View source for Urdu

{{Short description|Indo-Aryan language}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Urdu
| altname          = 
| nativename       = {{lang|ur|{{unq|اردو}}}} ({{Transliteration|ur|Urdū}})
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|hns|ˈʊɾduː||hi-Urdu.ogg}}
| states           = [[South Asia]]<ref name="Britannica2000">{{cite book |title=Students' Britannica India |date=2000 |publisher=[[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] |page=299 |language=en |quote=Hindustani developed as lingua franca in the medieval ages in and around Delhi, Meerut and Saharanpur because of the interaction between the speakers of ''Khariboli'' (a dialect developed in this region out of Shauraseni Prakrit) and the speakers of Persian, Turkic, and various dialects of Arabic who migrated to North India. Initially it was known by various names such as ''Rekhta'' (mixed), ''Urdu'' (language of the camp) and ''Hindvi'' or ''Hindustani'' (language of Hindustan). Though ''Khariboli'' supplied its basic vocabulary and grammar, it borrowed quite a lot of words from Persian and Arabic}}</ref><ref name="Ethnologue28|urd">{{Ethnologue28|urd}}</ref>
| region           = {{plainlist|*[[Languages of Pakistan|Pakistan]] (widely used as ''lingua franca'')
*[[Hindi Belt|Hindi-Urdu Belt]] and [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]], [[Languages of India|India]]<ref name=indiacensus>{{Cite web |year=2011 |title=Data Tables |url=https://censusindia.gov.in/census.website/data/census-tables |access-date=25 March 2024 |website=[[Census of India]]}}</ref>
*[[Terai]], [[Languages of Nepal|Nepal]]<ref name="nepal.unfpa">{{Cite web|url=https://nepal.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/Population%20Monograph%20V02.pdf|title=Population Monograph of Nepal Volume II (Social Demography)}}</ref>
*[[Dhakaiya Urdu|Old Dhaka]], [[Languages of Bangladesh|Bangladesh]]}}<ref name=dhakaiya>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thedailystar.net/my-dhaka/news/exploring-the-richness-dhakaiya-subbasi-dialect-3841471|title=History Of Dhakaiya Subbasi Language}}</ref>
| speakers         = [[First language|L1]]: {{sigfig|80.681140|2}} million
| date             = 2025
| ref              = <ref name="Ethnologue28|urd">{{Ethnologue28|urd}}</ref>
| speakers2        = [[Second language|L2]]: {{sigfig|173.319100|3}} million (2025)<ref name="Ethnologue28|urd">{{Ethnologue28|urd}}</ref><br/>Total: {{sigfig|253.000240|3}} million (2025)<ref name="Ethnologue28|urd">{{Ethnologue28|urd}}</ref>
| speakers_label   = Speakers
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]]
| fam3             = [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]]
| fam4             = [[Hindi languages|Central Zone]]
| fam5             = [[Western Hindi]]
| fam6             = [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]]
| dia1             = [[Begamati zuban|Begamati]] {{extinct}}
| dia2             = [[Deccani language|Deccani]]
| dia3             = [[Dhakaiya Urdu|Dhakaiya]]
| dia4             = [[Judeo-Urdu]] {{extinct}}
| dia5             = [[Kalkatiya Urdu|Kalkatiya]]
| dia6             = [[Karkhandari Urdu|Karkhandari]]
| ancestor         = [[Shauraseni Prakrit]]
| ancestor2        = [[Apabhraṃśa]]
| ancestor3        = [[Old Hindi]]
| ancestor4        = Hindustani
| ancestor5        = [[Rekhta]]
| script           = {{plainlist|
* [[Persian alphabet|Perso-Arabic script]] ([[Urdu alphabet]])
* [[Urdu Braille]]
}}
| nation           = *[[Languages of Pakistan|Pakistan]] (national)
*[[Languages with legal status in India|India]] (scheduled)
** [[Jammu and Kashmir (union territory)|Jammu and Kashmir]]
** [[Ladakh]]
** [[Delhi]] (additional)
** [[Bihar]] (additional)
** [[Uttar Pradesh]] (additional)
** [[Jharkhand]] (additional)
** [[Andhra Pradesh]] (additional)<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/politics/240322/assembly-passes-two-bills-of-minorities-component-and-urdu-as-2nd-offi.html|title=Urdu second official language in Andhra Pradesh|date=24 March 2022|work=Deccan Chronicles|access-date=25 March 2022|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Bill recognising Urdu as second official language passed |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/bill-recognising-urdu-as-second-official-languagepassed/article65252966.ece |access-date=1 April 2022 |work=The Hindu |date=23 March 2022 |language=en-IN}}</ref>
** [[Telangana]] (additional)<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/india/urdu-is-telanganas-second-official-language-4940595/|title=Urdu is Telangana's second official language|date=16 November 2017|work=[[The Indian Express]]|access-date=27 February 2018|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/urdu-second-official-language-telangana-state-passes-bill-71742|title=Urdu is second official language in Telangana as state passes Bill|date=17 November 2017|work=[[The News Minute]]|access-date=27 February 2018}}</ref>
** [[West Bengal]] (additional)
| minority         = [[Languages of South Africa|South Africa]] (protected language)<ref>{{cite web|title=Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 – Chapter 1: Founding Provisions|url=http://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/chapter-1-founding-provisions|website=|access-date=6 December 2014}}</ref>
| iso1             = ur
| iso2             = urd
| iso3             = urd
| lingua           = 59-AAF-q
| image            = Urdu example.svg
| imagescale       = 0.4
| imagecaption     = ''Urdu'' written in the ''[[Nastaliq]]'' calligraphic hand
| map              = Urdu_official-language_areas.png
| mapcaption       = Map of the regions of [[States and union territories of India|India]] and [[Administrative units of Pakistan|Pakistan]] showing:{{legend|#ffc90e|Areas where Urdu is either official or co-official}}
{{legend|#fff200|Areas where Urdu is neither official nor co-official}}
| notice           = IPA
| sign             = 
| glotto           = urdu1245
| glottorefname    = Urdu
| agency           = * [[National Language Promotion Department]] (Pakistan)
* [[National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language]] (India)
}}
{{Contains special characters|Urdu}}
{{Hindustani_language}}

'''Urdu'''{{efn|{{IPAc-en|ˈ|ʊər|d|uː}} {{respell|OOR|doo}} {{transliteration|ur|ALA-LC|Urdū}}, {{IPA|ur|ˈʊɾduː||hi-Urdu.ogg}}}} ({{lang|ur|{{nq|اُرْدُو}}}}) is an [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan language]] spoken primarily in [[South Asia]]. It is the [[Languages of Pakistan|national language]] and ''[[lingua franca]]'' of [[Pakistan]]. It is also an official [[Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India|Eighth Schedule language]] in [[India]], the status and cultural heritage of which are recognised by the [[Constitution of India]].<ref name="GazzolaWickström2016">{{cite book |last1=Gazzola |first1=Michele |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C4snDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA469 |title=The Economics of Language Policy |last2=Wickström |first2=Bengt-Arne |publisher=MIT Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-262-03470-8 |pages=469–}} [https://khwabonkaraaz.com/category/urdu-poetry/ Quote]: "The Eighth Schedule recognizes India's national languages as including the major regional languages as well as others, such as Sanskrit and Urdu, which contribute to India's cultural heritage. ... The original list of fourteen languages in the Eighth Schedule at the time of the adoption of the Constitution in 1949 has now grown to twenty-two."</ref><ref name="Groff2017-lead">{{cite book |last=Groff |first=Cynthia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qLc7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA58 |title=The Ecology of Language in Multilingual India: Voices of Women and Educators in the Himalayan Foothills |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-137-51961-0 |pages=58–}} Quote: "As Mahapatra says: "It is generally believed that the significance for the Eighth Schedule lies in providing a list of languages from which Hindi is directed to draw the appropriate forms, style and expressions for its enrichment" ... Being recognized in the Constitution, however, has had significant relevance for a language's status and functions.</ref> It also has an official status in several Indian states.{{refn|group=note|Urdu has some form of official status in the Indian states of [[Bihar]], Jharkhand, [[Telangana]], Uttar Pradesh and [[West Bengal]], as well as the national capital territory of Delhi and the [[Union Territory]] of [[Jammu and Kashmir (union territory)|Jammu and Kashmir]].<ref name="MuzaffarBehera2014"/>}}<ref name="MuzaffarBehera2014">{{cite journal |last1=Muzaffar |first1=Sharmin |last2=Behera |first2=Pitambar |year=2014 |title=Error analysis of the Urdu verb markers: a comparative study on Google and Bing machine translation platforms |journal=Aligarh Journal of Linguistics |volume=4 |issue=1–2 |page=1 |quote=Modern Standard Urdu, a register of the Hindustani language, is the national language, lingua-franca and is one of the two official languages along with English in Pakistan and is spoken in all over the world. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages and officially recognized languages in the Constitution of India and has been conferred the status of the official language in many Indian states of Bihar, Telangana, Jammu, and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and New Delhi. Urdu is one of the members of the new or modern Indo-Aryan language group within the Indo-European family of languages.}}</ref>

Urdu originated geographically in the [[Upper Doab|upper Ganga-Yamuna doab]], in and around the [[Delhi region]], where [[Khari Boli]] was spoken. Urdu shared a grammatical foundation with Khari Boli, but was written in a revised Perso-Arabic script and included vocabulary borrowed from Persian and [[Arabic]], which retained its original grammatical structure in those languages.<ref name="mody-modern-hindi-3">{{cite book |last=Mody |first=Sujata S. |title=The Making of Modern Hindi: Literary Authority in Colonian North India |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-19-948909-1 |location=New Delhi |pages=2&ndash;3 |quote=Urdu shared a grammatical base with Khari Boli Hindi, but was written in a modified form of the Perso-Arabic script and was inflected with Persian and Arabic vocabulary.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Dudney |first=Arthur |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lJtlEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA48 |title=India in the Persian World of Letters: Ḳhān-I Ārzū Among the Eighteenth-Century Philologists |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-19-285741-5 |series=Oxford Oriental Monographs series |page=48 |quote=it might in fact be the oldest critical dictionary of ''khari boli hindi'', which is to say the vernacular usage of the Ganges-Yamuna plain that yielded both Modern Standard Hindi and Urdu.}}</ref> In 1837, Urdu became an official language of the [[East India Company|British East India Company]], replacing Persian across northern India during [[Company rule in India|Company rule]]; Persian had until this point served as the court language of various [[Islamic rulers in the Indian subcontinent|Indo-Islamic empires]].<ref name="Metcalf2014">{{cite book |last=Metcalf |first=Barbara D. |author-link=Barbara D. Metcalf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BdH_AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA207 |title=Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860–1900 |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4008-5610-7 |pages=207– |quote=The basis of that shift was the decision made by the government in 1837 to replace Persian as court language by the various vernaculars of the country.  Urdu was identified as the regional vernacular in Bihar, Oudh, the North-Western Provinces, and Punjab, and hence was made the language of government across upper India.}}</ref><ref name="everaert">{{citation |last=Everaert |first=Christine |title=Tracing the Boundaries between Hindi and Urdu: Lost and Added in Translation between 20th Century Short Stories |pages=253– |year=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d_J5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA253 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-18223-3 |quote=It was only in 1837 that Persian lost its position as official language of India to Urdu and to English in the higher levels of administration.}}</ref><ref name="lelyveld-hindustani">{{cite journal |last=Lelyveld |first=David |year=1993 |title=Colonial Knowledge and the Fate of Hindustani |journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=665&ndash;682;674 |doi=10.1017/S0010417500018661 |quote=The earlier grammars and dictionaries made it possible for the British government to replace Persian with vernacular languages at the lower levels of judicial and revenue administration in 1837, that is, to standardize and index terminology for official use and provide for its translation to the language of the ultimate ruling authority, English. For such purposes Hindustani was equated with Urdu, as opposed to any geographically defined dialect of Hindi and was given official status through large parts of north India. Written in the Persian script with a largely Persian and, via Persian, an Arabic vocabulary, Urdu stood at the shortest distance from the previous situation and was easily attainable by the same personnel.}}</ref> Religious, social, and political factors arose during the [[Colonial India|European colonial period in India]] that advocated a distinction between Urdu and Hindi, leading to the [[Hindi–Urdu controversy]].<ref name="Ahmad-2008">{{Cite journal |last=Ahmad |first=Rizwan |date=1 July 2008 |title=Scripting a new identity: The battle for Devanagari in nineteenth-century India |journal=Journal of Pragmatics |volume=40 |issue=7 |pages=1163–1183 |doi=10.1016/j.pragma.2007.06.005 |issn=0378-2166}}</ref> 

Urdu and [[Hindi]] share a common, predominantly [[Sanskrit]]- and [[Prakrit]]-derived, vocabulary base, [[phonology]], [[syntax]], and grammar, making them [[Mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] during [[Colloquialism|colloquial communication]].<ref name="GubeGao2019">{{cite book |last1=Gube |first1=Jan |last2=Gao |first2=Fang |title=Education, Ethnicity and Equity in the Multilingual Asian Context |date=2019 |publisher=[[Springer Publishing]] |isbn=978-981-13-3125-1 |language=en |quote=The national language of India and Pakistan 'Standard Urdu' is mutually intelligible with 'Standard Hindi' because both languages share the same Indic base and are all but indistinguishable in phonology.}}</ref><ref name="Ahmad20022" /><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Yoon |editor1-first=Bogum |editor2-last=Pratt |editor2-first=Kristen L. |title=Primary Language Impact on Second Language and Literacy Learning |date=15 January 2023 |publisher=Lexington Books |page=198 |language=English |quote=In terms of cross-linguistic relations, Urdu's combinations of Arabic-Persian orthography and Sanskrit linguistic roots provides interesting theoretical as well as practical comparisons demonstrated in table 12.1.}}</ref><ref name="Ahmed2024">{{cite web |title=Ties between Urdu & Sanskrit deeply rooted: Scholar |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/ties-between-urdu-sanskrit-deeply-rooted-scholar/articleshow/108415962.cms |work=[[The Times of India]] |access-date=8 May 2024 |date=12 March 2024 |quote=The linguistic and cultural ties between Sanskrit and Urdu are deeply rooted and significant, said Ishtiaque Ahmed, registrar, Maula Azad National Urdu University during a two-day workshop titled "Introduction to Sanskrit for Urdu medium students". Ahmed said a substantial portion of Urdu's vocabulary and cultural capital, as well as its syntactic structure, is derived from Sanskrit.}}</ref> The common base of the two languages is sometimes referred to as the [[Hindustani language]], or [[Hindi–Urdu]], and Urdu has been described as a [[Persianised]] [[Standard language|standard]] [[Register (sociolinguistics)|register]] of the Hindustani language.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vnrTAAAAMAAJ|first=Mohammad Tahsin |last=Siddiqi |year=1994|title =Hindustani-English code-mixing in modern literary texts|publisher =University of Wisconsin|quote=Hindustani is the lingua franca of both India and Pakistan}}</ref><ref name="Kiaer2020">{{cite book |last1=Kiaer |first1=Jieun |title=Pragmatic Particles: Findings from Asian Languages |date=26 November 2020 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-350-11847-8 |page=18 |language=en |quote=Urdu is a Persianized and standardized register of the Hindustani language. It is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan, and an official language of five states in India.}}</ref><ref name="Gibson">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BfBHBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA282|last=Gibson|first=Mary|title=Indian Angles: English Verse in Colonial India from Jones to Tagore|publisher=Ohio University Press|date=13 May 2011|isbn=978-0821443583|quote=Bayly's description of Hindustani (roughly Hindi/Urdu) is helpful here; he uses the term Urdu to represent "the more refined and Persianised form of the common north Indian language Hindustani" (Empire and Information, 193); Bayly more or less follows the late eighteenth-century scholar Sirajuddin Ali Arzu, who proposed a typology of language that ran from "pure Sanskrit, through popular and regional variations of Hindustani to Urdu, which incorporated many loan words from Persian and Arabic. His emphasis on the unity of languages reflected the view of the Sanskrit grammarians and also affirmed the linguistic unity of the north Indian ecumene. What emerged was a kind of register of language types that were appropriate to different conditions. ...But the abiding impression is of linguistic plurality running through the whole society and an easier adaptation to circumstances in both spoken and written speech" (193). The more Persianized the language, the more likely it was to be written in Arabic script; the more Sanskritized the language; the more likely it was to be written in Devanagari.}}</ref><ref name="Basu">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E7gtDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|last=Basu|first=Manisha|title=The Rhetoric of Hindutva|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2017|isbn=9781107149878|quote=Urdu, like Hindi, was a standardized register of the Hindustani language deriving from the Dehlavi dialect and emerged in the eighteenth century under the rule of the late Mughals.}}</ref> While formal Urdu draws literary, political, and technical vocabulary from [[Persian language|Persian]],<ref name="Kiss-2015">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HABfCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1479|title=Syntax – Theory and Analysis|last1=Kiss|first1=Tibor|last2=Alexiadou|first2=Artemis|date=10 March 2015|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG|isbn=978-3-11-036368-5|pages=1479|language=en}}</ref> formal Hindi draws these aspects from Sanskrit; consequently, the two languages' mutual intelligibility effectively decreases as the factor of formality increases.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ieMgAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA385|title=Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations|last=Clyne|first=Michael|date=24 May 2012|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-088814-0|pages=385|language=en|quote=With the consolidation of the different linguistic bases of Khari Boli there were three distinct varieties of Hindi-Urdu: the High Hindi with predominant Sanskrit vocabulary, the High-Urdu with predominant Perso-Arabic vocabulary and casual or colloquial Hindustani which was commonly spoken among both the Hindus and Muslims in the provinces of north India. The last phase of the emergence of Hindi and Urdu as pluricentric national varieties extends from the late 1920s till the partition of India in 1947.}}</ref>

According to 2022 estimates by ''[[Ethnologue]]'' and the CIA's ''[[The World Factbook]]'', Urdu is the [[List of languages by total number of speakers|10th-most widely spoken language in the world]], with {{sigfig|231.295440|2}} million total speakers, including those who speak it as a [[second language]].<ref name=e25>{{cite journal |last1=Chaman |first1=Hussain |editor1-last=Mahboob |editor1-first=Hussain |title=Language Politics in Pakistan: Urdu as Official versus National Lingua Franca |journal=Annals of Human and Social Sciences |date=24 July 2022 |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=82–91 |doi=10.35484/ahss.2022(3-II)08 |url=https://ojs.ahss.org.pk/journal/article/view/23/56 |issn=2790-6809|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=World |date=20 November 2023 |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/world/#people-and-society |work=The World Factbook |access-date=27 November 2023 |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |language=en}}</ref>

==Etymology==
The name ''Urdu'' was first used by the poet [[Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi]] around 1780 for [[Hindustani language]],<ref name="A Long History of Urdu Literary Culture Part 1"/><ref name="From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History2" /> even though he himself also used ''Hindavi'' term in his poetry to define the language.<ref>{{Cite web |date=15 October 2022 |title=A Historical Perspective of Urdu {{!}} National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language |url=https://www.urducouncil.nic.in/council/historical-perspective-urdu |access-date=17 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221015162643/https://www.urducouncil.nic.in/council/historical-perspective-urdu |archive-date=15 October 2022 }}</ref> ''Ordu'' means army in the [[Turkic languages]]. In late 18th century, it was known as ''Zaban-e-Urdu-e-Mualla'' ''{{lang|ur|{{nq|زبانِ اُرْدُوئے مُعَلّٰی}}}}'' means ''language of the exalted camp''.<ref name="Meaning of Urdu"/><ref name="Walter de Gruyter"/><ref>{{Cite web |title=Meaning of urdu-e-mualla in English |url=https://www.rekhtadictionary.com/meaning-of-urdu-e-muallaa |access-date=17 October 2022 |website=Rekhta Dictionary |language=en}}</ref> It was previously known by several terms such as Hindvi, Hindi, Hindustani and Rekhta.<ref name="From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History2" /><ref name="Bhat2017" />

