Your Name Blanca Caudillo
Language of Investigation Hindi
What places of origin (countries, regions, cities) is this language primarily spoken? The main
language used in the northern states of Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana,
Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh,
Jharkhand and Bihar, and is spoken in much of north and central India
alongside other languages such as Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi or Bengali. In
other parts of India, as well as in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, Hindi is
understood. In Fiji people of Indian origin speak Hindi, and in some areas the
Fijian people also speak it.
This closest/ most similar language to this language is Urdu
How many speakers are there globally of this language?487 million speakers
Alphabet
This language has a Latin (every sign has a single sound) alphabet.
This language reads right to left, down to up
The letters/ characters of this alphabet are of Indo-European language family
Does this language depend primarily on tone or pitch? Yes
Is this language syllable or stress timed? syllable
Does this language have strong sound/symbol correspondence? (English does not) Yes
Complete this section ONLY if your language is Latin based (most languages you will encounter are).
Phonetics and phonology
There are 11 vowels in this language. They are
(cut and paste the vowels in the actual script)
Vowels
Hindi alphabet has ten vowels and two modifiers which are given below. The symbols shown below the
alphabets are known as "matra" symbols. Matra symbols are used when consonants and vowels are to be written
together.
a
aa/A
e/i
ee/ii
u
oo/uu
e
ai
o
ou
aM
aH
Vowels Not In Common Use
ऋ
ॠ
ऌ
ॡ
ॐ
r^
r^^
l^
l^^
AUM
Which vowels sound the same as English vowel sounds? (list L1 vowel and English vowel
correspondence).
अ
a ( the sound of 'e' in father
आ
aa (as in father)
इ
i (as in in)
ई
ii ( as in been)
उ
u ( as in put)
ऊ
uu (as in moon)
ए
e ( as in make)
ऐ
ai ( the sound of a in dad)
ओ
o ( as in so)
औ
au (as in saw)
Which vowel sounds do not exist in English?
ऋ
RI (as is tREe)
अ:
H
अँ
ANG (^)
There are 40 consonants in this language. They are
Which consonant sounds do NOT exist in English?
ख Coupled sound of ‘k’, ‘h’= ‘kh’
घ Coupled sound of ‘g’, ‘h’= ‘gh’
ङ As ‘gn’ in gnome. Does not produce a particular sound: Just used for
articulation of tongue while pronouncing the next word
छ This sound is not available in English. The tongue touches a bit away (to
the inner side) from the teeth while pronouncing ‘ch’ as in chair.
झ This sound is not available in English. The is produced using the naval
sounds while the tongue touches the upper part of mouth cavity.
ञ Just like ‘gn’ of gnome with a slight up movement of tongue. No particular
sound just articulation while speaking.
ठ Hard sound of ‘t’. Not available in English.
ढ Coupled sound of ‘d’ and ‘h’= ‘dh’. Not available in English but as ‘dh’ in
Indian musical instrument ‘dhol’.
ण Nasal sound when the tongue touches a bit away from teeth. In न, the
tongue touches the roots of the teeth.
ध Not available in English. Again, naval sound produced by coupling soft ‘d’
and ‘h’= ‘dh’.
फ Sound of ‘f’ if pronounced with closed lips. ‘f’ of German language.
भ Not available in English. Coupled sound of ‘b’ and ‘h’= ‘bh’.
ष Sound of ‘sh’ when the tongue touches the roots of the teeth. In श, the
tongue touches the upper part of mouth cavity.
ज्ञ Coupled sound of ‘j’ and ‘n’= ‘jn’
.
What sounds do speakers of this language have difficulty pronouncing? The pronunciation of
English words such as this, thin, clothes, thirteenth, months inevitably causes problems for
learners who do not need to use the tip of the tongue to produce words in their own language.
Are there any sound placements that are different between English and this language? What are
they? (For example,
Do any double letter combinations exist in this language? What are they and what do
they correspond to in English? (For example, Spanish: /ll/ = English /y/). No
Syntax and Grammar
How many tenses exist in this language? 3
What are they? Hindi as same type of tenses as english do.
The word order of this language is
Normal sentences
English: Subject Verb Object => I learn Hindi
Hindi: Subject Object Verb => I Hindi learn
English: Subject Verb Preposition Object => I go to the shop
Hindi: Subject Object Postposition Verb => I shop to go
Imperative sentences
English: Verb Place Adverb => Come here now
Hindi: Place Adverb Verb => Here now come
English: Verb Negative Verb Adverb => Do not eat quickly
Hindi: Adverb Negative Verb => Quickly not eat
Interrogate sentences
English: Adverb Aux.Verb Subject Verb => What are you drawing?
Hindi: Subject Adverb Verb => You what draw?
What are the punctuation forms used in this language? List using English comparisons. The end of a
sentence is indicated in Hindi by a vertical line “ | ” . All the other punctuation marks are used
in Hindi just as they are in English
How does this language mark gender? Hindi has two genders, masculine (nouns ending in i) and
feminine (nouns ending in a) but there are exceptions. As for the number, we distinguish
between singular and plural.
Morphology
What are some shared cognates between English and this language? No
What are some FALSE cognates between English and this language? None
Through your research what have you found are the biggest difficulties of speakers of this language
learning English? Please provide specific examples. Hindi learners are disinclined to 'swallow'
unstressed syllables such as the first syllables in the words tomorrow, intelligent, remember,
etc., and will often try to clearly articulate short, common words that are usually weakly
stressed in English: has, and, was, to, etc.
English, of course, is prevalent in India, and for this reason Hindi learners may well be
extremely fluent. Nevertheless, native-English speakers often have difficulties understanding
them because of the combination of the pronunciation problems listed above and the use of
Hindi intonation patterns. (In Hindi emphasis is accomplished by higher pitch rather than by
the heavier articulation that typifies English.) The result of this is the sing-song effect that
English spoken by Hindi learners often has on native-English speakers.
Further difficulties for learners attempting to produce spoken English that sounds natural are
the unpredictability of English word stress, the elision of weak syllables and the insertion of
consonants (liaison). Examples:



yesterday - tomorrow (word stress)
Whatsa time? - Quar t' t' four! (elision)
more (r)and more / not (t)at all (liaison)
English is a stress-timed language.† Its intonation patterns, therefore, are different from those
of syllable-timed languages like French, Spanish or Hindi. This accounts for the heavy English
accents that many native speakers of those languages retain even after years of speaking
English and the acquisition of flawless grammar.
If you have an early production ELL who this language is their L1, what would be the most important
thing you will teach them in regards to the difference between their language and English? First, I
will teach them the alphabet sounds including vocabulary. As they learn the alphabet, I will
teach them how to use the vocabulary words in sentences, since in Hindi the writing order is
very different. Meanwhile the students will learn how to write in English.