Urdu

Introduction

Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language which serves as the primary vehicle of communication for over one hundred million people in Pakistan, India, and sizable migrant communities. Grammatically identical to Hindi though bearing a slightly heavier loan vocabulary from Persian, Arabic, and Turkic, Urdu is written in the South Asian evolution of the Perso-Arabic script known as nasta'liq , modified and expanded to incorporate a distinctively South Asian phonology . While Urdu is one of the world's leading languages of Muslim erudition, many of its leading protagonists have been Hindu and Sikh authors taking full advantage of Urdu's rich expressive medium. 

Urdu has developed a preeminent position in South Asia as a language of literary genius, as well as a major medium of communication in the daily lives of people. It is an official language of Pakistan , where it is a link language and probably the most widely understood language across all regions. It is also one of the national languages of India . Urdu today is utilized in virtually all forms of contemporary media, from satellite news, internet magazines, and blogs; to the Indian film industry and Pakistani pop; to penny publications and pulp fiction; to the madrasa curriculum. The intricate poetic culture of Urdu is world class by any standard, with poets such as Mirza Ghalib, 'Allama Iqbal, and Faiz Ahmad Faiz being among the most famous, while prose authors such as Premchand, Sa'adat Hasan Manto, and Ismat Chughtai are also widely acclaimed. The courses offered at Penn aim to familiarize students with a sample of as many of Urdu's past and contemporary usages as possible.