== History ==
{{Main|History of Hindustani}}

=== Origins ===
Urdu is a part of the Hindi–Urdu linguistic continuum, which is commonly referred to as [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] in contemporary usage.<ref>Dua, Hans R. (1992). Hindi-Urdu is a pluricentric language. In M. G. Clyne (Ed.), ''Pluricentric languages: Differing norms in different nations''. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. {{ISBN|3-11-012855-1}}.</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Kachru|first=Yamuna|title=Hindi-Urdu-Hindustani|url=http://bookfi.org/dl/1463145/e4994d|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200124071450/http://bookfi.org/dl/1463145/e4994d|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 January 2020|page=82|year=2008|editor=Braj Kachru|series=Language in South Asia|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-78653-9|author-link=Yamuna Kachru|editor2=Yamuna Kachru|editor3=S. N. Sridhar}}</ref><ref name="Qalamdaar20102">{{cite web|url=http://www.hamariboli.com/p/hamari-history.html|title=Hamari History|last1=Qalamdaar|first1=Azad|date=27 December 2010|publisher=Hamari Boli Foundation|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101227221213/http://www.hamariboli.com/p/hamari-history.html|archive-date=27 December 2010|quote=Historically, Hindustani developed in the post-12th century period under the impact of the incoming Afghans and Turks as a linguistic modus vivendi from the sub-regional apabhramshas of north-western India. Its first major folk poet was the great Persian master, Amir Khusrau (1253–1325), who is known to have composed dohas (couplets) and riddles in the newly-formed speech, then called 'Hindavi'. Through the medieval time, this mixed speech was variously called by various speech sub-groups as 'Hindavi', 'Zaban-e-Hind', 'Hindi', 'Zaban-e-Dehli', 'Rekhta', 'Gujarii. 'Dakkhani', 'Zaban-e-Urdu-e-Mualla', 'Zaban-e-Urdu', or just 'Urdu'. By the late 11th century, the name 'Hindustani' was in vogue and had become the lingua franca for most of northern India. A sub-dialect called Khari Boli was spoken in and around the Delhi region at the start of the 13th century when the Delhi Sultanate was established. Khari Boli gradually became the prestige dialect of Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) and became the basis of modern Standard Hindi & Urdu.}}</ref> Some linguists have suggested that the earliest forms of Urdu evolved from the medieval (6th to 13th century) [[Apabhraṃśa]] register of the preceding [[Shauraseni language]], a [[Middle Indo-Aryan languages|Middle Indo-Aryan language]] that is also the ancestor of other modern Indo-Aryan languages.<ref>Schmidt, Ruth Laila. "1 Brief history and geography of Urdu 1.1 History and sociocultural position." The Indo-Aryan Languages 3 (2007): 286.</ref><ref>Malik, Shahbaz, Shareef Kunjahi, Mir Tanha Yousafi, Sanawar Chadhar, Alam Lohar, Abid Tamimi, Anwar Masood et al. "Census History of Punjabi Speakers in Pakistan."</ref> In the Delhi region of India, the native language was [[Dehlavi dialect|Khariboli]], whose earliest form is known as [[Old Hindi]] (or Hindavi).<ref name="Taher1995">{{cite book |last1=Taher |first1=Mohamed |title=Librarianship and Library Science in India: An Outline of Historical Perspectives |date=1994 |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |isbn=978-81-7022-524-9 |page=115 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Mody2008">{{cite book |last1=Mody |first1=Sujata Sudhakar |title=Literature, Language, and Nation Formation: The Story of a Modern Hindi Journal 1900-1920 |date=2008 |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |page=7 |language=en |quote=...Hindustani, Rekhta, and Urdu as later names of the old Hindi (a.k.a. Hindavi).}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=English-Urdu Learner's Dictionary |date=6 March 2021 |publisher=Multi Linguis |isbn=978-1-005-94089-8 |language=English |quote=** History (Simplified) ** Proto-Indo European > Proto-Indo-Iranian > Proto-Indo-Aryan > Vedic Sanskrit > Classical Sanskrit > Sauraseni Prakrit > Sauraseni Apabhramsa > Old Hindi > Hindustani > Urdu}}</ref><ref name="Kesavan1997"/><ref name="Das2005">{{cite book |author1=[[Sisir Kumar Das]] |title=History of Indian Literature |date=2005 |publisher=[[Sahitya Akademi]] |isbn=978-81-7201-006-5 |page=142 |language=English |quote=The most important trend in the history of Hindi-Urdu is the process of Persianization on the one hand and that of Sanskritization on the other. Amrit Rai offers evidence to show that although the employment of Perso-Arabic script for the language which was akin to Hindi/Hindavi or old Hindi was the first step towards the establishment of the separate identity of Urdu, it was called Hindi for a long time. "The final and complete change-over to the new name took place after the content of the language had undergone a drastic change." He further observes: "In the light of the literature that has come down to us, for about six hundred years, the development of Hindi/Hindavi seems largely to substantiate the view of the basic unity of the two languages. Then, sometime in the first quarter of the eighteenth century, the cleavage seems to have begun." Rai quotes from Sadiq, who points out how it became a "systematic policy of poets and scholars" of the eighteenth century to weed out, what they called and thought, "vulgar words." This weeding out meant "the elimination, along with some rough and unmusical plebian words, of a large number of Hindi words for the reason that to the people brought up in Persian traditions they appeared unfamiliar and vulgar." Sadiq concludes: hence the paradox that this crusade against Persian tyranny, instead of bringing Urdu close to the indigenous element, meant in reality a wider gulf between it and the popular speech. But what differentiated Urdu still more from the local dialects was a process of ceaseless importation from Persian. It may seem strange that Urdu writers in rebellion against Persian should decide to draw heavily on Persian vocabulary, idioms, forms, and sentiments. . . . Around 1875 in his word ''Urdu Sarf O Nahr'', however, he presented a balanced view pointing out that attempts of the Maulavis to Persianize and of the Pandits to Sanskritize the language were not only an error but against the natural laws of linguistic growth. The common man, he pointed out, used both Persian and Sanskrit words without any qualms;}}</ref> It belongs to the [[Western Hindi]] group of the Central Indo-Aryan languages.<ref name="Taj2">{{cite web|url=http://www.unc.edu/~taj/abturdu.htm|title=About Hindi-Urdu|last1=Taj|first1=Afroz|year=1997|publisher=[[The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]]|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090815023328/http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/fl/faculty/taj/hindi/abturdu.htm|archive-date=15 August 2009|access-date=30 June 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://hindiurduflagship.org/about/two-languages-or-one/|title=Two Languages or One?|work=hindiurduflagship.org|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150311230741/http://hindiurduflagship.org/about/two-languages-or-one/|archive-date=11 March 2015|access-date=29 March 2015|quote=Hindi and Urdu developed from the "khari boli" dialect spoken in the Delhi region of northern India.}}</ref> The [[Hindu–Muslim unity|contact of Hindu and Muslim cultures]] during the period of [[Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent|Islamic conquests in the Indian subcontinent]] (12th to 16th centuries) led to the development of Hindustani as a product of a composite [[Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb]].<ref name="King">{{cite book |last1=King |first1=Christopher Rolland |title=One Language, Two Scripts: The Hindi Movement in Nineteenth Century North India |date=1999 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-565112-6 |page=67 |language=en|quote=Educated Muslims, for the most part supporters of Urdu, rejected the Hindu linguistic heritage and emphasized the joint Hindu-Muslim origins of Urdu.}}</ref><ref name="Dhulipala2000">{{cite book |last1=Dhulipala |first1=Venkat |title=The Politics of Secularism: Medieval Indian Historiography and the Sufis |date=2000 |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] |page=27 |language=en |quote=Persian became the court language, and many Persian words crept into popular usage. The composite culture of northern India, known as the Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb was a product of the interaction between Hindu society and Islam.}}</ref><ref name="Rekhta2020">{{cite web |title=Women of the Indian Sub-Continent: Makings of a Culture – Rekhta Foundation |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/women-of-the-indian-sub-continent-makings-of-a-culture-rekhta-foundation/dwJy7qboNi3fIg?hl=en |publisher=[[Google Arts & Culture]] |access-date=25 February 2020 |language=en |quote=The "Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb" is one such instance of the composite culture that marks various regions of the country.  Prevalent in the North, particularly in the central plains, it is born of the union between the Hindu and Muslim cultures. Most of the temples were lined along the Ganges and the Khanqah (Sufi school of thought) were situated along the Yamuna river (also called Jamuna). Thus, it came to be known as the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb, with the word "tehzeeb" meaning culture. More than communal harmony, its most beautiful by-product was "Hindustani" which later gave us the Hindi and Urdu languages.}}</ref><ref name="JainCardona2007">{{cite book |last1=Jain |first1=Danesh |last2=Cardona |first2=George |title=The Indo-Aryan Languages |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-79711-9 |language=en |quote=The primary sources of non-IA loans into MSH are Arabic, Persian, Portuguese, Turkic and English. Conversational registers of Hindi/Urdu (not to mentioned formal registers of Urdu) employ large numbers of Persian and Arabic loanwords, although in Sanskritised registers many of these words are replaced by ''tatsama'' forms from Sanskrit. The Persian and Arabic lexical elements in Hindi result from the effects of centuries of Islamic administrative rule over much of north India in the centuries before the establishment of British rule in India. Although it is conventional to differentiate among Persian and Arabic loan elements into Hindi/Urdu, in practice it is often difficult to separate these strands from one another. The Arabic (and also Turkic) lexemes borrowed into Hindi frequently were mediated through Persian, as a result of which a thorough intertwining of Persian and Arabic elements took place, as manifest by such phenomena as hybrid compounds and compound words. Moreover, although the dominant trajectory of lexical borrowing was from Arabic into Persian, and thence into Hindi/Urdu, examples can be found of words that in origin are actually Persian loanwords into both Arabic and Hindi/Urdu.}}</ref>

In cities such as Delhi, the ancient language Old Hindi began to acquire many [[Persian language|Persian]] loanwords and continued to be called "Hindi" and later, also "Hindustani".<ref name="Kesavan1997">{{cite book |last1=Kesavan |first1=B. S. |title=History Of Printing And Publishing in India |date=1997 |publisher=National Book Trust, India |isbn=978-81-237-2120-0 |page=31 |language=en |quote=It might be useful to recall here that Old Hindi or Hindavi, which was a naturally Persian- mixed language in the largest measure, has played this role before, as we have seen, for five or six centuries.}}</ref><ref name="Bhat2017">{{cite book |last1=Bhat |first1=M. Ashraf |title=The Changing Language Roles and Linguistic Identities of the Kashmiri Speech Community |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-4438-6260-8 |language=en|page=72|quote=Although it has borrowed a large number of lexical items from Persian and some from Turkish, it is a derivative of ''Hindvi'' (also called 'early Urdu'), the parent of both modern Hindi and Urdu. It originated as a new, common language of Delhi, which has been called ''Hindavi'' or ''Dahlavi'' by Amir Khusrau. After the advent of the Mughals on the stage of Indian history, the ''Hindavi'' language enjoyed greater space and acceptance. Persian words and phrases came into vogue. The ''Hindavi'' of that period was known as ''Rekhta'', or Hindustani, and only later as Urdu. Perfect amity and tolerance between Hindus and Muslims tended to foster ''Rekhta'' or Urdu, which represented the principle of unity in diversity, thus marking a feature of Indian life at its best. The ordinary spoken version ('bazaar Urdu') was almost identical to the popularly spoken version of Hindi. Most prominent scholars in India hold the view that Urdu is neither a Muslim nor a Hindu language; it is an outcome of a multicultural and multi-religious encounter.}}</ref><ref name="Strnad2013">{{cite book |last1=Strnad |first1=Jaroslav |title=Morphology and Syntax of Old Hindī: Edition and Analysis of One Hundred Kabīr vānī Poems from Rājasthān |date=2013 |publisher=[[Brill Academic Publishers]] |isbn=978-90-04-25489-3 |language=en |quote=Quite different group of nouns occurring with the ending ''-a'' in the dir. plural consists of words of Arabic or Persian origin borrowed by the Old Hindi with their Persian plural endings.}}</ref><ref name="From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History2">{{Cite book|url=http://www.tariqrahman.net/content/hindiurdu1.pdf|title=From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History|last=Rahman|first=Tariq|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2001|isbn=978-0-19-906313-0|pages=1–22|author-link=Tariq Rahman|access-date=7 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141010094507/http://www.tariqrahman.net/content/hindiurdu1.pdf|archive-date=10 October 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Taj2" /> An early literary tradition of Hindavi was founded by [[Amir Khusrau]] in the late 13th century,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Amir-Khosrow|title=Amīr Khosrow – Indian poet|newspaper=Encyclopædia Britannica }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=iUk5k5AN54sC&pg=PA10|title= Advanced Study in the History of Medieval India|author= Jaswant Lal Mehta|volume= 1|page= 10|publisher= Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd|year= 1980|isbn= 9788120706170}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nZslAQAAIAAJ&q=father+of+Urdu+literature+amir+khusrow|title=Hazart Nizam-Ud-Din Auliya and Hazrat Khwaja Muinuddin Chisti|last1=Bakshi|first1=Shiri Ram|last2=Mittra|first2=Sangh|date=2002|publisher=Criterion|isbn=9788179380222|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Urdu language|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Urdu-language|website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|date=19 June 2023 }}</ref> who has been called "the father of Urdu literature".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bhattacharya |first=Vivek Ranjan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKnXAAAAMAAJ&q=father+of+Urdu+literature+amir+khusrow |title=Famous Indian sages: their immortal messages |publisher=Sagar Publications |year=1982 |language=en}}</ref> After the conquest of the [[Deccan]], and a subsequent immigration of noble Muslim families into the south, a form of the language flourished in [[medieval India]] as a vehicle of poetry, (especially under the [[Bahmanids]]),<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=8pMXAwAAQBAJ&dq=tughlaq+urdu+immigration+daulatabad&pg=PA258 |title= Culture and Circulation: Literature in Motion in Early Modern India |date= 2014 |publisher= Brill|isbn= 9789004264489 }}</ref> and is known as [[Dakhini]], which contains loanwords from [[Telugu language|Telugu]] and [[Marathi language|Marathi]].<ref name="Khan2001">{{cite book |last1=Khan |first1=Abdul Rashid |title=The All India Muslim Educational Conference: Its Contribution to the Cultural Development of Indian Muslims, 1886–1947 |date=2001 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-579375-8 |page=152 |language=en |quote=After the conquest of the Deccan, Urdu received the liberal patronage of the courts of Golconda and Bijapur. Consequently, Urdu borrowed words from the local language of Telugu and Marathi as well as from Sanskrit.}}</ref><ref name="Luniya1978">{{cite book |last1=Luniya |first1=Bhanwarlal Nathuram |title=Life and Culture in Medieval India |date=1978 |publisher=Kamal Prakashan |page=311 |language=en |quote=Under the liberal patronage of the courts of Golconda and Bijapur, Urdu borrowed words from the local languages like Telugu and Marathi as well as from Sanskrit, but its themes were moulded on Persian models.}}</ref><ref name="Kesavan1985">{{cite book |last1=Kesavan |first1=Bellary Shamanna |title=History of Printing and Publishing in India: Origins of printing and publishing in the Hindi heartland |date=1985 |publisher=National Book Trust |isbn=978-81-237-2120-0 |page=7 |language=en |quote=The Mohammedans of the Deccan thus called their Hindustani tongue Dakhani (Dakhini), Gujari or Bhaka (Bhakha) which was a symbol of their belonging to Muslim conquering and ruling group in the Deccan and South India where overwhelming number of Hindus spoke Marathi, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil.}}</ref>

From the 13th century until the end of the 18th century; the language now known as Urdu was called ''Hindi'',<ref name="From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History2" /> ''Hindavi'', ''Hindustani'',<ref name="Bhat2017" /> ''Dehlavi'',<ref name="From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History3">{{cite news|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1127464/|title=Literary Notes: Common misconceptions about Urdu|author=Rauf Parekh|date=25 August 2014|work=Dawn|location=Pakistan|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150125001926/http://www.dawn.com/news/1127464|archive-date=25 January 2015|access-date=29 March 2015|quote=Urdu did not get its present name till late 18th Century and before that had had a number of different names – including Hindi, Hindvi, Hindustani, Dehlvi, Lahori, Dakkani, and even Moors – though it was born much earlier.}}</ref> ''Dihlawi'',<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=f-xtAAAAMAAJ&q=abul+fazl+hind+sind |title= Sind Quarterly:Volume 26, Issues 1–2|date=1998 |author=Mazhar Yusuf |page=36 }}</ref> ''Lahori'',<ref name="From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History3"/> and ''Lashkari''.<ref>Malik, Muhammad Kamran, and Syed Mansoor Sarwar. "Named entity recognition system for postpositional languages: urdu as a case study." International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications 7.10 (2016): 141–147.</ref> The [[Delhi Sultanate]] established Persian as its official language in India, a policy continued by the [[Mughal Empire]], which extended over most of northern South Asia from the 16th to 18th centuries and cemented Persian influence on Hindustani.<ref>{{cite book|title=First Encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913–1936|publisher=[[Brill Academic Publishers]]|year=1993|isbn=9789004097964|page=1024|language=en|quote=Whilst the Muhammadan rulers of India spoke Persian, which enjoyed the prestige of being their court language, the common language of the country continued to be Hindi, derived through Prakrit from Sanskrit. On this dialect of the common people was grafted the Persian language, which brought a new language, Urdu, into existence. Sir George Grierson, in the Linguistic Survey of India, assigns no distinct place to Urdu, but treats it as an offshoot of Western Hindi.}}</ref><ref name="Strnad2013" /> Urdu was patronised by the [[Nawab of Awadh]] and in [[Lucknow]], the language was refined, being not only spoken in the court, but by the common people in the city—both Hindus and Muslims; the city of Lucknow gave birth to Urdu prose literature, with a notable novel being ''[[Umrao Jaan Ada]]''.<ref name="Jasanoff2007">{{cite book |last1=Jasanoff |first1=Maya |title=Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750–1850 |date=18 December 2007 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-42571-3 |language=en |quote=It was claimed that in Lucknow even everyday Urdu sppeech had been raised to its highest degree of perfection. "The masses and uneducated people" were said to "speak better Urdu than many poets...of other places," and outsiders were too intimidated to open their mouths. In the celebrated salons of Lucknow's noblewomen and courtesans, conversation flowed with such grace "it seemed as though 'flowers were dropping from their lips.'" Lucknow was buzzingly dynamic. In a self-conscious effort to echo the lost glory of Akbar's India, Asaf ud-Daula patronized writers, musicians, artists, craftsmen, and scholars on an imperial scale. Leading Urdu poets such as Mir Taqi Mir fled the crumbling Mughal capital and came to Lucknow instead, where they developed a distinctive style and school of poetry. Modern Urdu prose literature originated in Lucknow, and Persian, the language of status and learning, flourished. As a seat of Shiite scholarship, Lucknow rivaled the religious centers of Iran and eastern Iraq.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Not Just Urdu, But Lakhnawi Urdu |journal=Tornos |year=2014 |volume=8 |issue=6 |url=https://tornosindia.com/not-just-urdu-but-lakhnawi-urdu/ |quote=Urdu and that too Luckhnawi Urdu is a natural part of day to day conversation of the people of Lucknow, irrespective of their mother-tongue or their religion. A devout Hindu too in Lucknow would use this dialect without any in-habitations, while the grace and style of Urdu in Lucknow comes quite naturally to him as it would to a person of Muslim faith, all by virtue of being born and lived in Lucknow. Language of Lucknow was by all means superior to the languages of Delhi and Hyderabad that were other two seats of refinement, grace and style. Mirza Ghalib of Delhi could not resist the charm of Lucknow’s language and in spite of his refinements in language did accept being inferior to the refined dialect of Lucknow. After all what makes Lucknow’s language so very different? Difference between the Mughal culture and Awadhi culture lies in the fact that the royal dialect of the courts of Awadh came on the streets and in the lanes to evolve and flourish among the common subjects in Lucknow, while Mughal courts were like all other royal courts that had a difference in the culture and language of the courts and the common subjects.}}</ref>

[[File:Nuskaha-e-Hamidiyya.jpg|thumb|Opening pages of the Urdu divan of [[Ghalib]], 1821]]
According to the Navadirul Alfaz by Khan-i Arzu, the "Zaban-e Urdu-e Shahi" [language of the Imperial Camp] had attained special importance in the time of [[Alamgir II|Alamgir]]".<ref>{{cite book|title= A House Divided: The Origin and Development of Hindi/Hindavi |author1= Am.rta Rāya |author2=Amrit Rai |author3=Amr̥tarāya |date= 1984 |publisher= Oxford University Press |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BJGBAAAAIAAJ&q=From+all+available+evidence+,+imperial+Urdu+seems+to+have+started+being+given+a+shape+in+the+time+of+Shahjahan+and+to+have+acquired+it+substantially+by+the+end+of+Aurangzeb%27s+reign+.+This |page= 240 |isbn= 978-0-19-561643-9 }}</ref> By the end of the reign of [[Aurangzeb]] in the early 1700s, the common language around Delhi began to be referred to as ''Zaban-e-Urdu'',<ref name="Walter de Gruyter">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wawGFWNuHiwC&pg=PA383|title=Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations|last=Clyne|first=Michael G.|date=1992|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=9783110128550|pages=383|language=en}}</ref> a name derived from the [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] word ''ordu'' (army) or ''orda'' and is said to have arisen as the "language of the camp", or "''Zaban-i-Ordu''" means "''Language of High camps''"<ref name="Meaning of Urdu">{{Cite web |last=Dictionary |first=Rekhta |date=5 April 2022 |title=Meaning of Urdu |url=https://www.rekhtadictionary.com/meaning-of-urdu |access-date=5 April 2022 |website=Rekhta dictionary}}</ref> or natively "''Lashkari Zaban''" means "''Language'' ''of'' ''Army''"<ref>{{cite book|title=Speaking Like a State: Language and Nationalism in Pakistan|url=https://archive.org/details/speakinglikestat00ayre|url-access=limited|author=Alyssa Ayres|page=[https://archive.org/details/speakinglikestat00ayre/page/n32 19]|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=9780521519311|date=23 July 2009}}</ref> even though term '''Urdu''' held different meanings at that time.<ref>{{cite web
 | title       = Urdu's origin: it's not a 'camp language' - Newspaper - DAWN.COM
 | url         = https://www.dawn.com/news/681263/urdusorigin-its-not-a-camp-language
 | date        = 17 May 2023
| archive-url  = https://archive.today/20230517141136/https://www.dawn.com/news/681263/urdusorigin-its-not-a-camp-language
 | archive-date = 17 May 2023 }}</ref> It is recorded that Aurangzeb spoke in Hindvi, which was most likely Persianised, as there are substantial evidence that Hindvi was written in the Persian script in this period.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=xOGJAAAAMAAJ&q=aurangzeb+hindi+language |title= Language Problem in India |page= 138 |publisher= Institute of Objective Studies |date= 1997 |isbn= 9788185220413 }}</ref>

