Learn about the relationship between Hindi and Urdu
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Intro |
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| Alisha: What is the relationship between Hindi and Urdu? |
| Shakti: And what are the similarities and differences? |
| Alisha: At HindiPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation. Sasha Lee is a student and she is in class with her teacher, Rashmi Raheja. Sasha is confused about the relationship between Hindi and Urdu. She asks Rashmi, |
| "Are Hindi and Urdu the same language?" |
| साशा: क्या हिंदी और उर्दू एक ही भाषा है? (kyaa hiNDii aur urDuu ek hii bhaasaa hai?) |
| Dialogue |
| साशा: क्या हिंदी और उर्दू एक ही भाषा है? (kyaa hiNDii aur urDuu ek hii bhaasaa hai?) |
| रश्मि: हां, लेकिन ये अलग-अलग बोलियां हैं। (haan, LekiN ye aLag-aLag boLiyaan hain.) |
| Alisha: Once more with the English translation. |
| साशा: क्या हिंदी और उर्दू एक ही भाषा है? (kyaa hiNDii aur urDuu ek hii bhaasaa hai?) |
| Alisha: "Are Hindi and Urdu the same language?" |
| रश्मि: हां, लेकिन ये अलग-अलग बोलियां हैं। (haan, LekiN ye aLag-aLag boLiyaan hain.) |
| Alisha: "Yes, but they are different dialects. " |
Lesson focus |
| Alisha: Although spoken Hindi and Urdu are very similar to each other, their written script is completely different. The most noticeable element is that Hindi is written from left to right, whereas Urdu is written right to left. Hindi and Urdu speakers can easily have a conversation with each other, since the words used in the languages are quite similar. |
| Shakti: But Hindi leans more towards the Sanskrit language and Urdu leans more towards the Persian and Arabic languages. Hindi uses the Devanagari script. Let's hear this one more time: देवनागरी (DevaNaagarii). Urdu, on the other hand, is written in Nastaliq script, which is a modified form of the Persian script. Let's hear this one more time: नस्तालीक़ (NaSTaLiiq). Both Hindi and Urdu are adapted from the Khari Boli dialect. Let's hear this one more time: खड़ी बोली (khadii boLii). |
| Alisha: This dialect is spoken in Delhi and the surrounding areas and this is why it is popularly known as the Delhi dialect. Both Hindi and Urdu follow the same grammatical structure. They both follow the Subject-Object-Verb structure, unlike English which follows the Subject-Verb-Object order. In fact, you will find that, at the beginner learning levels of both these languages, more than 70% of the vocabulary is the same. |
| How about we take a few examples to see how similar these languages are? How would you say "How are you?" in Hindi and Urdu. |
| Shakti: आप कैसे हैं? (aap kaiSe hain?) if you are addressing a male or आप कैसी हैं? (aap kaiSii hain?) if you are addressing a female. |
| Alisha: You will find that both Hindi and Urdu speakers use the same sentence while asking "How are you?" Let's take another simple question which is the same in Hindi and Urdu. "Where are you?" |
| Shakti: आप कहाँ हैं? (aap kahaan hain?) |
| Alisha: Both Hindi and Urdu speakers will use the same sentence. Now, let's take "Thank you," What is the Hindi word for this? |
| Shakti: धन्यवाद (DHaNyavaaD). |
| Alisha: But this Hindi word is rarely used in conversations. It is mostly used in written language or at the end of speeches or official statements. Hindi speakers use a variety of vocabulary words to say "Thank you" in conversations. The most common is the English "Thank you," There is another word which is commonly used in the spoken language. |
| Shakti: शुक्रिया (sukriyaa). |
| Alisha: Now this is an Urdu word. Here is another way of saying "thank you" used by Hindi speakers. |
| Shakti: आपकी बहुत मेहरबानी है (aapakii bahuT meharabaaNii hai). |
| Alisha: This sentence is used by both the Hindi and Urdu speakers to say "thank you very much" or "it is so kind of you," |
| Shakti: The word मेहरबानी (meharabaaNii), which means "kindness." is an Urdu word, but it has become a regular part of the Hindi vocabulary. |
| Alisha: Pure Hindi is rarely used in conversations. You'll notice that, in daily conversations, native speakers use a lot of Urdu as well as English words in their speech. |
| Shakti: There is another similarity in spoken Hindi and Urdu. Written Hindi uses the pronouns यह (yah), ये (ye), वह (vah), and वे (ve). These are used to differentiate between singular, this/he/ she/that, and plural, these/those/they in written script. However, Urdu doesn't use this differentiation. It only uses ये (ye) and वो (vo). |
| Alisha: But isn't that a difference between the two languages? |
| Shakti: Yes, but only in the written script. In conversations, Hindi speakers also just stick to ये (ye) and वो (vo). |
| Alisha: So, while the written pronouns may vary in Hindi and Urdu, the spoken pronouns are generally the same! |
| Shakti: Yes, indeed! |
| Alisha: There you go! We have a difference as well as a similarity between the two languages. But what about the Hindi movie industry? Does it use Hindi or Urdu or a combination of both? |
| Shakti: The Hindi movie industry, which is popularly known as Bollywood, uses a combination of Hindi, Urdu, and English. This is the same conversational style that most Hindi speakers use in their day-to-day conversations. In fact, the songs in Hindi movies often use a lot of Urdu words and use a form of lyric poetry, which is inspired from Urdu and Arabic languages, known as Ghazal. Let's say this one more time - ग़ज़ल (gazaL). |
| Alisha: Yes, and this form of Urdu poetry has been very popular in the past as well as now. In fact, Hindi movies are very popular in Pakistan, which is an Urdu-speaking nation. They don't use the Hindi script. Urdu is their official language and they use the Urdu script for writing—and yet, they can easily understand and enjoy Hindi movies and songs. |
Outro |
| Alisha: In this lesson, we learnt that spoken Hindi and Urdu are very similar to each other. But they are written using different scripts. At beginner language learning levels, they are very much alike. They use the same Subject-Object-Verb structure for their sentences. Hindi speakers use a lot of Urdu words in their day-to-day conversations. In fact, these words have become such an integral part of their language that they don't even realize they are using an Urdu word! |
| Alisha: That's it for now! Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Shakti: फिर मिलेंगे! (phir miLenge!) |
| Alisha: See you soon! |
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