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Haitian Vodoun Culture Language language Haitian Vodoun Culture Language language

The Hakkas are a unique ethnic group of "Han" Chinese originally active around the Yellow River area. They are thought to be one of the earliest "Han" settlers in China. One theory has it that many of the early Hakkas were affiliated with the "royal bloods". The truth may be more complicated than that. It is highly likely that while Hakka may be a stronghold of Han culture, Hakka people also have married other ethnic groups and adopted their cultures during the long migration history of 2000 years. Due to the infusion of other ethnic groups from the northwest, north and northeast, these original settlers gradually migrated south and settled in Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong. They were called Hakka by the locals when they first settled in. This term has been used since by non-Hakka and Hakka people, and in international publications. The spelling "Hakka" is derived from the pronunciation in Hakka dialect ( pronounced as "haagga" in Hakka and "kejia" in Mandarin).

During the last hundred years or so, Hakka people migrated to South East Asia, East Africa, Europe (Holland, United Kingdom, France, Germany..), South America (Brazil, Trinidad...) Canada, US. About 7% of the 1.2 billion Chinese clearly state their Hakka origin or heritage. However, the actual number may be more as many Hakka Han who settled along the path of migration assimilate with the local people. The Hakka identity is gradually lost.

Hakka people are noted for their preservation of certain cultural characteristics that could be traced to pre-Qin period (about 2200 years ago) as expressed in the custom, foods, spoken language, etc.

Hakka people are also known to be very adamant in defending their cultural heritage, which was the reason for their migration to flee from the "northern" influence at that time.

As a late comer to places initially occupied by locals, Hakkas usually had to struggle and survive on the less desirable lands. Thus, Hakka people are well-known for their perseverance even in the most adverse environment.

Architectural Space

In mentioning Hakka architecture, people always think of old houses, more specifically, examples of historical architecture or ancient sites. The three-wing courtyard house in which the Hakka live (also called the kuofangwu) does indeed have a high profile, and especially throughout the process of social change the old houses in the Hakka villages seem to have survived better than the houses of other ethnic groups.

For this reason, mentioning Hakka architecture today very naturally leads one to think of Fanjiang's Old Houses in Hsinwu, the Fan House and the Liu House in Hsinpu, the Six Clan Wen-li Hall, and Peipu's Tien-shui Hall and Chin Kuang Fu. In southern Taiwan Meinung's Kuofangwu, Chiatung's Hsiao House and Wukoushui's Liu House come to mind. Certainly, outstanding and elegant old Hakka houses are always bound to attract admiration. The shops are full of books on old Taiwan houses, and Hakka architecture regularly accounts for half of them.

Hakka architectural space as cultural property

There are indeed many individual cases of extraordinary elegance in Hakka architecture but if we only talk about the very top level of traditional Hakka architecture it is difficult to get an idea of the values of the Hakka ancestors with regard to the development of architectural space. Reading the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (Preservation Act) announced in 2005, the closest thing relating to "architectural space" was that the architectural space of "antiquities, historical architecture and traditional gathering habitations" should cover antiquities, historical architecture and traditional gathering habitations and that the overall vision and thinking in this area should be broadened from a cultural perspective, especially given the many architectural types to be found in Hakka villages.

Diversified Architectural Types

The Preservation Act can be boiled down to several key words and phrases: antiquities, historical architecture, traditional gathering habitations, construction methods, buildings and their associated elements. We can extrapolate further from this to: shops, courtyard-style houses (residences), ancestral shrines (public and private), ancestral temples (of the ruling house), shrines, religious buildings, warning stones, fengshui, barracks, police stations, jails, fire stations, official dormitories, colleges, schools, theaters, gymnasiums, meeting places, guild halls, general stores, foreign company buildings, banks, post office, tobacco barns, farmer's association halls, irrigation association halls, sugar refineries, breweries, markets, kilns, train stations, ports, ferry stations, light houses, bridges, ancient roads, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, memorial tablets, memorial arches, city walls, defensive gates, parks (and gardens), and ancient wells.

The above is by no means a complete list of Hakka architectural types. To be complete, it would have to include the types the Hakka people themselves have continued to add with their imagination.

