Table Of Content

Colloquial Hindi The Colloquial Series The following languages are available in the Colloquial series: Afrikaans Albanian Amharic Arabic (Levantine) Arabic of Egypt Arabic of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia Basque Breton Bulgarian Cambodian Cantonese Catalan Chinese Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Finnish French German Greek Gujarati Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish (forthcoming) Italian Japanese Korean Latvian Lithuanian Lithuanian Malay Mongolian Norwegian Panjabi Persian Polish Portuguese Portuguese of Brazil Romanian Russian Scottish Gaelic Serbian Slovak Slovene Somali Spanish Spanish of Latin America Swahili Swedish Tamil Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yoruba COLLOQUIAL 2s Series The Next Step in Language Learning Chinese Dutch French German (forthcoming) Italian Portuguese of Brazil (forthcoming) Russian Russian Spanish Spanish of Latin America Colloquials are now supported by FREE AUDIO available online. All audio tracks referenced within the text are free to stream or download from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. If you experience any difficulties accessing the audio on the companion website, or still wish to purchase a CD, please contact our customer services team through www.routledge.com/info/contact. Colloquial Hindi The Complete Course for Beginners Tej K. Bhatia First published 1996 by Routledge This edition first published 2008 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2008 Tej K. Bhatia All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bhatia, Tej K. Colloquial Hindi : a complete course for beginners / Tej K. Bhatia. – [2nd, rev. ed.]. p. cm. Previously published: 1996. Includes index. 1. Hindi language – Textbooks for foreign speakers – English. 2. Hindi language – Conversation and phrase books – English. 3. Hindi language – Grammar. I. Title. PK 1935.B525 2007 491′. 4382421–dc22 2007001478 ISBN13: 978-1-138-94972-0 (pbk) In memory of my mother, Shrimati Krishna Wanti Bhatia and my father, Shri Parma Nand Bhatia Contents Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Hindi writing system and pronunciation Transcription table Script and handwriting 1 Script unit 1 2 Script unit 2 3 Script unit 3 4 Script unit 4 5 Script unit 5 Units 1 namaste/namaskār Greetings and social etiquette 2 Where are you from? 3 āpko kyā cāhiye? What would you like? 4 āp ke shauk kyā h ? What are your hobbies? 5 chuTTiyõ mẽ kyā karẽge? What will you do during the break? 6 kal kyā kiyā? What did you do yesterday? 7 kyā āp hind ; bol sakte h ? Can you speak Hindi? 8 mujhe cheque cash karvāne h I need to get cheques cashed 9 ‘fortune cookies’ mẽ kyā likhā hε? What’s written in the fortune cookie? 10 bhāratiya tyauhāra Indian festivals Reference grammar Key to exercises Dictionary order English–Hindi glossary Hindi–English glossary Index Preface Since the publication of this book over a decade ago, it has undergone several reprints. Nothing is more gratifying for an author than to hear from his/her readers. I consider myself privileged to be the beneficiary of my readers’ reactions, suggestions, compliments and wish-lists which poured in from a highly diverse cross-section of readers around the globe. This encouraged me to create a revised and expanded version of the book. Based on the input that I have received, I know it is not the ideal solution to the multitudes of topics (ranging from the treatment of the Hindi script, grammatical details and cross-cultural insights) that one wishes to address; however, it is a modest step toward that goal. Many changes have occurred since the first publication of the book. India is fast becoming a major global power. The dynamics of communicative situations further call for changes to reflect new situations and realities. Readers will find the following new changes and additions in this book: Facts and figures have been updated. The section dealing with the script has been beefed up considerably. Dialogues and prose texts integrate the Roman as well as the Devanagari in a way that reflects a mutually-feeding relationship between the two. As one of the anonymous reviewers of the book rightly noted, the execution of the Devanagari version of conversations and prose texts was cumbersome in the first edition. This limitation has been addressed. Roman is a non-syllabic script whereas Devanagari is syllabic. Whenever relevant, the complementary strengths of the two writing systems are exploited, particularly in explanations of grammar. While the new guidelines issued by the Government of India have been followed throughout the book (e.g. the letter jha; preference for e instead of ye in words such as cāhie; not separating the postpositions with the pronouns), readers are also exposed to variation (e.g. two ways of writing the third person singular, polite imperative forms and the past tense). Whenever relevant, the content has been modernized. New topics of cross-cultural communication have been introduced in the cultural notes (e.g. how to say ‘no’ in socially sensitive situations, linguistic attitudes and hyper-politeness, etiquettes of gift-giving). Another innovation is the Online Resource Guide and the Internet links. Old errors and misprints have been corrected. In spite of this, I am acutely aware that this work is not free from limitations. Therefore, I would be grateful for any comments, criticisms or suggestions that perceptive scholars may have on this book. Please send them to me at the following address: Linguistic Studies Program, 312 HBC, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York-13244-1160, USA or send an email to: