Urdu meaning "lashkar" or a military group in Turkish language was the language
of muslims in this region,
BBC - Languages - A Guide to Urdu - A brief history of Urdu
The word
"URDU" is a Turkish word and it means "an army or legion". Modern Urdu has taken almost
900 years to develop to its present form. The
old Urdu was a mixture of Turkish, Persian and Arabic and was the language of the most powerful warrior tribes of Central Asia. These tribes would invade, conquer and occupy areas within easy reach for their wealth, gold, silver and precious stones.
Wherever these tribes went, they took their language which had an amazing mingling and absorbing local words and proverbs.
Scholars, learned men and tribesmen from Central Asia brought 'Old Urdu', called 'Reekhta, to the Indian Subcontinent early in the 12th century AD. In the late 1400 and early 1500, under the patronage of the Moghales, modern Urdu started taking shape to be used in poetry, prose and plays.
Urdu is written from right to left just like Arabic and Persian. Urdu has 39 basic letters and 13 extra characters, all together 52 and most of these letters are from Arabic and a small quantity from Persian. It has almost all the 'sounds' available in any other language spoken in the world.
Btw i had an iranian friend sitting with me a few days ago, when he read my ID card, he could tell what each and every line meant..cuz of the common words between Urdu and Farsi.
if you have heard about indian english....mother tongue is something which never leaves one..one might speak in other language but one will always think in his mother tongue..