Concrete Manifestations of a Way of Life

Every level of government has numerous projects focusing on living space in Hakka villages, and these projects are not at a loss for older style construction. But there are also many new constructions, and even more up-to-date older but not ancient styles. The emphasis is by on means on the building's design aesthetic but on its cultural significance and function. For example in Taiyuan, Hsinwu's Yewumei office building (and the environs), Pingzhen's new use of the old buildings in the Tungshih zhuang, the renovation of the Shitouwu at Fentien Village, Hengshan, Hsinchu, the delineation of Hsinwawu as a "Hakka Cultural Preservation Area" and the renovation of the Lin Family Clan Temple, the old mountain dwellings in Shuili, the reuse of the tobacco barns in Fenglin, Hualien and in Meinung, Kaohsiung. In these places you can see the more diversified Hakka architectural typologies, and even more significant is that in rediscovering all of this, the significance of Hakka culture is enriched. (text: Chen Pan)

group of North Chinese who migrated to South China, especially Kwangtung, Fukien, and Kwangsi provinces, during the fall of the Southern Sung dynasty in the 1270s. Their origins remain obscure, but the people who became the Hakka are thought to have lived originally in Honan and Shansi provinces in the Huang Ho (Yellow River) valley. The name Hakka is a Cantonese pronunciation of the Mandarin word k'o-chia ("guest people"), which the northerners were called to distinguish them from the pen-ti, or natives. Having settled in South China in their own communities, the Hakka never became fully assimilated into the native population. Unlike most other Chinese before the 20th century, they never allowed their women to bind their feet, and they speak a language that has affinities with both Cantonese, the language of the people of Kwangtung province, and Mandarin, the language of much of northern and central China; many of the Hakka tongue's initial sounds are a bridge between the two dialects. An extremely industrious, shrewd people, the Hakka tend to be very clannish

Hakka and Hoklo originally were two main dialects in Taiwan. But nowadays, the Hakka dialect is shrinking and disappearing. Zhao-jin Luo, an expert in Hakka studies, once said that if Hakka people do not understand deeply about Hakka language and do not keep on speaking it, the Hakka language will die out soon.

The Hakka are Han Chinese people whose ancestors are said to have originated in the Henan and Shanxi provinces of northern China over 1,700 years ago. In a series of migrations, the Hakka settled in Guangdong, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces in southern China, and then they went overseas to various Chinese enclaves throughout the world. The Hakka have had a significant influence on the course of Chinese and Overseas Chinese history: they particularly have been a source of revolutionary and political leaders.



Migrations and group identification
The use of the term Hakka to describe this people is thought to be comparatively recent, dating to the Qing Dynasty (c. 17th century).



Their ancestors migrated southwards several times because of social unrest, upheaval, and the invasion of foreign conquerors, since the Jin Dynasty (265-420). Subsequent migrations occurred at the end of the Tang Dynasty when China fragmented, during the middle of the Song Dynasty which saw massive depopulation of the north and a flood of refugees southward, when the Jurchens captured the northern Song capital, at the fall of the Song to the Mongols in the Yuan Dynasty, and when the Ming Dynasty fell to the Manchu who formed the Qing Dynasty.



During the reign of the Qing Kangxi Emperor, the coastal regions were evacuated by imperial edict for almost a decade, due to the danger posed by the remnants of the Ming court who had fled to what is now Taiwan. When the threat was eliminated, the Kangxi Emperor issued an edict to re-populate the coastal regions. To aid the move, each family was given money to begin their new lives; newcomers were registered as "Guest Families" (¿Í‘ô, k¨¨h¨´).



The existing Cantonese speaking inhabitants (punti, Cantonese for native) of these areas were protective of their own more fertile lands, and the newcomers were pushed to the outer fringes of fertile plains, or they settled in more mountainous regions to eke out a living. Conflict between the two groups grew, and it is thought that "Hakka" was a term of derision used by the Punti aimed at the newcomers. Eventually, the tension between the two groups would lead to the Punti-Hakka Clan Wars.