During this time period, Urdu was referred to as "Moors", which simply meant Muslim,<ref>{{cite book |quote= The "Moor" of Camoens, meaning simply "Moslem", was used by a past generation of Anglo-Indians, who called the Urdu or Hindustani dialect "the Moors"|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=zGYCAAAAQAAJ&dq=moors+dialect+urdu&pg=PA573 |title= Camoens: his life and his Lusiads, a commentary: Volume 2|date= 1881 |author= sir Richard Francis Burton, Luis Vaz de Camoens |page= 573 |publisher= Oxford University }}</ref> by European writers.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_kWROaer5UsC&dq=british+moors+urdu&pg=PA1118 |title= Allied Chambers transliterated Hindi-Hindi-English dictionary |author1= Henk W. Wagenaar |author2=S. S. Parikh |author3=D. F. Plukker |author4=R. Veldhuijzen van Zanten |date= 1993 |publisher= Allied Publishers |isbn= 9788186062104 }}</ref> John Ovington wrote in 1689:<ref>{{cite book |title= A Voyage to Surat in the Year 1689 |page= 147 |date= 1994 |publisher= Asian Educational Services |author= John Ovington }}</ref>

<blockquote>The language of the Moors is different from that of the ancient original inhabitants of India but is obliged to these Gentiles for its characters. For though the ''Moors dialect'' is peculiar to themselves, yet it is destitute of Letters to express it; and therefore, in all their Writings in their Mother Tongue, they borrow their letters from the Heathens, or from the Persians, or other Nations.</blockquote>

In 1715, a complete literary Diwan in Rekhta was written by [[Faaiz Dehlvi|Nawab Sadruddin Khan]].<ref>{{cite book |title= The Reign Of Muhammad Shah 1919-1748 |author= Zahiruddin Malik |date= 1977 |url= https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.131341/page/n397/mode/2up }}</ref> An Urdu-Persian dictionary was written by Khan-i Arzu in 1751 in the reign of [[Ahmad Shah Bahadur]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1eANAAAAYAAJ&q=Navadirul+Alfaz |title= Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft:Volume 119 |date=1969|author= Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft  |page=267 |publisher= Kommissionsverlag F. Steiner }}</ref> The name ''Urdu'' was first introduced by the poet [[Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi]] around 1780.<ref name="A Long History of Urdu Literary Culture Part 1">{{Citation|last=Faruqi|first=Shamsur Rahman|title=A Long History of Urdu Literary Culture Part 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ak9csfpY2WoC|page=806|year=2003|editor=Sheldon Pollock|series=Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions From South Asia|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-22821-4|author-link=Shamsur Rahman Faruqi}}</ref><ref name="From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History2" /> As a literary language, Urdu took shape in courtly, elite settings.<ref name="Coatsworth20152">{{Cite book|url=http://www.overstock.com/Books-Movies-Music-Games/Global-Connections-Politics-Exchange-and-Social-Life-in-World-History-Hardcover/9911619/product.html#more|title=Global Connections: Politics, Exchange, and Social Life in World History|last=Coatsworth|first=John|publisher=Cambridge Univ Pr|year=2015|isbn=9780521761062|location=United States|pages=159}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|author=Tariq Rahman|author-link=Tariq Rahman|year=2011|title=Urdu as the Language of Education in British India|url=http://www.nihcr.edu.pk/Latest_English_Journal/1.%20URDU%20AS%20THE%20LANGUAGE,%20Tariq%20Rahman%20FINAL.pdf|journal=Pakistan Journal of History and Culture|publisher=NIHCR|volume=32|issue=2|pages=1–42}}</ref> While Urdu retained the grammar and core Indo-Aryan vocabulary of the local Indian dialect Khariboli, it adopted the Perso-Arab writing system, written in the [[Nastaliq|Nastaleeq]] style.<ref name="Taj2" /><ref name="DelacyAhmed2005">{{cite book |last1=Delacy |first1=Richard |last2=Ahmed |first2=Shahara |title=Hindi, Urdu & Bengali |date=2005 |publisher=Lonely Planet |pages=11–12 |quote=Hindi and Urdu are generally considered to be one spoken language with two different literary traditions. That means that Hindi and Urdu speakers who shop in the same markets (and watch the same Bollywood films) have no problems understanding each other – they'd both say yeh ''kitne'' kaa hay for 'How much is it?' – but the written form for Hindi will be यह कितने का है? and the Urdu one will be یہ کتنے کا ہے؟ Hindi is written from left to right in the Devanagari script, and is the official language of India, along with English. Urdu, on the other hand, is written from right to left in the Nastaliq script (a modified form of the Arabic script) and is the national language of Pakistan. It's also one of the official languages of the Indian states of Bihar and Jammu & Kashmir. Considered as one, these tongues constitute the second most spoken language in the world, sometimes called Hindustani. In their daily lives, Hindi and Urdu speakers communicate in their 'different' languages without major problems. ... Both Hindi and Urdu developed from Classical Sanskrit, which appeared in the Indus Valley (modern Pakistan and northwest India) at about the start of the Common Era. The first old Hindi (or Apabhransha) poetry was written in the year 769 AD, and by the European Middle Ages it became known as 'Hindvi'. Muslim Turks invaded the Punjab in 1027 and took control of Delhi in 1193. They paved the way for the Islamic Mughal Empire, which ruled northern India from the 16th century until it was defeated by the British Raj in the mid-19th century. It was at this time that the language of this book began to take form, a mixture of Hindvi grammar with Arabic, Persian and Turkish vocabulary. The Muslim speakers of Hindvi began to write in the Arabic script, creating Urdu, while the Hindu population incorporated the new words but continued to write in Devanagari script.}}</ref> – which was developed as a style of Persian calligraphy.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge History of Islam|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1977|isbn=0-521-29138-0|editor-last=Holt|editor-first=P. M.|location=Cambridge|page=723|editor-last2=Lambton|editor-first2=Ann K. S.|editor-last3=Lewis|editor-first3=Bernard}}</ref>

=== Other historical names ===
{{anchor|Names of Urdu Language}}
Throughout the history of the language, Urdu has been referred to by several other names: Hindi, Hindavi, Rekhta, Urdu-e-Muallah, [[Dakhini]], Moors and [[Dehlavi dialect|Dehlavi]].

In 1773, the Swiss French soldier [[Antoine Polier]] notes that the English liked to use the name "Moors" for Urdu:<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=71h7DgAAQBAJ&dq=follow+theme+in+their+conversation,+even+though+i+have+a+deep+knowledge+%5Bje+possede+a+fond%5D+of+the+common+tongue+of+India,+called+Moors+by+the+English,+and+Ourdouzebain+by+the+natives+of+the+land.&pg=PA259 |title= Europe's India: Words, People, Empires, 1500–1800 |author= Sanjay Subrahmanyam |date= 2017|publisher= Harvard University Press |isbn= 9780674977556 }}</ref>

<blockquote>
I have a deep knowledge [''je possède à fond''] of the common tongue of India, called ''Moors'' by the English, and ''Ourdouzebain'' by the natives of the land.</blockquote>

Several works of Sufi writers like [[Ashraf Jahangir Semnani]] used similar names for the Urdu language. Shah [[Abdul Qadir Raipuri]] was the first person who translated The Quran into Urdu.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Christine Everaert |title=Tracing the Boundaries Between Hindi and Urdu |year=2010 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-9004177314 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LqZ-6QRKc7wC&q=hindi+was+used+for+urdu&pg=PA242}}</ref>

During Shahjahan's time, the Capital was relocated to Delhi and named [[Old Delhi|Shahjahanabad]] and the Bazar of the town was named Urdu e Muallah.<ref>{{cite book |title=G. A. Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GHBjAAAAMAAJ&q=the+Bazaar+of+the+town+was+named+as+Urdu+e+Mualla.|last1 = Varma| first1 = Siddheshwar|year = 1973}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jWpNBAAAQBAJ&q=the+Bazaar+of+the+town+was+named+as+Urdu+e+Mualla.&pg=PA179| title=Urdu/Hindi: An Artificial Divide: African Heritage, Mesopotamian Root  | last1 = Khan| first1 = Abdul Jamil| isbn = 9780875864372| year = 2006| publisher=Algora }}</ref>

In the [[Akbar]] era, the word Rekhta was used to describe Urdu for the first time. It was originally a Persian word that meant "to create a mixture". [[Amir Khusrau]] was the first person to use the same word for Poetry.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Khan |first=Abdullah |date=4 June 2011 |title=The mystic poet |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/books/the-mystic-poet/article2076364.ece |access-date=22 July 2023 |issn=0971-751X}}</ref>

=== Colonial period ===
Before the standardisation of Urdu into colonial administration, British officers often referred to the language as "[[Muslims|Moors]]" or "Moorish jargon". [[John Gilchrist (linguist)|John Gilchrist]] was the first in British India to begin a systematic study on Urdu and began to use the term "Hindustani" what the majority of Europeans called "Moors", authoring the book ''The Strangers's East Indian Guide to the Hindoostanee or Grand Popular Language of India (improperly Called Moors)''.<ref>{{cite book |title= Genealogies of Orientalism: History, Theory, Politics |publisher= Nebraska Paperback |date= July 2008 |author= David Prochaska, Edmund Burke III }}</ref>

Urdu was promoted in colonial India by British policies to counter the previous emphasis on Persian, and the language also gained official status in colonial India because it was the language of the Muslim elite (such as [[Nawab]]s and [[Zamindar]]s).<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rahman|first=Tariq|author-link=Tariq Rahman|year=2000|title=The Teaching of Urdu in British India|url=http://www.urdustudies.com/pdf/15/06rahmant.pdf|url-status=live|journal=The Annual of Urdu Studies|volume=15|page=55|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021011359/http://www.urdustudies.com/pdf/15/06rahmant.pdf|archive-date=21 October 2014}}</ref> In colonial India, ordinary Muslims and Hindus alike spoke the same language in the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]] in the nineteenth century, namely Hindustani, whether called by that name or whether called Hindi, Urdu, or one of the regional dialects such as [[Braj Bhasha|Braj]] or [[Awadhi language|Awadhi]].<ref>{{cite book |last=T. Grahame |first=Bailey |title=History of Urdu Literature |publisher=|isbn=978-0195475180 |language=en}}</ref> Elites from Muslim communities, as well as a minority of Hindu elites, such as [[Munshi]]s of Hindu origin,<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0iY__P2Y5dQC&dq=hindu+munshis+urdu&pg=PA342 |title= The Hindustan Review: Volume 23 |date= 1911 |author= Sachchidananda Sinha |publisher=  University of Wisconsin- Madison |page= 243}}</ref> wrote the language in the Perso-Arabic script in courts and government offices, though Hindus continued to employ the Devanagari script in certain literary and religious contexts.<ref name="DelacyAhmed2005"/><ref name="mcgregor_9122">{{citation|last=McGregor|first=Stuart|title=Literary cultures in history: reconstructions from South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xowUxYhv0QgC&q=0520228219&pg=RA1-PA912|page=912|year=2003|publisher=University of California Press |contribution=The Progress of Hindi, Part 1|isbn=978-0-520-22821-4}} in Pollock (2003)</ref> Through the late 19th century, people did not view Urdu and Hindi as being two distinct languages, though in urban areas, the standardised Hindustani language was increasingly being referred to as Urdu and written in the Perso-Arabic script.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bilal |first=Maaz Bin |date=5 November 2021 |title=Till the late 19th century, people were hardly aware of Urdu and Hindi as being two distinct languages |language=en |work=[[The Hindu]] |url=https://www.thehindu.com/society/hindustani-we-spoke-how-urdu-and-hindi-evolved-from-a-common-language/article37337191.ece |access-date=19 December 2022 |issn=0971-751X}}</ref> Urdu and English replaced [[Persian language in South Asia|Persian]] as the official languages in northern parts of India in 1837.<ref name="Ali-1989">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wvUUjCRAUT0C&pg=PA33|title=The Right Hon'ble Syed Ameer Ali: Political Writings|last=Ali|first=Syed Ameer|date=1989|publisher=APH Publishing|isbn=978-81-7024-247-5|pages=33|language=en}}</ref> Hindus in northwestern India, under the [[Arya Samaj]] agitated against the sole use of the Perso-Arabic script and argued that the language should be written in the native [[Devanagari]] script,<ref name="Clyne-2012">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ieMgAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA385|title=Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations|last=Clyne|first=Michael|date=24 May 2012|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-088814-0|language=en}}</ref> which triggered a backlash against the use of Hindi written in Devanagari by the Anjuman-e-Islamia of Lahore.<ref name="Clyne-2012" />

Advocacy for a standardised Hindi, based on Khari Boli, which would have equal official recognition did not begin until the 1860s,<ref name=mody-modern-hindi->{{cite book|last = Mody|first = Sujata S. |title=The Making of Modern Hindi: Literary Authority in Colonial North India|location=New Delhi|publisher=Oxford University Press| year = 2018| isbn=978-0-19-948909-1|pages=2&ndash;3|quote=From the mid-1860s onwards, advocates for Khari Boli Hindi, current in and around Delhi and written in the Devanagari script, had vied for equal recognition with the officially recognized Urdu.}}</ref> Proponents of Hindi over Urdu as an authorised language also had to take into account the existence of numerous provincial languages such as Awadhi, Braj Bhasha, Bhojpuri, Bundeli, and Maithili, which were considered a part of older Hindi, but which would problematise dialogues for an official, modern standard Hindi.<ref name=mody-modern-hindi-2>{{cite book|last = Mody|first = Sujata S. |title=The Making of Modern Hindi: Literary Authority in Colonian North India|location=New Delhi|publisher=Oxford University Press| year = 2018| isbn=978-0-19-948909-1|pages=2&ndash;3|quote= Advocates of Hindi over Urdu as official language had also to contend internally with multiple regional languages such as Awadhi, Braj Bhasha, Bhojpuri, Bundeli, and Maithili, among others, all included within the rubric of a premodern Hindi, but which would complicate discussions of an official, modern standard Hindi.}}</ref> [[Modern Standard Hindi]] did not emerge before the 20th century.<ref name=cort-urdu-msh1>{{cite book|last=Cort|first=John E.|author-link=John E. Cort|chapter = When Is the 'Early Modern'?: North Indian Digambar Jain Literary Culture|pages=15&ndash;62; 24, 28|title=Literary Cultures in Early Modern North India: Current Research|editor1-last=Bangha|editor1-first=Imre|editor2-last=Stasik|editor2-first=Danuta|location=Oxford and New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2024|isbn=978-0-19-288934-8|quote=(page 24) I start by contrasting two Digambar Jain authors at the early-modern/modern transition: Parasdas Nigotya (fl. 1838&ndash;74, d. 1879) of Jaipur and Nathuram Premi (1881&ndash;1960) of Bombay ... (page=28) Premi started out writing in Brajbhasa; but that he also wrote verse in Urdu indicates that he located himself in a linguistically wider and more cosmopolitan literary milieu.  Premi soon abandoned the older languages and committed himself to writing and propagating Khari Boli Hindi, which in his lifetime became Modern Standard Hindi.}}</ref><ref name=cort-urdu-msh2>{{cite book|last=Cort|first=John E.|author-link=John E. Cort|chapter = When Is the 'Early Modern'?: North Indian Digambar Jain Literary Culture|pages=15&ndash;62; 24, 50|title=Literary Cultures in Early Modern North India: Current Research|editor1-last=Bangha|editor1-first=Imre|editor2-last=Stasik|editor2-first=Danuta|location=Oxford and New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2024|isbn=978-0-19-288934-8|quote=(page 24) I start by contrasting two Digambar Jain authors at the early-modern/modern transition: Parasdas Nigotya (fl. 1838&ndash;74, d. 1879) of Jaipur and Nathuram Premi (1881&ndash;1960) of Bombay ... (page 50) Parasdas reminds us that language use in early modern north India involved complex interactions between more localized written, spoken, and sung language usage and transregional usage of languages such as Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhramsha, Maru-Gurjar, Brajbhasa, and Urdu.  Premi's pronounced break with both Brajbhasa and Urdu in favour of the newly developing trensgressional prestige language of Modern Standard Hindi involved a conscious choice of language}}</ref> The recognition of the Hindi script as an official script of courts in North India in 1900 was a key juncture in the evolution of Hindi-based language nationalism.<ref name=mani-hindi-dwivedi-standardization-1>{{cite book|last=Mani|first=Preetha|title=The Idea of Indian Literature: Gender, Genre, and Comparative Method|location=Evanston|publisher=Northwestern University Press|year=2022|isbn=9780810145016|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l-FuEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT25|quote=In the North, the recognition in 1900 of Devanagari alongside Nastaliq as an official script of the court constituted a pivotal moment in the development of Hindi nationalism.}}</ref> Hindi, which was still not altogether standardised by the 1910s,<ref name=mani-hindi-dwivedi-standardization-2>{{cite book|last=Mani|first=Preetha|title=The Idea of Indian Literature: Gender, Genre, and Comparative Method|location=Evanston|publisher=Northwestern University Press|year=2022|isbn=9780810145016|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l-FuEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT25|quote= Yet, no sense of Hindi as a standardized language distinct from Urdu existed even in the 1910s.}}</ref> and which had hitherto been considered an unrefined language was strictly patrolled to deliver a Sanskritic lexicon that did not permit influence of Urdu to be evident,<ref name=goulding-msh-policing-1910s>{{cite book|last=Goulding|first=Gregory|editor1-last=Anjaria|editor1-first=Ulka|editor2-last=Nerlekar|editor2-first=Anjali|title=The Oxford Handbook of Modern Indian Literatures|year = 2024|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780197647912|chapter=Urban Space Across Genre: The Cities of Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh|pages=531&ndash;545; 533|quote=Before and after independence, many of the most important ideas of urban culture in northern India, such as the literary traditions of Lucknow and Delhi, were strongly associated with Urdu; Hindi, by contrast, was at times portrayed as an uncouth, undeveloped language.  In response to this, from the 1910s onward, Hindi was rigorously policed to produce a standard, Sanskritic language that did not allow for the influence of Urdu or of the many languages, now considered dialects, that were spoken in the regions of northern India.}}</ref> [[Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi]] notably preparing the spelling, punctuation, and vocabulary of Modern Standard Hindi.<ref name=mani-hindi-dwivedi-standardization-3>{{cite book|last=Mani|first=Preetha|title=The Idea of Indian Literature: Gender, Genre, and Comparative Method|location=Evanston|publisher=Northwestern University Press|year=2022|isbn=9780810145016|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l-FuEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT25|quote=Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi's editorship of the Hindi journal ''Saraswati'' from 1903 to 1920&mdash;through which Dwivedi carefully crafted the spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, and genres now asociated with ''Khari Boli'' (equated today with modern standard Hindi)&mdash;provided an avenue for expressions of Hindi language to emerge.}}</ref>

The [[Hindi-Urdu controversy]] in 1867, highlighted the linguistic and cultural divide between Hindus and Muslims in British India, with Urdu emerging as a symbol of the linguistic pride of Indian Muslims. This division played an important role in the political movement of Muslims, eventually leading to the formation of the [[All-India Muslim League]] in 1906, whose formation eventually resulted in the creation of Pakistan, as a separate Muslim state in the Indian subcontinent.<ref>{{cite web|title=Role of Urdu Language in Pakistan Movement: A Historical Review|url=https://www.muslim-perspectives.com/Publication-Detail?publication=85/Role-of-Urdu-Language-in-Pakistan-Movement:-A-Historical-Review|website=MUSLIM PERSPECTIVES}}</ref> The controversy began to emerge when certain Hindu leaders and organisations, including the Banaras Institute and the Allahabad Institute, advocated for replacing Urdu with Hindi as the official language. This firm stance contributed to prompting [[Syed Ahmad Khan|Sir Syed Ahmed Khan]]—who was an advocate of the Hindu-Muslim unity, but later known as the 'Father of [[Two-nation theory]]'—to advocate for the use of Urdu.<ref name="Urdu, Hindi, and Hindustani">{{cite web|title=Literary Notes: Hindi, Urdu, Hindustani and Moulvi Abdul Haq|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1640826|date=16 August 2021|author=[[Rauf Parekh]]|website=DAWN}}</ref> He regarded Urdu as a symbol of Muslim heritage in the Indian subcontinent. Sir Syed also considered Urdu "a common legacy of Hindus and Muslims",<ref>Muslim Politics and Leadership in the South Asian Sub-continent, Yusuf Abbasi, 1981, page 65-66</ref> and supported the use of Urdu through his writings. Under Sir Syed, the [[Scientific Society of Aligarh]] translated Western works only into Urdu. The [[Urdu movement]], which was a sociopolitical movement aimed at making Urdu as the universal lingua-franca of the Muslims of the subcontinent was fuelled by [[Aligarh movement]] of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. This movement strongly influenced the Muslim League and the [[Pakistan Movement]].

