Urdu language

History

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

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The birthplace of the Urdu language is not known with certainty. Urdu literature has been found from the Delhi Sultanate. One hypothesis proposes that Urdu originated in or around Delhi over a period of several centuries, by the Muslim rulers of India, and that initially it was used and adopted by Muslims.

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Over the last century, formal Urdu and Hindi have become increasingly differentiated as distinct idioms, primarily through a divergence of vocabulary. This differentiation is driven by the political passions unleashed by independence from British rule, the agonies of the Partition of India, and modern nationalism. When there is a choice between a Persian- or Arabic-derived word and a Sanskrit-derived one, formal Urdu chooses the Perso-Arabic word, while formal Hindi chooses the Sanskrit word. This differentiation is so well developed that enthusiasts, both Hindu and Muslim, claim that Hindi and Urdu are now separate languages, and often that they have always been separate languages. Linguists do not agree, pointing out that when people use less elevated vocabulary, it is often impossible to distinguish the two idioms. This is discussed in greater detail below.

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