Lucknow, Sept. 14 -- Many words geneally used in a Hindi conversation have been picked up from other languages and blended over time. That is the view of several noted Hindi writers who Hindustan Times spoke to on the eve of the Hindi Diwas that will be marked on Sunday (September 14).Hindi has always been open to adding new words not only from vernacular but also foreign languages, the experts said. Acclaimed Hindi author Virendra Yadav said if the words used by the people are being added to the language, it is important for the language to flourish."The debate about allowing words from other languages in Hindi is really old, but even Premchand and Mahatma Gandhi used to speak about providing freedom to Hindi from the classical form, and adding Urdu and using Hindustani. If the orientation of the language is more towards Sanskrit it will make it the language of the elite. From adalat, gawah, kitab, daftar, bazar taken from Urdu to court, police, file, judge, telephone, engine added from English, kanta aur mehraru (husband and wife) from Bhojpuri, to doodh taken from some Central Asian language, Hindi has always had its doors open to use words from across the languages which has helped it flourish," Yadav said.Noted author Vidya Bindu Singh also advocated the need for a blend of various languages to strengthen Hindi. "Not just Hindi, but even English has adopted words like baramda (veranda) and dakait (dacoit). Similarly, we have added words like train, station, engineer. The languages, which are not able to digest the blend of words of other languages, tend to be under the threat of extinction. The conversational Hindi has an ability to blend these languages well. We have a culture of diversity and the diverse blend in words help in strengthening Hindi," said Singh. Even vernacular words have been added to the Hindi dictionary over time, she said. Prof Suryaprasad Dixit, former head of the Hindi department of Lucknow University, said Hindi has a blend of over a dozen languages, including Arabic, Persian, Unani, French, German, English and vernacular languages. "Hindi shares at least 60% of the words used in Malayalam and Telugu due to their origin from Sanskrit. Words from Arabic and Persian like shawl, pajama, vakil, peshkar, khuda, inaam, tehsil, zila have been added to Hindi dictionaries over time. Even Kannada uses several Hindi words with a different meaning like coolie is called vetan, udaas is called dukh, abhimaan is called prashansa among others. Hindi also obtained words like samvad, khalas, faukat from Marathi, hadtal from Gujarati, rickshaw from Japanese, kartus from French, calendar and bank from Italian. It is the nature of a growing language that it learns some words from other languages and teaches some others to them," said Dixit...