Urdu

The Ghaznavid Empire entered the subcontinent in the 11th century AD and ruled over Punjab, the land of five rivers.[11]

Punjab was also known as "Hind" or the land east of the Indus.[12]

The Ghaznavids, although racially Turkic, spoke Persian as their main language. When conquering Punjab or Hind with Lahore as its capital, they came into contact with the local population who spoke an Indo-Aryan language which began to adopt Persian words into their language. This local language was also the ancestor of modern standard Punjabi.[13]

The contacts between Persian and the native language of Punjab began to form a new language and that became known as 'Lashkari Zaban' or language of the battalions.[11][14]

This new language also known as Hindavi became the common language of the locals and the ruling Ghaznavids in the region. By the twelfth century AD, the Ghaznavids pushed further east into the subcontinent and brought this language to Delhi where it became influenced by the local language, Khariboli.[15]

From Delhi it spread across much of the northern subcontinent and became the common language of communication. It continued to be influenced by Khariboli and spread to cities like Lucknow and Hyderabad Daccan. It was also given new names and titles through the centuries.[16]

Native poets in these cities and most of the region contributed to its development and added many Persian and Chagatai words to it. They also indirectly added Arabic words which Persian already contained.

It continued to evolve during the Delhi Sultanate under the influence of Khariboli.

The Mughal Empire was another Muslim Empire of Turkic origin and spoke Chagatai natively and Persian as their other language, although they were not ethnically Persian or racially Iranic.

During this time the language commonly became known as the Zaban-i-Ordu or language of the Royal Camp.

By the very late eighteenth century AD, the poet Ghulam Mashafi is believed to have given it the name "Urdu" which was shortened from "Zaban-i-Urdu."[17]

The word is from Chagatai, the native language of the Mughals and belonged to the Eastern Turkic subfamily of languages. Chagatai was closely related to today's Uzbek and Uyghur and distantly related to today's Turkish because all of them belonged to the same Turkic family of languages.

In its own indigenous translation it was Lashkari Zaban and Lashkari for short.

Also during the Mughal Empire, what commonly became known as Urdu was a court language in a number of major South Asian cities, including Delhi, Amristsar, Lucknow and Lahore.[11]

By the time of the British Empire, it also became known as "Hindustani" or the language of Hindustan, the land of the Indus. It continued to serve as a court language in the same cities.

It was adopted as a first language by many people in North India.

By the end of British rule and the independence of Pakistan, it was selected as the national language for the people of the country because they spoke different languages and dialects.

In India it became the national language but went by the name Hindi and was written in the Devanagari script. It also used a lesser amount of Arabic, Persian and Chagatai words and instead Sanskrit words were adopted in their place.

Today it is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan in terms of total speakers and a registered language in 22 Indian states.

Ghulam Hamdani Mushafi, the poet first believed to have coined the name "Urdu" for the language around 1780 AD. Before that this language went by different names.[17]

Two very respected poets who are not only celebrated in the South Asian subcontinent but are famous in many other communities worldwide are Mirza Ghalib and Sir Dr Muhammed Iqbal. 

Formal Urdu:

Aap tashreef rakhein = Please have a seat

Main mu'azzarat chahta/chahti hun = Please excuse me/I apologize

Informal Urdu: Aap bethein (You sit) or Tum betho (Sit, more informal)

Main maafi chahta/chahti hun= I ask for forgiveness

*************

Aap kaisay hein? = How are you?

Main theek hun = I am fine

Assalam O Alaikum = Peace be upon you (It basically means hello, and it is a common greeting used in Islamic countries or among Muslims in general)

Although often misunderstood as two separate languages, Urdu and Hindi are two registers of the same Hindustani language, often called Hindi-Urdu.[20] Urdu is the official language of Pakistan and spoken by 71 million people in India.[21] Urdu's vocabulary borrows primarily from Chagatai, Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic. Hindi, also historically known as Hindui (हिंदुई),[22] is the most spoken language of India which replaces much of Urdu's Farsi, Chagatai and Arabic terminology with Sanskrit derived vocabulary. They are grammatically the same. Everyday words are often shared between the two registers, while formal vocabulary can differ significantly. Urdu and Hindi speakers are able to understand each other with little to no difficulty, largely from using shared, or English vocabulary, rather than using highly Arabized or Sanskritized vocabulary. Hindi speakers are more likely to use words of Arabic/Persian origin (Kitaab, Dil, Mahobbat), than Urdu speakers are to use words of Sanskrit origin (Pustak, Man, Prem), as Urdu-speaking Pakistani's have less exposure to Hindi, than Hindi-speaking Indians do to Urdu. This can be seen in Bollywoods extensive use of the Urdu register,[23] and India being a nation where both registers are natively spoken.[24]

Example

English: I want to know how your mind is feeling.

Literary Urdu: Mujhe aap ke dimaagh ki jazbaat maatloob hai.

Literary Hindi: Mujhe aap ke mastishk ka bhaav vaanchit hai.

Casual Hindustani: Main tere man* ka haal* jaanna chaata hun.

*man is of Sanskrit origin, while haal is of Arabic origin[25][26]

• ترتیب وڈیزائننگ ایم پی خاؿ اردولشکری زبان (sample texts)