Urdu (اردو)

Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language with about 104 million speakers, including those who speak it as a second language. It is the national language of Pakistan and is closely related to Hindi, though a lot of Urdu vocabulary comes from Persian and Arabic, which is not the case for Hindi.

Urdu is also spoken in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Fiji, Germany, Guyana, India, Malawi, Mauritius, Nepal, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, the UAE, the UK and Zambia.

Urdu has been written with a version of the Perso-Arabic script since the 12th century and is normally written in Nastaliq style. The word Urdu is Turkish for 'foreign' or 'horde'.

Urdu abjad

The letter nūn-e ğunnah appears only at the ends of words.

Urdu numerals

Urdu Numerals

Sample text in Urdu

Transliteration

Tamām insān āzād ôr ḥuqūq-o ʿizzat ke ėʿtibār se barābar peidā hū'e heiṅ. Inheṅ żamīr ôr ʿaql vadīʿat hū'ī he. Isli'e inheṅ ek dūsre ke sāth bhā'ī čāre kā sulūk karnā čāhi'e.

Listen to a recording of this text by Ganesh Deshmukh

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)

Useful phrases in Urdu

Urdu language courses, dictionaries, etc.