Clarifying a Telangan misconception about Khari Boli and Hindustani

by Guest Sat Apr 21, 2012 3:50 pm

A genuine misunderstanding about Khari Boli and its connection with
Hindustani needs to be explained. Khari Boli is the language of urban
India, of the cities in urban India. It is no different from Hindustani.
For instance, consider the following:

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In the third place the name Hindi is specifically used for the
modern
language which is the literary form of the speech known by the names
Hindustani,
Khari Boli, or Dehlavi.

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urduhindilinks/tarachand/03misconceptions.html

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But the term 'Khari Boli' is also used to refer to the language spoken
in the regions surrounding Delhi. Consider the following table taken
from the wikipedia entry on Khari Boli:

Khari Modern Standard Hindi-Urdu (MS-HU) Comments

Jutta urli taraf dhar diye.	Joota iss taraf rakh dijiye.	English: 'Please put the shoe on this side'; gemination of 't' in 'jutta'; Use of 'urli' in common with Haryanvi - the word is absent from MS-HU
Yo deekh na ria.	Yeh dikh nahin raha.	English: 'This is not visible'; Vowel lengthening; Variant word-forms
Main na detta.	Main nahin doonga.	English: 'I won't give it'; Varying verb-form; 'deta' exists in MS-HU but is semantically incorrect (due to tense) to use here; Also, gemination from the 'deta' form in MS-HU
Chiryon ku diqq mati karey.	Chiryon ko tang mat kar.	English: 'Don't bother the birds'; Usage of Khari-specific abbreviation 'diqq', which is a shortening of 'diqqat', a Persian-derived term; Khari-usage of 'mati' - a variant form of 'mat' which is the MS-HU norm
Kitaab chhaen me dhar dijiyo, asmaan se mi girey hai.	Kitaab chhaon mein rakh dena, aasmaan se baarish gir rahi hai.	English: 'Put the book in the shade, rain is falling from the sky.'; Preferential usage of 'dhar' over 'rakh'; differing word-forms; asmaan < aasmaan/sky, vowel shortening; Saharanpuri dialect usage of 'mi' in common with northern Haryanvi and Punjabi, which is absent in MS-HU

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In the above table, the wikipedia page on Khari Boli says that the words on the left are Khari Boli, and in the center are modern standard hindi-urdu. This is true, but it needs to be clarified that in this context the meaning of Khari Boli is the language spoken in the regions surrounding Delhi. The fact that Khari Boli is also identified with standard hindi-urdu (or Hindustani) seems to have confused one person from Telangana. Ironically enough the same person had once complained about Khari Boli speakers pushing their version of Hindi at the expense of other dialects and he had also agreed that the language in Hindi movies is Khari Boli. So he ought to have realized where the problem with his interpretation was.

The word 'Hindustani' is used to refer to people from all of India, but it has a second meaning according to which it is used to refer to people whose first language is Hindustani (just as Telugus are people whose first language is Telugu). So the word 'Hindustani' has two meanings. Similarly, the term 'Khari Boli' has two meanings. According to the first meaning, Khari Boli is no different from the Hindustani or standard hindi-urdu language. According to the second meaning of the term, it refers to the hindi dialect spoken in regions around Delhi.