During the 1937 Lucknow session of the All-India Muslim League, the Raja of Mahmudabad, [[Mohammad Amir Ahmed Khan]] encouraged Urdu-speaking communities in British India to actively support and safeguard the Urdu language using all possible means.<ref name="Trek to Pakistan">{{cite book|title=Trek to Pakistan|isbn=9789699988998|author=Ahmad Saeed, Kh. Mansur Sarwar}}</ref>

[[Liaquat Ali Khan]], who was later the first prime minister of Pakistan, stated in 1939: 'We left Arabic language for this India and for the Hindus, we left [[Turkish language]] and adopted a language which came into existence and made progress in this country – a language which is not spoken anywhere else. Now, it is demanded of us that we should speak the language of Balmeek. We have taken many steps forward for the sake of Hindu-Muslim unity. We shall not now take another step forward. We are standing at the edge of our limit. Anyone who wishes to meet us should come here'.<ref name="Trek to Pakistan" /><ref>Farman Fatehpuri, Hindi-Urdu Tanaza, Islamabad, 1976, p.441</ref> On 31 December 1939, [[Sulaiman Nadvi|Sayyid Sulaiman Nadvi]], while delivering his presidential address at the Urdu Muslim Conference in [[Calcutta]], said, "In the brightness of the modern-daylight, something darkly unfair is being done and which is that every government official from top to bottom is engaged in doing his utmost in promoting the cause of Hindi. In my opinion, it is a disfavour to the [[Indian National Congress|Congress]] rather than a favour; it is reinforcing the misconception in the minds of the Muslims that it is what we can do with half the powers, what else we will do with full powers; as a result of which the country will be divided into two parts."<ref>Sayyid Suleman Nadvi, Nuqoosh-e-Sulaimani, Karachi, 1967, pp.163–165</ref><ref name="Trek to Pakistan" /> A renowned Congressite, [[Tufail Ahmad Manglori]], once acknowledged that the passage of a resolution against Urdu in the [[United Provinces (1937–1950)|United Provinces]] caused deep distress among Muslims. He noted that the Hindi-Urdu controversy contributed to increasing divisions between the two communities, which continued to widen over time.<ref name="Trek to Pakistan" /><ref>Musalmanon Ka Roshan Mustaqbil, p. 333.</ref> Before the establishment of Pakistan, many Muslims of colonial India actively supported Urdu as their national language, and the language emerged as a symbol of unity during the Pakistan Movement by demonstrating that it possessed all the essential traits to affirm the need for a separate state for the Muslims of colonial India.<ref>{{cite web|title=Experts discuss role of Urdu language in Pakistan Movement|url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/2460198/experts-discuss-role-of-urdu-language-in-pakistan-movement|website=THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE|date=22 March 2024}}</ref>

British language policy played a role in shaping political developments that eventually led to the partition of colonial India into India and Pakistan. This outcome was paralleled by the linguistic divide of the Hindi-Urdu continuum, with the emergence of Sanskritised Hindi and Urdu adopting more Persian influences.<ref>{{cite book |last1=King |first1=Christopher Rolland |title=One Language, Two Scripts: The Hindi Movement in Nineteenth Century North India |date=1999 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-565112-6 |page=78|language=en|quote=British language policy both resulted from and contributed to the larger political processes which eventually led to the partition of British India into India and Pakistan, an outcome almost exactly paralleled by the linguistic partition of the Hindi-Urdu continuum into highly Sanskritized Hindi and highly Persianized Urdu.}}</ref>

Urdu had been used as a literary medium for British colonial Indian writers from the [[Bombay Presidency|Bombay]], [[British Bengal|Bengal]], [[Orissa Province|Orissa]],<ref name="Ahmad-2009">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I2QmPHeIowoC&pg=PA119|title=Geography of the South Asian Subcontinent: A Critical Approach|last=Ahmad|first=Aijazuddin|date=2009|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|isbn=978-81-8069-568-1|pages=119|language=en}}</ref> and [[Hyderabad State]] as well.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tariq |first=Rahman |url=https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/30566/06-Rahman.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |title=Urdu in Hyderabad State |publisher=The Annual of Urdu Studies}}</ref>

=== Post-Partition ===
Before independence, Muslim League leader [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]] advocated the use of Urdu, which he used as a symbol of national cohesion in Pakistan.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rahman |first=Tariq |year=1997 |title=The Urdu-English Controversy in Pakistan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/312861 |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=177–207 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X00016978 |jstor=312861 |s2cid=144261554 |issn=0026-749X}}</ref> Like other Muslim religious and political leaders, The scholar and linguist [[Abdul Haq (Urdu scholar)|Maulvi Abdul Haq]], who has been called ''Baba-e-Urdu'' (''Father of Urdu''), also reinforced support for Urdu as the national language of Pakistan, calling it the lingua franca and a unifying force of the country.<ref name=Dawn>{{cite news|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1278009 |title=Homage paid to Baba-e-Urdu on his 55th death anniversary|newspaper= Dawn|location=Pakistan|date= 17 August 2016|access-date=25 December 2023}}</ref> Abdul Haq also stated: "Urdu Language placed the first brick in the foundation of Pakistan."<ref>{{cite web|title=Lecture-5 Factors Leading to Muslim S eparatism|url=https://www.studocu.com/row/document/university-of-engineering-and-technology-taxila/pakistan-studies/lecture-5-factors-leading-to-muslim-s-eparatism/9491351|website=StuDocu}}</ref>

In the early years of Pakistan, the finance departments, bureaucracy, and other major institutions of the country were mostly managed by Urdu-speaking population of the country.<ref>{{cite web|title=How Urdu-Speaking Muhajir Domination Shaped Pakistan|url=https://mypluralist.com/2022/12/18/urdu-speaking-muhajir-domination-pakistan/|website=MyPluralist|date=18 December 2022 |quote=Urdu-speaking Muhajirs accounted for 3.5% of united Pakistan’s population in the 1960s but they occupied 21% of the positions in the civil services that helped them shape the country in its infancy including through the adoption of their mother tongue as the national language}}</ref>{{Sfn|Lieven|2011|p=311}} After the [[Bengali language movement]] and the separation of former [[East Pakistan]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oldenburg |first=Philip |year=1985 |title="A Place Insufficiently Imagined": Language, Belief, and the Pakistan Crisis of 1971 |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=711–733 |doi=10.2307/2056443 |jstor=2056443 |s2cid=145152852 |issn=0021-9118|doi-access=free }}</ref> Urdu was recognised as the sole national language of Pakistan in 1973, although English and regional languages were also granted official recognition.<ref name="Raj-2017">{{Cite web|url=http://herald.dawn.com/news/1153737|title=The case for Urdu as Pakistan's official language|last=Raj|first=Ali|date=30 April 2017|website=Herald Magazine|language=en|access-date=3 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191028222041/https://herald.dawn.com/news/1153737|archive-date=28 October 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> When the [[1972 Language violence in Sindh|1972 language violence]] in [[Sindh]] occurred, the poet [[Rais Amrohvi]], who played a significant role in promoting Urdu and supporting the Urdu-speaking population of Pakistan,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.brecorder.com/news/4022427|title=Rais Amrohvi's 24th death anniversary observed|newspaper=BUSINESS RECORDER|date=23 September 2012}}</ref> wrote his famous poem ''Urdu ka janaza hai zara dhoom say niklay'' (It's Urdu's funeral, make it befitting!) as a tribute to the language.<ref name="google">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FddJQi1dQ30C&pg=PA53 |title=Speakin Like a State-page.53|via= Google Books|date=23 July 2009|isbn=9780521519311|accessdate=10 September 2014|last1=Ayres |first1=Alyssa |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> Following the 1979 [[Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan]] and subsequent arrival of millions of [[Afghan refugees]] who have lived in Pakistan for many decades, many Afghans, including those who moved back to Afghanistan,<ref name="Hakala-2012">{{Cite web|url=http://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/asia_8.pdf|title=Languages as a Key to Understanding Afghanistan's Cultures|last=Hakala|first=Walter|year=2012|website=Afghanistan: Multidisciplinary Perspectives|access-date=4 December 2019|archive-date=14 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314042412/http://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/asia_8.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> have also become fluent in Hindi-Urdu, an occurrence aided by exposure to the Indian media, chiefly Hindi-Urdu [[Bollywood]] films and songs.<ref name="Hakala2012">{{cite magazine|url=http://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/asia_8.pdf|title=Languages as a Key to Understanding Afghanistan's Cultures|last=Hakala|first=Walter N.|year=2012|magazine=[[National Geographic]]|language=en|access-date=13 March 2018|quote=In the 1980s and '90s, at least three million Afghans—mostly Pashtun—fled to Pakistan, where a substantial number spent several years being exposed to Hindi language media, especially Bollywood films and songs, and being educated in Urdu-language schools, both of which contributed to the decline of Dari, even among urban Pashtuns.|archive-date=14 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314042412/http://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/asia_8.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Krishnamurthy2013">{{cite web|url=http://www.gatewayhouse.in/kabul-diary-discovering-the-indian-connection/|title=Kabul Diary: Discovering the Indian connection|last=Krishnamurthy|first=Rajeshwari|date=28 June 2013|publisher=Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations|language=en|access-date=13 March 2018|quote=Most Afghans in Kabul understand and/or speak Hindi, thanks to the popularity of Indian cinema in the country.}}</ref><ref name="Achakzai-2019">{{Cite magazine |last1=Achakzai |first1=Malik |date=11 October 2018 |url=https://thediplomat.com/2018/10/who-can-be-pakistani/ |title=Who Can Be Pakistani? |magazine=[[The Diplomat (magazine)|The Diplomat]] |access-date=1 February 2024}}</ref>

There have been attempts to purge Urdu of native [[Prakrit]] and [[Sanskrit]] words, and Hindi of Persian loanwords – new vocabulary draws primarily from Persian and Arabic for Urdu and from Sanskrit for Hindi.<ref name="Vanita2012">{{cite book |last1=Vanita |first1=R. |title=Gender, Sex, and the City: Urdu Rekhti Poetry in India, 1780–1870 |date=2012 |publisher=[[Springer Publishing|Springer]]|isbn=978-1-137-01656-0 |language=en |quote=Desexualizing campaigns dovetailed with the attempt to purge Urdu of Sanskrit and Prakrit words at the same time as Hindi literateurs tried to purge Hindi of Persian and Arabic words. The late-nineteenth century politics of Urdu and Hindi, later exacerbated by those of India and Pakistan, had the unfortunate result of certain poets being excised from the canon.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gSGiAwAAQBAJ&q=urdu+increasing+persianized&pg=PA71|title=Arun Kolatkar and Literary Modernism in India: Moving Lines|last=Zecchini|first=Laetitia|date=31 July 2014|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9781623565589|language=en}}</ref> English has exerted a heavy influence on both as a co-official language.<ref>{{citation|last=Rahman|first=Tariq|title=Pakistani English|url=http://www.tariqrahman.net/content/scholorly_articles/pak_english.pdf|page=9|year=2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141022010344/http://www.tariqrahman.net/content/scholorly_articles/pak_english.pdf|publisher=Quaid-i-Azam University=Islamabad|access-date=18 October 2014|archive-date=22 October 2014|author-link=Tariq Rahman|url-status=dead}}</ref> According to Bruce (2021), Urdu has adapted English words since the eighteenth century.<ref>Bruce, Gregory Maxwell. "2 The Arabic Element". Urdu Vocabulary: A Workbook for Intermediate and Advanced Students, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022, pp. 55–156. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474467216-005</ref> A movement towards the hyper-Persianisation of an Urdu emerged in Pakistan since its independence in 1947 which is "as artificial as" the hyper-Sanskritised Hindi that has emerged in India;<ref name="Shackle-1990">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0X1jAAAAMAAJ&q=%E2%80%9CHyper-persianized%E2%80%9D|title=Hindi and Urdu Since 1800: A Common Reader|last=Shackle|first=C.|year=1990|publisher=Heritage Publishers|isbn=9788170261629|language=en}}</ref> hyper-Persianisation of Urdu was prompted in part by the increasing Sanskritisation of Hindi.<ref name="Sahitya Akademi-1991">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2v_2Ce_xf1IC&q=urdu+persianization|title=A History of Indian Literature: Struggle for freedom: triumph and tragedy, 1911–1956|date=1991|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|isbn=9788179017982|language=en}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2020}} However, the style of Urdu spoken on a day-to-day basis in Pakistan is akin to neutral Hindustani that serves as the ''lingua franca'' of the northern Indian subcontinent.<ref name="Kachru2015">{{cite book |last1=Kachru |first1=Braj |title=Collected Works of Braj B. Kachru: Volume 3 |date=2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4411-3713-5 |language=en |quote=The style of Urdu, even in Pakistan, is changing from "high" Urdu to colloquial Urdu (more like Hindustani, which would have pleased M.K. Gandhi).}}</ref><ref name="Ashmore1961">{{cite book |last1=Ashmore |first1=Harry S. |title=Encyclopaedia Britannica: a new survey of universal knowledge, Volume 11 |date=1961 |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |page=579 |language=en |quote=The everyday speech of well over 50,000,000 persons of all communities in the north of India and in West Pakistan is the expression of a common language, Hindustani.}}</ref>

In India, since at least 1977,<ref name="Oh Calcutta">{{Cite book |last= |first= |date=1977 |title=Oh Calcutta, Volume 6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lwpDAAAAYAAJ&q=urdu+%22dying+language%22 |location= |publisher= |page=15 |isbn= |access-date=1 August 2021 |quote=It is generally admitted that Urdu is a dying language. What is not generally admitted is that it is a dying National language. What used to be called Hindustani, the spoken language of the largest number of Indians, contains more elements of Urdu than Sanskrit academics tolerate, but it is still the language of the people.}}</ref> some commentators, such as journalist [[Khushwant Singh]], have characterised Urdu as a 'dying language.' However, others, such as Indian poet and writer [[Gulzar]]—who is popular in both countries and both language communities but writes only in Urdu (script) and has difficulties reading Devanagari, so he lets others transcribe his work—disagree with this assessment and state that Urdu 'is the most alive language and moving ahead with times' in India.<ref>{{cite web |title=Urdu Is Alive and Moving Ahead With Times: Gulzar |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/newswire/story/urdu-is-alive-and-moving-ahead-with-times-gulzar/930302 |work=[[Outlook (Indian magazine)|Outlook]] |access-date=20 September 2021 |language=English |date=13 February 2006}}</ref><ref name="Gulzar2006">{{cite web |author1=[[Gulzar]] |title=Urdu is not dying: Gulzar |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/urdu-is-not-dying-gulzar/story-aEHNoUFysqZaXmvTxDNMKP.html |work=[[Hindustan Times]] |language=English |date=11 June 2006}}</ref><ref name="Daniyal2016">{{cite web |last1=Daniyal |first1=Shoaib |title=The death of Urdu in India is greatly exaggerated – the language is actually thriving |url=https://scroll.in/article/809102/the-death-of-urdu-in-india-is-greatly-exaggerated-the-language-is-actually-thriving |publisher=[[Scroll.in]] |access-date=19 September 2021 |language=English |date=1 June 2016}}</ref><ref name="Oh Calcutta"/><ref name="Mir">{{Cite book |last1=Mir |first1=Ali Husain |last2=Mir |first2=Raza |date=2006 |title=Anthems of Resistance: A Celebration of Progressive Urdu Poetry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KYbGBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT118 |location=New Delhi |publisher=Roli Books Private Limited |page=118 |isbn=9789351940654 |access-date=1 August 2021 |quote=Phrases like 'dying language' are often used to describe the condition of Urdu in India and indicators like 'the number of Urdu-medium schools' present a litany of bad news with respect to the present conditions and future of the language.}}</ref><ref name="Aligarh">{{Cite book |last= |first= |date=1996 |title=Journal of the Faculty of Arts, Volume 2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sH5D1FkXMDIC&q=urdu+dying+language |location= |publisher=Aligarh Muslim University |page=42 |isbn= |access-date=1 August 2021 |quote=Arvind Kala is not much off the mark when he says 'Urdu is a dying language (in India), but it is Hindi movie dialogues which have heightened appreciation of Urdu in India. Thanks to Hindi films, knowledge of Urdu is seen as a sign of sophistication among the cognoscent of the North.'}}</ref><ref name="Best of Urdu Poetry">{{Cite book |last=Singh |first=Khushwant |date=2011 |title=Celebrating the Best of Urdu Poetry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4V5CDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT9 |location= |publisher=Penguin UK |pages=9–10 |isbn=9789386057334 |access-date=1 August 2021}}</ref> This phenomenon pertains to the decrease in relative and absolute numbers of native Urdu speakers as opposed to speakers of other languages;<ref name="Irfan">{{Cite web |url=https://livewire.thewire.in/politics/the-burden-of-urdu-must-be-shared/ |title=The Burden of Urdu Must Be Shared |author=Hanan Irfan |work=LiveWire |date=15 July 2021 |access-date=1 August 2021}}</ref><ref name="Daniyal">{{Cite web |url=https://scroll.in/article/884754/surging-hindi-shrinking-south-indian-languages-nine-charts-that-explain-the-2011-language-census |title=Surging Hindi, shrinking South Indian languages: Nine charts that explain the 2011 language census |author=Shoaib Daniyal |work=Scroll.in |date=4 July 2018 |access-date=1 August 2021}}</ref> declining (advanced) knowledge of Urdu's Perso-Arabic script, Urdu vocabulary and grammar;<ref name="Irfan"/><ref name="Willoughby & Aftab">{{Cite web |url=https://www.pide.org.pk/pdf/Working%20Paper/WorkingPaper-2020-29.pdf |title=The Fall of Urdu and the Triumph of English in Pakistan: A Political Economic Analysis |author=John Willoughby & Zehra Aftab |work=PIDE Working Papers |publisher=Pakistan Institute of Development Economics |year=2020 |access-date=1 August 2021}}</ref> the role of translation and transliteration of literature from and into Urdu;<ref name="Irfan"/> the shifting cultural image of Urdu and socio-economic status associated with Urdu speakers (which negatively impacts especially their employment opportunities in both countries),<ref name="Willoughby & Aftab"/><ref name="Irfan"/> the ''de jure'' legal status and ''de facto'' political status of Urdu,<ref name="Willoughby & Aftab"/> how much Urdu is used as language of instruction and chosen by students in higher education,<ref name="Willoughby & Aftab"/><ref name="Irfan"/><ref name="Daniyal"/><ref name="Best of Urdu Poetry"/> and how the maintenance and development of Urdu is financially and institutionally supported by governments and NGOs.<ref name="Willoughby & Aftab"/><ref name="Irfan"/> In India, although Urdu is not and never was used exclusively by Muslims (and Hindi never exclusively by Hindus),<ref name="Best of Urdu Poetry"/><ref name="Brass"/> the ongoing [[Hindi–Urdu controversy]] and modern cultural association of each language with the two religions has led to fewer Hindus using Urdu.<ref name="Best of Urdu Poetry"/><ref name="Brass">{{Cite book |last=Brass |first=Paul R. |date=2005 |title=Language, Religion and Politics in North India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SylBHS8IJAUC&pg=PA136 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=136 |isbn=9780595343942 |access-date=1 August 2021 |quote=The third force leading to the divergence between Hindi and Urdu was the parallel and associated development of Hindu and Muslim revivalisms and communal antagonism, which had the consequence for the Hindi–Urdu conflict of reinforcing the tendency to identify Urdu as the language of Muslims and Hindi as the language of Hindus. Although objectively this is not entirely true even today, it is undeniable historical tendency has been in this direction. (...) Many Hindus also continue to write in Urdu, both in literature and in the mass media. However, Hindu writers in Urdu are a dying generation and Hindi and Urdu have increasingly become subjectively separate languages identified with different religious communities.}}</ref> In the 20th century, Indian Muslims gradually began to collectively embrace Urdu<ref name="Brass"/> (for example, 'post-independence Muslim politics of [[Bihar]] saw a mobilisation around the Urdu language as tool of empowerment for minorities especially coming from weaker socio-economic backgrounds'<ref name="Irfan"/>), but in the early 21st century an increasing percentage of Indian Muslims began switching to Hindi due to socio-economic factors, such as Urdu being abandoned as the language of instruction in much of India,<ref name="Daniyal"/><ref name="Irfan"/> and having limited employment opportunities compared to Hindi, English and regional languages.<ref name="Best of Urdu Poetry"/> The number of Urdu speakers in India fell 1.5% between 2001 and 2011 (then 5.08 million Urdu speakers), especially in the most Urdu-speaking states of [[Uttar Pradesh]] (c. 8% to 5%) and Bihar (c. 11.5% to 8.5%), even though the number of Muslims in these two states grew in the same period.<ref name="Daniyal" /> Although Urdu is still very prominent in early 21st-century Indian pop culture, ranging from [[Bollywood]]<ref name="Aligarh" /> to social media, knowledge of the Urdu script and the publication of books in Urdu have steadily declined, while policies of the Indian government do not actively support the preservation of Urdu in professional and official spaces.<ref name="Irfan" /> Because during the partition, Urdu became the national language of Pakistan, the Indian state and some religious nationalists began in part to regard Urdu as a 'foreign' language, to be viewed with suspicion.<ref name="Mir" /> Urdu advocates in India disagree whether it should be allowed to write Urdu in the [[Devanagari]] and [[Latin script]] ([[Roman Urdu]]) to allow its survival,<ref name="Best of Urdu Poetry" /><ref name="Everaert">{{Cite book |last=Everaert |first=Christine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LqZ-6QRKc7wC&pg=PA78 |title=Tracing the Boundaries Between Hindi and Urdu: Lost and Added in Translation Between 20th Century Short Stories |date=2010 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004177314 |location=Leiden |pages=77–79 |access-date=1 August 2021}}</ref> or whether this will only hasten its demise and that the language can only be preserved if expressed in the Perso-Arabic script.<ref name="Irfan" /> There are some Hindu poets in India who continue to write in Urdu after the partition, including [[Gopi Chand Narang]] and Gulzar Dehlvi.<ref name="Ahmad2017">{{cite book |last1=Ahmad |first1=Irfan |title=Religion as Critique: Islamic Critical Thinking from Mecca to the Marketplace |date=20 November 2017 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-1-4696-3510-1 |language=en|quote=There have been and are many great Hindu poets who wrote in Urdu. And they learned Hinduism by readings its religious texts in Urdu. Gulzar Dehlvi—who nonliterary name is Anand Mohan Zutshi (b. 1926)—is one among many examples.}}</ref> Throughout India, various states have established an [[Urdu Academy]] to promote the use of Urdu and Urdu literature.<ref>{{cite book |last1=S.H |first1=Patil |title=The Constitution, Government and Politics in India |date=2016 |publisher=Vikas Publishing House |isbn=978-93-259-9411-9 |page=566 |language=en}}</ref>

