Urdu: Difference between revisions

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Urdu (اردو), a language rising out of the neccesity of Muslim Army camps in South Asia to communicate with each other in the 1500's. It was spoken mainly in the courts of the rulers of The Subcontinent, in the time of the Mughal Empire and its succeeding states.

Urdu developed as a vernacular dialect in modern times from the gradual infusion of English and Hindi words after the British Invasion in the late 1800's and the widespread success of the Indian film Industry in Urdu speaking areas.

The language of the court, and of literature, was usually Persian, while that of religion was Arabic, the language of the Qur'an. This process of the mingling of these languages and the local dialects led to the development of everyday speech that came to be known as Urdu. Urdu, especially in its less formalized form as it developed from a dialect to a more formal language, has also been referred to as a "raikhtha" (ریختہ), which literally means "a rough mixture".

The formal language is sometimes referred to as Zaban-e-Urdu-e-Moalla (زبانﹺ اردوﹺ معلہ), which can be translated as "Language of Camp and Court". The word urdu itself means "army", "horde" or "tent" in Turkish. Urdu, the Turkish word ordu, and the word horde (found in several European languages) have the same origin.

It soon became the language of the Mughals, distinguished linguistically from local languages by its large and significant Arabic-Persian vocabulary with a base of grammar and usages that it shares in common with Hindi. The result was what has been called one of the world's most beautiful languages, the "Kohinoor" ("Mountain of Light," a famed native, large and brilliant diamond from the region) of languages. It is widely spoken today in both India and Pakistan and all countries having a sizeable South Asian diaspora.

The mix of Urdu and Hindi, forming the Hindustani dialects spoken in northern India and Pakistan, form the second-most-popular 'first' language and second-most-popular 'first or second' language in the world. Urdu by itself is the twentieth most popular 'first' language in the world and the national language of Pakistan and one of the 22 national languages of India.

'See also Persian and Urdu

There are many views on the origins of Urdu, differing in both time and geographic location.

The birthplace of the Urdu language is not known to an exact location. There are hypotheses that are backed by Urdu literature having been found in certain areas as far back as the period of the Delhi Sultanate. Keeping in mind the linguistic character of the areas around Delhi, it is often said that Urdu originated in or around Delhi over a period of a few centuries. It is believed that Urdu was developed by the Muslim rulers in India and initially it was used and adopted by the Muslims.

"Urdu never indeed took root in the soil of rural India. One reason for this was its snobbish aversion to the dialects of the regions, where Urdu was supposed to have deep roots" (Anwar Azim in his essay entitled 'Urdu a victim of cultural genocide' published in a book entitled Muslims in India edited by Zafar Imam, 1975, page 259). This observation of the Muslim writer shows that Urdu never became the language of rural India under Muslim or British rule. In fact Sanskrit educated rural India had developed aversion against this language known to be the language of 'Yavanas' (the alien rulers). 'Na Badet Yavani Bhasham Pranah Kanthgatepi va' (One should not speak the language of Muslim rulers even at the cost of death) was the slogan often used by an educated section of Hindus. This aversion against Urdu particularly in rural India also affected the unity in Indian society.

Wherever Muslim soldiers went and settled they carried Urdu with them, which also served their purpose of keeping the Muslim masses separated from the None-Muslims. Had the intention of Muslim rulers been honest, they would have allowed this lingua franca to develop in the linguistic tradition of this land as was done by previous invaders like Huna, Kushans and others. Development and growth of any language depend upon state patronage as well as of its acceptability among the native dwellers. Urdu enjoyed commanding status in the literary courts of Muslim rulers and Nawabs, and flourished under their patronage but common people hardy developed any emotional attachment with it as a result it never got the environment for its natural growth. Urdu pushed the Sanskrit, the language of intellectuals in Indian society to wall but it could survive only due to its inherent resilience.