Over time, the term "Hakka" was adopted by the newcomers to refer to themselves. However, because the term also covers Hakka language-speakers, and because the Han Chinese registered as Guest Families who migrated at the time may not have been Hakka language-speakers, and because of intermarriages among Hakka and Punti members, identification as Hakka was largely a matter of self-selection. Through studies of both Cantonese and Hakka genealogies, some Hakka and Punti people with the same surnames claim the same ancestors, although their descendants strongly identify with one group to the exclusion of the other.



The Hakka ancestors are thus but one group amongst many who migrated southwards. Hakka people now are found in the southern Chinese provinces, chiefly in Guangdong, south-western Fujian, southern Jiangxi, southern Hunan, Guangxi, southern Guizhou, south-eastern Sichuan, and on Hainan and Taiwan islands. The Hakka dialects across these various provinces differ phonologically, but the Meixian (Meizhou) dialect of Hakka is considered the archetypal spoken form of the language.



Although they frequently are distinctive in culture and language from the surrounding population, the Hakka are not considered a separate ethnic group by the Chinese people: they are seen as part of the majority Han Chinese. Indigenous settlers thought that the Hakka were not Chinese at all; but due to common ancestry, as traced in clan genealogies, Hakka descendants have been shown to be as Chinese as their neighbours. In fact, the Hakka are no more non-Han than are any other southern Han populations.[citation needed]



Historical sources shown in census statistics relate only to the general population, irrespective of particular districts, provinces, or regions. These census counts were made during imperial times. They did not distinguish what language the population spoke. Therefore they do not directly document Hakka migrations. The study by Luo Xianglin, K'o-chia Yen-chiu Tao-Liu / An Introduction to the Study of the Hakkas (Hsin-Ning & Singapore, 1933) used genealogical sources of family clans from various southern counties.



With population movement, it is reasonable to assume that there is mixing among newcomers and the indigenous people. A recent study showed that there is genetic diversity in the general Han Chinese population. This suggests that the southward migration of people is borne out by these DNA studies, consistent with genealogical data. Further, two main groups of modern Han Chinese are observed: a northerly Han group with genetic affinity with northerly Mongoloid peoples, and a southerly Han group which have genetic affinity with the Gin Vietnamese. This finding is consistent with the migrations experienced during the history of the Hakka, from the north to the south of China. Even though this study is not a direct study of Hakka ancestry using DNA data, it does show that all modern southern Chinese have non-Han genotypes, due to a history of intermarriage with indigenous aboriginal peoples in the places in which they came to settle.



Social and cultural influences
With limited prospects in agriculture, Hakka men have turned -- more often than have other Chinese -- toward careers in the military or public service. Consequently, the Hakka culturally emphasized education and have performed well in Imperial examinations.



Hakka society was dependent on the working abilities of women, who had to take up a larger share of the farming work while the men were studying or at war. Because the women had to work, the Hakkas did not practice foot-binding.



Due to their agrarian lifestyle, the Hakka have a unique architecture based on defense and communal living (See Hakka architecture), and a hearty savory cuisine based on preserved and fried and stewed items (See Hakka cuisine).



Hakkas in China
Hakkas in Guangdong
The Hakkas who live in Guangdong comprise about 60% of the total Hakka population. Worldwide, over 95% of the overseas-descended Hakkas came from this Guangdong region, usually from Huizhou: the Hakkas there live mostly in the eastern part of the province, particularly in the so-called Xing-Mei (Xingning-Meixian) area. Guangxi contains the second-largest Hakka community. Unlike their kin in Fujian, the Hakkas in the Xingning and Meixian area developed a non-fortress-like unique architectural style, most notably the weilongwu (Chinese: ‡úýˆÎÝ, w¨¦il¨®ngw¨±) and sijiaolou (Chinese: ËĽǘÇ, s¨¬j¨«aol¨®u).



Hakkas in Fujian
The Hakkas who settled in the mountainous region of south-western Fujian province, developed a unique form of architectural building known as tu lou (ÍÁ˜Ç), literally meaning earthen structures. The tu lou are either round or square, and were designed as a combined large fortress and multi-apartment building complex. The structures typically had only one entrance-way, with no windows at ground level. Each floor served a different function: the first floor containing a well and livestock, the second food storage and the third and higher floors contain living spaces. Tu-lou were built to withstand attack from bandits and marauders.





