This map shows the regions
of the world where Urdu is commonly spoken (red circle). Urdu
is the official language of Pakistan, and it is spoken widely
in western India. Urdu descends from the Indo-Iranian branch
of Indo-European. Its immediate ancestor was Vedic Sanskrit.
Urdu is most closely related to Assamese,
Gujarati, Hindi,
Marathi, Punjabi,
Sindhi, Singhalese,
Romany, and Urdu.
It is one of the three most important languages in modern India
alongside Hindi and Bengali. Urdu differs from Hindi in its
extensive Persian and Arabic borrowings and in the fact it is
written in the Perso-Arabic script rather than Sanskrit lettering.
| Daniel M. Short originally created this
map and the other Indo-European language charts for his website at http://www.danshort.com/.
I reproduce these images here with the author's permission, but they are
copyrighted by Daniel Short as of 2002. These charts should not be reproduced
or reused without Mr. Short's approval. You may contact him at danshort@gte.net
for more information. These images are not public domain. |