Colloquial Hindustani

First Published in 1944, Colloquial Hindustani is intended to supply the beginner in the language not only with the common rules of grammar and their exemplification with sentences of a practical nature, but to assist him towards a correct pronunciation, with a phonetic system of spelling designed as part of an All-India system of romantic orthography.

Hindustani, like Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati and most other Indian languages except those of the southeastern part of the peninsula has its ancient roots in Prakrit or ‘vernaculars’ associated with Sanskrit. The widespread common language Hindustani is closely associated with two specialised literary languages, Hindi and Urdu. The everyday speech of millions of people in the North of India is the expression of a common language, Hindustani. This little book makes a small beginning especially in the matter of Roman spelling and is an important historical reference work for students of linguistics and Indian languages.