Languages
Native
Punjabi
44%
Pashto
16%
Sindhi
14%
Secondary languages
English
20%
Language Samples
السلام علیکم، آپ کیسے ہیں؟
Assalamu alaikum, aap kaise hain?
Peace be upon you, how are you?
میں ٹھیک ہوں، شکریہ۔
Main theek hoon, shukriya.
I am fine, thank you.
ایک، دو، تین، چار، پانچ، چھ، سات، آٹھ، نو، دس
Ek, do, teen, chaar, paanch, chheh, saat, aath, nau, das
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Linguistic History
Urdu is Pakistan's national and official language, though it is the native tongue of only about 7% of the population — most Pakistanis speak Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, or other regional languages. Urdu emerged in the Mughal courts of northern India as a literary language blending Hindi grammar with Perso-Arabic vocabulary, and it is written in the Nastaliq calligraphic style of the Arabic script — one of the most aesthetically prized scripts in the world. Urdu and Hindi are linguistically almost identical in grammar and everyday speech, but diverge sharply in formal register, literature, and script, reflecting their distinct cultural heritages.
Similar Languages
Hindi
80%
Punjabi
60%
Persian (Farsi)
35%
Arabic (loanwords)
25%
Media
The Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, built by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb — the Mughal court was instrumental in the development of the Urdu language.
Photo: Romero Maia · CC BY-SA 4.0
Did You Know
01
Urdu is written in Nastaliq, a flowing calligraphic style of Arabic script that runs right-to-left — it is considered one of the most beautiful scripts in the world and requires specialised typography software.
02
Despite being Pakistan's national language, Urdu is the mother tongue of fewer than 1 in 10 Pakistanis — it functions as a prestigious lingua franca rather than a widespread native language.
03
Urdu poetry, especially the ghazal form, is a major art form in South Asian culture — public poetry recitals called 'mushairas' can draw audiences in the thousands.