Urdu is the same as Hindi [SPLIT FROM: Making Arabic our National Language]

[LastOfTheDinosaurs]

Re: Making Arabic our National Language

@ravage

^ increasing popular culture similarities notwithstanding, you forget that a large part of India isnt proficient at speaking Hindi, including two very large provinces where Urdu is primarily spoken. This is why for the mass media the Hindi is toned down to something that isnt very severe.

If you truly wish to compare the two languages, try listening to BBC Hindi and BBC Urdu services. Which by the way predates BBC Pushto service :).

As I said before, the languages may seem the same to you who are not an Urdu speaker. But anyone who knows the language well enough will tell you theres a world of difference between them, and good urdu speakers cannot understand good hindi speakers, and vice versa.

Including the Urdu speakers in India.

Ravage thank you for responding.

I personally have deep interest in linguistics and understand when are two “linguistic systems” the same and when are they different. Instead of employing linguistic terminology, let us put it simple.

“When communications in two linguistic system are mutually comprehensible i.e. if A understands the language spoken by B and conversely B understands the language spoken by A and the structural form of the languages they speak is the same, they are speaking the same language.”

There is not even a dialectical difference between Hindi and Urdu. Moreover, language is not something arcane and mysterious that can only be grasped and described by a native speaker. It is a practical thing. Any language can be defined/described/specified, almost precisely and scientifically, in terms of lexicology, syntax, semantics, phonology, phonetics, pragmatics, etc.