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Difference Between Urdu and Hindi

Urdu vs Hindi

Urdu and Hindi are two variants of the same language. Although they are relatively the same language, they have two distinct writing systems.

Both Urdu and Hindi have the same language origins. They came from the Indo-European and Indo-Aryan language families. Both languages are derived from Sanskrit. Because of this they have the same Indic base and have similar phonology and grammar. They also share the same region (South Asia) where they are predominately spoken.

The main difference between the two languages is their association. Hindi is a language used and spoken by Hindi people, the native and leading population of India. On the other hand, Urdu is associated with Pakistan and Muslims.

Hindi is mostly spoken in India and serves as its national language. The same goes for Urdu in Pakistan where it is a national language. In addition, Urdu is also spoken in India as a state official language. Both languages are spoken by its population in countries outside of India and Pakistan.

Both Hindi and Urdu contain influences of Persian, Arabic, and Turkic. However, the percentage differs in each language. Urdu has a lot of foreign influences and loanwords while Hindi has a lower application of the same foreign vocabularies. The two languages share many common words and lexicons from native, Arabic, Persian, and the English language.

In Hindi and Urdu, there are only two forms for gender (male and female). In terms of grammar, the verbs fall after the subject. Also, verbs agree with objects not the subjects.
At the colloquial level, speakers of both Urdu and Hindi can understand each other. However, the political vocabulary and highbrow level of both languages are completely different.

The Urdu writing system is called Nastaliq. It involves some Persian and Arabic script. Nastaliq is written from right to left. On the other hand, Hindi uses the Devanagari script. Its written form is the opposite of Nastaliq, from left to right.

The British occupation aggravated the rift between Hindi and Urdu and in extension the Hindi and Muslims. This led to the division of India and the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Attempts were made to reconcile both the languages and countries but failed. The combination of both Urdu and Hindi led to the creation of Hindustani– a Sanskrit-based language with 30-40 per cent Persian and Arabic influences.

Hindi and Urdu are considered to be the national language of their respective countries, but it is often not the native language of its people. Both Hindi and Urdu are taught in school due to their status as official languages. In India, both Hindi and Urdu have an agency that regulates the language; meanwhile, Urdu is the only language being regulated in Pakistan.

Summary:

1. Urdu and Hindi are almost the same language with different writing systems and different associations. Both languages have the same origins with similar grammar and phonology.They also share many common words and foreign influences (Arabic, Persian, and Turkic).
2. Urdu is mainly associated with Pakistan and Muslims while Hindi is associated with India and Hindi.
3. Urdus’ writing system is called Nastaliq. It has a lot of Arabic, Persian, and Turkic influences. It is written in Arabic script, and its direction is from right to left. On the other hand, Hindi’s writing system is Devanagari. It is written from left to right and in Sanskrit script. It also has a lower volume of foreign influences.
4. Urdu is the national language of Pakistan, but it is also spoken in India. Meanwhile, Hindi is the national language of India.
5. At the colloquial level, Hindi and Urdu are used spontaneously and sound almost the same, but the language’s political vocabularies are different.

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15 Comments

  1. Hindi is not the National Language of India. In fact, India does not have a national language. Its is the most widely spoken language in India.

    • urdu is called fauzi language. it’s origin lies in turkish and pathan invaders. when pathans and mughals came to india and ruled hindus , they wanted to communicate with local hindus with a mixture of parsi , and turkic language.
      thus a mixed language developed during turkic , pathan , and mughal rulers. this language later known as urdu. urdu is not a language of pakistani ethnic people. sindhi, balochi, punjabi, and kpk people all have their own spoken language. only mohazirs , ie. muslims who migrated there from u.p. and hyderabad and other places are urdu speakers.however all native people of pakistan use farsi script. just like all european language use roman alphabet.
      urdu is also spoken by in some places by hindus as their mother tongue. and hindi is also spokenby some muslims as their mother tongue in sultanpur ,u.p. sindhi languge and punjabi language both written in farsi and devnagari scrpts.

