I HISTORY

Various Theories of Origin and Development:

The origin and development of Urdu has always been a bone of contention among the scholars. Even today there is no unanimity with regard to its origin. Different scholars have expressed different opinions by looking at its origin from different perspective.

The birth of Urdu language was the direct result of the synthesis between the invading armies of Mahmood of Ghazni with the civilian population of the Indian cities. The word Urdu itself means Lashkar, derived from the Turkish language meaning armies… In the south of India it flourished under the name of Dakhni and south west as Gujari while in Delhi its name changed from Hindi to Hindavi and Hindustani. The people of Delhi called it Delhvi or Zubān-e-Delhvi or Urdu-e-Muallā. There are various theories where exactly it was born. One theory is that it originated in basti Nizamuddin of Nizamuddin Aulia and Amir Khusrau. Another theory is that it was born in the seminary of Baba Shaikh Farid at Pak Pattan in the 13th century and its old name is Multani or Old Lahori… when Babur came to India, he did not find anything exclusively Hindu or exclusively Muslim. He talked of the Hindustani way of life. (Khullar, 1995)

According to Chatterji, Urdu is one of the New Indo-Aryan languages of India. It evolved from Shaurseni Apabhramsha through the dialects prevalent in and around Delhi at the end of the 12th century A.D., when the Muslims comprising Turks, Iranians and Afghans entered Delhi from the Punjab as the new settlers. Though it was a political incident in the history of India, it had greatly influenced the linguistic scene of Northern India. It had accelerated the process of the development of the New Indo-Aryan languages…. (Chatterji, 1969 :103-4)

According to Khan, The historians are of the view that the cultural contacts of the Indian with the Arabs and the Iranians had been very old. These contacts were established long before the conquest of Mohammad Ghauri as a result of which the linguistic interaction between two communities began outside the Punjab and hectic political activities started in North India in A.D. 1193. The impact of this linguistic interaction and cohesion is well evidenced in the literary and other documents of those days, which assimilated quite a number of words from Arabic and Persian. The people who have moved from the Punjab to Delhi in A.D. 1193 had brought with them at least four languages viz, Arabic, Persian, Turkish and an early form of Punjabi. The natives on the other hand had promoted the growth of indigenous dialects, which were the off shoots of western Hindi that had developed from Shaurseni Apabhramsh. When Delhi was made the capital the Muslims sovereignty in India and when it assumed the importance of the military head quarters, the new settlers and the local people had frequent opportunities to get together. As a result of the political, social and cultural contacts between the two speech communities, there evolved a mix form of language known as Rekhta whose base was largely supplied by Khari Boli, a dialect of western Hindi. It assimilated a large number of words from Persian and Arabic. Besides lexical items, it also absorbed numerous expressions, phrases and clauses from Persian. Since it owed its existence to the indigenous dialects of India, the Muslim sovereigns called this language Hindi, i.e., the language of India. It was also known as Hindavī. In the course of its development, it assumed various names like Zabān-e-Delhi, Zabān-e-Hindustān, Zabān-e-Urdū-e-mu’allā, Zabān-e-Urdu and in later period simply Urdu.

Apart from being current in and around Delhi, Urdu was taken to different parts of the country by soldiers, saints and Sufis and even by the common people. Urdu also went to the Deccan where it developed to its full length. The Qutb Shahi, Adil Shahi and Nizam Shani kingdoms of Deccan gave a great impetus to the development of Urdu. It, however, remained a neglected language for a long period of time in the North India because of the dominance of the Persian language. Urdu in the course of its development has been influenced mainly by three dialects viz; Khari Boli, Haryanvi and Braj Bhasha. These dialects are classified into western Hindi which is the direct descendent of Shaurseni Apabhramsha. At the time of evolution of Urdu, these dialects were spoken in and around Delhi. They have influenced Urdu at different times and in different situations. Of these dialects, Khari Boli and Haryanvi have deeply influenced Urdu in the process of its evolution and development. (Khan, 1987: 234-62)

Urdu language in different periods of history and most probably in different areas of India was called by different names, for instance it was called Urdu-e-mualla in Delhi during the period of Shah Jahan in south India it was called Dakhni; in state of Rajasthan it was called Gujri etc.

