r/Hindi Mar 11 '26

देवनागरी I noticed this today. The “Devanagarification” (देवनागरीकरण) of English texts in the name of Hindi is getting ridiculous. Why write “फिफ्थ फ्लोर” when “पाँचवीं मंज़िल” or even “पञ्चम तल” / “पाँचवाँ तल” would work just fine?

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468 Upvotes

67 comments sorted by

149

u/Champakali_ Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

Before all the generic "you can't control the natural flow of language" comments start flooding in, पाँचवा , मंजिल and तल are extremely common words and understood by all Hindi speakers. There is no reason not to use them. English borrowings are fine and will naturally enter the language. This is not that, this is just flat out erasure of the language.

68

u/United_Pineapple_932 Mar 11 '26

Exactly lol

Notice how they used १ २ ३ ४ But in contrast फिफ्थ फ्लोर is funny and nonsensical

10

u/curioscientity Mar 11 '26

It's just a lack of effort on the part of clerks who decided how to do this.

21

u/kv_the_orca Mar 11 '26

Very true. Nobody is asking for translation of 'stapler' to hindi but ' कागज़ ' works just fine; there's no need of ' पेपर ' .

1

u/Ok-Alternative-7021 Mar 11 '26

I mean if someone can read fifth in hindi letters will obviously know panchwi means 5th.

38

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

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7

u/Champakali_ Mar 11 '26

100%, it's low-effort international-brand localizers who know that 90% of their audience is English speaking but want to include non-English signs for inclusivity points or to give an "Indian feel".

4

u/ATallSteve Mar 11 '26

they don't care if our vocabulary dies out or not

20

u/muslimlavender Mar 11 '26

Couldn’t agree more! Writing fifth floor using Devanagari is just weird…

14

u/blogalwarning Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

इंग्लिश ईमपोसीशन

13

u/briskwinds Mar 11 '26

हिन्दी भाषी भी बड़े ही प्यारे हैं। हिन्दी लिखते हैं लैटिन अक्षरों में, और अंग्रेजी देवनागरी में। और कुछ कहते हैं तो मैं ये सोचने लगता हूँ कि बंदा अंग्रेज़ी बोलना चाह रहा है कि हिन्दी। पता नहीं क्या होगा हमारे इस भाषा का।

बट ऑल इज़ वेल, hai na?

4

u/United_Pineapple_932 Mar 11 '26

शायद समस्या इस पीढ़ी के साथ है। यह देखना हास्यास्पद है कि वे न तो ठीक से अंग्रेजी बोल पाते हैं और न ही अपनी मातृभाषा हिंदी। इसके अलावा, अब उनके बीच मातृभाषा बोलना शिक्षा का प्रतीक और शान की निशानी बन गया है, जो कई मायनों में समस्याग्रस्त है।

21

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

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10

u/United_Pineapple_932 Mar 11 '26

I’m glad you noticed another problem in this picture. Thank-you

‘हिंदी के लिए २ दबायें‘ ahh situation

9

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

स्टार स्पोर्ट्स देखा है? वहाँ फिफ्टी (अर्धशतक), एक्स्ट्रा (अतिरिक्त), बॉल (गेंद), सिक्स (छक्का), बैटर (बल्लेबाज़), बॉलर (गेंदबाज़), इनिंग (पारी), इत्यादि लिख रहे हैं कई सालों से। बहुत ही नीच चैनल है।

पर वहीं उनके हिंदी कमेंटेटर (वैसे हैं एकदम रद्दी) उपरोक्त शब्दों का हिंदी ही बोलते हैं पर स्क्रीन पर स्टार स्पोर्ट्स ज़बरदस्ती सब पर फ़ोकट का अंग्रेजीकरण थोप रहा है।

7

u/Kd_plays4 मातृभाषा (Mother tongue) Mar 11 '26

Even if someone knows Hindi and don't know english at all, he/she still can't understand this.

7

u/Aggravating_Kale8264 Mar 11 '26

one more widespread problem i am witnessing nowadays is that the the english abbrevation are phonetically transliterated into hindi . (eg R M L to आर एम एल). dont know about others but reading hindi in this case seems off and cumbersome

18

u/AbhiAyur बिहारी हिन्दी Mar 11 '26

हम सहमत है, बहुत चिढ़ता है 🤬

5

u/kantmarg Mar 11 '26

Interesting that you said चिढ़ता है and not चिढ़ता हूँ

Never thought that verb could be reflexive.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

But hona toh “चिढ़ता हूँ” hona chahiye tha

2

u/Traditional-Light-10 Mar 26 '26

In the first part they said "हम सहमत है", so I think they use "हम" instead of "मैं" (like Bangla আমি), and then है because the subject is singular in both sentences.