Linguistic supremacy of Urdu imposed over regional languages always remained a source of irritant for the common Hindus as it disturbed the homogeneity of Indian society. The Hindu masses of the country never accepted Urdu as their language, since it symbolysed as an instrument of Muslim barbarism even though a section of their urbanised group accepted this alien language for their economic interest.

Argument that Urdu was developed as lingua franca during Muslim rule may be partially correct but its Persianisation and Arabisation at the cost of the native dialect shows that Muslim conquerors never cared for the sentiments of the subjugated natives in their attempt to impose their cultural hegemony over them. Though not a very old language, Urdu is a language full of charm and elegance, a language that holds literature so courtly. Even today when the this native language has almost lost its importance in the country, the ones with a slight poetic and aesthetic sense prefer to express in Urdu only as the language adds the charm to prose and poetry. The legatee of feelings expressed can feel the intensity if it is your sweet heart and the orator may be the content one.

The unfavourable fact is however, that today as the Pakistani society is losing its cultural charms, it is also unmindful towards its native language. They can't be blamed for it though, as they have faced a lot of underdevelopment due to lack of learning the global communication tool of English. So, over the years when the people of Pakistan worked towards progress they had no other choice but to adopt English and Urdu has gone in to the background. However, over the years the language has established itself never to be overlooked, and still it is read in form of those novels that make the exemplary literature, in theatre and schools and last but never the least in the aesthetic poetry.

Urdu is a member of the Indo Aryan group of languages, which is in turn part of the Indo European family of languages.

Urdu is related to most of the languages of northern South Asia — they all have similar grammatical structures. The vernacular that is spoken widely in the current times is similar to Punjabi and Hindi due to loan words infused into the Urdu language.

Urdu, Hindi and the consequent Hindustani language have a very strange and complex relationship with each other. Urdu and Hindi have been called different languages on the one hand and dialects of the same language on the other. Hindustani is generally thought of as the language that encompasses both Urdu and Hindi and forms the mother language of these two languages. (Such a state of affairs is sometimes known as a diasystem.)

The largest difference between Urdu and Hindi is that Urdu is written in the Nasta'liq form of the modified Arabic script while Hindi is written in the Devanagari script.

Urdu, Hindi and Hindustani are all segments on a long linguistic chain. At one end is a heavily Persianized language which is written in the Nasta'liq font and in a modified Arabic script. At the other end is a heavily Sanskritized language which is written in the Devanagari form. The progression from one to the other is continuous and slow. The basic grammars are the same. The words are replaced either by more Sanskritized or more Persianized forms. Urdu forms the segment of the chain more towards the Persian side and Hindi forms the segment of the chain more towards the Sanskrit side. The language generally spoken in the north of the Indian subcontinent is basically halfway between the two extremes and represents Hindustani.

Despite this, the casual spoken languages are similar and in some cases not even distinguishable. For example, it is said that Indian movies (of the North and North-West regions, primarily of Bollywood) are made in Hindi, but the language used in many of these movies is exactly the same language used by Urdu speakers in Pakistan. The dialogue of these films is frequently developed in English and later adapted to an intentionally neutral Hindi/Urdu which can be easily understood by speakers of most North Indian languages. The songs, however, are typically pure Urdu, and many of the top Urdu poets make their livings writing for films. On the other hand, Pakistani TV dramas are said to be made in Urdu, yet the language used in many of these dramas is exactly the language used by Hindi speakers in India.

As the language becomes more formal, the difference between the two languages starts to become clearer. In more serious speech and writing, the Sanskritization or Arabo-Persianization will become more pronounced. The languages used in newscasts, encyclopaedia articles and courtrooms become very heavily Sanskritized or Persianized and may be nearly unintelligible to speakers from the other languages.

