Urdu

You must add a |reason= parameter to this Cleanup template – replace it with {{Cleanup|January 2005|reason=<Fill reason here>}}, or remove the Cleanup template.
error: ISO 639 code is required (help)

File:Zabaan-e-urdu-e-moalla.png

Urdu (اردو) is an Indo-European language of the Indo-Aryan family which developed under Template:Ll influence, probably in the vicinity of Delhi, from where it spread to the rest of the Indian subcontinent.

Taken by itself, Urdu is approximately the twentieth most populous natively spoken language in the world, and is the national language of Pakistan as well as one of the 24 national languages of India. However, Urdu is often considered to be part of a wider Hindustani language, in which case it is the fourth most populous language in the world.

Speakers and geographic distribution

In Pakistan, Urdu is spoken as a mother tongue by a majority of urban dwellers in such cities as Karachi and Hyderabad in the southern province of Sindh. In spite of its status as the national language, however, only 8% of Pakistanis speak Urdu as their first language, compared to 48% who speak Punjabi as their mother tongue. Urdu is, however, the language of prestige, all signage, and education, and the number of native Urdu speakers is increasing quickly in urban centers.

In India, Urdu is spoken as a mother tongue in the northern and central states by three times the population it has in Pakistan. While Indian Muslims might ostensibly be seen as identifying more with Urdu, Hindus and Sikhs naturally speak Urdu regardless of religion, especially when they have grown up in such traditional Urdu strongholds as Lucknow and Hyderabad. Indeed, many contend that the language spoken in Bollywood films is closer to Urdu than to Hindi, especially in filmi songs.

Urdu is also spoken in urban Afghanistan. Outside the Indian subcontinent, it is spoken by large numbers of workers in the major urban centres of the Persian Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia. Urdu is also spoken by large numbers of immigrants and their children in the major urban centres of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Countries with large numbers of first-language Urdu speakers:

India (48.1 Million [1997]),
Pakistan (10.7 million [1993]),
Bangladesh (600,000),
United Kingdom (400,000),
Saudi Arabia (382,000),
Nepal (175,000),
South Africa (170,000 South Asian muslims, many of which speak Urdu),
Mauritius (64,000),
Oman (30,000),
Bahrain (29,000),
Germany (23,000),
Qatar (20,000),

Official Status

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. It shares official language status with English. Although English is used in most elite circles, and Punjabi has a plurality of native speakers, Urdu is the lingua franca, and it is commonly expected to prevail. Urdu is also one of the official languages of India, and in the states of Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh, Urdu has official language status. While the government school system in most other states emphasizes Standard Template:Ll, universities in cities such as Lucknow continue to promote Urdu as a language of prestige and learning.

Classification and related languages

Urdu is a member of the Indo Aryan family of languages, which is in turn a branch of the Indo European family. It is part of a dialect continuum which extends across northern South Asia from Template:Ll to Template:Ll. These idioms all have similar grammatical structures and a large portion of their vocabulary in common. Panjabi, for instance, is very similar to Urdu: Punjabi written in the Shahmukhi script can be understood by speakers of Urdu with a little difficulty, but spoken Punjabi has a very different phonology (pronunciation system) and cannot be easily understood by Urdu speakers. However, the language mostly closely linked to Urdu is Standard Hindi. (See below.)

Dialects

Urdu has three recognized dialects, Dakhini, Pinjari, and 'Urdu proper'. Urdu proper is the form of the language around Delhi and Lahore.

Dakhini (also known as Dakani, Deccan, Desia, Mirgan) is spoken in Maharashtra state in India and around Hyderabad. It has fewer Persian and Arabic loan words than standard Urdu.

Linguistically, Standard Hindi could be considered a fourth dialect, but this does not fit the ethnolinguistic conception of Hindi.

In addition, Rekhta (or Rekhti), the language of Urdu poetry, is sometimes counted as a separate dialect.

Grammar

Urdu nouns fall into two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. However, there is disagreement over the gender of some words, particularly words newly introduced from English which do not have genders.

In Urdu there is also a singular or a plural noun form.

Levels of formality in Urdu

Urdu in its less formalized register has been referred to as a raikhtha (ریختہ, "rough mixture"). This is essentially Hindustani. The more formal register of Urdu is sometimes referred to as Zaban-e-Urdu-e-Moalla (زبانﹺ اردوﹺ معلہ), the "Language of Camp and Court".

Politeness

A host of words are used to show respect and politeness. These words are generally used with people who are older in age or with whom you are not acquainted. For example the English pronoun 'you' can be translated into three words in Urdu: the singular forms 'tu' (informal, extremely intimate, or derogatory) and 'tum' (informal) and the plural forms 'aap' (formal and respectful).

