Urdu & Hindi, Very Similair ! Options

[Akhtar]

Hi,

Could anyone point out some oustanding differences in between these languages ? (doesnt inlcude writing the languages)

[fiftysomeone]

I remember as a graduate student in the US, some of my classmates from outside South Asia were quite intrigued by the languages spoken by students from India and Pakistan.
To such people, the (North) Indian woud say his native langiage was Hindi, the Pakistani woud say Urdu. Yet we woud talk fluently with each other, much to the amazement of the other nationalities.
One of them was even more surprised that I would speak with my Indian friends (from Chennai) in English but with the Pakistani in the same language (Hindi/Urdu)!
I also observed at that time that Hindi and Urdu are probably the only pair of languages in the world which sound almost identical yet are written completely differently - usually it's the other way around, same script but different sounds and vocabs.
Cheers.
50Some1

[deep750]

I remember as a graduate student in the US, some of my classmates from outside South Asia were quite intrigued by the languages spoken by students from India and Pakistan.
To such people, the (North) Indian woud say his native langiage was Hindi, the Pakistani woud say Urdu. Yet we woud talk fluently with each other, much to the amazement of the other nationalities.
One of them was even more surprised that I would speak with my Indian friends (from Chennai) in English but with the Pakistani in the same language (Hindi/Urdu)!
I also observed at that time that Hindi and Urdu are probably the only pair of languages in the world which sound almost identical yet are written completely differently - usually it's the other way around, same script but different sounds and vocabs.
Cheers.
50Some1

as I said earlier the languages have borrowed vocabulary from each other, and are actually mixes of various indian languages and english.

to underline how urdu became a indian-"muslim" language can be understood when I tell you that in most parts of Pakistan, urdu was non-existing language prior to 1947.
in most parts of Pakistan, Sindhi was the most used language. but at the establishment of India and Pakistan they chose to have Hindi and Urdu respectively as their official languages, even though urdu probably was more widespread in Delhi at that time and Sindhi in most parts of Pakistan.

Even in Punjab (India), urdu was the major written language in some parts.
You can probably confirm this through you parents or grandparents...