Urdu Research

I have begun to do some deeper research into the language of Urdu in order to split the context of my book into certain topics/points. I know that my book will be small and the context will be quite short and snappy as the aim of the book is just to give a little insight to travellers/learners of the basic key points about the language, e.g; where it comes from, where it is spoken, the history, the Arabic script origins etc.

Important research points to mention in the publication:

Basic information to include at the start:

• Modern Standard Urdu is a Persianised standard register of the Hindustani language. It is the official national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. As well as Pakistan, it is also spoken in urban Afghanistan, in the major urban centers of the Persian Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia. Additionally, there is a large Urdu-speaking diaspora in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Norway and Australia

• Religious, social and political factors pushed for a distinction between Urdu and Hindi in India, leading to the Hindi–Urdu controversy.

The alphabet:

• The Perso-Arabic script is written from right to left, it consists of 28 basic letters, where as the English alphabet only has 26. Urdū has been written since the 12th century in the Perso-Arabic script, an adaptation of the Persian alphabet, which, in turn, is derived from the Arabic alphabet.

The development from Hindi:

• As Urdu and Hindi became means of religious and social construction for Muslims and Hindus respectively, each register developed its own script. The development of the two languages was also due to when Pakistan and India became two separate independent countries.

Interesting statistics:

• According to National encyklopedin's 2010 estimates, Urdu is the 21st most spoken first language in the world, with approximately 66 million speakers.

• Urdu is one of the 22 official languages recognized in the Constitution of India, having official status in the six states of Jammu and Kashmir, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

• Urdu is spoken by more than 100 million people