For Pakistan, Urdu originally had the image of a refined, elite language of the Enlightenment, progress, and emancipation, and the language contributed to the success of Pakistan's independence movement.<ref name="Willoughby & Aftab"/> But after [[Partition of India|the 1947 Partition]], when it was chosen as the national language of Pakistan to unite all inhabitants with one linguistic identity, it faced serious competition primarily from Bengali (spoken by 56% of the total population, mostly in East Pakistan until that [[Bangladesh Liberation War|attained independence in 1971]] as [[Bangladesh]]), and after 1971 from English. Both pro-independence elites that formed the leadership of the Muslim League in Pakistan and the Hindu-dominated [[Indian National Congress|Congress Party]] in India had been educated in English during the British colonial period, and continued to operate in English and send their children to English-medium schools as they continued dominate both countries' post-Partition politics.<ref name="Willoughby & Aftab"/> Although the Anglicized elite in Pakistan has made attempts at Urduisation of education with varying degrees of success, no successful attempts were ever made to Urduise politics, the legal system, the army, or the economy, all of which remained solidly Anglophone.<ref name="Willoughby & Aftab"/> Even the regime of [[Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq|general Zia-ul-Haq]] (1977–1988), who came from a middle-class Punjabi family and initially fervently supported a rapid and complete Urduisation of Pakistani society (earning him the honorary title of the 'Patron of Urdu' in 1981), failed to make significant achievements, and by 1987 had abandoned most of his efforts in favour of pro-English policies.<ref name="Willoughby & Aftab"/> Since the 1960s, the Urdu lobby and eventually the Urdu language in Pakistan has been associated with religious Islamism and political national conservatism (and eventually the lower and lower-middle classes, alongside regional languages such as Punjabi, Sindhi, and Balochi), while English has been associated with the internationally oriented secular and progressive left (and eventually the upper and upper-middle classes).<ref name="Willoughby & Aftab"/> Despite governmental attempts at Urduisation of Pakistan, the position and prestige of English only grew stronger in the meantime.<ref name="Willoughby & Aftab"/>

== Demographics and geographic distribution ==
{{See also|Languages of Pakistan|Languages of India}}
[[File:Geographical distribution of Urdu in India and Pakistan.png|thumb|Geographical distribution of Urdu in India and Pakistan.]]
There are over 100 million native speakers of Urdu in India and Pakistan together: there were 50.8 million Urdu speakers in India (4.34% of the total population) as per the 2011 census;{{r|indiacensus}} and approximately 22.3 million in Pakistan (9.25% of the total population) in 2023. There are several hundred thousand in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, United States, and [[Bangladesh]].<ref name=e25/> However, Hindustani, of which Urdu is one variety, is spoken much more widely, forming the third most commonly spoken language in the world, after [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]] and English.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/language-linguistics-and-literary-terms/language-and-linguistics/hindustani|title=Hindustani|work=Columbia University press|publisher=encyclopedia.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729004822/http://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/language-linguistics-and-literary-terms/language-and-linguistics/hindustani|archive-date=29 July 2017}}</ref> The [[syntax]] (grammar), [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], and the core vocabulary of Urdu and Hindi are essentially identical – thus linguists usually count them as one single language, while some contend that they are considered as two different languages for socio-political reasons.<ref>e.g. {{Harvcoltxt|Gumperz|1982|p=20}}</ref>

Owing to interaction with other languages, Urdu has become localised wherever it is spoken, including in Pakistan. Though Urdu is spoken by many [[Muhajir (Pakistan)|Muhajirs]] in its standard form. In some areas, it has borrowed words from regional languages, giving the language a peculiar regional flavor. Similarly, the Urdu spoken in India can also be distinguished into many dialects such as the Standard Urdu of [[Lucknow]] and Delhi, as well as the [[Dakhni]] ([[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]]) of South India.<ref name="Schmidt2005"/><ref name="Khan2001"/> Because of Urdu's similarity to [[Hindi]], speakers of the two languages can easily understand one another if both sides refrain from using literary vocabulary.<ref name="GubeGao2019"/>

=== Pakistan ===
[[File:Urdu-speakers by Pakistani District - 2017 Census.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.6|<div style="text-align: center">The proportion of people with Urdu as their [[mother tongue]] in each Pakistani [[Districts of Pakistan|district]] as of the [[2017 Pakistan census]].</div>]]

Although Urdu is widely spoken and understood throughout all of Pakistan as the national language,<ref>{{cite web |title=PAKISTAN |url=https://www.iandl.marines.mil/Divisions/Logistics-Plans-Policies-Strategic-Mobility-LP/Logistics-Life-Cycle-Management-Branch-LPC/LPC-4-Contracts/MARFORCENT/Pakistan/ |website=Official U.S. Marine Corps |access-date=5 February 2022 |archive-date=31 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220131054726/https://www.iandl.marines.mil/Divisions/Logistics-Plans-Policies-Strategic-Mobility-LP/Logistics-Life-Cycle-Management-Branch-LPC/LPC-4-Contracts/MARFORCENT/Pakistan/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> only 9.25% of the population reported it as their mother tongue, according to the [[2023 Pakistani census]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JkQfwA30aY4C&pg=PA264|title=The World Factbook|date=1992|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|language=en|page=264}}</ref> Most of the nearly three million Afghan refugees of different ethnic origins (such as [[Pashtun people|Pashtun]], [[Tājik people|Tajik]], [[Uzbeks|Uzbek]], [[Hazara people|Hazarvi]], and [[Turkmen people|Turkmen]]) who stayed in Pakistan for over twenty-five years have also become fluent in Urdu.<ref name="Achakzai-2019" /> Muhajirs since 1947 have historically formed the majority population in the city of [[Karachi]], however.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QgbIAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA217|title=Gendering Urban Space in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa|last1=Rieker|first1=M.|last2=Ali|first2=K.|date=26 May 2008|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-230-61247-1|language=en}}</ref> Many newspapers are published in Urdu in Pakistan, including the ''[[Daily Jang]]'', ''[[Nawa-i-Waqt]]'', and ''[[Millat]]''.

Urdu is spoken as the first language of many people among the community known as [[Muhajirs (Pakistan)|Muhajirs]] (a multi-origin ethnic group of Pakistan), who left India after independence in 1947; these Muhajirs were from various parts of India, with Urdu speakers predominantly hailing from [[United Provinces (1937–1950)|United Provinces]] (Uttar Pradesh), Delhi, [[Central Provinces]] (Madhya Pradesh), [[Bihar]] and [[Hyderabad]].<ref name="AlexanderChatterji2015">{{cite book|author1=Claire Alexander|author2=Joya Chatterji|author3=Annu Jalais|title=The Bengal Diaspora: Rethinking Muslim migration|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZ_hCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA96|date=6 November 2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-33593-1|pages=96–}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=7 November 2014 |title=Muhajirs in historical perspective |url=https://nation.com.pk/07-Nov-2014/muhajirs-in-historical-perspective |access-date=2024-07-09 |website=The Nation |language=en-US}}</ref> Other communities, most notably the [[Punjabis|Punjabi elite]] of Pakistan, have adopted Urdu as a [[First language|mother tongue]] and identify with both an Urdu speaker as well as [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]] identity.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Singh|first=Nikky-Guninder Kaur|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=chCMDwAAQBAJ&dq=punjabis+adopting+urdu&pg=PA121|title=Of Sacred and Secular Desire: An Anthology of Lyrical Writings from the Punjab|date=30 November 2012|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-0-85772-139-6|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Why Punjabis in Pakistan Have Abandoned Punjabi |url=https://www.fairobserver.com/region/central_south_asia/ishtiaq-ahmed-pakistan-punjab-south-asian-languages-punjabi-language-world-news-16791/ |website=Fair Observer|date=14 July 2020 }}</ref> Urdu has served as a ''lingua franca'', especially among Muslims in north and northwest [[Presidencies and provinces of British India|British India]], as well as in [[Hyderabad State]]. It is written, spoken and used in all [[Subdivisions of Pakistan|provinces/territories of Pakistan]], and together with English as the main languages of instruction,<ref>{{cite web |title=EDUCATION SYSTEM PROFILES Education in Pakistan |url=https://wenr.wes.org/2020/02/education-in-pakistan |website=World Education Services |date=25 February 2020 |quote=English has been the main language of instruction at the elementary and secondary levels since colonial times. It remains the predominant language of instruction in private schools but has been increasingly replaced with Urdu in public schools. Punjab province, for example, recently announced that it will begin to use Urdu as the exclusive medium of instruction in schools beginning in 2020. Depending on the location and predominantly in rural areas, regional languages are used as well, particularly in elementary education. The language of instruction in higher education is mostly English, but some programs and institutions teach in Urdu.}}</ref> although the people from differing provinces may have different native languages.<ref>{{cite journal |editor1=Robina Kausar |editor2=Muhammad Sarwar |editor3=Muhammad Shabbir |title=The History of the Urdu Language Together with Its Origin and Geographic Distribution |journal=International Journal of Innovation and Research in Educational Sciences |volume=2 |issue=1 |url=https://www.ijires.org/administrator/components/com_jresearch/files/publications/IJIRES-154_final.pdf}}</ref>

Urdu is taught as a compulsory subject up to higher secondary school in both English and Urdu medium school systems, which has produced millions of second-language Urdu speakers among people whose native language is one of the other [[languages of Pakistan]] – which in turn has led to the absorption of vocabulary from various regional Pakistani languages,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I2QmPHeIowoC&q=urdu+adopting+regional+language&pg=PA119|title=Geography of the South Asian Subcontinent: A Critical Approach|last=Ahmad|first=Aijazuddin|date=2009|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|isbn=978-81-8069-568-1|language=en}}</ref> while some Urdu vocabularies has also been assimilated by Pakistan's regional languages.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PSFBDAAAQBAJ&q=urdu+pashto+speakers+assimilate&pg=PA291|title=The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia: A Comprehensive Guide|last1=Hock|first1=Hans Henrich|last2=Bashir|first2=Elena|date=24 May 2016|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG|isbn=978-3-11-042330-3|language=en}}</ref> Some who are from a non-Urdu background now can read and write only Urdu. With such a large number of people(s) speaking Urdu, the language has acquired a peculiar regional flavor further distinguishing it from the Urdu spoken by native speakers, resulting in more diversity within the language.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://herald.dawn.com/news/1153737|title=The case for Urdu as Pakistan's official language|last=Raj|first=Ali|date=30 April 2017|website=Herald Magazine|language=en|access-date=28 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191028222041/https://herald.dawn.com/news/1153737|archive-date=28 October 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{clarify|reason=struggling a bit here – who are the native speakers?|date=July 2020}}

=== India ===
In India, Urdu is spoken in places where there are large Muslim minorities or cities that were bases for Muslim empires in the past. These include parts of [[Uttar Pradesh]], Madhya Pradesh, [[Bihar]], [[Telangana]], Andhra Pradesh, [[Maharashtra]] ([[Marathwada]] and Konkanis), [[Karnataka]] and cities such as [[Hyderabad]], [[Lucknow]], Delhi, [[Malerkotla]], [[Bareilly]], [[Meerut]], [[Saharanpur]], [[Muzaffarnagar]], [[Roorkee]], [[Deoband]], [[Moradabad]], [[Azamgarh]], [[Bijnor]], [[Najibabad]], [[Rampur, Uttar Pradesh|Rampur]], [[Aligarh]], [[Prayagraj|Allahabad]], [[Gorakhpur]], [[Agra]], [[Firozabad]], [[Kanpur]], [[Badaun]], [[Bhopal]], [[Hyderabad, India|Hyderabad]], [[Aurangabad, Maharashtra|Aurangabad]],<ref name="MOE Nepal-1994" /> [[Bangalore]], [[Kolkata]], [[Mysore]], [[Patna]], [[Darbhanga]], [[Gaya, India|Gaya]], [[Madhubani, Bihar|Madhubani]], [[Samastipur]], [[Siwan, Bihar|Siwan]], [[Saharsa]], [[Supaul]], [[Muzaffarpur]], [[Nalanda]], [[Munger]], [[Bhagalpur]], [[Araria]], [[Gulbarga]], [[Parbhani]], [[Nanded]], [[Malegaon]], [[Bidar]], [[Ajmer]], and [[Ahmedabad]].<ref name="Urdu-2016">[http://www.dictionary.com/browse/urdu "Urdu"]{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160319020509/http://www.dictionary.com/browse/urdu|date=19 March 2016}}. ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]]''.</ref> In a very significant number among the nearly 800 districts of India, there is a small Urdu-speaking minority at least. In [[Araria district]], Bihar, there is a plurality of Urdu speakers and near-plurality in [[Hyderabad district, Telangana]] (43.35% Telugu speakers and 43.24% Urdu speakers).

Some Indian Muslim schools ([[Madrasa]]) teach Urdu as a first language and have their own syllabi and exams.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ahmad |first=Imtiaz |year=2002 |title=Urdu and Madrasa Education |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4412235 |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=37 |issue=24 |pages=2285–2287 |jstor=4412235 |issn=0012-9976}}</ref> In fact, the language of [[Bollywood]] films tend to contain a large number of Persian and Arabic words and thus considered to be "Urdu" in a sense,<ref name="Warsi-2021">{{Cite web |date=27 February 2021 |title=Is Urdu losing its charm in Bollywood films? |url=https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/in-perspective/is-urdu-losing-its-charm-in-bollywood-films-955816.html |access-date=19 May 2023 |website=Deccan Herald |language=en}}</ref> especially in songs.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=238ZBQAAQBAJ&q=bollywood+urdu&pg=PT214|title=Bollywood Sounds: The Cosmopolitan Mediations of Hindi Film Song|last=Beaster-Jones|first=Jayson|date=9 October 2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-999348-2|language=en}}</ref>

India has more than 3,000 Urdu publications, including 405 daily Urdu newspapers.<ref>{{cite web |title=Urdu newspapers: growing, not dying |url=http://asu.thehoot.org/research/research-studies/urdu-newspapers-growing-not-dying-9683 |website=asu.thehoot.org |access-date=6 September 2020 |archive-date=26 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226152811/http://asu.thehoot.org/research/research-studies/urdu-newspapers-growing-not-dying-9683 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Russell |first1=Ralph |title=Urdu in India since Independence |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |pages=44–48 |year=1999|volume=34 |issue=1/2 |jstor=4407548 }}</ref> Newspapers such as ''Neshat News Urdu'', ''Sahara Urdu'', ''Daily Salar'', ''Hindustan Express'', ''Daily Pasban'', ''[[The Siasat Daily|Siasat Daily]]'', ''[[The Munsif Daily]]'' and ''Inqilab'' are published and distributed in Bangalore, Malegaon, Mysore, Hyderabad, and [[Mumbai]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.auditbureau.org/files/JJ2017%20Highest%20Circulated%20amongst%20ABC%20Member%20Publications%20(language%20wise).pdf | title=Highest Circulated amongst ABC Member Publications Jan – Jun 2017| publisher=Audit Bureau of Circulations| access-date=12 September 2020}}</ref>

=== Elsewhere ===
[[File:UAE_signboard.jpg|right|thumb|A trilingual [[signboard]] in [[Arabic]], English and Urdu in the [[United Arab Emirates|UAE]]. The Urdu sentence is not a direct translation of the English ("Your beautiful city invites you to preserve it") or Arabic (the same). It says, "apné shahar kī Khūbsūrtīi ko barqarār rakhié, or "Please preserve the beauty of your city."]]

In [[Nepal]], Urdu is a registered regional dialect<ref name="MOE Nepal-1994">{{cite web|title=National Languages Policy Recommendation Commission|url=https://www.moe.gov.np/assets/uploads/files/Language_Policy_English1.pdf|page=Appendix one|publisher=MOE Nepal|year=1994|access-date=14 March 2021|archive-date=26 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326032133/https://www.moe.gov.np/assets/uploads/files/Language_Policy_English1.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> and in South Africa, it is a protected language in the constitution. It is also spoken as a minority language in [[Afghanistan]] and [[Bangladesh]], with no official status.

Outside South Asia, it is spoken by large numbers of migrant South Asian workers in the major urban centres of the [[Persian Gulf]] countries. Urdu is also spoken by large numbers of immigrants and their children in the major urban centres of the [[Urdu in the United Kingdom|United Kingdom]], the United States, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, and Australia.<ref>{{cite web |title=Most Pakistanis and Urdu speakers live in this Australian state |url=https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/most-pakistanis-and-urdu-speakers-live-in-this-australian-state |website=SBS Your Language |publisher=sbs.com.au |language=en}}</ref> Along with Arabic, Urdu is among the immigrant languages with the most speakers in [[Catalonia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.europapress.es/cultura/noticia-catalunya-arabe-urdu-aparecen-lenguas-habituales-catalunya-creando-peligro-guetos-20090629150020.html|title=Árabe y urdu aparecen entre las lenguas habituales de Catalunya, creando peligro de guetos|date=29 June 2009|publisher=Europapress.es|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118070643/http://www.europapress.es/cultura/noticia-catalunya-arabe-urdu-aparecen-lenguas-habituales-catalunya-creando-peligro-guetos-20090629150020.html|archive-date=18 January 2012|access-date=18 December 2011}}</ref>

== Cultural identity ==
{{Further|Hindi–Urdu controversy}}

=== Colonial India ===
Religious and social atmospheres in early nineteenth century India played a significant role in the development of the Urdu register. [[Hindi]] became the distinct register spoken by those who sought to construct a Hindu identity in the face of colonial rule.<ref name="Ahmad-2008" /> As Hindi separated from Hindustani to create a distinct spiritual identity, Urdu was employed to create a definitive Islamic identity for the Muslim population in India.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rahman|first=Tariq|year=1997|title=The Urdu-English Controversy in Pakistan|journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=31|pages=177–207|via=National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Qu.aid-i-Az.am University|doi=10.1017/S0026749X00016978|s2cid=144261554}}</ref> Urdu's use was not confined only to northern India – it had been used as a literary medium for Indian writers from the Bombay Presidency, Bengal, Orissa Province, and Tamil Nadu as well.<ref>{{cite book |title=Ṭamil Nāḍū men̲ Urdū g̲h̲azal kī naʼī purānī simten̲ | publisher=Ṭamil Nāḍū Urdū Pablīkeshanz |url=https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchCode=LCCN&searchArg=2015305807&searchType=1&permalink=y |access-date=13 September 2020}}</ref>

As Urdu and Hindi became means of religious and social construction for Muslims and Hindus respectively, each register developed its own script. According to Islamic tradition, [[Arabic]], the language of [[Muhammad]] and the [[Qur'an]], holds spiritual significance and power.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Islam: an introduction|url=https://archive.org/details/islamintroductio0000schi|url-access=registration|last=Schimmel|first=Annemarie|publisher=State U of New York Press|year=1992|location=Albany, New York|isbn=9780585088594}}</ref> Because Urdu was intentioned as means of unification for Muslims in Northern India and later Pakistan, it adopted a modified Perso-Arabic script.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ahmad|first=Rizwan|year=2011|title=Urdu in Devanagari: Shifting orthographic practices and Muslim identity in Delhi|url=http://qspace.qu.edu.qa/bitstream/10576/10736/3/LIS%20paper%20proof.pdf|journal=Language in Society|volume=40|issue=3|pages=259–284|doi=10.1017/s0047404511000182|hdl=10576/10736|s2cid=55975387|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Ahmad-2008" />

=== Pakistan ===
Urdu has played a central role in shaping Pakistan’s national identity, holding symbolic significance as a cultural identity in the country’s formation and as a common lingua franca. Several languages and dialects spoken throughout the regions of Pakistan produced an imminent need for a uniting language. Urdu was chosen as a symbol of unity for the new [[Dominion of Pakistan]] in 1947, and it had already served as a ''lingua franca'' among Muslims in north and northwest of [[British Indian Empire]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Belkacem |first=Belmekki |title=From a Lingua Franca to a Communal Language: The Islamicization of Urdu in British India |url=https://galeapps.gale.com/apps/auth?userGroupName=nysl_nc_stlpcp&sid=googleScholar&da=true&origURL=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.gale.com%2Fps%2Fi.do%3Fid%3DGALE%257CA688886759%26sid%3DgoogleScholar%26v%3D2.1%26it%3Dr%26linkaccess%3Dabs%26issn%3D01234471%26p%3DIFME%26sw%3Dw%26userGroupName%3Dnysl_nc_stlpcp&prodId=IFME |access-date=19 August 2022 |website=galeapps.gale.com}}</ref> Urdu is also seen as a repertory for the [[Culture of Pakistan|cultural]] and social heritage of Pakistan.<ref name="zia2">Zia, Khaver (1999), [http://www.cicc.or.jp/english/hyoujyunka/mlit4/7-10Pakistan/Pakistan2.html "A Survey of Standardisation in Urdu". 4th Symposium on Multilingual Information Processing, (MLIT-4)], [[Yangon]], Myanmar. CICC, Japan. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070106034453/http://www.cicc.or.jp/english/hyoujyunka/mlit4/7-10Pakistan/Pakistan2.html|date=6 January 2007}}.</ref>

While Urdu and the Muslim identity of the Indian subcontinent together played important roles in developing the national identity of Pakistan, disputes in the 1950s (particularly those in [[East Pakistan]], where [[Bengali language|Bengali]] was the dominant language), challenged the idea of Urdu as a national symbol and its practicality as the ''lingua franca''. The significance of Urdu as a national symbol was downplayed by these disputes when English and Bengali were also accepted as official languages in the former East Pakistan (now [[Bangladesh]]).<ref>{{cite news |title=Urdu in Bangladesh |url=http://www.dawn.com/2002/09/11/fea.htm |work=Dawn |date=11 September 2002}}</ref>

== Official status ==
=== Pakistan ===
Urdu is the sole national, and one of the two official languages of Pakistan (along with English).<ref name="Raj-2017" /> It is spoken and understood throughout the country, whereas the state-by-state languages (languages spoken throughout various regions) are the [[Provincial languages of Pakistan|provincial languages]], although only 9.25% of Pakistanis speak Urdu as their first language.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/other_tables/pop_by_mother_tongue.pdf|title=Government of Pakistan: Population by Mother Tongue|publisher=[[Pakistan Bureau of Statistics]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060217220529/http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/other_tables/pop_by_mother_tongue.pdf|archive-date=17 February 2006}}</ref> Its official status has meant that Urdu is understood and spoken widely throughout Pakistan as a second or third language. It is used in [[Education in Pakistan|education]], [[Pakistani literature|literature]], office and court business,<ref>In the [[lower court]]s in Pakistan, despite the proceedings taking place in Urdu, the documents are in English, whereas in the higher courts, i.e. the High Courts and the [[Supreme Court of Pakistan|Supreme Court]], both documents and proceedings are in English.</ref> although in practice, English is used instead of Urdu in the higher echelons of government.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.tariqrahman.net/content/lanpolicy.pdf|title=Language Policy, Identity and Religion|last=Rahman|first=Tariq|publisher=Quaid-i-Azam University|year=2010|location=Islamabad|page=59|author-link=Tariq Rahman|access-date=18 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021124602/http://www.tariqrahman.net/content/lanpolicy.pdf|archive-date=21 October 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> Article 251(1) of the [[Constitution of Pakistan|Pakistani Constitution]] mandates that Urdu be implemented as the sole language of government, though English continues to be the most widely used language at the higher echelons of Pakistani government.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1194296|title=Language change|last=Hussain|first=Faqir|date=14 July 2015|website=Dawn|location=Pakistan|language=en|access-date=3 December 2019}}</ref>

=== India ===
[[File:New_Delhi_railway_station_board.jpg|left|thumb|A multilingual New Delhi railway station board. The Urdu and Hindi texts both read as: ''naī dillī''.]]