Vocabulary

Urdu has a vocabulary rich in words with Indian and Middle Eastern origins. The borrowings are dominated by words from Persian, and through Persian, from Arabic. There are also a number of borrowings from Sanskrit, Turkish, Portuguese and English. Many of the words of Arabic origin have different nuances of meaning and usage than they do in Arabic.

Writing System

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Urdu is written in a derivative of the Persian alphabet, which is itself derivative of the Arabic alphabet. It is read from right to left. Urdu is similar in appearance and letters to Arabic, Persian, and Pashto. In their modern incarnation, Urdu differs in appearance from Arabic in that it typically uses the more complex and sinuous Nasta’liq style of script, whereas Arabic is more commonly written in the modernized Naskh style. Nasta’liq is notoriously difficult to typeset, so Urdu newspapers are made from hand-written masters. There are efforts underway to develop more practical Urdu support on computers.

Usually, bare transliterations of Urdu into Roman letters omit many phonemic elements which have no equivalent in English or other languages commonly written in the Latin alphabet. It should be noted that a reasonably comprehensive system has emerged with specific notations to signify non-English sounds, but it can only be properly read by someone already familiar with Urdu, Persian, or Arabic for letters such as:ژ خ غ ط ص or ق and Hindi for letters such as ڑ . This script may be found on the internet, and it allows people understanding the language without knowledge of their written forms to communicate with each other.

A list of the Urdu alphabet and pronunciation is given below. Urdu contains many historical spellings from Arabic and Persian, and therefore has many irregularities. The Arabic letters yaa and haa are split in two in Urdu; one of the yaa variants is used at the ends of words for a long ē sound, and one of the haa variants is used to indicate the aspirated consonants. The retroflex consonants needed to be added as well; this was accomplished by placing a superscript ط (toay) above the corresponding dental consonants. Several letters which represent distinct consonants in Arabic are conflated in Persian, and this has carried over to Urdu.

Letter	Name of letter	Pronunciation in the IPA
ا	alif	[ə, ɑ] after a consonant; silent when initial.
ب	bay	[b]
پ	pay	[p]
ت	tay	dental [t̪]
ٹ	ttay	retroflex [ʈ]
ث	say	[s]
ج	jeem	[dʒ]
چ	chay	[tʃ]
ح	badee hay	[h]
خ	khay	[x]
د	daal	dental [d̪]
ڈ	ddaal	retroflex [ɖ]
ذ	zaal	[z]
ر	ray	dental [r]
ڑ	arr	retroflex [ɽ]
ز	zay	[z]
ژ	zhay	[ʒ]
س	seen	[s]
ش	sheen	[ʃ]
ص	suaad	[s]
ض	zuaad	[z]
ط	toay	[t]
ظ	zoay	[z]
ع	aein	[ɑ] after a consonant; otherwise [ʔ], [ə], or silent.
غ	ghain	[ɣ]
ف	fay	[f]
ق	qaaf	[q]
ک	kaaf	[k]
گ	gaaf	[g]
ل	laal	[l]
م	meem	[m]
ن	noon	[n] or a nasal vowel
و	vaao	[v, u, ʊ, o, ow]
ہ, ﮩ, ﮨ	chottee hay	[ɑ] at the end of a word, otherwise [h] or silent
ھ	do chasmee hay	indicates that the preceding consonant is aspirated (p, t, ch, k) or murmured (b, d, j, g).
ی	chottee yay	[j, i, e, ɛ]
ے	badee yay	[eː]
ء	hamzah	[ʔ] or silent

Urdu is occasionally also written in the Roman script. Roman Urdu has been used since the days of the British Raj, partly as a result of the availability and low cost of Roman movable type for printing presses. The use of Roman Urdu was common in contexts such as product labels. Today it is regaining popularity among users of text-messaging and Internet services and is developing its own style and conventions. Habib R. Sulemani says, "the younger generation of Urdu speaking people around the world are using [Romanized Urdu] on the Internet and it has become essential for them, because they use the Internet and English is its language. A person from Islamabad chats with another in Delhi on the Internet only in Roman Urdu. They both speak (almost) the same language but with different scripts […]. Moreover, the younger generation of those who are from the English medium schools or settled in the west, can speak Urdu but can’t write it in the traditional Arabic script and thus Roman Urdu is a blessing for such a population."