Hakkas in Taiwan
In Taiwan, Hakka people comprise about 15% of the population and are descended largely from Guangdong: they form the third largest population group on the island. Many Hakka moved to lands high up in the hills or remote mountains to escape political persecution. Many of the Hakka people continue to live in these hilly locations of Taiwan.



Taiwan's Hakka are concentrated in Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County, Miaoli County, and around Jhongli in Taoyuan County, and Meinong in Kaohsiung County, and in Pingtong County, with smaller presences in Hualian and Taitung County. In recent decades many Hakka have moved to the largest metropolitan areas, including Taipei and Kaohsiung.



Hakkas in Hong Kong
The Hakkas in Hong Kong are concentrated in the villages and small towns in the New Territories. They farm high and difficult terrain because when they arrived in Hong Kong the Punti had already occupied the best land. The Hakka and the Punti are very different. For instance, the Hakka people actually speak a more standard Cantonese than the Punti, who talk with a thick accent. Also, the Hakka women never bound their feet, unlike the traditional Chinese.



Hakkas worldwide
The Hakkas have emigrated to many regions worldwide, notably, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand.



Hakka people also emigrated to Australia, Brunei, Canada, the United States, and to many countries in Europe, including Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Hakka people also are found in South Africa and Mauritius, on the islands of the Caribbean (Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and in Central and South America, particularly in Panama. Most expatriate Hakka in Great Britain have ties to Hong Kong, many emigrated when Hong Kong still was a British colony. There once was a sizable Hakka community in Calcutta, but most there have migrated to Canada, the United States, Australia, or Taiwan. Today there are about 90-100 million Hakka speakers around the world.



Hakkas in Indonesia
Hakka people in Indonesia are found primarily in cities in Western Kalimantan (Borneo), such as Pontianak, Singkawang, and towns along the Kapuas River. They are descendants of gold prospectors who migrated from China in the late 19th century. (It is said that the first migrants wore Qing-style ponytails.) Hakka also are found on the Indonesian islands of Bangka and Belitung. However most have moved on to the city of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.



Hakkas on the island of Bangka have a very interesting accents scheme, said to be heavily influenced by the Malay native language. Because Chinese languages are dependent upon intonation, to convey meaning, slight difference in intonation can change the meaning entirely. The Hakka spoken by the islanders has such a different intonation that their spoken language is hardly intelligible to Hakkas from other regions.



Hakkas in East Timor
Ethnic Hakka people in a wedding in East Timor, 2006There was a relatively large and vibrant Hakka community in East Timor before the Indonesian invasion in 1975. During the invasion many Hakka were slaughtered, while others escaped to Australia. Now they can be found in Darwin and spread-out in major cities such as Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. They often are highly-educated, and many continue their educations in Taiwan or China. The Australian government took some years to assess their claims to political asylum in order to establish their credentials as genuine refugees and not illegal immigrants. As no Asian country was willing to accept them as residents, or grant political asylum to displaced Hakka and other Timorese, they were forced to live as stateless persons for a time.

Halkomelem is a cover term for a language that has different names in its three dialects. The Upriver dialect, Halq'eméylem, is spoken in the Fraser Valley upriver from Sumas as far as Spuzzum. The people who currently identify as Stó:lo correspond approximately to the speakers of this dialect, although some communities that consider themselves Stó:lo speak Downriver dialect. (Note that the Stó:lō Nation includes only 19 of the 24 bands that consider themselves Stó:lõ.) A map of Stó:lō traditional territory may be found at: http://www.stolonation.bc.ca/sdc/nation/territory.jpg.

The Downriver dialect, Hun'qumi'num', is spoken by the people living downriver from Matsqui, including the Musqueam, Katzie, and Tsawassen. The Island dialect, Hul'q'umín'um', is spoken by the Nanoose, Nanaimo, Chemainus, Cowichan, and Malahat peoples of Vancouver Island.

