Urdu

Urdu is a standardised and Persianised registerofthe Hindustanilanguage.Itisthenational language and lingua franca of Pakistan, and an official language of 6 states ofIndia. It is also one of the 22 official languages recognized in the Constitution of India.

 

Urdu is historically associated with the Muslims of the region of Hindustan. Apartfromspecialized vocabulary,Urduis mutually intelligible with Standard Hindi, which is associated with the Hindu community. The Urdu language received recognition and patronage under British rule when the British replaced the Persian and local official languages with the Urdu and English languages in the North Indian regions of Jammu and Kashmir in 1846 and Punjab in 1849.

 

Urdu, like Hindi, is a form of Hindustani. It evolved from the medieval (6th to 13th century) Apabhraṃśa register of the precedingShauraseni language, a Middle Indo-Aryan language that is also the ancestor of other modern languages, including the Punjabi dialects. Urdu developed under the influence of the Persian and Arabic languages, both of which have contributed a significant amount of vocabulary to formal speech Around 99% of Urdu verbs have their roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit.

 

Although the word Urdu itself is derived from the Turkic word ordu (army) or orda, from which English horde is also derived,Turkish borrowings in Urdu are minimal. Urdu words originating from Turkish and Arabic were borrowed through Persian and hence are Persianized versions of the original words.