Examples

English	Transliteration	IPA	Notes
Hello	As-Salam Alaykum (السلام علیکم)	ˈaʔsaɭam ˈaɭikum	Adaab would generally be used for Non-Muslims. Wa-Le-Kum-As Salam is the correct response. (و علیکم السلام)
Hello	Adaab arz hai (اداب عرض ہے)	aˈdaːb aɽˈzai	Literally "Regards are expressed" (Regards to you), a very formal secular greeting.
Good Bye	Khuda Hafiz (خدا حافظ)	kudaː hafəz	Khuda is the Persian word for God, and Hafiz comes from the Arabic root word hifz meaning "protection". So literally, "May God Almighty be your Guardian." Standard and commonly used for Muslims and Non-Muslims
yes	haan (ہاں)	haː̃	casual
yes	ji (جی)	ʤi	formal
no	na (نا)	nã	casual
no	nahi (نہیں)	ˈna̤i	formal
please	Meherbani (مہربانی)	mɛhɛrˈbani
thank you	Shukriya (شکریہ)	ʃʊˈkrija
Please come in	Thashreef laa'iye(تشریف لائیے)	aːpʰ ʈaˈʃrif ɭaˈiː	lit. Bring your honor
Please have a seat	Thashreef rak'hiye(تشریف رکھیئے)	aːpʰ ʈaˈʃrif ɽaˈxi	"lit." 'Place your honor'
I am happy to meet you	Aap se mil kar khushi hui (اپ سے مل کر خوشی ہوی)	aːpʰ sɛ miɭ kar kʊˈʃi hwi
Do you speak English?	Kya aap angrezi boltay heyn? (کیا اپ انگریزی بولتے ہیں؟)	kja aːpʰ ˈaŋgrɛzi boɭʈɛ hæ̃
I do not speak Urdu.	Main Urdu naheen bolta. (میں اردو نہیں بولتا)	mæ̃ urdʰu nahĩ boɭʈa
My name is ...	Mera nam ... hai. (میرا نام ۔۔۔ ہے)	mɛɾa naːm ... hai
Which way to Lahore	Lahore kiss taraf heyh(لاھور کس طرف ہے؟)
Where is Mumbai?	Mumbai kahaan hai? (ممبئی کہاں ہے؟)
Urdu is a good language.	Urdu ek achchhee zubaan hai. (اردو ایک اچھی زبان ہے)

Literature

Urdu has only become a literary language in recent centuries, as Persian and Arabic were formerly the idioms of choice for "elevated" subjects. However, despite its late development, Urdu literature boasts some world-recognized artists and a considerable corpus.

Prose

There are many Islamic works in Urdu. These include translations of classical texts from Arabic and Persian, Urdu commentaries on these texts, and contemporary works in all fields of Islamic thought. Relatively inexpensive publishing, combined with the use of Urdu as a lingua franca among Muslims of South Asia has resulted in Urdu having more contemporary Islamic works than any other language.

Secular prose includes all categories of non-fiction, and three literary genres:

the daastaan, or tale, a traditional story which may have many characters and complex plotting. This has fallen into disuse.

the afsaana, or short story, probably the best-known genre of Urdu fiction. The best-known afsaana writers, or afsaana nigaar, in Urdu are Saadat Hasan Manto, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, Munshi Premchand, and Krishan Chander. Premchand, a Hindu writer, became known as a pioneer in the afsaana, though some contend that his were not technically the first.

the popular novel, in the tradition of the English novel.

Poetry

Urdu has been the premiere language of poetry in South Asia for two centuries, and has developed a rich tradition in a variety of poetic genres.

Ghazal (غزل), as practiced by many poets in the Arab tradition. Mir, Ghalib, and Faiz are well-known composers of ghazal.
Rubai
Masnavi
Qaseeda
Geet
Marsia
Shehr aashob
Doha, Urdu

Foreign forms such as the sonnet and haiku have also been used by some modern Urdu poets.

Probably the most widely read, recited, and memorized genre of contemporary Urdu poetry is naat—panegyric poetry written in praise of the Prophet Muhammad. Naat can be of any formal category, but is most commonly in the ghazal form. The language used in Urdu naat ranges from the intensely colloquial to a highly Persianized formal language. The great early twentieth century scholar Imam Ahmad Raza Khan, who wrote many of the most well known naats in Urdu, epitomized this range in a ghazal of nine stanzas (bayt) in which every stanza contains half a line each of Arabic, Persian, formal Urdu, and colloquial Hindi. The same poet composed a salam—a poem of greeting to the Prophet, derived from the universal Muslim practice of qiyam, or standing, during the mawlid, or celebration of the birth of the Prophet—Mustafa Jan-e Rahmat, which, due to being recited nearly every Friday in a majority of Urdu speaking mosques throughout the world, is probably the most frequently recited Urdu poem of the modern era.

Shi'a Urdu poets also wrote noha (نوحہ), poems commemorating the death of the Shi'a imam Hussain.

History

Urdu developed as local Indo-Aryan dialects came under the influence of the Muslim courts that ruled the Indian subcontinent from the early thirteenth century on. The official language of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, and their successor states, as well as the cultured language of poetry and literature, was Template:Ll, while the language of religion was Template:Ll. The mingling of these languages led to a vernacular that is the ancestor of today's Template:Ll. Dialects of this vernacular are spoken today in cities and villages throughout Pakistan and northern India. Cities with a particularly strong tradition of Urdu include Hyderabad, Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, and Lucknow.

