Give a lady Urdu? (her due?)

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2006/07/01 07:43 -07:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/michkap/archive/2006/07/01/653573.aspx


In a response to my Channel 9 appearance, drloc asked:

Dear Michael, Can ya plz tell ma about Urdu Language Support in Vista and Vista Urdu Localizationz.......... THankz

Well, I have an answer now, and I think there is a pattern developing here.

So looking back at past posts on LIPs:

  • We're drowning in LIPs!
  • Microsoft, you giving us some LIP?
  • Let there be LIPs
  • Oops, we did it again
  • Oh Kannada... (ಕನ್ನಡ)
  • 'c' is for click sounds, and they're good enough for me
  • Persian? or Farsi?
  • Quechua me if you can!
  • Do they grow beets in Luxembourg?
  • I Tswana know what you're thinking

    It is my pleasure to add to the list the Urdu Language Interface Pack!

    Some interesting information about the language:

    Number of speakers:
    ~60 million native speakers, ~40 second language speakers

    Name in the language itself:  اردو

    Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. Although English (the second official language) is widely used in elite circles and Punjabi has more native speakers, Urdu is promoted and expected by the administration to eventually prevail in Pakistan. It is taught as a compulsory language up to high school and has started becoming the lingua franca.
    Urdu is also spoken in India and has official language status in Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir, in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, and in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

    From a strictly linguistic perspective, Urdu and Hindi are two standard forms of one language rather than two different languages (This phenomenon is referred to as a "diasystem" and known from language groups like Persian/Dari/Tajik, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (formerly known as Serbo-Croatian), Danish/Norwegian or Malay/Indonesian. The issue is, of course, politically highly charged, and speakers of these languages normally consider them as distinct languages). Urdu has been borrowing more from Persian, while Hindi has been using Sanskrit to extend its vocabulary, and both are written in different scripts.

    Fun facts:

    Classification:
    Urdu is an Indo-European language.

    Script:
    Urdu is written with an extended Persian script (which is an extended Arabic alphabet).

    So, drloc and everyone, Enjoy!

     

    This post brought to you by د (U+062f, a.k.a. ARABIC LETTER DAL)


  • # anandi on Saturday, July 01, 2006 2:28 PM:

    Fascinating. Thanks for the info!

    # Ben Cooke on Saturday, July 01, 2006 6:52 PM:

    Since your information mentions the distinction between native and second language speakers, I wonder... if your family speaks Urdu but you are raised in a country that speaks English, and so you essentially aquire both languages at once, are they both considered to be your native tongue, or does one get automatically classed as "second"?

    # Michael S. Kaplan on Saturday, July 01, 2006 7:32 PM:

    Hi Ben,

    An interesting question.... myself, I usually just let the person decide what they think their 'native' language is. But I can imagine experts in different fields such as sociology and sociolinguistics might have official definitions of the term that cause it to not be a matter off opinion?

    I should probably try to cover this in a future post....

    # Ali Khan on Monday, July 03, 2006 3:08 AM:

    Great!
    This is a definite treat for Pakistanis (like me :))

    # mark brown on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 1:19 AM:

    The above post is very informative related to urdu language.Urdu is the national language of Pakistan.Urdu language evolved during the declining period of Muslim rule in South Asia.Urdu and Hindi languages are extremely similar to each other, mostly composed of native north Indian linguistic elements. Having a common origin, both languages are intelligible to each other, and overwhelmingly share the same syntax, vowels, vocabulary, etc.

    see the below link

    http://urdureading.com


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