Urdu is the National Language of Pakistan.

Urdu language is the official literary language of Pakistan. It is written in an Arabic alphabet and is also widely used in India, chiefly by Muslims.  The word Urdu comes originally from Turkish in which it means an Army or Battalion. Urdu has a rich literary history of both Poetry and Prose.

The national language of Pakistan, is Urdu, It unites all people and all communities, whatever their mother tongue. It is spoken as far north as Chitral, Gilgit and Skardu and as far south as Thatta and Karachi. The word Urdu is of Turkish origin and means 'army' or 'camp' (the English word 'horde' has the same roots)-- so Urdu is, quite simply, the language of the camp. Scholars say that it developed in the Punjab and neighboring territories about one thousand years ago out of a mixture of local languages and of the Persian language spoken by invading armies from the northern Persian that, incidentally, included many words borrowed from Arabic and Turkish. Urdu is graceful and poetic with no over-harsh gutturals to cause a foreigner to stumble in his/her pronunciation. It is also a language that lends itself to scholarship and artistic endeavor and that rests on a vast and elegant body of literature and poetry going back some 700 years. Most notably, however, it is a polite and gentle language which, in its forms of speech, recognizes the basic equality of all humanity, bestowing equal respect on the servant and the master, the courtier and the king.

The image on the right is the national anthem.

Soni Dahrti

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