The first Hindi-Vietnamese dictionary has been launched at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH) under Vietnam National University.

According to Tuoitrenews, the dictionary, compiled by Indian teacher Sadhna Saxena and her Vietnamese coauthor Pham Dinh Huong, has more than 9,000 entries, including 7,500 main entries and 1,500 sub-categories.

In addition, it also contains popular Hindi idioms and proverbs commonly used in daily conversation.

The dictionary is published under the agreement between the Indian Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City and the USSH, under which the former is the sponsor.

The first 150 published Hindi – Vietnamese dictionaries will be granted to students studying Hindi at the university’s Department of Oriental Studies before going on sale.

Today, Hindi is not only India 's national language, but also as an integral part of the Indian civilisation and culture.

It is spoken by 44 percent of the Indian population, and was one among 22 officially recognised languages in the South Asian country. All Indian cultural features, including ancient Buddhism texts and modern Bollywood movies, are in Hindi.-VNA