page_title: Central Indo-Aryan languages
section_title: Languages
hierarchical_section_title: Central Indo-Aryan languages / Languages
caption_attribution_description: English: Varieties of Western Hindi.
context_page_description: The Central Indo-Aryan languages or Hindi languages are a group of related language varieties spoken across northern and central India. These language varieties form the central part of the Indo-Aryan language family, itself a part of the Indo-European language family. They historically form a dialect continuum that descends from the Madhya Prakrits. Located in the Hindi Belt, the Central Zone includes the Dehlavi dialect of the Hindustani language, the lingua franca of Northern India that is the basis of the Modern Standard Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu literary standards. In regards to the Indo-Aryan language family, the coherence of this language group depends on the classification being used; here only Eastern and Western Hindi will be considered.
context_section_description: If there can be considered a consensus within the dialectology of Hindi proper, it is that it can be split into two sets of dialects: Western and Eastern Hindi. Western Hindi evolved from the Apabhramsa form of Shauraseni Prakrit, Eastern Hindi from Ardhamagadhi.
  Western Hindi
  Braj (21 m), spoken in western Uttar Pradesh and adjacent districts of Rajasthan and Haryana.
  Haryanvi (8 m), spoken in Chandigarh, Haryana,  and as a minority in Punjab and Delhi.
  Bundeli (3 m), spoken in south-western Uttar Pradesh and west-central Madhya Pradesh.
  Kannauji (9.5 m), spoken in west-central Uttar Pradesh.
  Hindustani (312 m), with its standardised forms High Hindi and Urdu, spoken in western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and after partition in Pakistan.
  Eastern Hindi
  Awadhi (38 m), spoken in north and north-central Uttar Pradesh as well as the Caribbean, Fiji, Mauritius and South Africa.
  Caribbean Hindustani (mostly based on Bhojpuri but has major Awadhi influence)
  Fiji Hindi (mostly based on Awadhi with Bhojpuri influence)
  Bagheli (8 m), spoken in north-central Madhya Pradesh and south-eastern Uttar Pradesh.
  Chhattisgarhi (13 m), spoken in southeast Madhya Pradesh and northern and central Chhattisgarh.
  This analysis excludes varieties sometimes claimed for Hindi for cultural reasons, such as Bihari, Rajasthani, and Pahari. Bhojpuri is classified under the Bihari languages though it has long been considered a Hindi language.
  Romani, Domari, Lomavren, and Seb Seliyer (or at least their ancestors) appear to be Central Zone languages that migrated to the Middle East and Europe ca. 500–1000 CE in three distinct waves. Parya is a Central Zone language of Central Asia.
  To Western Hindi Ethnologue adds Sansi, Powari, Chamari (a spurious language), Bhaya, Gowli (not a separate language), and Ghera.
caption: Western Hindi languages.  Clockwise from the top: Hindustani, Kannauji, Bundeli, Braj, Haryanvi.
  The Eastern Hindi languages are not shown individually.  They are Awadhi in the north, east of Hindustani and Kannauji; Bagheli in the center, to the east of Bundeli, and Chhattisgarhi to the southeast of Bundeli.
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