the Hindu population, the Muslims embraced Urdu, and so the latter is written in the Perso- Arabic script and includes many Persian words. ones are pronounced with a strong puff of e as in ‘they’ air, like saying ‘h’ after the sound. There are ee as the ‘ee’ in ‘feet’ also ‘retroflex’ consonants, produced by i as in ‘sit’ curling the tongue up and back to make o as in ‘shot’ contact with the ridge of tissue behind the oo as the ‘oo’ in ‘fool’ LANGUAGE top teeth. The transliteration system we’ve u as in ‘put’ used for Hindi in this language guide is designed to be as simple as possible, and for Consonants this reason it doesn’t distinguish between ch as in ‘cheese’ all the sounds of spoken Hindi. g always as in ‘gun’, never as in ‘age’ It’s important to pay attention to the pro- r slightly trilled nunciation of vowels and especially to their y as in ‘yak’ length, eg a compared to aa. The combina- g as in ‘go’ tion ng after a vowel indicates that it is na- salised (ie pronounced through the nose). ACCOMMODATION Where is the (best/cheapest) hotel? Vowels sab se (achaa/sastaa) hotal kahaang hai? a as the ‘u’ in ‘sun’ Please write the address. aa as in ‘father’ zaraa us kaa pataa lik deejiye ai as in ‘hair’ before a consonant; as in Do you have any rooms available? ‘aisle’ at the end of a word kyaa koee kamraa kaalee hai? au as in ‘haul’ before a consonant; as the I’d like to share a dorm. ‘ou’ in ‘ouch’ at the end of a word maing dorm me teharnaa chaahtaa/ee hoong (m/f) 1192 HINDI •• Emergencies lonelyplanet.com Thank you. shukriyaa/danyavaad EMERGENCIES You’re welcome. koee baat naheeng Help! mada keejiye! Excuse me/Sorry. kshamaa keejiye Stop! ruko! How are you? aap kaise/kaisee haing? (m/f) Thief! chor! Fine, and you? maing teek hoong aap sunaaiye? Call a doctor! daaktar ko bulaao! What’s your name? aap kaa shubh naam kyaa hai? Call an ambulance! embulains le aanaa! Call the police! pulis ko bulaao! DIRECTIONS I’m lost. maing raastaa bhool gayaa/ Where’s a/the ... ... kahaang hai? gayee hoong (f/m) bank baink consulate kaungnsal Where is the ...? ... kahaang hai? embassy dootaavaas police station taanaa Hindu temple mandir toilet gusalkaanaa mosque masjid post office daakkaanaa I wish to contact my embassy/consulate. public phone saarvajanik fon maing apne embassy ke sebaat public toilet shauchaalay katnaa logõ chaahtaa/chaahtee hoong (f/m) Sikh temple gurudvaaraa town square chauk How much for ...? ... kaa kiraayaa kitnaa hai? Is it far from/near here? one night ek din kyaa voh yahaang se door/nazdeek hai? one week ek hafte SIGNS I’d like a ... mujhe ... chaahiye double room dabal kamraa p[vex÷aNdr Entrance room with a gusalkaanevaalaa kamraa ink;r÷b;hr Exit bathroom %ul; Open single room singal kamraa bNd Closed aNdr a;n; No Entry May I see it? “iniWi÷mn;‘ hw kyaa maing kamraa dek saktaa/ee hoong? (m/f) /Um[p;n krn; No Smoking Is there any other room? “iniWi÷mn;‘ hw koee aur kamraa hai? iniWi Prohibited Where’s the bathroom? gmR Hot gusalkaanaa kahaang hai? #'@; Cold xoc;ly Toilets bed palang blanket kambaal HEALTH key chaabee Where is a/the ...? ... kahaang hai? LANGUAGE shower shaavar clinic davaakaanaa toilet paper taailet pepar doctor daaktar water (cold/hot) paanee (tandaa/garam) hospital aspataal with a window kirkeevaalaa I’m sick. maing beemaar hoong CONVERSATION & ESSENTIALS antiseptic ainteeseptik Hello. namaste/namskaar antibiotics ainteebayotik Goodbye. namaste/namskaar aspirin (esprin) sirdard kee davaa Yes. jee haang condoms nirodak No. jee naheeng contraceptives garbnirodak diarrhoea dast ‘Please’ is usually conveyed through the po- medicine davaa lite form of the imperative, or through nausea gin other expressions. This book uses polite syringe sooee expressions and the polite forms of words.