In the Delhi region of India the native language was Khariboli, whose earliest form is known as Old Hindi (or Hindavi). Some linguists have suggested that the earliest forms of Urdu evolved from the medieval (6th to 13th century) Apabhraṃśa register of the preceding Shauraseni language, a Middle Indo-Aryan language that is also the ancestor of other modern Indo-Aryan languages. Urdu, like Hindi, is a form of Hindustani. According to Ethnologue's 2018 estimates, Urdu is the 10th most widely spoken language in the world, with 230 million total speakers, including those who speak it as a second language. Īccording to research done in 2021 estimates, Urdu is the 21st most spoken first language in the world, with approximately 61.9 million who speak it as their native language. Deccani, an older form used in the south, became a court language of the Deccan Sultanates in the 16th century. Urdu became a literary language in the 18th century and two similar standard forms came into existence in Delhi and Lucknow since 1947 a third standard has arisen in Karachi. Religious, social, and political factors arose during the colonial period that advocated for a distinction between Urdu and Hindi, leading to the Hindi–Urdu controversy.

Urdu was chosen as the language of East India Company rule across northern India in 1837 when the Company chose it to replace Persian, the court language of the Indo-Islamic empires. While formal Urdu draws literary, political and technical vocabulary from Persian, formal Hindi draws these from Sanskrit. Urdu and Hindi share a common Sanskrit and Prakrit derived vocabulary base, phonology, syntax as well as grammar, making them mutually intelligible in colloquial speech. Urdu has been described as a Persianised standard register of the Hindustani language. In Nepal, Urdu is a registered regional dialect. In India, Urdu is an Eighth Schedule language whose status, function, and cultural heritage is recognized by the Constitution of India it has some form of official status in several Indian states.

It is the official national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. Urdu ( / ˈ ʊər d uː/ Urdu: اُردُو, ALA-LC: Urdū) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. Without proper rendering support, you may see unjoined letters running left to right or other symbols instead of Urdu script.

For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Areas where Urdu is neither official nor co-official

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