Regardless of Urdu’s relationship with Hindi, one thing is clear: it’s not solely the language of Pakistan’s Muslim community. On the other hand, they are mutually intelligible and were often considered the same language just a couple of hundred years ago. On the one hand, Urdu is not just Hindi with an Arabic script: there are distinct linguistic differences, however slight they may be. It’s easy to under- or overstate the differences between Urdu and Hindi. So, how different are the two languages, really? The British-led Partition of India into two countries – Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan – only exacerbated this. The council argues that the distinction we have today owes a lot to the British colonization of India. Meanwhile, Hindi is written in Devanagari, a Sanskrit script.Īccording to the National Council For Promotion Of Urdu Language in India, the perceived differences between Hindi and Urdu are relatively modern. This is a right-to-left script written with cursive. Urdu uses an adapted Arabo-Persian script called Nastaliq. When it comes to reading and writing, however, the two languages are visibly different. There are some differences, especially in the prefixes and suffixes, yet these don’t generally hinder aural comprehension. Grammatically and phonetically, Urdu is so similar to Hindi that the two languages are often described as being one and the same.
Its vocabulary, however, owes more to Sanskrit than to Middle Eastern languages. Its emergence has been tied with increasing Islamic and Middle Eastern influence in the region, with the 350-year-long Delhi Sultanate starting in 1206.īecause of this, Urdu has Arabic, Persian, and Turkish influences.
Urdu first appeared in the 1100s and 1200s in and around Delhi. They have a striking amount in common, with many people considering them to be mutually intelligible in spoken conversation. Urdu and Hindi are sister languages, which means that they are descended from the same historical language. That honor belongs to Punjabi.Īnother area of misconception is Urdu’s relationship with Hindi. Meanwhile, there are 74 languages spoken in Pakistan, and Urdu isn’t even the most common. The region’s polyglotism may have led to this number being underestimated. You’ll overhear it being used in the US, the UAE, and the UK (it is England and Wales’ fourth most-spoken language), as well as in other diaspora communities, too.Īccording to Ethnologue, there are 171 million Urdu speakers in the world. While Urdu is the official language of Pakistan, it’s also spoken in parts of northern India – where it is one of the 22 official languages – as well as in Bangladesh, Nepal, and many other countries in the region. Urdu is often thought of as the language of Pakistan and Muslim South Asia. News, Music, and Other Resources for Learning UrduĪ Brief Introduction to the Urdu Language.Urdu Vocabulary Builders and Word Games.
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