      • I agree with Arvind gosh and like to remind that there was no separate India,Pakistan,and Bangladesh in those days. When the Muslim invaders came to India and started spreading Islam, a spoken language evolved for communication which when written in Persian was called Urdu and when written in Devanagari came to be known as Hindi. So Hindi,Urdu,Hindustani whatever name its is called;evolved in India,it is an Indian language not of Pakistan.

  2. I dont agree 100%. Urdu language is a mix of Persian Farsi, Turkish and Arabic. Hindi language uses Urdu but some religous wordings are from Hinduisms Holy books. Thats how it became as todays Hindi language. Urdu is the root language of Punjabi, Hindi, Patwari, etc!

    • That’a completely false. Urdu does have a lot of Persian, Arabic and Turkish loanwords but the bulk of the language has Sanskrit origin, just like Hindi. It still is after all an Indian language. If Urdu is only a mixture of the three language then it wouldn’t be intelligible with Hindi, but it is.

      Urdu is not the root of Punjabi, Hindi etc. Sanskrit is the root of all north Indian languages, including Urdu but has been heavily influenced by middle eastern languages. Hence, this is why it’s the preferred language of Pakistanis and Muslim Indians.

      Anyone who denies Urdus origin to Sanskrit/Hindi is obviously in denial of the origins of the language they speak.

    • Urdu was a broken language 300 year ago,while Hindi and Punjabi were mature languages for about 3000 years.
      Wali Dakni was the first Urdu poet 300 year ago means urdu language started to born,while earlier it was a broken Hindi spoken by Afghan invaders.

      • There was no language called Hindi in India till around the 18th century. The spoken language in the northern parts of India was Pali/Prakrit. The Hindustani or Hindavi language evolved as the camp language of the Turkish and Moghul army. In fact the word Urdu in Turkish means Army. The normal day to day words of that language were taken from Turkish and Arabic. Hindustani is essentially Urdu. Later Hindi and Urdu evolved into two different languages with Hindi trying to import Sanskrit based words. Strictly speaking Hindi and Urdu should not be classified as Indo-European.

  3. Hindi is not national language of India

  4. Urdu and hindi is one single language have two writing script
    Orgin of both (Urdu and hindi) from Delhi
    This mean one language have two writing scripts
    Urdu written in Perso-Arabic script and use haveily Persian and arbic words while hindi have also influency of More sansakrit and less Persian Arabic too…..
    But half billion Muslim live in India Pakistan and Bangladesh and daily basis communication with hindi speaker that’s why this hindi urdu become one single language as a hindustani. Which is more popular in all sub continent India-Pakistan etc etc
    Hindustanii. Is mixture of urdu and hindi …
    Hindustani. Is neither pure hindi nor pure urdu..but in between. ..
    That is popular in All south Asia specially India and Pakistan

    This is definition of hindi-Urdu and Hindustani.

  5. Hindi and Urdu are not Indian languages. These two languages are created by invaders. Even Sanskrit is also not a Indian language, because Sanskrit speaking nomadic people’s who entered in India before first century by with their cattle. That time Sanskrit was not having any writing words. It was only a spoken language. Later where ever they join with original Indians they learned the local languages and the written the books in Dravidian languages like Tamil, Telugu and Kannada only. Later 5th century only from the Dravidian languages called Sanskrit is developed and later by 12th century they kept the name Deva nagary.

  6. It is said that Moghul ruler Jhangir had Major language problems of communication between his Arab and Indian forces. He commissioned Amir Khusroo who had knowledge of Hindi, Arabic, Persian etc to develop a common language. Moguls were also forcibly converting to Islam. Urdu language with Arabic script and Hindi mix came to be known as Urdu. Moghul invaders invariably came from North West frontier province and maximum conversion took place, in what is now known as Afghanistan, Pakistan etc.

    • Amir Khusro lived at least 300 years before Jahangir and before Mughals came to India. So your assertion is factually not correct. Then the phrases such as Mughals were forcibly converting to Islam speaks more of a religious bias than a comment in the history of languages. This religious bias is common in Most Indians as this is how the history is taught in India and propagated continuously through the media. Similarly in Pakistan, Hindus are shown as inferior and conniving. I believe the educated and enlightened people in both countries should raise above this pettiness and make a strong common approach with respect to become a prosperous, enlightened, tolerant and educated subcontinent that is beckon of progress to the entire world.

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