30 Interesting Facts About Urdu Language

Facts About Urdu: Urdu is the official language of India and the national language of Pakistan. Urdu is a dialect of the Sultanate of Delhi that evolved from the Apabhrasha languages and developed during the Mughal period under the influence of Persian, Arabic and Turkish. Although very similar to Hindi, the influence of Persian and Arabic is evident in Urdu, which uses a script similar to the Arabic script.

About 4.8 crore people in India speak this language as their mother tongue - Urdu is spoken mostly in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The number of people who speak Urdu as the main language in Pakistan is around one crore.

9 November, the birthday of Urdu poet Dr. Muhammad Allama Iqbal, is celebrated as World Urdu Day.

30+ Amazing Facts About Urdu Language

Urdu is used as the official language in all provinces of Pakistan.
Urdu is written in the Persian-Arabic script and unlike English; it is written from left to right.
Urdu is one of the 22 languages that are spoken in India and dominates in various cities of the country.
Urdu sounds a lot like Hindi but there are a lot of differences, difficult to spot for non-native speakers.
Urdu and Hindi are almost identical on a conversational level. The main difference is how they are written.
Urdu became a unifying symbol for Muslims during the 19th-century tensions and the colonization by the British Empire.
Some Indian schools teach Urdu as a first language and have their own syllabus and exams; Indian madrasahs also teach Arabic as well as Urdu.
Before the partition of India, Hindustani was the language used in the subcontinent. Now, there are two variations of it, including Urdu and Hindi.
While most languages go from left to right pattern, Urdu seems to be on different stead. It goes from right to left that might confuse a lot of people initially.
During the 19th century, there were a lot of tensions because of the British Empire’s colonization. Urdu became the symbol for uniting Muslims during these times.

Historical Facts About Urdu Language

The Urdu language started evolving from as early as the 12th century. Arabic and Persian are two of the most important languages that have influenced the development of this language.
India has more than 2900 daily Urdu newspapers. Newspapers such as Daily Salar, Daily Pasban, Siast Daily, Munsif Daily and Inqilab are published and distributed in Bangalore, Mysore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.
Most of the nearly five million Afghan refugees of different ethnic origins (such as Pakhtun, Tajik, Uzbek, Hazarvi, and Turkmen) who stayed in Pakistan for over twenty-five years have also become fluent in Urdu.
In Pakistan, Urdu is spoken and understood by a majority of urban dwellers in such cities as Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta, Hyderabad, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan and Sukkur.
While there are plenty of languages spoken in Pakistan, Urdu is known as the official language of the country. The language became official in 1973 and can be seen widely used by the citizens of Pakistan every day.
The Punjabi language is very similar to Urdu. Written Punjabi can be understood by speakers of Urdu, with a little difficulty, but spoken Punjabi has a different phonology and cannot be easily understood by Urdu speakers.
In India, Urdu is spoken in places where there are large Muslim majorities or cities, which were bases for Muslim Empires in the past. These include parts of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bhopal, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Mysore.
Given the pattern that it uses (right to left), it can be slightly difficult for people to get a hold of easily. It has 40 letters driven from Arabic and Persian languages but the pronunciation of these differ from the original languages.

Unknown Facts About Urdu Language

While Pakistan holds the record for the largest group of people speaking Urdu, there are also many small communities all across the world that speak the language. These include small communities in the Middle East, the United Kingdom, and much more.
Most South Asian languages have a lot in common and they seem to be related in one or the other way. Urdu is related to most of the languages of India and northern South Asia, all of them having similar grammatical structures and a certain common vocabulary.
There are various words of Urdu that have been used in the English language. They aren’t the exact terms but the essence of them has been derived from Urdu. These include “khaki” which means dusty or grey, “pajamas” which means trousers and “cummerbund” which means waist binding.
Urdu is known to be a beautiful language that flourishes in literature. It is known to touch a person’s heart with the various meanings that are hidden in its words. The poetry and phrases used in Urdu are in-depth and leave an ever-lasting impression on those that indulge in them.
It is also taught as a compulsory language up to high school in both the English and Urdu medium school systems. This has produced millions of Urdu speakers whose mother tongue is one of the regional languages of Pakistan such as Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Balochi, Siraiki, and Brahui.
Urdu is one such beautiful language that has a way of saying things that mark the courteous from the unlearned and the noble from the ordinary. Literature and poetry are depicted in Urdu so gracefully that the world knows of it. It is known to touch the soul the way it imparts hidden meanings in a prose or poetry like no other language can.
Urdu is widely spoken in Pakistan, being its official language, parts of India and in many parts of South Asia. Urdu is distinguished slightly from Hindi in terms of its script and vocabulary and is thus one of the official languages of India. Urdu is also spoken in the UK by Muslims from Pakistan and Northern India and is quite popular among the Middle East countries.
An academic discipline, or field of study, is a branch of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level. Urdu can play a vital part if you are interested in any academic discipline that includes the study of South Asia — including law, medicine, business, agriculture, life sciences, humanities, and social sciences as it is considered a significant language for it.
Urdu is a key language in reaching Pakistan and many other Middle Eastern countries. Another interesting fact about Urdu language is that the Pastors and mature believers who want to learn God’s Word in depth will be thrilled to have the Pentecostal study notes, maps, and commentary which have made the Fire Bible an important tool in equipping leadership and building the body of Christ in that part of the world. Thus having Fire Bibles in the Urdu language is a key win the Middle East to Christ.

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