The English name Halkomelem is an anglicization of a compromise among the terms used in the three dialects

NATIVE TONGUE A HAWAIIAN GLOSSARY
Author: E. Kalani Flores

Click on the bold hyperlink to play a .wav sound file of the word and explore the Hawaiian language:

'aina
{noun} Land, earth.

alelo
{noun} Tongue, language.

aloha
{noun-transitive verb, noun-stative verb} Love, affection, compassion, mercy, sympathy, pity, kindness, sentiment, grace, charity; greeting, salutation, regards; sweetheart, lover, loved one; beloved, loving, kind, compassionate, charitable, lovable; to love, be fond of; to show kindness, mercy, pity, charity, affection; to venerate; to remember with affection; to greet, hail. Greetings! Hello! Good-by! Farewell! Alas!

aloha 'aina
{noun-verb} Love of the land; to nurture and care for the land.

halau
{noun} Long house, as for canoes or hula instruction; meeting house

How to use the online Hawaiian language dictionary

Want to look up a word? Just type it in where it says "Enter Word."

Hint: the typed-in word can be Hawaiian or English.
Hint: you might need to click in the white space near "Enter Word" before typing.
Hint: after typing in the word, instead of using the mouse to click on "look it up," just hit the Enter key (for PCs) or the Return key (for Macs).
Hint: as long as one of the settings to the right says "other characters," you do NOT have to enter special characters for a Hawaiian word. Example: look up "alii" or "ohana." In each case the computer will give you the word and also its correct spelling (aliʻi and ʻohana).
Note: the computer will give you different

The Hebrew Language Institute

Brought into being by legislation in 1953 as the supreme institute for the Hebrew Language, the Academy of the Hebrew Language prescribes standards for modern Hebrew grammar, orthography, transliteration, and punctuation based upon the study of Hebrew’s historical development. The Academy’s plenum consists of 23 members and an additional 15 academic advisors, all outstanding scholars from the disciplines of languages, linguistics, Judaic studies, and Bible. Its members also include poets, writers, and translators. The Academy’s decisions are binding upon all governmental agencies, including the Israel Broadcasting Authority.

Goals and Functions

As defined in its constitution, the Academy’s functions are: (1) to investigate and compile the Hebrew lexicon according to its historical strata and layers; (2) to study the structure, history, and offshoots of the Hebrew language; (3) to direct the development of Hebrew in light of its nature, requirements, and potential, its daily and academic needs, by setting its lexicon, grammar, characters, orthography, and transliteration.

Hebrew is one of the world's oldest languages, spoken and written today in much the same way as it was more than two thousand years ago. After ceasing to exist as a spoken 1anguage about 250 B.C., it was reborn as a modern language in the 19th century, and today it is the principal language of the State of Israel. Books, newspapers, and magazines published in Israel today are written in a Hebrew that is much the same as the language of the Bible.
For over three millennia Hebrew has been the religious, and often the literary and secular, language of the Jewish people. A Semitic tongue, it was spoken during the period of the migration of the Patriarchs into Palestine and remained the language of the Jews throughout the Old Testament period. In the post biblical period Hebrew gradually gave way to Aramaic as the spoken language, but continued throughout the centuries to serve as the language of ritual and prayer.

Hebrew is one of the world's oldest languages, spoken and written today in much the same way as it was more than two thousand years ago. After ceasing to exist as a spoken 1anguage about 250 B.C., it was reborn as a modern language in the 19th century, and today it is the principal language of the State of Israel. Books, newspapers, and magazines published in Israel today are written in a Hebrew that is much the same as the language of the Bible.

The renaissance of Hebrew as a spoken language in the 19th century may be ascribed almost entirely to the efforts of one man: Eliezer ben Yehudah, who devoted his life to the revival of the language, and at the same time adapted it for modern use through the introduction of thousands of modern terms. Hebrew gradually came into use among the Jewish settlers in Palestine and became the official language of the State of Israel when that nation was created in 1948. Today about 3 million people speak Hebrew either as their maternal, adopted, or religious tongue.

This page provides tools that have helped me to learn Biblical Hebrew, starting with the letters of the Alphabet. If you are interested in modern Hebrew I highly recommend the classes offered at http://www.hebrewonline.com. I have taken these classes and benefited greatly.