The birthplace of the Urdu language is not known with certainty. Urdu literature has been found from the Delhi Sultanate. One hypothesis proposes that Urdu originated in or around Delhi over a period of several centuries, and that initially it was used and adopted by Muslims. The word urdu itself comes from the Template:Ll word ordu, "tent" or "army", from which we get the word "horde".

Wherever Muslim soldiers and officials settled, they carried Urdu with them. Urdu enjoyed commanding status in the literary courts of Muslim rulers and nawabs, and flourished under their patronage, partially displacing Sanskrit as the language of intellectuals in Indian society. The prestige bestowed upon Urdu at the expense of Sanskrit was a source of irritation for many religious Hindus, and to this day there remains religiously motivated conflict between the languages that sometimes makes dialogue difficult.

Urdu and Hindi

Standard Urdu and Standard Hindi are sometimes considered to be distinct languages, and sometimes dialects of a Hindustani language. There are two fundemental distinctions between them: the source of learned vocabulary (Persian or Sanskrit), and the script used to write them (an adaptation of the Persian script written in Nasta'liq style, or the devanagari alphabet). In colloquial situations in Delhi, where neither learned vocabulary nor writing is used, the distinction between the Urdu and Hindi is nearly meaningless. Outside of the Delhi dialect area, the distinctin may be more pronounced even in colloquial speech, for "Hindi" in such cases will often refer to the local dialect.

The word 'Hindi' has two uses; confusion of these is one of the primary causes of debate about the identity of Urdu.

One use of 'Hindi' is to indicate those idioms in the North Indian dialect continuum that are not recognized as separate languages from the language of Delhi. Template:Ll and Template:Ll are not considered Hindi because of their long history as literary languages and because of official recognition. Template:Ll, Template:Ll, and Template:Ll are also often recognized to be distinct languages, though sometimes considered Hindi dialects. However, many other local idioms, such as the Template:Ll languages, which do not have such a distinct identity, are almost always considered to be dialects of Hindi. In other words, the boundaries of "Hindi" have little to do with mutual intelligibility, and instead depend on social perceptions of what constitutes a language.
The other use of the word is Standard Hindi, the specific form of the Delhi dialect of Hindi (called Hindustani) that is India's foremost national language.

Standard Urdu is also a standardized form of Hindustani. Such a state of affairs, with two standardized forms of what is essentially one language, is known as a diasystem.

Colloquial Urdu, on the other hand, basically is Hindustani; it can be argued that Standard Hindi is a form of colloquial Urdu, intentionally de-Persianized and de-Arabicized, with its formal vocabulary borrowed instead from Sanskrit. The colloquial language spoken by villagers and the lower classes of Delhi is indistinguishable by ear, whether it is called Hindi or Urdu by its speakers. The only important distinction at this level is in the script: if written in the Arab-Persian script, the language is generally considered to be Urdu, and if written in devanagari it is generally considered to be Hindi. However, since independence and partition the formal registers used in education and the media have become increasingly divergent in their vocabulary. Where there is no colloquial word for a concept, Standard Urdu uses Perso-Arabic vocabulary, while Standard Hindi uses Sanskrit vocabulary. This results in the official languages being heavily Sanskritized or Persianized, and nearly unintelligible to speakers educated in the other standard.

These two standardized registers of Hindustani have become so entrenched as separate languages that often nationalists, both Hindu and Muslim, claim that Hindi and Urdu have always been separate languages. However, there are unifying forces as well. For example, it is said that Indian Bollywood films are made in "Hindi", but the language used in most of them is the same as that of Urdu speakers in Pakistan. The dialogue is frequently developed in English and later translated to an intentionally neutral Hindustani which can be easily understood by speakers of most North Indian languages, both in India itself and in Pakistan. The songs, however, are typically pure Urdu, and many of the top Urdu poets make their livings writing for "Hindi" films. Similarly, while Pakistani television dramas are said to be made in "Urdu", the language used is the same as that used by "Hindi" speakers in India. Indian film is extremely popular in Pakistan, and Pakistani TV is likewise popular in India.

Footnote

Template:FnAs in Ghalib's famous couplet where he compares himself to his great predecessor, the master poet Mir :

Raikhtha kai tum hee ustadh nahee ho Ghalib

Kehthay hain aglay zamaanay main ko'ee Mir bhee thhaa

You, alone, are not the master of 'Raikhta', Ghalib

They say that in days of yore, there was one (called) Mir

References

Anwar Azim, 'Urdu a victim of cultural genocide.' Muslims in India. ed. Zafar Imam, 1975. p. 259).

External links

Online Use of Urdu