Roman Urdu is Urdu 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 some contexts, such as product labels. It is gaining popularity among users of text-messaging and Internet services — especially the young — and is developing its own style and conventions. Habib R. Sulemani says in his article, "In fact, Urdu’s inherited script can produce and display its sounds properly. Urdu can be proud of having the richest variety of alphabet characters (44 compared to English’s 26) that can represent most of the sounds. Urdu’s own script is far more superior [sic] to the Roman script, yet the younger generation of Urdu speaking people around the world are using it 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, The Urdu message is alien for an Indian and similarly the Devanagari message is alien for a Pakistani. 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. It is the need of the time to recognise and properly shape the Roman Urdu officially. We can’t deny the ground realities of 21st century." [1]

A suggestion for standardising Roman Urdu as following by Jawad Swati:

Consonants:

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

b: billi (cat)

bh: bheegi (wet)

p: paNkha (fan)

ph: phool (flower)

t: taraazu (balance)

th: thaali (plate)

T: Timaatar (tomato)

Th: Theek (correct)

j: jaNg (war)

jh: jhoola (swing)

c: caahat (love)

ch: chakka (a six eg in cricket)

Q: Qaas (special)

d: dunya (world)

dh: dhoka (fraud)

D: Dori (thread)

Dh: Dheela (loose)

r: raat (night)

R: baRaa (big, large)

z: zindagi (life)

Z: Zaala baari (hail storm)

s: sardi (winter)

S: Sukrya (thanks)

G: Gam (grief)

f: faasla (distance)

q: qaafila (caravan), qeemam qeemah (mince)

k: kaaravaaN (caravan)

kh: kheyl (game, play)

g: gali (street)

gh: ghoRa (horse)

l: laat (leg)

m: muhabbat (love)

n: naokar (employee)

N: vahaaN (there) yahaaN (here)

v: varna (otherwise)

y: yeh, yey (this)

Vowels:

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

a: agar (if), aks (reflection)

aa: aag (fire)

ay: hay (is) hayN (are)

ey: they (were), gaey (went)

i: dil (heart)

ee: jeevan (life)

u: sun (listen), chup (silent)

oo: dhool (dust)

ao aor (and, more)

e: jaan e man (my life/love), dil e man (my heart)

o: dil o nigaah (heart and vision) roz o shab (day and night)

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 with about 48% speaking Punjabi as a mother tongue. It is, however, the language of prestige and all signage, and literacy is compulsory in the Pakistani school system. As time goes by, more and more Pakistanis of Punjabi or other backgrounds are speaking Urdu as a first language. It is evident that the number of native Urdu speakers is increasing quickly in urban centers.

In India, Urdu is spoken as a mother tongue by many in the northern and central states. While in India 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. Some would contend that Language spoken in Bollywood films is in fact closer to Urdu than Hindi, especially in filmi songs.

Apart from the Indian subcontinent, Urdu is also spoken in urban Afghanistan. It is also spoken to some extent in the major urban centres in the Persian Gulf countries and in Saudi Arabia. Urdu is spoken by a large number of people in the major urban centres of the UK, the USA, Canada and Australia.

Countries with large numbers of First Language Urdu speakers.

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. According to Pakistani government websites, it also shares official language status with English. Although English is an official language and is used in most elite circles, and Punjabi has a plurality of native speakers, Urdu is seen as the one lingua franca that is expected to prevail. Urdu is one of the official languages of India, and while the government school system - especially in northern states - emphasizes Hindi , many universities, especially in Lucknow, continue to foster Urdu as a language of prestige and learning. In Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh, Urdu has official language status.

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.

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).

Urdu has a vocabulary rich in words with Indian and Middle Eastern origins. The Urdu language is dominated by words from Arabic, Persian, and some Sanskrit. There are also a number of borrowings from Turkish, Portuguese and English. Many of the Arabic words that have found a place in the Urdu Language, often through the conduit of Persian, have different nuances of meaning and usage.

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. Urdu differs in appearance from Arabic in that it uses the more complex and sinuous Nasta'liq script whereas Arabic tends to the more modern Naskh. Nasta'liq is notoriously difficult to typeset, so Urdu newspapers are made from hand-written masters. Although the styles are different, people who can read Urdu can read Arabic, as Arabic uses the same alphabet but with fewer letters. There are efforts underway to develop more practical Urdu support on computers.

