interesting experience

[Samar Abbas]

Stephen J Brown wrote:
> ... His response was immediatly shocking to me. He told
> me at great length how though most people believe they are speaking hindi,
> they are actually speaking Urdu.

 He is right. As Urdu spread across the Delhi Sultanate (12th century
onwards), it intermingled with various Prakrits, giving rise to pidgins
like Hindi and Hindustani. The Hindus then used this mixed language
Hindustani to speak to each other, leading to the spread of this hybird
Urdu outside the core Delhi Sultanate (where Urdu itself was spoken). It
became the lingua france amongst Hindus as it was considered `PC' because
two Hindus using it would be speaking a `neutral' third language.

  Most Hindus, even UP upper castes, do not understand the Modern
Standard Hindi. Instead, they speak the local Prakrit at home, and
Hindustani when in other states. Indeed, school Hindi is merely a
Sanskritised form of Hindustani, which is in turn derived from Urdu. So
your informant was right - the Hindustani of Bollywood films is actually
Urdu. This is a `fossil' of the Mughal Empire.

> This seems a bit of a rediculous claim
> considering that none of the hindi liturature i have seen displays an
> arabic alphabet. so my question is this: is there any value to this claim?

 That is because much `Hindi' literature is actually Braj Bhasa, which has
nothing to do with Urdu (Braj is a Prakrit dating back to 8-10th century
AD). Also, it is lumped together with other distinct languages such as
Magadhi, Marathi and Rajasthani as `Hindi' for purely political purposes.

Samar