Will learning Hindi affect my English?
As a linguistic variety, Hindi is the fourth most-spoken first language in the world, after Mandarin, Spanish and English. Hindi, along with Urdu as Hindustani, is the world’s third most spoken language, behind only Mandarin and English. The terms “Hindi” and “Hindu” trace back to Old Persian which derived these names from the Sanskrit name Sindhu, referring to the river Indus. The Greek cognates of the same terms are “Indus” (for the river) and “India” (for the land of the river). The word Hindi was initially used to refer to people who lived in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It was derived from the Classical Persian word Hind (Iranian Persian pronunciation: Hendi), which means “heart.” “Hind-related or belonging to Hind (India). ” Amir Khusrow, for example, used the word Hindav or Hindu (from Persian: “of or belonging to the Hindu/Indian people”) in his poetry.
Let's read more about lingustic interference these languages cause on one another. It's not a one way track!
Language helps us to convey our feelings and thoughts, and it is unique to our species because it allows us to express the distinct concepts and customs of diverse civilizations and communities. Learning a foreign language allows you to comprehend thoughts and sentiments that are unfamiliar to your own culture. When considering learning more than one language, it is important to keep in mind that some languages affect others. While the knowledge of some languages makes it easier to learn another, the opposite is valid too. Sometimes learning a new language can negatively affect your knowledge of the previously mastered language. Considering Hindi and English, indeed learning Hindi will affect your English primarily due to linguistic interference.
But I have something far interesting to disclose first!
Uriel Weinreich coined the phrase “linguistic interference” which refers to the process of deviating from a language’s structural rules as seen in the speech of bilingual people as a result of their proficiency in another language. Now, here’s the catch!; English is more likely to cause interference in learning Hindi rather than the reverse due to the following few reasons
Some major reasons that cause linguistic interference are as follows:
- There are more exposure instances in the first ‘learnt’ language than in the second.
- Because the vocabulary of the second language is typically relatively restricted, interference from the first language generates an urgent demand for precise expression and communication. It, therefore, tries to fill the gap!
- The acquisition of a first language happens naturally. It is typically connected to functional grammar; that is, no direct attempts are made to comprehend and follow grammatical rules, whereas rigorous grammar rules must be followed to study or acquire a second language. This frequently results in overlapping and verbal interference.
- Linguistic interference can also arise to demonstrate one’s proficiency in more than one language.
- When the second language is unable to communicate any cultural, regional, religious, or traditional meaning or context of the original language, the interference must be allowed to occur.
- Interference is skillfully used several times in order to promote interest and novelty.
The second ‘aimed to learn language’ on the contrary also causes some linguistic interference, and in the case of our blog today, Hindi does cause a little linguistic interference that can be distinguished into the following six types:
- Spelling Interference
- Phonetic / Phonological Interference ( Related to Pronunciation)
- Contextual Interference
- Grammatical / Structural Interference
- Lexical / Vocabulary Interference
- Idiomatic Interference
These are especially true for focussed learners who make a great deal of effort to learn the new language. Due to significant concentration on learning new words correctly for some initial time the new language and in this case Hindi is adversely able to interfere with the first learnt language! Due to these languages being in different language families, with no association with each other, it’s only natural that there will be some degree of interference from both the languages into each other.
Finally,
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