Hindi

Hindi is a direct descendant of Sanskrit through Prakrit and Apabhramsha. It has been influenced and enriched by Dravidian, Turkish, Farsi, Arabic, Portugese and English. It is a very expressive language. In poetry and songs, it can convey emotions using simple and gentle words. Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language with about 487 million speakers. It is one of the official languages of India and is used as the language of administration, the media, education and literature in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Elsewhere in India, Hindi is used, along side English, as a second language.