Hindi might be better described as a "family of related languages with varying degrees of mutual intelligibilty" than a specific one. Other Indian languages also have varying degreees of mutual intelligibilty. Traditionally, Hindi was written in Devanagari script, as several other South Asian languages have been. Currently the other main languages that use Devanagari script are Marathi and Nepali. Some would argue that if you write Urdu in Devanagari script, you could call it Hindi. My Bangladeshi friend is verbally fluent in both Hindi and Urdu, can't read either script, and says there are differences. She's the lawyer, and the one who's fluent in both, I'll leave it to the experts. Nevertheless, I believe the biggest difference between verbal Hindi and Urdu is in the number of dialects.
Today, many Indians do use Roman letters to write in Hindi, but Devanagari is MORE phonetic. For example, when you write "Hindi" in Roman letters, it has two i's. When Hindi is written in Devanagari हिन्दी the i's are different. "Hindi2" is REALLY about using "Devanagari to" provide phonetic cues for learning pronuniciation of words in new languages. "Hindi" is easier to remember and spell. As demonstrated by the example with Urdu, sometimes the biggest differences between Indian languages are the scripts. Sometimes differences between languages are minimized when written in the same script. Even when languages are significantly different, it may be useful to learn different languages with the help of cues from the same phonetic script.
MD is always right
Users of Hindi2.com have the option to view documents in various formats.
- Full text with choice of 1-3 languages and scripts in a series, with point-and-click audio
- Grammatically: sentence-by-sentence (with point-and-click audio)
- 2-3 languages/scripts of choice side-by-side or 4 in a specific grid: primary language above language learning, and Devanagari on right.
- All current languages will have Roman letters on left when viewed in a grid.
- As languages with other native scripts are added, the Roman letters will be replaced with alternate native scripts, starting wiht Khmer.
- Devanagari will remain the common phonetic script for all languages in the database
- Devanagari will require modification for use with some languages
- Modified Devanagari (MD) will always be "on the right" in a grid
- MD will provide the "right phonetic cues" (at least one "valid alternative")
- Phonetic cues are a double edged sword, since there may be legitmate alternate ways to pronounce words
- Alternate legitimate pronuniciations of words may or may not be suggested
- Founder appreciates suggestions for valid alternate pronunciations
- Grammatical sentences will have option of document specific vocabulary list on left margin, in format of choice.
- Vocabulary list will also have a an alternate "hover option" in format of choice, to link languages and scripts.
- Literal sentence-by-sentence: word-by-word translations with alternate formats of choice above and below. Sentence-by-sentence audio in the first language, which will be grammatically correct. Literal translations may not be.
- Vocabulary available document-by-document or comprehensive, includes reference sentence in format of choice.
- Languages
- English
- Hindi
- Cebuano
- Khmer (early 2025)
- Spanish (late 2025)
- All languages will be available
- Native script and Devanagari
- When native script IS Devanagari, Roman letters will be alternate.
- Comprehensive vocabulary is interlinked and viewable in formats of coice side-by-side.