Hindi A

Hindi is modern India's most spoken language and is along with English the official language of the country. It is spoken by 300 million people in northern and central India, it is the literary language for yet another 100 million and also the *lingua franca* among many other large groups of people. In addition, it is also spoken in many countries such as Trinidad, Suriname, Mauritius and Fiji. Hindi can be placed third among world languages, after Chinese and English. Hindi is closely related to Urdu which is the official language of Pakistan and the variant has many loanwords from Persian and Arabic. The language has its true foundation in the Indian language and cultural development and is one of the inheritors of the Sanskrit and Middle Indian languages. The alphabet is called Devanagari and is the same as is used for Sanskrit. The course provides an introduction to the general linguistics and South Asian context of the Hindi language. Furthermore, it gives basic knowledge for continued learning of Hindi language phonetics and grammar as well as some literacy skills and knowledge of the historical and cultural background of today's India. **Outline for distance course:** The course is IT-based and taught via the university's learning platform Studium and the video platform Zoom. Access to a computer with an internet connection, webcam and microphone is required to follow the course. Parts of the course might be given in English.