HINDI scripts and dialects

[Yashwant Malaiya]

There is a view going around that a language should be invariant as if it
were carved in stone, and there should be one script associated with it,
which should not vary.

Fact is that in a natural form, a language varies from region to region.
Variation regionally and temporally is gradual. The only way there can be
an invariant language when one is artificially created, or when a dialect
become a standard and "it's dialects" become more and more like the
standard.

English, even in England too had dialects and their traces can still be
encountered.

> But Hindee is written in a whole four scripts: Perso-Arabic, Devanagari,
>Kaithi for its Bihari `dialect' and Mahajani for its Rajasthani `dialect'.
>Now, which other language in the world has a whole 4 scripts ?

If one looks at manuscripts and letters from say 60-80 years ago
and older, one can see many more "scripts". The Kaithi manuscript
is much more readable that many Hindi business letters from UP or MP
from 1930's. Is every writing style a different script? Depends on the
definition.

All dialects of Hindi (even the standard Khari boli) are dialects.
Take away all the dialects, there is nothing left.

He says:

>>What about Kabir (1398-?) ... Raidas (1398-1448) ... Amir Khosrow (1283-
...
> Most of the personages above wrote in Punjabi, Avadhi and Rajasthani.

One can see examples of their work on the web. It will very hard for
anyone to identify a regional dialect in their work. None of the three
wrote in Punjabi or  Rajasthani obviusly. Did Kabir write in Avadhi?
While an occasional term in his Bijak shows Avadhi influence, the
language is not very regional.

Sometimes regional dialects can be fairly easily identified, for
example in case of Surdas, Mirabai or Baba Nanak.

Hindi, because it has absorbed words from many languages, and because
it encompasses many diverse dialects, is an extremely expressive
language.

Yashwant