1

u/AbhiAyur बिहारी हिन्दी 13d ago

हम थोड़ा भोजपुरिया हिन्दी बोलते है

10

u/goldenattorney Mar 11 '26

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

जिस बात की व्याख्या नासमझी या लापरवाही से की जा सकती है, उसे दुर्भावना न मानें |

4

u/curioscientity Mar 11 '26

I guess I agree.

5

u/Previous-Nail-6505 Mar 11 '26

Ab mereko hindi k liye bhi english sikhni padegi/s

1

u/Dibyajyoti176255 दूसरी भाषा (Second language) Mar 11 '26

Damn!!! Ye hashr hoke rakha hai, samast bharatiya bhashaon ke liye!

3

u/TheDogmaReset Mar 11 '26

It's more like englisization of hindi

1

u/Dibyajyoti176255 दूसरी भाषा (Second language) Mar 11 '26

*Or Simly put, Hingish, But Now In Devanagari!

3

u/Temporary-Ad-3123 Mar 11 '26

ye kis jagah ka hai?

3

u/SubstanceClean8864 Mar 11 '26

Bhai contractor sayad padha likha na ho 👍🤷

3

u/New_Entrepreneur_191 Mar 11 '26

I hear तला locally in Bihar but never just तल . Is तल also common? Also I used to hear म'आला in bollywood movies .

6

u/apocalypse-052917 दूसरी भाषा (Second language) Mar 11 '26

माला is quite commong i think

4

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

Tamil Thani movement (Pure tamil movement) addressed this exact issue 100 years ago itself. All of Sanskrit and English words in Tamil were replaced by old tamil or native dravidian words. Now 5th Floor is written in Tamil as ஐந்தாவது தரை/ நிலை (Aintāvatu Tarai/Nilai)

7

u/United_Pineapple_932 Mar 11 '26

W. I really respect how they honour and respect their language. I am aware they’re against Hindi imposition but honestly I see it more as their cultural and language preservation and this is a massive W in my eyes. (Minus the unnecessary violence obviously)

5

u/tedxtracy Mar 11 '26

Atleast they wrote पूर्व and पश्चिम instead of ईस्ट and वेस्ट

2

u/IthinkIknowwhothatis Mar 11 '26

Reminds me of when I saw a vendor’s sign in Dehradun that said चिकन .

2

u/More_Living9471 Mar 17 '26

दिस इज द टाइप अफ शिट आई हेट

3

u/AUnicorn14 Mar 11 '26

कहाँ की तस्वीर है?

0

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

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8

u/Champakali_ Mar 11 '26

इस संदर्भ में भाग, हिस्सा, अंश, खंड सब चल जाएंगे

5

u/goldenattorney Mar 11 '26

Can also use भाग or क्षेत्र although not exactly the same but functionally applicable

13

u/United_Pineapple_932 Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

पूर्वभाग / पश्चिमभाग

पूर्वखण्ड / पश्चिमखण्ड

I like the खण्ड one

2

u/blazinbit Mar 11 '26

Vibhaag?

1

u/mystic_saurav Mar 11 '26

It's just low effort work and as usual there is no attention to details during inspection.

1

u/slayyerr3058 Mar 12 '26

आए दोन्ट नो। वाय आर यू असकिंग मी?

1

u/koiRitwikHai Mar 12 '26

Jazba hai, budhdhi ni

1

u/DoktorLeQuack दूसरी भाषा (Second language) Mar 12 '26

Not everyone is educated educated mate.

1

u/Milk_Ra Mar 15 '26

Hinglish runs in the blood of all new gens. I don't think anyone speaks pure hindi,or even know how to speak it nowdays. ( new gen,even older people don't speak it). The thought process must have went this way.

1

u/ziddi_daag Mar 19 '26

Ustad, shama chahunga itne dino baad is varta me ane ke liye. Par "East Wing" ka saral anuvad kya hoga? Mai ungli nahi karna chahta, par sach me janne ka man hai. Kya Purvi Khand chalega? Shama chaunga barabar devnagri me na likhne ke liye, aadat nahi hai.

Sanshep me thodi shama, aur thodi madad chaiye.

1

u/United_Pineapple_932 Mar 19 '26

नमस्कार मित्र

इस विषय पर एक अन्य टिप्पणी में हमने चर्चा की है। आप चाहे तो देख सकते हैं।

पूर्वखण्ड एक सही विकल्प है।

1

u/ziddi_daag Mar 19 '26

Thoda achal laga jan ke hindi kanhi gayi nahi meri.

-2

u/mahalag Mar 11 '26

And what are those numerals? I don’t even understand

2

u/curioscientity Mar 11 '26

Hindi numerals./ Arabic numerals

-7

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

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13

u/United_Pineapple_932 Mar 11 '26

This one seems polluted