Usually, bare transliterations of Urdu into Roman letters omit many subtle phonetic aspects which have no equivalent in English or other languages which are written with the Roman alphabet, such as a sharp exhale at the end of certain words (known as aspiration). It should be noted that a reasonably comprehensive system has emerged with specific notations to signify non-English sounds, but it is only properly read by someone already familiar with Urdu or Hindi; this phoneticizing script, however, does serve a valid purpose as it would allow Indians, who usually write Hindi and even Urdu in Devanagari script, to communicate with Pakistanis only familiar with Nasta'liq.

A list of the alphabet of Urdu along with its pronunciation is given below. A more detailed list with detailed phonetic information will be added later on.

Urdu has been used as a language for literature for a relatively short period of time, Persian being the language of choice until recently. But even so, a varied and extensive literature of the language has come up.

A large number of volumes of Islamic works are extant in Urdu. These include translations of classical texts from Arabic and Persian, Urdu commentaries on these classical texts, and contemporary works in all fields of Islamic thought and representing a wide array of ideological positions. Relatively inexpensive publishing and the fact that Urdu serves as the lingua franca for Muslims across South Asia mean that Urdu almost certainly has more contemporary Islamic works than any other language.

Two genres have seen a lot of development in Urdu as compared to other languages. The daastaan is a long story which might include multiple story lines, plots and may not have any particular focus, but it had beautiful lingustic structures. It is not used any more. The afsaana is a short story. It has become the primary genre of Urdu fiction. The most well 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) and showed that religion was not an obstacle to Urdu's grand capacity to express. In post-independence South Asia the pulp novel (a natural extension of the daastaan) has been a major medium for writers of popular literature.

Urdu is very well known for its beautiful poetry. Urdu was the premiere language of poetry in South Asia for two centuries and has a large and rich collection of poetry in a host of different poetic forms.

The Ghazal (غزل) is a form of poetry that was used extensively by poets all over South Asia, generally by Muslim poets. Its beauty and grace has made it well-liked by people from all faiths all over the region. Mir, Ghalib, and Faiz are some of the major poets in the genre of Ghazal.

Except for Ghazal the poetic forms of Rubai, Masnavi, Qaseeda, Geet, Marsia, Shehr aashob, Doha, Urdu and Nauha are very well developed in Urdu. Foreign forms such as the sonnet and haiku have also been used by Urdu poets, mainly in the modern era.

Probably the most widely read, recited, and memorized genre of contemporary Urdu poetry is na`t - panegyric poetry written in praise of the Prophet Muhammad. Na`t can be of any formal category, but is most commonly in the ghazal form. The language used in Urdu na`t ranges from the intensely colloquial to highly Persianized formal language. The great early twentieth century scholar Imam Ahmad Raza Khan, who wrote many of the most well known na`t's 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.

Urdu also gave birth to a new genre of poetry, the Noha (نوحہ). It usually describes the circumstances of the Martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain in the form of an elegy, occasionally accompanied by lamentation.

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

• Hindi language
• Hindustani language
• Bollywood
• Ghazal
• India
• Pakistan
• Persian and Urdu
• Urdu poetry
• List of Urdu poets

Urdu edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

===Sites About Urdu===

• CRULP Center for research in Urdu language processing
• urdustan.com : oldest Urdu language website
• Ethnologue report for Urdu
• Introductory Urdu (Volume 1)
• Introductory Urdu (Volume 2)
• Urdu Wiktionary
• Wikitravel Hindi-Urdu Phrasebook
• The New Urdu

• [http://www.alqamaronline.com/ alqamar Onlien Urdu Network from London
• UrduWiki
• Collaborative blog discussing the Urdu language and the affiliated culture
• Blogging In Urdu
• List of blogs in Urdu
• Templates for blogging in Urdu
• BBC News in Urdu
• Roznama Boriat Karachi - Spoof News in Urdu