Urdu, like Hindi, is a form of
Hindustani.
[17] It evolved from the medieval (6th to 13th century)
Apabhraṃśa register of the preceding
Shauraseni language, a
Middle Indo-Aryan language that is also the ancestor of other modern Indo-Aryan languages, including the
Punjabi dialects. Around 75% of Urdu words have their etymological roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit,
[18][19][20] and approximately 99% of Urdu verbs have their roots in
Sanskrit and
Prakrit.
[21] Because Persian-speaking sultans ruled the Indian subcontinent for a number of years,[22] Urdu was influenced by Persian and to a lesser extent, Arabic, which have contributed to about 25% of Urdu's vocabulary.[18][23][24][25][26][27][28] Although the word Urdu is derived from the Turkic word ordu (army) or orda, from which English horde is also derived,[29] Turkic borrowings in Urdu are minimal[30] and Urdu is also not genetically related to the Turkic languages. Urdu words originating from Chagatai and Arabic were borrowed through Persian and hence are Persianized versions of the original words. For instance, the Arabic ta' marbuta ( ة ) changes to he ( ه ) or te ( ت ).[31][note 1] Nevertheless, contrary to popular belief, Urdu did not borrow from the Turkish language, but from Chagatai, a Turkic language from Central Asia. Urdu and Turkish borrowed from Arabic and Persian, hence the similarity in pronunciation of many Urdu and Turkish words.[32]
Arabic influence in the region began with the late first-millennium
Muslim conquests of the Indian subcontinent. The Persian language was introduced into the subcontinent a few centuries later by various Persianized Central Asian
Turkic and
Afghandynasties including that of
Mahmud of Ghazni.
[33][34] The Turko-Afghan
Delhi Sultanate established Persian as its official language, a policy continued by the
Mughal Empire, which extended over most of northern
South Asia from the 16th to 18th centuries and cemented
Persian influence on the developing Hindustani.[
citation needed]
The name
Urdu was first used by the poet Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi around 1780.
[35][36](p18) From the 13th century until the end of the 18th century Urdu was commonly known as Hindi.
[36](p1) The language was also known by various other names such as
Hindavi and
Dehlavi.
[36](pp21–22) Hindustani in Persian script was used by Muslims and Hindus, but was current chiefly in Muslim influenced society.
[37] The communal nature of the language lasted until it replaced
Persian as the official language in 1837 and was made co-official, along with English. Hindustani was promoted in British India by British policies to counter the previous emphasis on Persian.
[38] This triggered a Hindu backlash in northwestern India, which argued that the language should be written in the native
Devanagari script. This literary standard called "Hindi" replaced Urdu as the official language of
Bihar in 1881, establishing a sectarian divide of "Urdu" for Muslims and "Hindi" for Hindus, a divide that was formalized with the division of India and Pakistan after independence (though there are Hindu poets who continue to write in Urdu to this day, with post-independence examples including
Gopi Chand Narang and
Gulzar).
There have been attempts to "purify" Urdu and Hindi, by purging Urdu of Sanskrit words, and Hindi of Persian loanwords, and new vocabulary draws primarily from Persian and Arabic for Urdu and from Sanskrit for Hindi. English has exerted a heavy influence on both as a co-official language.[39]