There are also many modern tools that I utilize today that are far better than when this site was initially created. Time constraint prohibit me from making updates that the site desparately needs but I still hope that you will find it useful. If you are ready for more advanced Biblical Hebrew study, nothing I have found can compare with the HALOT lexicon and BHS text that can be purchased from www.logos.com. (They don't pay me to say that, and they sell plenty of books I don't use and some I disagree with, but it is an outstanding tool that I use almost daily.)

Unless otherwise noted, courses may be taken for three graduate credits or non-credit. All courses, except for Hebrew language and Framework courses, assume a capability for graduate level study and a basic background in Jewish studies. Gateway and core text courses require knowledge of Hebrew equivalent to Hebrew IV (campus-based instruction) or Hebrew V Online.

The below teachings by Jeff A. Benner were recorded during various teachings and seminars. Please feel free to use or copy these for your own personal use or to share with a group. I offer these teachings for free but if you would like to make a donation to help support the work of the Ancient Hebrew Research Center just click on the donation button below. Jeff also teaches in Paltalk (click for more details), a voice and text chat program on the internet.

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Here you’ll find basic information about the Hebrew alphabet, vowels, and Biblical Hebrew grammar so that you can better understand the Scriptures from a Hebraic point of view. Join me in my Bet Midrash (house of study), and progress from knowing not one letter of Hebrew to reading and speaking it with confidence! **Now with Hebrew AUDIO!**

In addition to learning Biblical Hebrew grammar, this site provides information about common Hebrew blessings and Jewish prayers, the Hebrew Scriptures (Tanakh), the Jewish holidays, and weekly Torah portions from a Messianic point of view. The Hebrew Names of God, as well as an online glossary of Hebrew and Yiddish terms is also provided. Be sure to check out the online store for some excellent study materials!

Hiligaynon is an Austronesian language spoken in Western Visayas in the Philippines. Hiligaynon is concentrated in the provinces of Iloilo and Negros Occidental. It is also spoken in the other provinces of the Panay Island group, such as Capiz, Antique, Aklan, Guimaras, and many parts of Mindanao like Koronadal City, South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat. There are approximately 7,000,000 people in and outside the Philippines who are native speakers of Hiligaynon, and an additional 4,000,000 who are capable of speaking it with a substantial degree of proficiency.

It is a member of the Visayan language family

Here you'll find some useful resources to help you to understand the Hindi Language better. It's spoken by almost 500 million people over the world, the third most spoken language. It's the official language of India, the country with the second largest population in the world. From the History to useful phrases, we're trying to offer a general overview about the language in order to give you a way to get started in Hindi learning. We do NOT aim to write all about Hindi Language, it is almost impossible to achieve :-). But we DO want to hear from you suggestions to improve the site and offer you the content YOU consider more useful. Please fell free to contact us.

Hindi is the most widely spoken language of the Republic of India, centered principally in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in the north-central part of the country. Its 275 million speakers rank it as one of the leading languages of the world but it is, nevertheless, understood by only about one-third of India's population. When independence was achieved in 1947, Hindi was chosen as India's national language, but its failure to win acceptance among speakers of other languages has forced it to share the title of official language with English.
Speakers of Hindi are also to be found in many scattered parts of the world. In the newly independent countries of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, and Fiji, in the Pacific, it is spoken by about a third of the population. There are also sizable bodies of speakers in Trinidad, Guyana, and Surinam.

Like most of the languages of northern India, Hindi is descended from Sanskrit. Hindi and Urdu, the official language of Pakistan, are virtually the same language, though the former is written in the Sanskrit characters and the latter in the Perso-Arabic script. Pure Hindi derives most of its vocabulary from Sanskrit, while Urdu contains many words from Persian and Arabic. The basis of both languages is actually Hindustani, the colloquial form of speech that served as the lingua franca of much of India for more than four centuries.

Going desi with Hindi language (bhasha) seems to be a positive step in sync with the global village theme which will reap you good benefits whether it is just to sound natural to your Hindustani friends or you want it help build cultural ties.

But how easy or difficult will it be for an average person to understand and learn Hindi language?

It's not difficult at all. But it sure depends on how motivated you are.

This site is designed to help Hindi language learners. Use the growing collection of tutorials and other resources available here and you will find learning Hindi language is quite easy.

Get some idea of how Hindi language writing appears with the help of these news reports in Hindi.

