Origin of Hindi and Urdu

[dr#]

i heard from someone when i was a kid that urdu differs from hindi by a matter of one or two dozen words......is that true or just bs?

[HindustaniLadka]

I think it is true. I asked some of my Pakistani friends about it and they all said that the only idfference was some vocabulary. Even when you hear someone speaking Urdu and Hindi side by side, it is very difficult to notice any major differences in the spoken language.

[aravindhan]

Actually, the question can only be answered if you separate the written and spoken languages.

- Spoken Hindi and spoken Urdu are virtually indistinguishable - very often, you can't tell which language someone is speaking unless you pay very close attention. However, written Hindi and written Urdu are very different. You have to learn each separately - you can't just know Hindi, learn the nastaliq script and hope to understand Urdu. I can read both, so I know what I'm talking about. Written Urdu is very Arabised, not only in vocabulary but also in grammar. For many words, the plurals are supposed to be formed not by adding "-en" or "-on" as we do in the spoken language, but by modifying the stem as is done in Arabic. So, for example, the plural of "labz" (word) is "alfaz", of "khwatoon" (woman) is "Khawateen", and so on.

- This language developed in north India. The Prakrts spoken in the Indo-Gangetic region developed into Apabrahmsa, which developed into a set of spoken dialects (Khariboli, Brajbhasha, Awadhi, etc.) from which the spoken language that is modern Hindi-Urdu evolved. A number of poems and songs were written in the various dialects, particularly Brajbhasha and Awadhi, during the mediaeval period. Amir Khusro wrote poetry in the speech of the Delhi-area, which he called "Hindavi".

- A version of this language was carried to the kingdoms of the Deccan. There it was refined and polished into a written literary form called Dakkni. Both written Hindi and written Urdu have evolved from Dakkni. To this extent, we can say that written Hindi evolved in the Deccan (although, obviously, spoken Hindi evolved in the Gangetic valley).

- Mughal poets began experimenting with using the language they used for everyday conversation to write their poetry. They were much inspired by Dakkni, and they appear to have used it as the base for their poetry after modifying it to reflect the verb forms used in the Delhi area. Mir-Taqi-Mir's poetry is particularly notable for its use of spoken forms and the spoken idiom. This new written form had a number of names, including Hindvi, Dehlavi, Rekhti and Urdu.

- As the Mughal empire declined, the written language of poetry became more and more Persianised and artificial. Some researchers have speculated that this was because the aristocracy were all too conscious of the decay that was going on around them, and their language and customs therefore became more and more ostentatious and persianate (as beautifully captured in Shatranj ka Khiladi). This Persianised language has evolved into modern Urdu.

- One author, Bharatendu Harishchandra, led a movement to combat the increasing persianisation. Bharatendu Harishchandra identified a scale of language, from extremely Persianised to extremely Sanskritised. In the middle was the speech of educated people in the towns of eastern UP which, he said, should be the standard on which he based the written language. He himself wrote a number of works in this standard. It's a pity that he's not read nowadays - his language is simply amazing. Modern Hindi is largely based on the written language which Bharatendu Harishchandra developed.

- The development of new written languages did not affect the way people spoke. So although written Hindi and Urdu continued to diverge through the rest of the 19th and 20th centuries, the spoken language stayed the same.

- In the middle of the 20th century, a decision was taken to sanskritise written Hindi, rather than following the more syncretic Hindustani tradition. This has helped to push Hindi further away both from Urdu and the spoken language (not to mention what Bharatendu Harischandra had wanted it to be). Similarly, written Urdu has been unbelievably Arabized in the latter half of the 20th century, which has pushed it away from both written Hindi and the spoken language.

A good outline of the history of Hindi and Urdu is Amrit Rai's "A House Divided". It's not an unbiased book - he is a partisan of a reunited common written standard - but it's nonetheless a very good summary of the history of the languages.

[oohlala]

Nice post Aravindhan.

Yeah spoken Hindi and Urdu are simillar. When i was in college there was a guy from Jammu and during intro on the 1st day he said that he know only Urdu and English(he was speaking in hindi according to us). when the prof asked him wat he was speaking, he said that he's speaking Urdu.

[HindustaniLadka]

So...which one came first, Hindi or Urdu?

[Idiappam]

So...which one came first, the egg or the chicken?

[lordstanher]

So...which one came first, the egg or the chicken?

Can toss a coin & decide lah!

[Crab]

Knock Knock,

I read online that the language we hear in Bollywood films is actually Hindustani not Hindi!

Is that true?

[Crab]

Urdu speakers in India must not be confused with the Urdu speakers in Pakistan.

Most of the Pakistani Urdu speakers ethnically belong to one race - Punjabi. Their sharp facial bone structure and light complexion easily gives away their race.

However, most of the Indian Urdu speakers ethnically don't belong to any single dominant race. You can find Punjabis, Pashtuns, Sindhis, Bengalis, Kashmiris, Malayalees and even scheduled people in India who speak Urdu. The differing facial bone structures (sharp to oval) and complexions (light to dark) are a living evidence.

:P

[HindustaniLadka]

"Punjabis, Pashtuns, Sindhis, Bengalis, Kashmiris, Malayalees"

NONE OF THESE ARE RACES, THEY ARE ALL LANGUAGES. THERE IS ONLY ONE RACE IN SOUTH ASIA. STOP MAKING UP GARBAGE AND STOP TRYING TO SPREAD HATRED...