Urdu is also one of the officially recognised languages in [[Languages with official status in India|India]] and also has the status of ''"additional official language"'' in the [[States and territories of India|Indian states]] of [[Andhra Pradesh]], Uttar Pradesh, [[Bihar]], Jharkhand, [[West Bengal]], [[Telangana]] and the national capital territory Delhi.<ref name="CLM5020142">{{cite web|url=http://nclm.nic.in/shared/linkimages/NCLM50thReport.pdf|title=50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India (July 2012 to June 2013)|last=Wasey|first=Akhtarul|date=16 July 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160708012438/http://nclm.nic.in/shared/linkimages/NCLM50thReport.pdf|archive-date=8 July 2016|access-date=20 October 2016}}</ref><ref name="Indiatoday:12">{{cite magazine|last=Roy|first=Anirban|date=28 February 2018|title=Kamtapuri, Rajbanshi make it to list of official languages in|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/pti-feed/story/kamtapuri-rajbanshi-make-it-to-list-of-official-languages-in-1179890-2018-02-28|magazine=[[India Today]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330143710/https://www.indiatoday.in/pti-feed/story/kamtapuri-rajbanshi-make-it-to-list-of-official-languages-in-1179890-2018-02-28|archive-date=30 March 2018|access-date=31 March 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Also as one of the five official languages of [[Jammu and Kashmir (union territory)|Jammu and Kashmir]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Paliwal |first=Devika |date=24 September 2020 |title=Parliament Nod to Bill for Declaration of 5 Official Languages for J&K |url=https://lawtimesjournal.in/parliament-nod-to-bill-for-declaration-of-5-official-languages-for-jk/ |work=Law Times Journal |access-date=24 June 2022}}</ref>

India established the governmental Bureau for the Promotion of Urdu in 1969, although the [[Central Hindi Directorate]] was established earlier in 1960, and the promotion of Hindi is better funded and more advanced,<ref name="Clyne-2012a">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ieMgAAAAQBAJ&q=Linguistic+Descriptions+of+Hindi-Urdu+pluricentric+languages|title=Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations|last=Clyne|first=Michael|date=24 May 2012|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-088814-0|pages=395|language=en}}</ref> while the status of Urdu has been undermined by the promotion of Hindi.<ref name="Everaert-2010">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LqZ-6QRKc7wC&q=hindi+urdu+diverge&pg=PA225|title=Tracing the Boundaries Between Hindi and Urdu: Lost and Added in Translation Between 20th Century Short Stories|last=Everaert|first=Christine|date=2010|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-17731-4|pages=225|language=en}}</ref> Private Indian organisations such as the Anjuman-e-Tariqqi Urdu, Deeni Talimi Council and Urdu Mushafiz Dasta promote the use and preservation of Urdu, with the Anjuman successfully launching a campaign that reintroduced Urdu as an official language of Bihar in the 1970s.<ref name="Clyne-2012a" /> In the former [[Jammu and Kashmir (state)|Jammu and Kashmir state]], section 145 of the Kashmir Constitution stated: "The official language of the State shall be Urdu but the English language shall unless the Legislature by law otherwise provides, continue to be used for all the official purposes of the State for which it was being used immediately before the commencement of the Constitution."<ref>{{cite web |title=The Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir |url=http://jkgad.nic.in/statutory/Rules-Costitution-of-J&K.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120507200338/http://jkgad.nic.in/statutory/Rules-Costitution-of-J%26K.pdf |archive-date=7 May 2012}}</ref>

== Dialects ==
Urdu became a literary language in the 18th century and two similar standard forms came into existence in Delhi and [[Lucknow]]. Since the [[partition of India]] in 1947, a third standard has arisen in the Pakistani city of [[Karachi]].<ref name="Schmidt2005">{{cite book|last1=Schmidt|first1=Ruth Laila|title=Urdu: An Essential Grammar|date=8 December 2005|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-1-134-71319-6|language=en|quote=Historically, Urdu developed from the sub-regional language of the Delhi area, which became a literary language in the eighteenth century. Two quite similar standard forms of the language developed in Delhi, and in Lucknow in modern Uttar Pradesh. Since 1947, a third form, Karachi standard Urdu, has evolved.}}</ref><ref name="Mahapatra1989">{{cite book|last1=Mahapatra|first1=B. P.|title=Constitutional languages|date=1989|publisher=[[Presses Université Laval]]|isbn=978-2-7637-7186-1|page=553|language=en|quote=Modern Urdu is a fairly homogenous language. An older southern form, Deccani Urdu, is now obsolete. Two varieties however, must be mentioned viz. the Urdu of Delhi, and the Urdu of Lucknow. Both are almost identical, differing only in some minor points. Both of these varieties are considered 'Standard Urdu' with some minor divergences.}}</ref> [[Deccani language|Deccani]], an older form used in [[South India|southern India]], became a court language of the [[Deccan sultanates]] by the 16th century.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dwyer|first=Rachel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZsKR1RKoJKUC&q=urdu+language+of+deccan+courts&pg=PA103|title=Filming the Gods: Religion and Indian Cinema|date=27 September 2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-38070-1|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Mahapatra1989" />
Urdu has a few recognised dialects, including [[Dakhni]], [[Dhakaiya Urdu|Dhakaiya]], [[Rekhta]], and Modern Vernacular Urdu (based on the [[Dehlavi dialect|Khariboli]] dialect of the Delhi region). Dakhni (also known as Dakani, Deccani, Desia, Mirgan) is spoken in [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]] region of [[southern India]]. It is distinct by its mixture of vocabulary from [[Marathi language|Marathi]] and [[Konkani language|Konkani]], as well as some vocabulary from Arabic, [[Persian language|Persian]] and [[Chagatai language|Chagatai]] that are not found in the standard dialect of Urdu. Dakhini is widely spoken in all parts of [[Maharashtra]], [[Telangana]], Andhra Pradesh and [[Karnataka]]. Urdu is read and written as in other parts of India. A number of daily newspapers and several monthly magazines in Urdu are published in these states.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

[[Dhakaiya Urdu]] is a dialect native to the city of [[Old Dhaka]] in Bangladesh, dating back to the [[Mughal era]]. However, its popularity, even among native speakers, has been gradually declining since the [[Bengali language movement]] in the 20th century. It is not officially recognised by the [[Government of Bangladesh]]. The Urdu spoken by [[Stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh]] is different from this dialect.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

=== Code switching ===
Many bilingual or multi-lingual Urdu speakers, being familiar with both Urdu and English, display [[code-switching]] (referred to as "[[Urdish]]") in certain localities and between certain social groups. On 14 August 2015, the [[Government of Pakistan]] launched the ''Ilm'' Pakistan movement, with a uniform curriculum in Urdish. [[Ahsan Iqbal]], Federal Minister of Pakistan, said "Now the government is working on a new curriculum to provide a new medium to the students which will be the combination of both Urdu and English and will name it Urdish."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://nation.com.pk/editorials/16-Aug-2015/learning-in-urdish|title=Learning In 'Urdish'|access-date=10 October 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117144040/http://nation.com.pk/editorials/16-Aug-2015/learning-in-urdish|archive-date=17 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://nation.com.pk/national/14-Aug-2015/govt-to-launch-ilm-pakistan-on-august-14-ahsan|title=Govt to launch 'Ilm Pakistan' on August 14: Ahsan|last1=Yousafzai|first1=Fawad|access-date=10 October 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117140424/http://nation.com.pk/national/14-Aug-2015/govt-to-launch-ilm-pakistan-on-august-14-ahsan|archive-date=17 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1201758|title=Over to 'Urdish'|last1=Mustafa|first1=Zubeida|access-date=10 October 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017025911/http://www.dawn.com/news/1201758|archive-date=17 October 2015}}</ref>

== Comparison with Modern Standard Hindi ==
{{Further|Hindi–Urdu controversy|Hindustani phonology|Hindustani grammar}}
[[File:Trilingual road sign in India.png|thumb|upright=1.36|Urdu and Hindi on a road sign in India. The Urdu version is a direct transliteration of the English; the Hindi is a part transliteration ("parcel" and "rail") and part translation: "karyalay" and "arakshan kendra"]]

Standard Urdu is often [[Hindi#Comparison with Standard Urdu|compared]] with [[Standard Hindi]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://scroll.in/article/809102/the-death-of-urdu-in-india-is-greatly-exaggerated-the-language-is-actually-thriving|title=Hindi and Urdu are classified as literary registers of the same language|date=June 2016 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602104222/http://scroll.in/article/809102/the-death-of-urdu-in-india-is-greatly-exaggerated-the-language-is-actually-thriving|archive-date=2 June 2016}}</ref> Both Urdu and Hindi, which are considered standard registers of the same language, [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] (or Hindi-Urdu), share a core vocabulary and [[Hindustani grammar|grammar]].<ref name="PeterDass2019"/><ref name="Basu"/><ref name="GubeGao2019"/><ref name="Kuiper2010">{{cite book |last1=Kuiper |first1=Kathleen |title=The Culture of India |date=2010 |publisher=[[Rosen Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-61530-149-2 |language=en |quote=Urdu is closely related to Hindi, a language that originated and developed in the Indian subcontinent. They share the same Indic base and are so similar in phonology and grammar that they appear to be one language.}}</ref>

Apart from religious associations, the differences are largely restricted to the [[standard language|standard forms]]: Standard Urdu is conventionally written in the [[Nastaʿlīq script|Nastaliq style]] of the [[Persian alphabet]] and relies heavily on Persian and Arabic as a source for technical and literary vocabulary,<ref name="Language in India-Bringing Order to Linguistic Diversity: Language Planning in the British Raj">{{cite web|url = http://www.languageinindia.com/oct2001/punjab1.html|title = Bringing Order to Linguistic Diversity: Language Planning in the British Raj|publisher = Language in India|access-date = 20 May 2008|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080526010825/http://www.languageinindia.com/oct2001/punjab1.html|archive-date = 26 May 2008|df = dmy-all}}</ref> whereas Standard Hindi is conventionally written in [[Devanagari|Devanāgarī]] and draws on [[Sanskrit]].<ref name="Sikmirza">{{cite web|url=http://www.geocities.com/sikmirza/arabic/hindustani.html| title = A Brief Hindi&nbsp;– Urdu FAQ|publisher = sikmirza|access-date = 20 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071202103338/http://www.geocities.com/sikmirza/arabic/hindustani.html|archive-date=2 December 2007}}</ref> However, both share a core vocabulary of native [[Sanskrit]] and [[Prakrit]] derived words and a significant number of [[Arabic]] and Persian loanwords, with a consensus of linguists considering them to be two standardised forms of the same language<ref name="UC Davis-Linguists">{{cite web|url = http://mesa.ucdavis.edu/academics/languages-1/hindu-urdu|title = Hindi/Urdu Language Instruction|publisher = University of California, Davis|access-date = 3 January 2015|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150103095430/http://mesa.ucdavis.edu/academics/languages-1/hindu-urdu|archive-date = 3 January 2015|df = dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{e25|hin|Hindi}}</ref> and consider the differences to be [[sociolinguistics|sociolinguistic]];<ref name="South Asian Voice">{{cite web| url = http://india_resource.tripod.com/Urdu.html| title = Urdu and its Contribution to Secular Values| publisher = South Asian Voice| access-date = 26 February 2008| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071111145027/http://india_resource.tripod.com/Urdu.html| archive-date = 11 November 2007| df = dmy-all}}</ref> a few classify them separately.<ref>The Annual of Urdu studies, number 11, 1996, "Some notes on Hindi and Urdu", pp. 203–208.</ref> The two languages are often considered to be a single language (Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu) on a [[dialect continuum]] ranging from Persianised to Sanskritised vocabulary,<ref name="Everaert-2010" /> but now they are more and more different in words due to politics.<ref name="Warsi-2021" /> Old Urdu dictionaries also contain most of the Sanskrit words now present in Hindi.<ref>{{Citation|last=Shakespear|first=John|title=A dictionary, Hindustani and English|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryhindus00shak|year=1834|publisher=Black, Kingsbury, Parbury and Allen|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728165559/https://archive.org/details/dictionaryhindus00shak|archive-date=28 July 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Fallon|first=S. W.|title=A new Hindustani-English dictionary, with illustrations from Hindustani literature and folk-lore|url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/fallon/|year=1879|publisher=Printed at the Medical Hall Press|location=Banāras|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011004710/http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/fallon/|archive-date=11 October 2014}}</ref>

Mutual intelligibility decreases in literary and specialised contexts that rely on academic or technical vocabulary. In a longer conversation, differences in formal vocabulary and pronunciation of some Urdu [[phonemes]] are noticeable, though many native Hindi speakers also pronounce these phonemes.<ref name="ShapiroSchiffman2019">{{cite book |last1=Shapiro |first1=Michael C. |last2=Schiffman |first2=Harold F. |title=Language and Society in South Asia |date=2019 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |isbn=978-3-11-085763-4 |language=en|page=53}}</ref> At a phonological level, speakers of both languages are frequently aware of the Perso-Arabic or Sanskrit origins of their word choice, which affects the pronunciation of those words.<ref name="Clyne-2012b">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ieMgAAAAQBAJ&q=Linguistic+Descriptions+of+Hindi-Urdu+pluricentric+languages|title=Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations|last=Clyne|first=Michael|date=24 May 2012|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-088814-0|pages=391|language=en}}</ref> Urdu speakers will often insert vowels to break up consonant clusters found in words of Sanskritic origin, but will pronounce them correctly in Arabic and Persian loanwords.<ref name="Sikmirza2">{{cite web|url=http://www.geocities.com/sikmirza/arabic/hindustani.html|title=A Brief Hindi&nbsp;– Urdu FAQ|publisher=sikmirza|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071202103338/http://www.geocities.com/sikmirza/arabic/hindustani.html|archive-date=2 December 2007|access-date=20 May 2008}}</ref> As a result of religious nationalism since the [[Partition of India|partition of British India]] and continued communal tensions, native speakers of both Hindi and Urdu frequently assert that they are distinct languages.

The [[Hindustani grammar|grammar of Hindi and Urdu]] is shared,<ref name="PeterDass2019">{{cite book |last1=Peter-Dass |first1=Rakesh |title=Hindi Christian Literature in Contemporary India |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-00-070224-8 |language=en |quote=Two forms of the same language, Nagarai Hindi and Persianized Hindi (Urdu) had identical grammar, shared common words and roots, and employed different scripts.}}</ref><ref name="Hoernle1880">{{cite book |last1=Hoernle |first1=August Friedrich Rudolf |title=A Grammar of the Eastern Hindi Compared with the Other Gaudian Languages: Accompanied by a Language-map and Table of Alphabets |url=https://archive.org/details/agrammareastern00hoergoog |date=1880 |publisher=Trübner |pages=vii |language=en |quote=Hence Urdu and High-Hindi are really the same language; they have an identical grammar and differ merely in the vocabulary, the former using as many foreign words, the latter as few as possible.}}</ref> though formal Urdu makes more use of the Persian "-e-" [[Ezāfe|''izafat'']] grammatical construct (as in ''[[Hammam-e-Qadimi]]'', or ''[[Nishan-e-Haider]]'') than does Hindi.

== Urdu speakers by country ==
{{Unreliable sources section|date=July 2020}}
The following table shows the number of Urdu speakers in some countries.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+
!Country
!Population
!Native language speakers
!%
!Second-language speakers
!%
|-
|{{Flag|India}}
|1,296,834,042<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html|title=India – The World Factbook |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=22 October 2019|archive-date=11 June 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080611033144/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|50,772,631<ref name="Urdu {{!}} Ethnologue Free">{{Cite web |title=Urdu |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/urd/ |access-date=19 March 2023 |website=Ethnologue Free |language=en}}</ref>
|3.9
|12,151,715<ref name="Urdu {{!}} Ethnologue Free"/>
|0.9
|-
|{{Flag|Pakistan}}
|241,499,431
|22,249,307<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/population/2023/tables/national/table_11.pdf | title=Population by mother tongue, sex and rural/urban, Census-2023 | website=pbs.gov.pk}}</ref>
|9.25
|164,000,000<ref name=e25/>
|77%
|-
|{{Flag|Saudi Arabia}}
|33,091,113<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html|title=Middle East :: Saudi Arabia – The World Factbook |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=1 November 2019|archive-date=8 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108120845/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|–
|2.3
|930,000<ref name="Urdu {{!}} Ethnologue Free"/>
| –
|-
|{{Flag|Nepal}}
|29,717,587<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/np.html|title=South Asia :: Nepal – The World Factbook |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=22 October 2019|archive-date=26 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226054918/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/np.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|414,000<ref>{{cite report |year=2021 |title=National Population and Housing Census 2021, Caste/Ethnicity Report |author=National Statistics Office |work=Government of Nepal |url=https://censusnepal.cbs.gov.np/results/downloads/caste-ethnicity}}</ref>
|2.3
|–
| –
|-
|{{Flag|Afghanistan}}
|38,347,000<ref name="Afghanistan {{!}} Ethnologue Free">{{Cite web |title=Afghanistan  |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/country/AF/ |access-date=19 March 2023 |website=Ethnologue Free |language=en}}</ref>
|–
|–
|733,000<ref name="Afghanistan {{!}} Ethnologue Free"/>
| –
|-
|{{Flag|Bangladesh}}
|159,453,001<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bg.html|title=South Asia :: Bangladesh – The World Factbook |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=3 November 2019|archive-date=29 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171229202056/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bg.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|300,000<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bangladesh: Urdu-Speaking 'Biharis' Seek Recognition, Respect and Rights |work=International Republican Institute |date=4 February 2021 |url=https://www.iri.org/resources/new-bangladesh-report-reveals-priorities-of-the-bihari-minority/ |access-date=26 September 2022 |language=en-US }}{{Dead link|date=May 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
|0.1
|–
| –
|-
|{{Flagicon|UK}} [[Urdu in the UK|United Kingdom]]
|65,105,246<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/uk.html|title=Europe :: United Kingdom – The World Factbook |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=1 November 2019|archive-date=7 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107065049/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/uk.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|269,000<ref name=e25/>
|0.4
|–
| –
|-
|{{Flag|United States}}
|329,256,465<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html|title=North America :: United States – The World Factbook |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=1 November 2019|archive-date=26 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226055200/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|397,502<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www2.census.gov/library/data/tables/2008/demo/language-use/2009-2013-acs-lang-tables-nation.xls?#|title=Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over for United States: 2009–2013}}</ref>
|0.1
|–
| –
|-
|{{Flag|United Arab Emirates}}
|9,890,400
|300,000 {{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}
|3.0
|1,500,000{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}
|15.1
|-
|{{Flag|Canada}}
|35,881,659<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ca.html|title=North America :: Canada – The World Factbook |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=1 November 2019|archive-date=24 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181224211221/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ca.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|243,090<ref>{{cite web|title=Linguistic diversity and multilingualism in Canadian homes|date=2 August 2017|url=https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/98-200-x/2016010/98-200-x2016010-eng.cfm|publisher=[[Statistics Canada]]}}</ref>
|0.6
|–
| –
|-
|{{Flag|Australia}}
|25,422,788<ref name="SBS Language-2023">{{Cite web |title='Where we live, what we do' – Explore Urdu community by interactive tool |url=https://www.sbs.com.au/language/urdu/en/article/where-we-live-what-we-do-explore-urdu-community-by-interactive-tool/tl59fg6bh |access-date=22 September 2023 |website=SBS Language |date=12 July 2022 |language=en}}</ref>
|111,873<ref name="SBS Language-2023" />
|0.4
|–
|–
|-
|{{Flag|Ireland}}
|4,761,865
|5,336<ref>{{Cite web |title=Census of Population 2016 – Profile 7 Migration and Diversity: Demographics  |url=https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp7md/p7md/p7dgs/ |access-date=22 September 2023 |website=Central Statistics Office |language=en}}</ref>
|0.1
|–
|–
|-
|}

