Urdu

From ArticleWorld

The origin

Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and owes its origin to Persian, Turkish, Arabic and Hindi. The spoken form of communication between many different languages spoken by soldiers, army men and invaders of the thirteenth century is believed to be the starting place for this language called Urdu. “Ordu” in Turkish means tent, from where Urdu has originated. It is also known as the language of the army for these reasons.

It has been carried over from place to place by traveling armies and kings and soldiers alike. The influence of different regions on bringing it to present day form is very apparent. It is mostly adopted by Muslims living in north India and south Asia as the spoken language and over centuries, most probably from the middle of the thirteenth century, it evolved from the tents and army into a language that soon became endowed literarily, expression of religion, entertainment, and motivation. As the military class, then the most feared and respected class, carried it to farther lands and established kingdoms, it found the support and patronage of the elite, high and mighty rulers, emperors, and victorious kings.

Replacing Sanskrit

In north India, wherefrom most of the then invaders made inroads into India, the ruling class practiced Sanskrit as its official language and Prakrit or Hindi as its standard day-to-day spoken tongue. This was obviously altered to suit the wishes of the new rulers. And Urdu was imposed as the official language. The conflict of Sanskrit, mostly associated with Hindus and Urdu with the elite Muslims is a continuing point of dissent between the two nations India and Pakistan.

Hindi and Urdu

The fact is, that both Hindi and Urdu, though, so much a point of conflict between the two nations, are understood by majority of populace of both nations. Both are in daily use in both countries. Though Hindi and Urdu in standardized forms are distinct and so is the written alphabet, in colloquial situations, the distinction is meaningless across the whole of north Indian continent. This double existing nature of both languages is brought out by the fact that each is laced with so many words of the other language. Urdu literature is very developed in spite of its rather recent origins. The likes of Mirza Galib have attained global fame and couplets and shayari have been credited with highest accolades for their rendition style and soul touching meanings and effects.