| Hindustani | |
|---|---|
| Hindi | |
| हिन्दुस्तानी ہندوستانی | |
 The word "Hindustani" written in Devanagari script | |
| Native to | India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh |
Native speakers | (240 million cited 1991–1997) Second language: 165 million (1999) Total: 490 million (2006) |
Early form | |
Standard forms | |
| Perso-Arabic (Urdu alphabet) Devanagari (Hindi and Urdu alphabets) Bharati Braille (Hindi and Urdu) Kaithi (historical) | |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Pakistan (as Urdu) India (as Hindi and Urdu) |
| Regulated by | Central Hindi Directorate (Hindi, India), National Language Authority, (Urdu, Pakistan); National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (Urdu, India) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | hi, ur |
| ISO 639-2 | hin, urd |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:hin – Standard Hindiurd – Urdu |
| Linguasphere | to -qf 59-AAF-qa to -qf |
Hindustani is an Indo-Aryan language. It is widely spoken in India and Pakistan. It is written in Devanagari and Nastaliq. The Devanagari variety is commonly called Hindi or Hindui. The Nastaliq variety is commonly called Urdu or Lashkari. There also is a Braille version, called Bharati Braille.
Because the English languge is important in the region, the Hindustani language is sometimes written using the Latin script. These transliterations are called Romainzed Urdu, and Roman Hindi.
Hindi and Urdu use different alphabets, but the grammar and pronounciation is almost the same. For this reason, the languages are mutually intelligible. Two peole will understand each other, when one of them speaks Urdu, and the other Hindi. As both languages use different writing systems, this may not be the case for written texts.
