Taste the Sweetest: Urdu

It tastes like the sweetest candy in the mouth, Urdu, the national language of Pakistan. A language that is not the mother tongue of the majority of Pakistan but one to serve as a unifying symbol for the diverse landscape.

zubān-e-Urdū-e-muʿallā "the language of the exalted camp"

Urdu comes from the Turkish word ordu, which means "camp" or "military." Until the mid-1800s, Farsi was the official language of the Mughal court, while Urdu was evolving through interactions between local Indo-Aryan dialects—primarily Khari Boli—and the languages of Muslim invaders: Farsi, Arabic, and Turkic. As Urdu began to take shape, aristocrats and poets started to patronize this emerging language. When the British established control in India, they replaced Farsi with Urdu as the administrative language in northern regions. Over time, Urdu became associated with Muslims and was written in the Perso-Arabic script, while Hindi was promoted by Hindu reformists in the Devanagari script.

Urdu was my first language. I don't remember knowing the difference between Urdu and English until I was in kindergarden (I did two years of pre-k). My kindergarten teacher asked me to stay back one day as she pointed to a picture and asked me what the image was. I said diggi as I had written down the same word underneath the picture. She asked me again what it was. My frustrated 6 year old self responds, diggi! She then realized I spoke another language at home and I wasn't just dense.

This story has really stuck with me, as I’ve come to realize how much of my English might not be American-English, having grown up in an Urdu-speaking household and community.

As I've learned to replace my foreign words with American-English, I have felt a sense of loss. A loss for a language that I tasted daily on my tongue to a language that tastes so tannic.

My community of Urdu speakers has dwindled with time and to help fill this void I have tried to immerse myself with Urdu studies.

Over the years, here have been some of my resources:

1. Urdupod101.com this is a great website that you can sign up for a daily email of an Urdu word. There's accompanying audio with the word written both in Arabic and Roman script. Best part it includes the word used in various sentences. To help learn the lesson better and practice my handwriting - I keep a journal where I write it all down.

2. Duolingo - so bear with me on this one. There's no Urdu on Duo BUT there's Arabic and Hindi. So you're in a way learning Urdu. It's tough but it has helped me improve.

3. rekhtalearning.com I haven't used this one but contemplating dropping the $100 for access to all their courses for a year.

4. Consume as much Urdu as possible - here's a youtube blog following the travels of Abrar: Wild Lens. There are also Urdu dramas on Youtube like Pyare Afzal and Ehd-e-Wafa.

5. iTalki!! This one is great because I love my teacher. Arooj Ahmed. She's based in Islamabad and has a degree in Psychology. Since I am fluent - we were studying poetry together and having conversations for me to improve and maintain my Urdu speaking skills. However, she can start from the complete basics.

6. One of my favorite podcasts is, Urduana. It's a weekly podcast that is pure poetry, literally and figuratively. Highly recommend if you want to explore the nuances of the Urdu language and poetry.

7. Speak to yourself. Sounds out there but it's the best way to check in with your vocabulary!

   
   

   **A note to mention: I grew up speaking Urdu with elders and also a family that spoke very formal Urdu.

So take the time to not just learn this language but taste the sweetness. Urdu is one of the most elegantly beautiful and complex languages in the world with its vast vocabulary and poetic nature.

Love,

Aasiyah