Bombay Hindi, also known as ''Bambaiya Hindi'' or ''Mumbaiya Hindi'', is the

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

dialect spoken in Mumbai (Bombay), in the Konkan region of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Its vocabulary is largely from Hindustani, additionally, it has the predominant substratum of Marathi-Konkani, which is the official language and is also widely spoken in the

Konkan division The Konkan division is one of the six administrative divisions of Maharashtra state in India. It comprises the northern and central portions of the greater Konkani region, which were absorbed into Maharashtra owing to the States Reorganisat ...

of Maharashtra. Bombay Hindi also has elements of

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

General

While many such local dialects have evolved in cosmopolitan cities around the world, Bombay Hindi is widely known throughout India, as a result of its frequent use in

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

movies. Initially, this dialect was used to represent crooks and uncouth characters as, to quote film critic Shoma A. Chatterji, "Indian films have the unique quality of different characters speaking different varieties of Hindi according to their social status, their caste, communal identity,

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

, profession, financial status, etc. ..The villain's goons, speak in a special vulgarised, Bambaiya Hindi concocted specifically to typify such screen characters in Hindi cinema.". Lately, however, Bambaiya Hindi has become popular and prominent, particular with the success of the Munnabhai movies, in which the lead characters – being members of the Mumbai criminal underworld – speak entirely in this dialect. Despite this increase in popularity, this dialect has its critics, and is sometimes seen as being disrespectful and demeaning. Among the more prominent

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

s which originated in Bambaiya Hindi but have spread throughout India are the words wikt:bindaas, bindaas (from

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

bindhast = without fear, relaxed; this word was incorporated into the

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...

in 2005

Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split be ...

, 10 August 2005, '' 'Bindaas' finds its way to the Oxford Dictionary''
Read online
.) and

Gandhigiri Gandhigiri is a neologism in India which is used to express the tenets of Gandhism (the ideas of Mohandas Gandhi which include Satyagraha, non-violence, and truth) in contemporary terms. The term became popular due to its usage in the 2006 Hindi ...

(coined in the movie ''

Lage Raho Munna Bhai ''Lage Raho Munna Bhai'' (; ) is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language satirical comedy drama film written, edited and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, who co-wrote the screenplay with Abhijat Joshi and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It is the follow-up ...

'', a combination of

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

and ''-giri'', which is similar to the English 'ism' (as in Gandhi-ism), though slightly more informal).

has also incorporated many Marathi words in Hindi like thaska, wakda, porgi, navri, navrai, kombdi, mulga/mulgi. Many Hindi songs have some Marathi words added.

Words and expressions of Mumbai Hindi

References

External links

Dialects of Hindi

Metroblogging Mumbai DictionaryExhaustive List of Bambaiyya Hindi WordsList of Bambaiyya Idioms, Phrases and Expressions
{{authority control Hindi languages Languages of India Culture of Mumbai Indian slang City colloquials Hindustani-based pidgins and creoles