Welcome to the multilingua.info "Indo-Iranian: Persian and Hindi" page. Though very different, Persian and Hindi have a fair amount in common, both in terms of vocabulary and in terms of the most common grammar bits such as pronouns and verb endings.
At present, multilingua.info doesn't have specific offerings for Hindi or Persian. However, we do have the Itty Bitty Dari course (similar to Persian), the Itty Bitty Pashto course (another Iranian language) and the Itty Bitty Urdu course (similar to Hindi).
Also: A short conversation in Sanskrit!
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Dari is a variant of Persian spoken in Afghanistan. While the accent is somewhat different, Dari speakers can generally communicate with Persian speakers. Urdu is extremely similar to Hindi and some linguists consider them variants of the same language, Hindustani. Though Hindi and Urdu are mutually intelligible, Hindi has more Sanskrit vocabulary, while Urdu has more Persian vocabulary. This owes to the latter being spread by Turkish rulers who came to the region by way of Persia. Also take note of Pashto, an Iranian language spoken predominantly in Afghanistan. While it stands a bit apart from Persian and Dari, there are a lot of features in common. Sanskrit is one of the oldest Indo-European tongues, used for many Hindu and Buddhist texts. Though modern Indian languages have largely replaced it, scholars, traditionalists and people with an interest in India or yoga will often know at least a little Sanskrit. Also visit LearnUrdu (via Aspiring Polyglot) |
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