Taptilok | Hindi Literary MagaTaptilok | Hindi Literary Magazine | Magazine of Hindi Languagezine | Magazine of Hindi Language

Hindi shares with English and most other European languages the same ancestral roots. They evolved from a language thought to have been spoken in Central Asia around 5,000 BC, called by linguists the Indo-European parent language. For this reason (and because of the 200-year influence of the British in India), many basic words in Hindi are the same as or similar to their equivalent in English.

The primary source of Hindi is Sanskrit, one of the most ancient spoken and written languages in the world and one of the earliest members of the Indo-European language family. Like Sanskrit, Hindi is written in the Dev Naagari script, which is common to several other Indian languages as well. Much of the vocabulary of Hindi comes from Sanskrit, though Hindi also has a special relationship with Urdu. Their grammar and much of their vocabulary are virtually identical.

Hindi is a rich and melodic language, spoken, written and studied widely throughout the world. Learning it will open the door to a fascinating and diverse culture that spans thousands of years of uninterrupted history.

In the spring 1999 semester, with the support and guidance of CLS - Center for Language Studies, and The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area
Studies at Yale, an introductory course in Hindi was offered. Today five Hindi courses in three levels of Hindi are being offered.

At the Yale Hindi program, we believe language is a way of thinking, a way of life, and so our students are required from the very beginning to think in the language being learnt.

We believe true proficiency in any language can only be achieved through a deeper understanding of its parent and/or related culture(s), and to achieve this goal we instruct through combination of texts, written assignments, audio-visual material including contemporary Hindi films and songs, and computer based assignments. These courses are geared towards increasing oral, aural, written and reading proficiency in the language.

We are a non-profit body dedicated to the teaching of Hindi. We run Hindi classes in Singapore, primarily for school-going children but also for adults at basic, intermediate and advanced levels. We have been operational since Jan 1990.

With 68 classes having more than 2,100 students, we are the biggest Hindi-language institution in Singapore and one of the largest institutions in the world dedicated to the teaching of the Hindi language. Classes are held at four Hindi Centres and thirty-six schools participating in a Parallel Hindi Programme (PHP). They cover the entire spectrum of formal general Hindi education in Singapore, from Pre-Primary to Pre-University (ages 4 and up). Classes at the Hindi Centres are held once a week, either on Saturday mornings or afternoons. Classes in the PHP are held at the schools themselves during second-language periods.

The Hindi Society is run completely by volunteers; it is part of the self-help initiative that the Hindi-speaking community has embarked upon to enable students to study Hindi and to preserve their cultural traditions. Teachers are paid an honorarium for their services.

Hindi Kids, a children's educational production company, believes in the value of making learning fun. Our first show, "Chalo Hindi Bolay" (Lets Speak Hindi), is original and unique in its approach to entertaining, educating diversity to young children. Our mission is to create a series that kids and parents would enjoy and at the same time learn about their language and heritage. Our aim is to teach children in a fun way and hold a young mind's attention so that they can learn naturally.

The basic concept of this site is to promote the Hindi Language, which is the mother toungue of Most of the Indians and is also the National Language of India.

The Objective is to promote this language through-out the world in "Audio & Literature" form.

All sorts of Contribution from everyone around the world in the form of Stories, Poems, Articles etc. both in Audio & Literature format are welcome and will be published on this site if found appropriate.

A community of Hindi learners.

We are working on a fun and effective online course which will introduce you to the basics of the Hindi language. You will learn to understand, properly pronounce and read and write Hindi. You will learn useful, frequently used vocabulary and phrases.

The Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya came into existence through an Act of Parliament which received the assent of the President on January 08, 1997 and was published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary on the same date. This is an act to establish and incorporate a teaching University for the promotion and development of Hindi language and literature, through teaching and research, with a view to enabling Hindi to achieve greater functional efficiency and recognition as a major international language and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

The word 'Shabdkosh' is the Romanized English spelling of the hindi word for 'Dictionary'. This website debuted in 2003 as an attempt to provide users with easy access to a English-Hindi dictionary.

This dictionary site provides facility to search in English as well as in Hindi. For English searches, standard interface is provided. For Hindi searches, we provide several keyboard layouts that you can use.