== Phonology ==
{{Main|Hindustani phonology}}

=== Consonants ===

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Consonant phonemes of Urdu<ref name="CRULPPhonetics2">{{cite web|url=http://www.cle.org.pk/Downloads/ling_resources/phoneticinventory/UrduPhoneticInventory.pdf|title=Urdu Phonetic Inventory|website=Center for Language Engineering|access-date=7 August 2020}}</ref><ref name="Saleem-2002">Saleem, Abdul M., et al. (2002). ''Urdu consonantal and vocalic sounds''. Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing</ref>
|-
! colspan="2" |
! [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
![[Dental consonant|Dental]]
![[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]]
! [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! [[Uvular consonant|Uvular]]
! [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}} {{Nastaliq|م}}
|
| {{IPA link|n}} {{Nastaliq|ن}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|ŋ}} {{Nastaliq|ن٘}}
|
|
|-
! rowspan="4" | [[Plosive consonant|Plosive]]/<br />[[Affricate consonant|Affricate]]
! <small>[[voicelessness|voiceless]]</small>
| {{IPA link|p}} {{Nastaliq|پ}}
| {{IPA link|t̪|t}} {{Nastaliq|ت}}
|
| {{IPA link|ʈ}} {{Nastaliq|ٹ}}
| {{IPA link|tʃ}} {{Nastaliq|چ}}
| {{IPA link|k}} {{Nastaliq|ک}}
| ({{IPA link|q}}) {{Nastaliq|ق}}
|
|-
! <small>[[voicelessness|voiceless]] [[aspirated consonant|aspirated]]</small>
| {{IPA link|pʰ}} {{Nastaliq|پھ}}
| {{IPA link|tʰ}} {{Nastaliq|تھ}}
| 
| {{IPA link|ʈʰ}} {{Nastaliq|ٹھ}}
| {{IPA link|tʃʰ}} {{Nastaliq|چھ}}
| {{IPA link|kʰ}} {{Nastaliq|کھ}}
|
|
|-
! <small>[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small>
| {{IPA link|b}} {{Nastaliq|ب}}
| {{IPA link|d̪|d}} {{Nastaliq|د}}
| 
| {{IPA link|ɖ}} {{Nastaliq|ڈ}}
| {{IPA link|dʒ}} {{Nastaliq|ج}}
| {{IPA link|ɡ}} {{Nastaliq|گ}}
|
|
|-
! <small>[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]] [[aspirated consonant|aspirated]]</small>
| {{IPA link|bʱ}} {{Nastaliq|بھ}}
| {{IPA link|dʱ}} {{Nastaliq|دھ}}
| 
| {{IPA link|ɖʱ}} {{Nastaliq|ڈھ}}
| {{IPA link|dʒʱ}} {{Nastaliq|جھ}}
| {{IPA link|gʱ}} {{Nastaliq|گھ}}
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[Flap consonant|Flap]]/[[Trill consonant|Trill]]
!<small>plain</small>
|
|
| {{IPA link|r}} {{Nastaliq|ر}}
| {{IPA link|ɽ}} {{Nastaliq|ڑ}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! <small>[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]] [[aspiration (phonetics)|aspirated]]</small>
|
|
|
| {{IPA link|ɽʱ}} {{Nastaliq|ڑھ}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
! <small>[[voicelessness|voiceless]]</small>
| {{IPA link|f}} {{Nastaliq|ف}}
|
| {{IPA link|s}} {{Nastaliq|س}}
| 
| {{IPA link|ʃ}} {{Nastaliq|ش}}
| colspan="2" | {{IPA link|x}} {{Nastaliq|خ}}
| {{IPA link|ɦ}} {{Nastaliq|ہ}}
|-
! <small>[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small>
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA link|ʋ}} {{Nastaliq|و}}
|
| {{IPA link|z}} {{Nastaliq|ز}}
| 
| ({{IPA link|ʒ}}) {{Nastaliq|ژ}}
| colspan="2" | ({{IPA link|ɣ}}) {{Nastaliq|غ}}
| 
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
|
| {{IPA link|l}} {{Nastaliq|ل}}
|
| {{IPA link|j}} {{Nastaliq|ی}}
|
|
|
|}

'''Notes'''
* Marginal and non-universal phonemes are in parentheses.
* {{IPA|/ɣ/}} is [[Voiced velar fricative|post-velar]].<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Kachru|2006|p=20}}</ref>

=== Vowels ===
{| class="wikitable"
|+Urdu vowels<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Masica|1991|p=110}}</ref><ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Ohala|1999|p=102}}</ref><ref name="CRULPPhonetics2" /><ref name="Saleem-2002" />
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" |[[Front vowel|Front]]
! colspan="2" |[[Central vowel|Central]]
! colspan="2" |[[Back vowel|Back]]
|- class="small"
![[Short vowel|short]]
![[Long vowel|long]]
!short
!long
!short
!long
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Close vowel|Close]]
!<small>oral</small>
|{{IPA link|ɪ}}
|{{IPA link|iː}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|ʊ}}
|{{IPA link|uː}}
|-
!<small>[[Nasalization|nasal]]</small>
|{{IPA link|ɪ̃}}
|{{IPA link|ĩː}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|ʊ̃}}
|{{IPA link|ũː}}
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Close-mid vowel|Close-mid]]
!<small>oral</small>
|
|{{IPA link|eː}}
|{{IPA link|ə}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|oː}}
|-
!<small>[[Nasalization|nasal]]</small>
|
|{{IPA link|ẽː}}
|{{IPA link|ə̃}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|õː}}
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]
!<small>oral</small>
|{{IPA link|ɛ}}
|{{IPA link|ɛː}}
|
|
|{{IPA link|ɔ}}
|{{IPA link|ɔː}}
|-
!<small>[[Nasalization|nasal]]</small>
|
|{{IPA link|ɛ̃ː}}
|
|
|
|{{IPA link|ɔ̃ː}}
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Open vowel|Open]]
!<small>oral</small>
|
|({{IPA link|æː}})
|
|{{IPA link|ä|aː}}
|
|
|-
!<small>[[Nasalization|nasal]]</small>
|
|({{IPA link|æ̃ː}})
|
|{{IPA link|ãː}}
|
|
|}

'''Notes'''
* This table contains a list of phones, not phonemes. In particular, [ɛ] is an allophone of /ə/ near /h/, and the short nasal vowels are not phonemic either.
* Marginal and non-universal vowels are in parentheses.

== Vocabulary ==
{{Main|Hindi-Urdu vocabulary}}
{{Further|Hindustani etymology}}Syed Ahmed Dehlavi, a 19th-century [[lexicographer]] who compiled the ''[[Farhang e Asifiya|Farhang-e-Asifiya]]''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Farhang-e-Asifiya |trans-title=فرہنگِ آصفیہ |url=https://xn--mgbqf7g.com/%d9%81%d8%b1%db%81%d9%86%da%af/%d9%84%d8%ba%d8%aa |website=Urdu Gah}}</ref> Urdu dictionary, estimated that 75% of Urdu words have their etymological roots in [[Sanskrit]] and [[Prakrit]],<ref name="Ahmad20022">{{cite book|title=Lineages of the Present: Ideology and Politics in Contemporary South Asia|last=Ahmad|first=Aijaz|publisher=Verso|year=2002|isbn=9781859843581|page=113|language=en|quote=On this there are far more reliable statistics than those on population. ''Farhang-e-Asafiya'' is by general agreement the most reliable Urdu dictionary. It was compiled in the late nineteenth century by an Indian scholar little exposed to British or Orientalist scholarship. The lexicographer in question, Syed Ahmed Dehlavi, had no desire to sunder Urdu's relationship with Farsi, as is evident even from the title of his dictionary. He estimates that roughly 75 per cent of the total stock of 55,000 Urdu words that he compiled in his dictionary are derived from Sanskrit and Prakrit, and that the entire stock of the base words of the language, without exception, are derived from these sources. What distinguishes Urdu from a great many other Indian languauges ... is that it draws almost a quarter of its vocabulary from language communities to the west of India, such as Farsi, Turkish, and Tajik. Most of the little it takes from Arabic has not come directly but through Farsi.}}</ref><ref name="Dalmia20172">{{cite book|title=Hindu Pasts: Women, Religion, Histories|last=Dalmia|first=Vasudha|date=31 July 2017|publisher=[[SUNY Press]]|isbn=9781438468075|page=310|language=en|quote=On the issue of vocabulary, Ahmad goes on to cite Syed Ahmad Dehlavi as he set about to compile the Farhang-e-Asafiya, an Urdu dictionary, in the late nineteenth century. Syed Ahmad 'had no desire to sunder Urdu's relationship with Farsi, as is evident from the title of his dictionary. He estimates that roughly 75 percent of the total stock of 55.000 Urdu words that he compiled in his dictionary are derived from Sanskrit and Prakrit, and that the entire stock of the base words of the language, without exception, are from these sources' (2000: 112–13). As Ahmad points out, Syed Ahmad, as a member of Delhi's aristocratic elite, had a clear bias towards Persian and Arabic. His estimate of the percentage of Prakitic words in Urdu should therefore be considered more conservative than not. The actual proportion of Prakitic words in everyday language would clearly be much higher.}}</ref><ref name="Taj19972">{{cite web|url=http://www.unc.edu/~taj/abturdu.htm|title=About Hindi-Urdu|last=Taj|first=Afroz|year=1997|publisher=[[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]]|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090815023328/http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/fl/faculty/taj/hindi/abturdu.htm|archive-date=15 August 2009|access-date=27 March 2018}}</ref> and approximately 99% of Urdu verbs have their roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/681263/urdus-origin-its-not-a-camp-language|title=Urdu's origin: it's not a "camp language"|date=17 December 2011|work=Dawn|location=Pakistan|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924135247/http://www.dawn.com/news/681263/urdus-origin-its-not-a-camp-language|archive-date=24 September 2015|access-date=5 July 2015|quote=Urdu nouns and adjective can have a variety of origins, such as Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Pushtu and even Portuguese, but ninety-nine per cent of Urdu verbs have their roots in Sanskrit/Prakrit. So it is an Indo-Aryan language which is a branch of Indo-Iranian family, which in turn is a branch of Indo-European family of languages. According to Dr Gian Chand Jain, Indo-Aryan languages had three phases of evolution beginning around 1,500 BC and passing through the stages of Vedic Sanskrit, classical Sanskrit and Pali. They developed into Prakrit and Apbhransh, which served as the basis for the formation of later local dialects.}}</ref><ref name="PTI19952">{{cite book|title=India Perspectives, Volume 8|date=1995|publisher=PTI for the Ministry of External Affairs|page=23|language=en|quote=All verbs in Urdu are of Sanskrit origin. According to lexicographers, only about 25 percent words in Urdu diction have Persian or Arabic origin.}}</ref> Urdu has borrowed words from Persian and to a lesser extent, [[Arabic]] through Persian,<ref name="Versteegh19972">{{cite book|title=The Arabic Language|last1=Versteegh|first1=Kees|last2=Versteegh|first2=C. H. M.|date=1997|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231111522|language=en|quote=... of the Qufdn; many Arabic loanwords in the indigenous languages, as in Urdu and Indonesian, were introduced mainly through the medium of Persian.}}</ref> to the extent of about 25%<ref name="Ahmad20022" /><ref name="Dalmia20172" /><ref name="Taj19972" /><ref name="Khan19892">{{cite book|title=Studies in Contrastive Analysis|last1=Khan|first1=Iqtidar Husain|date=1989|publisher=[[Aligarh Muslim University|The Department of Linguistics of Aligarh Muslim University]]|page=5|language=en|quote=It is estimated that almost 25% of the Urdu vocabulary consists of words which are of Persian and Arabic origin.}}</ref> to 30% of Urdu's vocabulary.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=upHRAAAAMAAJ&q=urdu+persianized+30%25|title=Reports Service: South Asia series|author=American Universities Field Staff|date=1966|publisher=American Universities Field Staff|page=43|language=en|quote=The Urdu vocabulary is about 30% Persian.}}</ref> A table illustrated by the linguist Afroz Taj of the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]] likewise illustrates the number of Persian loanwords to native Sanskrit-derived words in literary Urdu as comprising a 1:4 ratio.<ref name="Taj19972" />

[[File:Zaban_urdu_mualla.png|thumb|The phrase Z''ubān-e-Urdū-e-Muʿallā'' ("the language of the exalted camp") written in the [[Perso-Arabic]] script<ref name="Naim1999">{{citation|last=Naim|first=C. M.|author-link=C. M. Naim|title=Ambiguities of Heritage: Fictions and Polemics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OwHhAAAAMAAJ|year=1999|work=City Press|location=South Africa|isbn=978-969-8380-19-9|page=87}}</ref>]]

The "trend towards Persianisation" started in the 18th century by the Delhi school of Urdu poets, though other writers, such as [[Meeraji]], wrote in a Sanskritised form of the language.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sqBjpV9OzcsC&pg=PA36|title=History of Indian Literature: 1911–1956, struggle for freedom : triumph and tragedy|last=Das|first=Sisir Kumar|date=2005|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|isbn=9788172017989|language=en|quote=Professor Gopi Chand Narang points out that the trends towards Persianization in Urdu is not a new phenomenon. It started with the Delhi school of poets in the eighteenth century in the name of standardization (''meyar-bandi''). It further tilted towards Arabo-Persian influences, writes Narang, with the rise of Iqbal. 'The diction of Faiz Ahmad Faiz who came into prominence after the death of Iqbal is also marked by Persianization; so it is the diction of N.M. Rashid, who popularised free verse in Urdu poetry. Rashid's language is clearly marked by fresh Iranian influences as compared to another trend-setter, Meeraji. Meeraji is on the other extreme because he used Hindized Urdu.'}}</ref> There has been a move towards hyper Persianisation in Pakistan since 1947, which has been adopted by much of the country's writers;<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0X1jAAAAMAAJ&q=%E2%80%9CHyper-persianized%E2%80%9D|title=Hindi and Urdu Since 1800: A Common Reader|last=Shackle|first=C.|date=1 January 1990|publisher=Heritage Publishers|isbn=9788170261629|language=en}}</ref> as such, some Urdu texts can be composed of 70% Perso-Arabic loanwords just as some Persian texts can have 70% Arabic vocabulary.<ref name="Kaye-1997">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T6jmziooEk0C&q=urdu+70%25+persian&pg=PA639|title=Phonologies of Asia and Africa: (including the Caucasus)|last=Kaye|first=Alan S.|date=30 June 1997|publisher=Eisenbrauns|isbn=9781575060194|language=en}}</ref> Some Pakistani Urdu speakers have incorporated Hindi vocabulary into their speech as a result of exposure to Indian entertainment.<ref name="Patel20132">{{cite news|url=https://www.firstpost.com/india/kids-have-it-right-boundaries-of-urdu-and-hindi-are-blurred-579088.html|title=Kids have it right: boundaries of Urdu and Hindi are blurred|last1=Patel|first1=Aakar|date=6 January 2013|work=[[Firstpost]]|language=en|access-date=9 November 2019}}</ref><ref name="Gangan20112">{{cite news|url=https://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-in-pakistan-hindi-flows-smoothly-into-urdu-1619245|title=In Pakistan, Hindi flows smoothly into Urdu|last1=Gangan|first1=Surendra|date=30 November 2011|newspaper=[[DNA India]]|language=en|access-date=9 November 2019|quote=That Bollywood and Hindi television daily soaps are a hit in Pakistan is no news. So, it's hardly surprising that the Urdu-speaking population picks up and uses Hindi, even the tapori lingo, in its everyday interaction. "The trend became popular a few years ago after Hindi films were officially allowed to be released in Pakistan," said Rafia Taj, head of the mass communication department, University of Karachi. "I don't think it's a threat to our language, as it is bound to happen in the globalisation era. It is anytime better than the attack of western slangs on our language," she added.}}</ref> In India, Urdu has not diverged from Hindi as much as it has in Pakistan.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ieMgAAAAQBAJ&q=hindi+urdu+natioanal+varieties&pg=PA385|title=Pluricentric Languages: Differing Norms in Different Nations|last=Clyne|first=Michael|date=24 May 2012|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-088814-0|language=en}}</ref>

Most borrowed words in Urdu are nouns and adjectives.<ref name="Jain-2007">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OtCPAgAAQBAJ&q=difference+between+urdu+and+hindi&pg=PA294|title=The Indo-Aryan Languages|last1=Jain|first1=Danesh|last2=Cardona|first2=George|date=26 July 2007|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-79711-9|pages=294|language=en}}</ref> Many of the words of Arabic origin have been adopted through Persian,<ref name="Ahmad20022" /> and have different pronunciations and nuances of meaning and usage than they do in Arabic. There are also a smaller number of borrowings from [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]. Some examples for Portuguese words borrowed into Urdu are ''chabi'' ("chave": key), ''girja'' ("igreja": church), ''kamra'' ("cámara": room), ''qamīz'' ("camisa": shirt).<ref>Paul Teyssier: História da Língua Portuguesa'', S. 94. Lisbon 1987''</ref>

Although the word ''[[wikt:Urdu|Urdu]]'' is derived from the [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] word ''[[wikt:ordu|ordu]]'' (army) or [[Orda (organization)|orda]], from which English ''[[wikt:horde|horde]]'' is also derived,<ref name="Austin20082">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q3tAqIU0dPsC&pg=PA120|title=One thousand languages: living, endangered, and lost|author=Peter Austin|date=1 September 2008|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-25560-9|pages=120–|access-date=29 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509064417/http://books.google.com/books?id=Q3tAqIU0dPsC&pg=PA120|archive-date=9 May 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> Turkic borrowings in Urdu are minimal<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/672945/|title=Language: Urdu and the borrowed words|author=InpaperMagazine|date=13 November 2011|work=Dawn|location=Pakistan|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702191109/http://www.dawn.com/news/672945/|archive-date=2 July 2015|access-date=29 March 2015}}</ref> and Urdu is also not [[Genetic relationship (linguistics)|genetically related]] to the [[Turkic languages]]. Urdu words originating from [[Chagatai language|Chagatai]] and Arabic were borrowed through Persian and hence are Persianised versions of the original words. For instance, the Arabic ''[[ta' marbuta]]'' (&nbsp;{{lang|ar|ة}}&nbsp;) changes to ''[[He (letter)|he]]'' (&nbsp;{{lang|ur|{{nq|ه}}}}&nbsp;) or ''[[Taw (letter)|te]]'' (&nbsp;{{lang|ur|{{nq|ت}}}}&nbsp;).<ref>John R. Perry, "Lexical Areas and Semantic Fields of Arabic" in Éva Ágnes Csató, Eva Agnes Csato, Bo Isaksson, Carina Jahani, ''Linguistic convergence and areal diffusion: case studies from Iranian, Semitic and Turkic'', Routledge, 2005. pg 97: "It is generally understood that the bulk of the Arabic vocabulary in the central, contiguous Iranian, Turkic and Indic languages was originally borrowed into literary Persian between the ninth and thirteenth centuries"</ref><ref group="note">An example can be seen in the word "need" in Urdu. Urdu uses the [[Persian language|Persian]] version ضرورت rather than the original Arabic ضرورة. See: [http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.5:1:5370.platts John T. Platts "A dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English" (1884) Page 749] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225125131/http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.5:1:5370.platts |date=25 February 2021 }}. Urdu and Hindi use Persian pronunciation in their loanwords, rather than that of Arabic– for instance rather than pronouncing ض as the ''[[wikiwikiweb:emphatic consonant|emphatic consonant]]'' "ḍ", the original sound in ''[[Arabic phonology|Arabic]]'', Urdu uses the Persian pronunciation "z". See: [http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.5:1:5339.platts John T. Platts "A dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English" (1884) Page 748] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414045951/http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.5:1:5339.platts |date=14 April 2021 }}</ref> Nevertheless, contrary to popular belief, Urdu did not borrow from the [[Turkish language]], but from [[Chagatai language|Chagatai]], a [[Turkic language]] from Central Asia.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}} Urdu and Turkish both borrowed from Arabic and Persian, hence the similarity in pronunciation of many Urdu and Turkish words.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=María Isabel Maldonado García|last2=Mustafa Yapici|year=2014|title=Common Vocabulary in Urdu and Turkish Language: A Case of Historical Onomasiology|url=http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/studies/PDF-FILES/Artical-10_v15_no1.pdf|journal=Journal of Pakistan Vision|volume=15|issue=1|pages=193–122|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927195813/http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/studies/PDF-FILES/Artical-10_v15_no1.pdf|archive-date=27 September 2015}}</ref>

== Formality ==
[[File:Lashkari Zaban calligraphy.png|thumb|''Lashkari Zabān'' title in Naskh script]]
Urdu in its less formalised [[Register (sociolinguistics)|register]] is known as ''[[rekhta]]'' ({{langx|ur|{{Nastaliq|ریختہ}}|rek̤h̤tah|rough mixture|label=none}}, {{IPA|ur|reːxtaː}}); the more formal register is sometimes referred to as {{langx|ur|{{Nastaliq|زبانِ اُردُوئے معلّٰى}}|zabān-i Urdū-yi muʿallá|language of the exalted camp|label=none}} ({{IPA|ur|zəbaːn eː ʊrdu eː moəllaː}}) or {{langx|ur|label=none|{{Nastaliq|لشکری زبان}}|lashkari zabān|military language}} ({{IPA|ur|ləʃkəɾi: zəbɑ:n}}), referring to the Imperial army<ref>Colin P. Masica, The Indo-Aryan languages. Cambridge Language Surveys (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993). 466,</ref> or simply ''Lashkari''.<ref name="Ahmad2009">{{cite book|author=Aijazuddin Ahmad|title=Geography of the South Asian Subcontinent: A Critical Approach|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I2QmPHeIowoC&pg=PA120|year=2009|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|isbn=978-81-8069-568-1|pages=120–|quote=The very word Urdu came into being as the original '''Lashkari''' dialect, in other words, the language of the army.}}</ref> The [[etymology]] of the word used in Urdu, for the most part, decides how polite or refined one's speech is. For example, Urdu speakers distinguish between {{langx|ur|label=none|{{Nastaliq|پانی}}|pānī}} and {{langx|ur|label=none|{{Nastaliq|آب}}|āb}}, both meaning ''water''. The former is used colloquially and has older [[Sanskrit]] origins; the latter is used formally and poetically, being of [[Persian language|Persian]] origin.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

If a word is of Persian or Arabic origin, the level of speech is considered to be more formal and grander. Similarly, if Persian or Arabic grammar constructs, such as the [[izafat]], are used in Urdu, the level of speech is also considered more formal. If a word is inherited from [[Sanskrit]], the level of speech is considered more colloquial and personal.<ref name="University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill2">{{cite web|url=http://www.unc.edu/|title=About Urdu|publisher=Afroz Taj (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090815023328/http://sasw.chass.ncsu.edu/fl/faculty/taj/hindi/abturdu.htm|archive-date=15 August 2009|access-date=26 February 2008}}</ref>

== Writing system {{Anchor|Writing system}} ==
{{Main|Urdu alphabet|Urdu braille}}
{{further|Hindustani orthography}}
[[File:Urdu-alphabet-en-hi-final.svg|thumb|The [[Urdu alphabet]], with transliterations in the Roman and Devanagari scripts]]
[[File:Double-Headed Eagle Stupa at Sirkap 06.jpg|thumb|An English-Urdu bilingual sign at the archaeological site of [[Sirkap]], near [[Taxila]]. The Urdu says: (right to left) {{unq|دو سَروں والے عقاب کی شبيہ والا مندر}}, dō sarōñ wālé u'qāb kī shabīh wāla mandir. "The temple with the image of the eagle with two heads."]]

