Urdu... one of the most musical languages that my ears encountered, ever since I started understanding words. To an extent, the beauty of a language is irrespective of us comprehending what's in it. The real beauty though, lies in each word of the language, transcending mere mortal comprehension.
Urdu is such a language, that leaves footprints on my soul, every time it walks into my ears.
Urdu, historically spelled Ordu, is an Indo-Aryan language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. They form a subgroup of the Indo-Iranian languages, which consists of three other language groups: the Iranian, Nuristani, and Dardic. It developed under Persian and to a lesser degree Arabic and Turkic influence on apabhramshas (is a term used by Sanskrit grammarians since Patanjali to refer to dialects of North India that deviate from the norm of Sanskrit grammar) during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire (1526–1858 AD) in South Asia. Urdu is a standardised register of the standard dialect Khari boli. Khariboli has four varieties, Standard Hindi, Urdu, Dakhini and Rekhta. Each of these is a standard in its own right. Standard Hindi (also High Hindi, Nagari Hindi) is used as the lingua franca of Northern India (the Hindi belt), Urdu is the lingua franca of Pakistan, Dakhini is the historical literary dialect of the Deccan region and Rekhta is a highly Persianized register of Urdu used in poetry.
Urdu is often contrasted with Hindi, another standardised form of Hindustani. The main differences between the two are that Standard Urdu is conventionally written in Nastaliq calligraphy style (one of the main genres of Islamic calligraphy) of the Perso-Arabic script (writing system that is based on Arabic alphabet) and draws vocabulary more heavily from Persian and Arabic than Hindi, while Standard Hindi is conventionally written in Devanāgarī and draws vocabulary from Sanskrit comparatively more heavily. Linguists nonetheless consider Urdu and Hindi to be two standardized forms of the same language.
Urdu has been playing a major role in Bollywood since time immemorial. The latest in the rat race is Jodha Akbar, a page from the book of the life of Mughal Emperor Akbar. The film contains immense dialogs in Urdu. So all Urdu lovers, don't waste another minute :)