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Language used by the Hittites, an ancient people that lived in Anatolia in modern Turkey.
The name the Hittites used for their language was nesili, "language of Nesa." Nesa being one of the Anatolian cities.
Hittite language was introduced to Anatolia and northern Syria in the beginning of the 19th century BCE. Hittite language was an Indo-European language, but was soon exposed to influences from local languages. Elements from Proto-Indo-European languages did survive for centuries, however.
The most important changes to the language came with lexical and phonetic changes. Vowels and new terms were borrowed from local languages.
Numerous books and tablets in the Hittite language have been preserved. The sources to Hittite language occur in 2 variations, cuneiform and hieroglyphic. Cuneiform provides the oldest, dating back to 1600 BCE. These texts represent the oldest written examples of any Indo-European language. There are no sources for Hittite that are more recent than 3000 years.

The Hmong language branches into two dialects: White Hmong and Blue (or Green) Hmong. The colors in these names represent the colors used in the traditional women's costumes of the different groups, reflecting somewhat different cultural heritages and residential distributions in distinct regions of China.

White and Green Hmong are mutually intelligible. The differences between White and Green Hmong are probably not much greater than those which distinguish British and American English. It is true, however, that some Hmong (especially White Hmong) claim to have occasional problems understanding the speakers of the other dialect.

Neither White nor Green Hmong has ever had any official status in Laos, Thailand, or China. Thus, there are no grounds for preferring one of the dialects over the other. In spite of this, White Hmong has been favored in many ways. The Hmong writing system most commonly used, the Romanized Practical Alphabet, generally is closest to the White Hmong pronunciation. Most dictionaries of Hmong only present the White Hmong dialect. In Laos, the majority of the Hmong population with an education, probably spoke the White Hmong dialect. The English name "Hmong" as opposed to "Mong" represents the White Hmong pronounciation.

The Hmong language is one of a group of closely related languages of Southeast Asia and Southern China often referred to as the Miao-Yao languages. Besides being spoken by Hmong people in Laos, Thailand, Burma, and Vietnam, the Hmong language is widely spoken by the Miao minority in Southern China. The Hmong language is also related to the Yao languages which include Iu Mien, spoken in Laos and Thailand as well as China, and five other languages spoken by minority groups in the larger region

Hmong-English Dictionary
Hmong Language Institute of Australia [NEW]
Hmong Romanized Popular Alphabets Recognition
Books on the Hmong Language
Hmong Lessons (Language Lessons)
Golden Valley High School (California) Hmong Language Web (emphasis on stories about the Hmong before, during, and after the Vietnam War)
Hmong Language Users Group
Saturn Hmong Talking Stories
Saturn Hmong Page (Hmong/English Dictionaries, Lesson Plans, Talking Dictionaries)

Hmong Language is a tone-based language, and that means each word might sound very close to each others, if not carefully listen to they sound the same to non-Hmong people, but they have different meanings. Take a look at the following examples (I will provide sounds soon): Kuv (English: kook, but no "H" or not like khook, however) This means I, my, me and mine in Hmong Kub (English: koob, but no ending "B" sound, however).

The Hmong constitute one of the most ancient peoples in Asia. Today, they number about 8 million, including other subgroups of Miao, scattered by the events of history, over centuries, from China to Southeast Asian, from Laos to Australia, Europe and America. Since 1975, which marked the end of the Vietnam War, more than 150,000 Hmong refugees from the Secret War of Laos have been resettled in the United States.

If the Hmong had a long and rich oral tradition, their language was provided with a writing system only 45 years ago. Thus, in 1952, in Luang Prabang, the Royal City of the former Kingdom of Laos, three men - Dr. Linwood Barney, Father Yves Bertrais and Dr. William Smalley - put their efforts and knowledge together to create the Hmong Romanized Popular Alphabet (R.P.A.) script. Immediately after, Father Bertrais started teaching the Hmong R.P.A. to a first group of young Hmong in his adopted Hmong village of the Guars Mountains (Roob Nyuj Qus), some 50 miles south of Luang Prabang, where in 1950 he had begun his apostolic mission with the Hmong in Laos, whom he has never left since then.