The Islamic Republic of Pakistan appeared on the world map in 1947 after the division of the territory of British India. A fairly small state in terms of area is considered their home by more than 200 million people and this is the sixth indicator among the countries of the world. The British colonial past has left its mark on the history of the Islamic Republic and the state language of Pakistan, in addition to the national Urdu, is English.
Some statistics and facts
- Despite the state status of Urdu, less than 8% of Pakistanis consider it a native.
- The first place among the prevalence of national languages and dialects in the country is occupied by Punjabi. Almost 45% of residents speak it regularly. The second place is for Pashto - 15.5%.
- The state language in Pakistan, Urdu, originated in the 13th century and is related to Hindi. He belongs to the Indo-European group. Spoken in neighboring India, Urdu has the status of one of its 22 official languages. In India, up to 50 million people speak it.
Urdu: history and features
The name "Urdu" is related to the word "horde" and means "army" or "army". Its roots are in the Hindustani dialect, which has absorbed Persian, Arabic, and Turkic vocabulary and even Sanskrit since the times of the Mughals.
Urdu is identical to Hindi and legal differences did not emerge until 1881, when the religious aspect influenced the demarcation. Hindi began to be spoken by adherents of Hinduism, and Urdu by Muslims. The former preferred to use Devanagari for writing, and the latter, the Arabic alphabet.
By the way, the second state language of Pakistan significantly influenced modern Urdu and many borrowings from English appeared in it.
About 60 million people in the world speak or consider Urdu as their native language, most of whom live in India. In Pakistan, this language is a compulsory school subject and is used by official bodies and administrative institutions.
The world significance of Urdu, as the language of a large part of the Islamic population, is very high. This is confirmed by the duplication in the state language of Pakistan of most of the signs in Mecca and Medina, the sacred places of pilgrimage for Muslims around the world.
Tourist notes
Due to the state status of English, tourists usually do not have problems with communication in Pakistan. All maps, restaurant menus, traffic patterns and public transport stops are translated into English. It is owned by taxi drivers, waiters, hotel workers and the vast majority of ordinary people in the country.
