Urdu is the national language of Pakistan and is widely spoken and understood in India as well. ‘Urdu’ is a Persian word meaning ‘army’. This language contains many Persian, Hindi, Turkish and Arabic words. When the British came to the Indian sub-continent, they not only added many words to this language but also took many from it e.g. Pukka, Sahib, Pajama etc. Urdu is very similar to Hindustani and both are generally called the same.
If anyone is interested in knowing more about this widely spoken language, I’ll be delighted to help.
Molvi Abdul Haq is known as ‘Baba-e-Urdu’ or Father of Urdu. The famous poets are Dr. Allama Mohammad Iqbal (also called the ‘poet of the west’), Mirza Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir, Akbar Allahbadi etc.
Why don’t you all share information about your language?
I’m interested to know this. It is very logical and very comical.
Why do you find it comical? Urdu by itself is a word and also a language. The meaning of Urdu word is Army, which describes the language because its formed by many different words taken from a bunch of languages. like in a army there are different commanders, generals, soldiers and different regiments the same way Urdu is created by mixing different languages. As w all know what makes a army strong is every department works with the other in a harmonious way like a machine every part is important if you take one thing out it changes in to something else.
As our noble friend mentioned before This language contains many Persian, Hindi, Turkish, English, Spanish and Arabic words That’s why you will see a Urdu speaking person having much easy to gain command over these languages than a just English speaker.
Hi,
I am Stella and I know that English has many words of Urdu. I found that the above article are quite interesting and useful for us. Thanks for sharing.
Stella
Welcome to the forum Stella if you need help with any language that I know feel free to ask it will be a honor to be a help.
Ahmaad another reason for Urdu to have so many different language words is the region of INDA has been invaded by Arabs Persians Chinese Mongols Turks Greeks Britts and now its with Hindu’s again. Every nation brought some of their culture and llanguage and tried to change it to their comfort. The locals took parts and peices of all those languages and formed a new language called Urdu. I guess this maybe a better explaination why the meaning of Urdu are a Army. Because evry Army that came there left their footprints on the language. Although Hindi sounds closest to Urdu but when its written its in Sansikrit format and Urdu is more like in Arabic or Farsi alphabets. Urdu grammer is more like Arabic grammer but to me it was easier to learn Farsi than Arabic.
You could probably write a great essay on this subject my friend.
I always take note of your postings as you do indeed have a good grasp of all things around you. Very rare for someone in your age group.
Your friend Kitosdad.
Ilyas, have you made a voice recording yet.? I would be interested in hearing you speaking. Give it a try.
hello everyone!
It is great to see that people are interested in this thread! Ilyas, your view of how urdu got its name is interesting but I’ve studied that Urdu is called Urdu actually because of this second argument you have given. Because the Indo-pak sub-continent had people speaking a wide ariety of languages and after the British entered, English were a major pert of the army, they needed a means to communicate with eachother. Everyone contributed some words of their language. it was like through an unwritten agreement, every body decided to make a new cuisine and contribut some ingredients! That is how Urdu evolved!
Since, it was the army that initiated this language, this language was orignally called “lashkary zuban”, meaning: the language of the army!
another interesting fact is that the cultured or learned people of the sub-continent did not use urdu, they preferred to communicate in Persian, which they called “shireen sukhan”! this means a “sweet language” They considered Urdu a language spoken by the uncultured.
Thanks for the actual facts my friend but I am glad my =>“guesfination”<= (A new word for English Language made by blending Guess and defination) was not far from the actual facts.
Ok now about Sheeren Sukhan AKA Persian AKA Farsi I am studing Farsi these days beside Eastren Arabic I am falling in love with Farsi what a marvelous and sweet language and so much easy to learn and speak. No glautal pauses and no harsh pronounciations its like composition of some melody. It just gets absorbed in your heart and the manners and addicates in this language are so exceptional beside kindness and respect I think if you guys have a bit time on your hands learn it for the joy of it.
Any Irani friends out there please help me learn the slangs in Farsi its hard to find them in Audio books. “Kheli Muteh-shakeran”.(Thank You very much)
Now a days Urdu has contributed so much to the world of Art and Poetry that its no longer the language of uncultured a few decades back the rural step sister of Urdu known as Punjabi was considered being un cultured language but by the contribution of many great punjabi artists and poetic scholars its making its place in the cultured circle. Zarqhuna be kind to us and give us some facts on punjabi as well its one of my most favorit languages as well. This language has a uniqe flavor to it like Coffee its addictive it can be bitter and yet great at the same time. The expressions in this language are so rich in romance and so bold that sometimes they threaten the very core of davinity. I can go on and on with my blaber so lets see if our noble friend can give us some historic facts of this great language.
what you said about farsi is very true, it really is like a symphony! Punjabi is actually my mom’s mother tongue so i can understand it but i’m unfortunatley not very fluent in speaking it. this, however, does not mean I can’t give you some interesting bits about it!
The name “Punjabi” comes from the region it is spoken in “The Punjab”. The word Punjab means five rivers, the land of five rivers. Punjab is actually a combination of two Persian words, “Punj” meaning five and “ab” (Pronounced Aab) meaning water which i think you had guessed already!
The ancestors of the Punjabis have been known to have inhabited the Indus Valley as far back as 2500 BC!
*Punjabi is fusion and tonal language. Tonal being that it distinguishes words by the tones and fusion, because of its tendency to fuse morphemes (a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning).
*It is from the Indo-Aryan group of languages, which is the sub group of Indo-Iranian and Indo-European group of languages.
*Punjabi uses two different scripts, Perso-Arabic and Gurmukhi. Perso-Arabic is used by Muslims of Pakistan, whereas Gurmukhi by the Sikhs of Eastern Punjab.
*Punjabi is the preferred language of the Sikh people and it is also the language of their religion.
*Almost a 100 million people worldwide speak different dialects of this language as their first language.
*The literary period of the language begins with the sacred scriptures of the Sikhs, the Guru Granth Sahib, this collection of writings by the Sikh Gurus is probably the first manuscript of the Punjabi language.
Zarqhuna Thankyou for giving us such detail defination of Punjabi and yes you are right about the 2500 BC. Archaeologists discovered two 4000-year-old cities, 400 miles apart, along the banks of the Indus River in Pakistan. These expertly constructed cities were parts of an advanced civilization comparable to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. :shock: We don’t know what the ancient people of the Indus River Valley called themselves. Archaeologists named the cities Mohenjo-Daro, which means “hill of the dead,” and Harappa, after a nearby city. 8)
The people of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa lived in sturdy brick houses that had as many as three floors. The houses had bathrooms that were connected to sewers. Their elaborate drainage system was centuries ahead of their time. :roll: Archaeologists have found the remains of fine jewelry, including stones from far away places. This shows that the people of the Indus Valley civilization valued art and traded with other cultures. 
Exactly! well, I’ve been to these places and it is very disturbing to see that the government has not paid them the attention these treasures deserve. Also around Taxila are the remains of the very flourishing Gandhara civilization. The stupas of Buddha are a sight to see, especially the Dharmarajika site. Taxila museum also homes some great wonders! which, by the way, also includes those sneaky souvenier sellers who rob the tourists of their earnings shamelessly!