Urdu is written right-to left in an extension of the [[Persian alphabet]], which is itself an extension of the [[Arabic alphabet]]. Urdu is associated with the [[Nastaʿlīq script|Nastaʿlīq style]] of [[Persian calligraphy]], whereas Arabic is generally written in the ''[[Naskh (script)|Naskh]]'' or ''[[Ruq`ah script|Ruq'ah]]'' styles. Because of its thousands of [[ligature (typography)|ligature]]s, ''Nasta’liq'' is notoriously difficult to typeset, so Urdu newspapers were hand-written by masters of calligraphy, known as ''kātib'' or ''<u>kh</u>ush-nawīs'', until the late 1980s. One handwritten Urdu newspaper, ''[[The Musalman]]'', is still published daily in [[Chennai]].<ref>[http://globalvoices.org/2012/03/26/india-the-last-handwritten-newspaper-in-the-world/ India: The Last Handwritten Newspaper in the World · Global Voices] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001230028/https://globalvoices.org/2012/03/26/india-the-last-handwritten-newspaper-in-the-world/|date=1 October 2015}}. Globalvoices.org (26 March 2012). Retrieved 12 July 2013.</ref> [[InPage]], a widely used [[desktop publishing]] tool for Urdu, has over 20,000 ligatures in its Nastaʿliq [[computer font]]s.

A highly Persianised and technical form of Urdu was the ''lingua franca'' of the law courts of the British administration in Bengal and the North-West Provinces & Oudh. Until the late 19th century, all proceedings and court transactions in this register of Urdu were written officially in the Persian script.

=== Romanisation ===
{{main article|Roman Urdu|Urdish}}
Many people often use the [[Latin script]] to write Urdu on digital platforms, a practice commonly referred to as [[Roman Urdu]]. Its usage dates back to 1804 in colonial India, when Roman Urdu Bibles were published by the [[British and Foreign Bible Society]] and later, the [[Bible Society of India]] (these continue to enjoy usage in parts of [[Uttar Pradesh]]).<ref name="Hooper1963">{{cite book |last1=Hooper |first1=John Stirling Morley |title=Bible Translation in India, Pakistan and Ceylon |date=1963 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=53 |language=en|quote=... Roman Urdu Bible, although it still persists in some measure in the churches round Allahabad. A Roman Catholic version of the New Testament in Roman characters, known as the Hartmann Version, was issued at Patna in 1864.}}</ref><ref name="Sharda 2015">{{cite web |last1=Sharda |first1=Shailvee |title=When story of Jesus was penned in Roman Urdu |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/when-story-of-jesus-was-penned-in-roman-urdu/articleshow/49876462.cms |publisher=[[The Times of India]] |access-date=25 July 2025 |date=22 November 2015}}</ref>

Roman Urdu has faced criticism from linguists and cultural commentators, who argue that its widespread use may contribute to the erosion or marginalization of the traditional Perso-Arabic script used for writing Urdu.

=== Other scripts used ===
In 1880, [[Ashley Eden|Sir Ashley Eden]], the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal in colonial India abolished the use of the Persian alphabet in the law courts of Bengal and ordered the exclusive use of [[Kaithi]], a popular script used for both Urdu and Hindi; in the [[Bihar Province]], the court language was Urdu written in the Kaithi script.<ref name="Pandey2007">{{cite web |last1=Pandey |first1=Anshuman |title=Proposal to Encode the Kaithi Script in ISO/IEC 10646 |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2007/07418-kaithi.pdf |publisher=[[Unicode]] |access-date=16 October 2020 |language=en |date=13 December 2007|quote=Kaithi was used for writing Urdu in the law courts of Bihar when it replaced Perso-Arabic as the official script during the 1880s. The majority of extant legal documents from Bihar from the British period are in Urdu written in Kaithi. There is a substantial number of such manuscripts, specimens of which are given in Figure 21, Figure 22, and Figure 23.}}</ref><ref name="King1999">{{cite book |last1=King |first1=Christopher Rolland |title=One Language, Two Scripts: The Hindi Movement in Nineteenth Century North India |date=1999 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-565112-6 |page=67 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ashraf |first1=Ali |title=The Muslim Elite |date=1982 |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distributors |page=80 |language=en |quote=The court language however was Urdu in 'Kaithi' script in spite of the use of English as the official language.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Varma |first1=K. K. |last2=Lal |first2=Manohar |title=Social Realities in Bihar |date=1997 |publisher=Novelty & Company |language=en |quote=The language of learning and administration in Bihar before the East India Company was Persian, and later it was replaced by English. The court language, however, continued to be Urdu written in Kaithi script.|page=347}}</ref> Kaithi's association with Urdu and Hindi was ultimately eliminated by the political contest between these languages and their scripts, in which the Persian script was definitively linked to Urdu.<ref>{{cite news |last1=ghose |first1=sagarika |title=Urdu Bharti: नौकरी के लिए भटक रहे हैं 4 हजार उर्दू शिक्षक, कोर्ट कोर्ट खेल रही है सरकार.. |url=https://navbharattimes.indiatimes.com/education/education-news/4-thousand-urdu-bharti-candidates-did-not-get-joining-after-court-order/articleshow/76753747.cms |access-date=13 September 2020 |work=Navbharat Times |language=hi}}</ref>

More recently in India,{{when|date=February 2024}} Urdu speakers have adopted [[Devanagari]] for publishing Urdu periodicals and have innovated new strategies to mark Urdu in Devanagari as distinct from Hindi in Devanagari.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ahmad |first=Rizwan |date=2011 |title=Urdu in Devanagari: Shifting orthographic practices and Muslim identity in Delhi |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23011824 |journal=Language in Society |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=259–284 |issn=0047-4045}}</ref> Such publishers have introduced new orthographic features into Devanagari for the purpose of representing the Perso-Arabic etymology of Urdu words. One example is the use of अ (Devanagari ''a'') with vowel signs to mimic contexts of {{Nastaliq|ع}} (''[[Ayin|‘ain]]''), in violation of Hindi orthographic rules. For Urdu publishers, the use of Devanagari gives them a greater audience, whereas the orthographic changes help them preserve a distinct identity of Urdu.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ahmad |first=Rizwan |year=2011 |title=Urdu in Devanagari: Shifting orthographic practices and Muslim identity in Delhi |journal=Language in Society |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=259–284 |doi=10.1017/S0047404511000182 |url=https://www.academia.edu/4049639 |jstor=23011824 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|hdl=10576/10736 |s2cid=55975387 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Some poets from [[Bengal]], namely [[Qazi Nazrul Islam]], have historically used the [[Bengali script]] to write Urdu poetry like ''Prem Nagar Ka Thikana Karle'' and ''Mera Beti Ki Khela'', as well as bilingual Bengali-Urdu poems like ''Alga Koro Go Khõpar Bãdhon'', ''Juboker Chholona'' and ''Mera Dil Betab Kiya''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sovyota.com/?p=2360|language=bn|title=বিদ্রোহী কবি নজরুল; একটি বুলেট কিংবা কবিতার উপাখ্যান|date=1 June 2014|access-date=9 October 2021|archive-date=26 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326033721/https://sovyota.com/?p=2360|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=নজরুল নির্দেশিকা|language=bn|year=1969|author=Islam, Rafiqul}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=বাংলা সাহিত্যে নজরুল|trans-title=Nazrul in Bengali literature|language=bn|author=Khan, Azahar Uddin|year=1956|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.301836/page/n21/mode/2up}}</ref> [[Dhakaiya Urdu]] is a colloquial non-standard dialect of Urdu which was typically not written. However, organisations seeking to preserve the dialect have begun transcribing the dialect in the [[Bengali script]].{{NoteTag|Organisations like Dhakaiya Sobbasi Jaban and Dhakaiya Movement, among others, consistently write Dhakaiya Urdu using the Bengali script.}}<ref name=book>{{cite book|title=বাংলা-ঢাকাইয়া সোব্বাসী ডিক্সেনারি (বাংলা – ঢাকাইয়া সোব্বাসী অভিধান)|language=bn|editor1=Muhammad Shahabuddin Sabu|editor2=Nazir Uddin|publisher=Takiya Mohammad Publications|year=2021|location=[[Bangla Bazar]], Dhaka}}</ref><ref name=samakal>{{cite news|date=17 January 2021|title=বাংলা-ঢাকাইয়া সোব্বাসী অভিধানের মোড়ক উন্মোচন|language=bn|url=https://samakal.com/todays-print-edition/tp-khobor/article/210178300/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%82%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A2%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%87%E0%A7%9F%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%80-%E0%A6%85%E0%A6%AD%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A7%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%8B%E0%A7%9C%E0%A6%95-%E0%A6%89%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%A8|website=[[Samakal]]|trans-title=Unveiling of 'Bangla-Dhakaiya Sobbasi' Dictionary|access-date=14 February 2021|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414050551/https://samakal.com/todays-print-edition/tp-khobor/article/210178300/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%82%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A2%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%87%E0%A7%9F%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%80-%E0%A6%85%E0%A6%AD%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A7%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%8B%E0%A7%9C%E0%A6%95-%E0%A6%89%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%A8|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Glossary of the British Raj]]
* [[List of Urdu-language poets]]
* [[List of Urdu-language writers]]
* [[Persian and Urdu]]
* [[Persian language in the Indian subcontinent]]
* [[States of India by Urdu speakers]]
* [[Uddin and Begum Hindustani Romanisation]]
* [[Urdu Digest]]
* [[Urdu in the United Kingdom]]
* [[Urdu Informatics]]
* [[Urdu keyboard]]
* [[Urdu poetry]]
* [[Urdu-speaking people]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

=== Footnotes ===
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

=== Sources ===
* {{Cite book |last=Kachru |first=Yamuna |author-link=Yamuna Kachru |year=2006 |title=Hindi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ooH5VfLTQEQC |location=Amsterdam & Philadelphia |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing |isbn=90-272-3812-X |oclc=233649033}}
* {{Cite book |last=Masica |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Masica |year=1991 |title=The Indo-Aryan Languages |url=https://archive.org/details/indoaryanlanguag0000masi |url-access=registration |series=Cambridge Language Surveys |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-29944-2 |oclc=18947567}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ohala |first=Manjari |year=1999 |chapter=Hindi |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/rosettaproject_hin_phon-3 |chapter-url-access=registration |editor-last=International Phonetic Association |title=Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet |url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofintern0000inte/mode/2up |url-access=registration |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=100–103 |isbn=978-0-521-63751-0 |oclc=1258036657}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite journal |last=Alam |first=Muzaffar |title=The Pursuit of Persian: Language in Mughal Politics |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=32 |issue=2 |date=May 1998 |pages=317–349|doi=10.1017/S0026749X98002947 |s2cid=146630389 }}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Asher |editor-first=R. E. |year=1994 |title=The Encyclopedia of language and linguistics |location=Oxford |publisher=Pergamon Press |isbn=0-08-035943-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Azad |first=Muhammad Husain |year=2001 |orig-date=1907 |title=Aab-e hayat |location=Lahore |publisher=Naval Kishor Gais Printing Works |language=ur}}
** {{cite book |last=Azad |first=Muhammad Husain |year=2001 |orig-date=1907 |title=Aab-e hayat |location=Delhi |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en}}
* {{cite book |last=Azim |first=Anwar |year=1975 |chapter=Urdu a victim of cultural genocide |editor-first=Z. |editor-last=Imam |title=Muslims in India |page=259}}
* ''The Comparative study of Urdu and Khowar''. Badshah Munir Bukhari National Language Authority Pakistan 2003.
* {{cite book |last=Blochmann |first=Henry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xY8xAAAAMAAJ |title=English and Urdu dictionary, romanised |year=1877 |publisher=Printed at the Baptist mission press for the Calcutta school-book society |edition= 8th |location=Calcutta |page=215 |access-date=6 July 2011 |author-link=Henry Blochmann}}
* Bhatia, Tej K. 1996. ''Colloquial Hindi: The Complete Course for Beginners''. London, UK & New York, NY: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-11087-4}} (Book), 0415110882 (Cassettes), 0415110890 (Book & Cassette Course)
* Bhatia, Tej K. and Koul Ashok. 2000. "Colloquial Urdu: The Complete Course for Beginners." London: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-13540-0}} (Book); {{ISBN|0-415-13541-9}} (cassette); {{ISBN|0-415-13542-7}} (book and casseettes course)
* {{cite book |last=Chatterji |first=Suniti K. |year=1960 |title=Indo-Aryan and Hindi |edition=revised 2nd |location=Calcutta |publisher=Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay}}
* {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/agrammarurdorhi00dowsgoog |title=A grammar of the Urdū or Hindūstānī language |first=John |last=Dowson |year=1872 |publisher=Trübner & Co. |edition=1st |location=London  |page=264 |access-date=6 July 2011}}
* {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/grammarofurduorh00dowsiala|title=A grammar of the Urdū or Hindūstānī language |first=John |last=Dowson |year=1908 |publisher=K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. |edition= 3rd |location=London |page=264 |access-date=6 July 2011}}
* {{cite book |last=Dua |first=Hans R. |year=1992 |chapter=Hindi-Urdu as a pluricentric language |editor-first=M. G. |editor-last=Clyne |title=Pluricentric languages: Differing norms in different nations |location=Berlin |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |isbn=3-11-012855-1}}
* Dua, Hans R. 1994a. Hindustani. In Asher, 1994; pp.&nbsp;1554.
* Dua, Hans R. 1994b. Urdu. In Asher, 1994; pp.&nbsp;4863–4864.
* Durrani, Attash, 2008. '' Pakistani Urdu''.Islamabad: National Language Authority, Pakistan.
* {{Cite book |last=Gumperz |first=John J. |title=Discourse Strategies |url=https://archive.org/details/discoursestrateg00gump |year=1982 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url-access=registration |access-date=24 March 2022}}
* Hassan, Nazir and Omkar N. Koul 1980. ''Urdu Phonetic Reader''. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.
* {{cite news |last=Jamil |first=Syed Maqsud |title=The Literary Heritage of Urdu |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2006/06/03/culture.htm  |newspaper=Daily Star |date=16 June 2006 }}
* Kelkar, A. R. 1968. ''Studies in Hindi-Urdu: Introduction and word phonology''. Poona: Deccan College.
* Khan, M. H. 1969. Urdu. In T. A. Sebeok (Ed.), ''Current trends in linguistics'' (Vol. 5). The Hague: Mouton.
* {{cite book |last=King |first=Christopher R. |year=1994 |title=One Language, Two Scripts: The Hindi Movement in Nineteenth Century North India |location=Bombay |publisher=Oxford University Press }}
* {{Cite journal |last=King |first=Robert D. |year=2001 |title=The poisonous potency of script: Hindi and Urdu |url=http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/llog/King2001.pdf |journal=International Journal of the Sociology of Language |issue=150 |pages=43–59 |doi=10.1515/ijsl.2001.035}}
* {{cite book |last=Koul |first=Ashok K. |year=2008 |title=Urdu Script and Vocabulary |location=Delhi |publisher=Indian Institute of Language Studies }}
* {{cite book |last=Koul |first=Omkar N. |year=1994 |title=Hindi Phonetic Reader |location=Delhi |publisher=Indian Institute of Language Studies }}
* {{cite book |last=Koul |first=Omkar N. |year=2008 |title=Modern Hindi Grammar |location=Springfield |publisher=Dunwoody Press |url=http://www.koausa.org/iils/pdf/ModernHindiGrammar.pdf |access-date=23 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828190213/http://koausa.org/iils/pdf/ModernHindiGrammar.pdf |archive-date=28 August 2017 |url-status=dead }}
* {{Cite book |last=Lieven |first=Anatol |title=Pakistan : a hard country |date=2011 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-1-61039-021-7 |edition=1st |location=New York |oclc=710995260}}
* Mukherjee, Ramkrishna (2018). Understanding Social Dynamics in South Asia: Essays in Memory of Ramkrishna Mukherjee. Springer. pp.&nbsp;221–. {{ISBN|9789811303876}}.
* {{cite journal |last1=Narang |first1=G. C. |last2=Becker |first2=D. A. |year=1971 |title=Aspiration and nasalization in the generative phonology of Hindi-Urdu |journal=Language |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=646–767 |doi=10.2307/412381|jstor=412381}}
* {{cite thesis |last=Ohala |first=M. |year=1972 |title=Topics in Hindi-Urdu phonology |type=PhD dissertation |publisher=University of California |location=Los Angeles}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Phukan |first=Shantanu |year=2000 |title=The Rustic Beloved: Ecology of Hindi in a Persianate World |journal=The Annual of Urdu Studies |volume=15 |issue=5 |pages=1–30 |hdl=1793/18139}}
* {{cite book|last=Platts |first=John Thompson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cFIIAAAAQAAJ|title=A grammar of the Hindūstānī or Urdū language |year=1874|publisher=W.H. Allen|location=London|page=399|access-date=6 July 2011}}
* {{cite book |last=Platts |first=John Thompson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JBoYAAAAYAAJ|title=A grammar of the Hindūstānī or Urdū language |year=1892|publisher=W.H. Allen|location=London|page=399|access-date=6 July 2011}}
* {{cite book |last=Platts |first=John Thompson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iDtbAAAAQAAJ|title=A dictionary of Urdū, classical Hindī, and English|year=1884|publisher=H. Milford|edition= reprint|location=London|page=1259|access-date=6 July 2011}}
* [http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ghalib/index.html?urdu "A Desertful of Roses"], a site about Ghalib's Urdu ghazals by Frances W. Pritchett, Professor of Modern Indic Languages at Columbia University, New York, NY, US.
* {{cite book |last=Rai |first=Amrit |year=1984 |title=A house divided: The origin and development of Hindi-Hindustani |location=Delhi |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-561643-X}}
* ''Economic and Political Weekly''. Sameeksha Trust. 1996.
* Snell, Rupert, and Simon Weightman (1993). ''Teach Yourself Hindi: A Complete Guide for Beginners''. Audiobook on cassette plus book. Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Publishing Group. {{ISBN|9780844238630}}. {{OCLC|28654267}}.
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Sister project links|auto=1|voy=Urdu phrasebook|iw=ur}}
* [http://www.easyurdutyping.com/ Type in Urdu]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180511145915/https://www.urdulibraryonline.com/ Urdu Digital Library]
* [https://omniglot.com/conscripts/urdulatin.htm The Urdu Latin alphabet]
* [https://omniglot.com/conscripts/harufetana.htm Haruf-e-Tana, a constructed script for Urdu]
* [https://www.editorji.com/hindi/editorji-specials/world-urdu-day-urdu-language-history-and-development-know-how-it-originated-in-india-and-complete-journey-of-this-language-in-jharokha-1667913249240 Urdu Language History and Development]—By ''editorji'' magazine

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