The term ‘Urdu’ and its origin
The term Urdu derives from a Turkish word ordu which means camp or army. The Urdu language developed among the Muslim soldiers of the Mughal armies who belonged to various ethnicities such as Turks, Arabs, Persians, Pathans, Balochis, Rajputs, Jats and Afghans. These soldiers lived in close contact with each other and communicated in different dialects, which slowly and gradually evolved into present-day Urdu. It is for this reason that Urdu is also known as Lashkari Zaban or the language of the army.
During its development, the Urdu language also assumed various names such as the term Urdu-e-Maullah which means the exalted army which was given by Emperor Shah Jahan and the term Rekhta which means scattered (with Persian words) which was coined by the scholars. for urdu poetry.
History and evolution of the Urdu language
The evolution and development of any language depends on the evolution and development of a society where that language is spoken. Various invasions and conquests on a place affect the development of its language. Urdu is no exception, as it also went through various stages of development.
Urdu belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family. Urdu by origin is considered a descendant of Saur Senic Prakrit. The term Prakrriti means root or base. It is a later version of Sanskrit. As the Prakrit language began to develop, it was influenced by the Western Hindi dialects of Khari Boli, Brij Bhasa, and Haryanvi.
With the advent of Insha’s Darya-e-Latafat *, the need was felt to differentiate Urdu from other languages, especially Hindi. It became a Hindi-Urdu controversy and as a result, Khari Boli and Devanagari became the identity of the Indians, while Urdu and Persian the Muslims. In this context, the Persian and Arabic words replaced by Sanskrit served to differentiate Hindi from Urdu.
Urdu emerged as a distinct language after AD 1193, the time of the Muslim conquest. When Muslims conquered this part of the continent, they made Persian the official and cultural language of India. As a result of the fusion of local dialects and the language of the invaders, which was Persian, Arabic and Turkish, a new language developed which later became Urdu. During the Mughal reign, Urdu was spoken in palaces and courts and until the end of the Mughal rule; Urdu was the official language of most of the Mughal states. This was the time when Urdu had been perianized and enriched with Persian words, phrases, and even scripts and grammar. With the arrival of the British, new English words also became part of the Urdu language. Many English words were accepted in their real form, while others were accepted after some modifications.
Currently, the Urdu vocabulary contains about 70% of the Persian words and the rest is a mixture of Arabic and Turkish words. However, there are also traces of the French, Portuguese and Dutch language in Urdu. But these influences are small.
Urdu was brought to other parts of the country by soldiers, saints and Sufis and by ordinary people. As a result of political, social and cultural contacts between people of different speaking and dialects, a mixed form of language was formed called ‘Rekhta’ (Urdu and Persian in mixed form). Soon people began to use the new language in their speech and in literature, which resulted in the enrichment of the Urdu language and literature.
Urdu Literature
The origin of Urdu literature dates back to the 13th century in India during the Mughal rule. One of the most eminent early poets to make use of Urdu in his poetry is Amir Khusro, who can be called the father of the Urdu language. In literature, Urdu was generally used in conjunction with Persian. The Mughal kings were the great patrons of art and literature and it was under their rule that the Urdu language reached its zenith. There used to be a tradition of ‘Sheri Mehfils’ (poetic meetings) in the courts of kings. Abul Fazal Faizi and Abdul Rahim Khankhana were the famous Urdu poets of the Mughal court. Similarly, Mirza Ghalib, Allama Iqbal, Hakim Momin, Ibrahim Zauq, Mir Taqi Mir, Sauda, Ibn-e-Insha and Faiz Ahmed Faiz have contributed to the evolution of the Urdu language through their literary works.
In fact, it is true that Hindi and Urdu are descendants of the same language, that is, Prakrit, but where Hindi took influence from Sanskrit and adopted the Devanagri script, Urdu absorbed words from the Persian, Turkish and Arabic languages and adopted the Persian-Arabic script. and the Nastaliq calligraphic writing style and emerged as a separate language. But aside from the common ancestry, the two languages are as different as possible. There are marked grammatical, phonological and lexical differences in both languages.
Urdu was also used by Muslims as a tool for the freedom struggle and to raise awareness among Muslim communities in South Asia to unite under the banner of independence from the British Raj. For this reason, the services of Maulana Hali, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Allama Iqbal are notable, who through their poetry and prose caused the necessary spark in the lives of Muslims. Urdu was chosen to become the national language of Pakistan at the time of independence from the British. Urdu is now the national language of Pakistan, widely spoken and understood by the majority of the population.
Notes:
* A book by Ibn-e-Insha, dealing with the phonetic and linguistic characteristics of Urdu and a variety of occupational backgrounds and rhetorical expressions.
References:
1. George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain (eds). Indo-Aryan languages. Routledge Publishers. London. 2003.
2. Ram Babu Saksena. A history of Urdu literature. Sind Sagar Academy. Lahore. 1975.
3. Dr. Tariq Rehman. Peoples and languages in the pre-Islamic Indus valley. [Online] [Cited 2009 April 4]. Available at: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/scad/archivedwebsites/archivedwebsites/LanguagesInPreIslamicPakistan.htm
4. Mirza Khalil Ahmad Beg. Urdu grammar: history and structure. Bahri Publications. New Delhi. 1988.
5. Zoya Zaidi. Urdu: The language and poetry. [Online] 2006 [Cited 2009 April 4]. Available at: http://www.sikhspectrum.com/082006/urdu.htm
