Hindi Retail & E-Commerce Translation

About the Hindi Language

Hindi is the most commonly spoken language in India. It is the fifth most spoken language in the world with about 182 million native speakers in 1998. The Devanāgarī script is used to write Hindi.

Hindi is widely written, spoken and understood in North India and some other places in India. In 1997, a survey found that 45% of Indians can speak Hindi.

Like other Indo-Aryan languages, Hindi is a direct descendant of an early form of Vedic Sanskrit, through Sauraseni Prakrit and Śauraseni Apabhraṃśa (from Sanskrit apabhraṃśa "corrupted"), which emerged in the 7th century CE.

Before the standardization of Hindi on the Khariboli dialect, various dialects and languages of the Hindi belt attained prominence through literary standardization, such as Avadhi and Braj Bhasha. Early Hindi literature came about in the 12th and 13th centuries CE. This body of work included the early Rajasthani epics such as renditions of the Dhola Maru, the Prithviraj Raso in Braj Bhasha, and the works of Amir Khusrow in the Khariboli of Delhi.

Modern Standard Hindi is based on the Khariboli dialect, the vernacular of Delhi and the surrounding region, which came to replace earlier prestige dialects such as Awadhi, Maithili (sometimes regarded as separate from the Hindi dialect continuum) and Braj. Urdu – another form of Hindustani – acquired linguistic prestige in the later Mughal period (1800s), and underwent significant Persian influence. Modern Hindi and its literary tradition evolved towards the end of the 18th century. In the late 19th century, a movement to further develop Hindi as a standardised form of Hindustani separate from Urdu took form. In 1881, Bihar accepted Hindi as its sole official language, replacing Urdu, and thus became the first state of India to adopt Hindi. Modern Standard Hindi is one of the youngest Indian languages in this regard.

Hindi Translation Expertise

Hindi uses a complex verb conjugation system influenced by gender, number, and formality level, with postpositions instead of prepositions altering noun endings. The language has three registers of formality (tum, tum, aap) that must be correctly applied in official documents. Technical and legal terminology often borrows from Sanskrit or English, and the translator must judge which register is appropriate for the target audience.

Hindi is written in the Devanagari script, which runs left to right and consists of 11 vowels and 33 consonants joined by a horizontal headline called the shirorekha. Transliteration into Latin script follows several competing standards, so consistency in romanisation must be maintained throughout a document.

Common Hindi Documents

Hindi documents commonly requiring translation include the जन्म प्रमाण पत्र (janma pramaan patra, birth certificate), विवाह प्रमाण पत्र (vivaah pramaan patra, marriage certificate), अंकतालिका (ank taalika, academic marksheet), and पुलिस चरित्र प्रमाण पत्र (police charitr pramaan patra, police clearance certificate). Indian documents are issued by state-level authorities and may appear in Hindi, English, or the relevant state language, often bearing stamps from the Sub-Registrar or Municipal Corporation.

NAATI offers certification for Hindi translators, and Hindi is one of the more widely available NAATI-certified language pairs in Australia. The Department of Home Affairs accepts NAATI-certified translations of Hindi documents for visa and citizenship applications.

About the Hindi Language

Hindi is the fourth most spoken language in the world with over 600 million speakers, yet it only became an official language of India in 1950 — and even then, English was retained as a co-official language partly because southern Indian states protested against Hindi imposition. Hindi and Urdu are mutually intelligible in spoken form and are sometimes jointly called "Hindustani," but they use completely different scripts (Devanagari for Hindi, Perso-Arabic for Urdu) and draw formal vocabulary from different sources (Sanskrit for Hindi, Persian and Arabic for Urdu). The Hindi word jungle entered English directly, as did avatar, karma, guru, nirvana, and shampoo (from chāmpo, meaning "to press/massage").