The Western Hindi languages, also known as Midland languages, are a branch of the Indo-Aryan language family spoken chiefly in Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, in Northwest and Central India. The Western Hindi languages evolved from Sauraseni Prakrit.[1] The most-spoken language in the Western Hindi language family is Standard Hindi (commonly referred to as just 'Hindi'), one of the official languages of the Government of India (the other being English) and one of the 22 Scheduled Languages of India.
| Western Hindi | |
|---|---|
| Midland | |
| Ethnicity | Brajis, Bundelis, Haryanvis |
| Geographic distribution | Braj, Bundelkhand, Haryana, Western UP |
Native speakers | approx. 272 million in India and Pakistan[citation needed] |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
Early form | |
| Glottolog | west2812 |
Geographical distribution of Western Hindi languages | |
Western Hindi languages are much more widespread and spoken than their Eastern counterpart.[citation needed] Western Hindi languages are spoken in India, Pakistan, Fiji and the Caribbean. In India, it is chiefly spoken in western Uttar Pradesh, in Bundelkhand region and Braj region in central Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and pockets in Deccan region. In Pakistan, it is spoken by Muhajirs (Indian immigrants to Pakistan after Partition). Apart from this, Hindustani forms the lingua franca in a large region in Pakistan and North India (Hindi Belt) and the trade language in Andaman and Arunachal Pradesh. A version of Hindustani heavily influenced by Magadhi, Maithili and Bhojpuri, called Bihari Hindi is spoken in Patna and some other urban areas in Bihar. Another version influenced by Marathi, called Bombay Hindi is spoken in Mumbai and neighbouring urban regions in Maharashtra.[citation needed]
Numerically, the content of the Central Group of the Indo-Aryan languages has been very variously assessed by different researchers: Chatterji sees in it one language while Grierson enumerated six. Strictly speaking, the core of this group is represented not by languages at all, but by a number of closely related dialects-Braj, Kanauji and Bundell, which together with Khari Boli and Hariani, can be lumped under the common title 'Western Hindi'. The last-mentioned two dialects which occupy the north-western corner of the area covered by Hindi, display a number of common features with Panjabi, which in its turn can be seen as a transitional link with the most typical representative of the North Western group – Lahnda.
Closely connected with the dialects of the 'Western Hindi' group are Awadhi, Bagheli and Chattisgarhi, which come under the heading of 'Eastern Hindi'. Linguistically, these can be regarded as a transitional stage between the Central [= Western Hindi] and the Eastern groups of languages [= Eastern Indo-Aryan]. The 'intermediate' character of this group of dialects seems to have taken shape as far back as the Old Indo-Aryan period. The Middle Indo-Aryan forerunner of the contemporary Eastern Hindi dialects was the Ardhamagadhi Prakrit, which was a transitional form between Sauraseni and Magadhi; the present-day Central dialects go back to Sauraseni, while the languages of the Eastern group derive from Magadhi