The Hindi language, from the Indo-European family, is one of the oldest and most spoken languages in the world. About 550 million people speak Hindi in India and 16 other countries, and the total number of people who understand the language may be as high as 800 million.
On January 26, 1965, Hindi became the official language of India, although English and 21 other languages are recognized as official languages by the Constitution of India. Believe it or not, 11 more languages are spoken besides the 22 official languages and it is said that 2000 dialects have been identified in India.
One of the most important dialects is Khariboli, which is used by the government and taught in schools. This dialect is a variation of the Urdu/Hindi language. Nowadays, Hindi’s popularity has been helped by Bollywood, the Hindi film industry. These movies have an international appeal and have now broken into western markets as well.