According to Faruqi, Early names for the language now called Urdu were Hindvi, Hindi, Dehlavi, Gujri, Dakanī, and Rekhta, more or less in that order, though until about the middle of the nineteenth century Dakani continued to be the name for the form of the language used in Deccan. The English seem to have found a set of names of their own liking, or invention. Edward Terry, companion to Thomas Roe at Jahāngir’s court, described the language in his A Voyage to East India (London, 1655) as Industan, saying that it was a powerful language which could say much in a few words, had a high content of Arabic and Persian, but was written differently from Arabic and Persian. Other names that the English seem to have used for this language include ‘moors’, ‘Hindoostanic’, ‘Hindoostanee’, ‘Indostans’. (Faruqi, 2001 : 22)

In the North, both ‘Rekhta’ and ‘Hindi’ were popular as names for the same language from sometime before the eighteenth century, and the name ‘Hindi’ was used, in preference to ‘Rekhta’, from about the mid-nineteenth century. The spoken language was almost always referred to as ‘Hindi’. (Faruqi, 2001: 23)

Hindvi was in use until about the end of the eighteenth century. Mushafi (1750-1824) says in his first dīvan compiled around 1785: “Oh, Mushafī, put away Persian now, Hindvī verse is the mode of the day”. (Mushafī, 1967 : 91, cited in Faruqi, 2001:23)

“Urdu” as a name for the language seems to occur for the first time around 1780. All, or almost all, the earliest examples are from Mushafī again. He says in his first dīvān, “Mushafi has, most surely, claim of superiority in Rekhta… That is to say, he has expert knowledge of the language of Urdu”. (Faruqi, 2001 : 23) In a paper originally published in 1926, Hafiz Mahmūd Sherāni quoted the following sher as one of Mushafis; “May God preserve them, I have heard the speech of Mir and Mirza, How can I truthfully, oh Mushafi, say my language is Urdu”. (Sherāni, 1966, cited in Faruqi, 2001: 24)

According to Faruqi, “The name of ‘Urdu’ seems to have begun its life as Zabān-e-Urdu-e Mucallā-e Shahjahānabād (the Language of the Exalted City Court of Shāhjanābad, that is, Delhi). It originally seems to have signified Persian and not Urdu. It soon became shortened to Zabān-e Urdū-e Mu’allā, then to Zabān-e Urdū, and then to Urdu. The authors of Hobson Jobson cite a reference from 1560 in support of ‘Urdu bazaar’ (camp market). They also claim that the word Urdū came to India with Babur (1526), and that his camp was called Urdu-e-Mu’allā (the exalted camp, or court), and the language that grew up around that court camp was called Zabān-e Urdū-e Mu’allā”. (Yule and Burnell, 1902, cited in Faruqi, 201: 25)

The word ‘Urdu’ is derived from the Turkish word ‘Ordū’ which is the root of the English word ‘Horde’ meaning army or crowd. Urdu was also called Hindvi, Rekhta, Urdu-e-Mu’allā, Hindustani etc. (Chatterji, 1960: 197). Urdu was called by the name of Urdu-e-Mu’allā or royal military bazaar outside the Delhi palace of the Mughals. Urdu when used by men, especially employed for poetry, was called Rekhta (i. e. ‘scattered’ or ‘mixed’). Persian words were ‘scattered through it’. Now it is undoubted fact that the name ‘Rekhta’ was the oldest and earlier name of Urdu. The following couplet of Mirza Asadulla(h) Khan Ghalib will prove the preceding contention: Rēkhta ke tumhi ustād nahi ho Ghālib, kahte haiN agle zamāne me koi mīr bhī tha

When poems were written in a dialect used by women, Rekhta was called ‘Rekhti’. So at least this should not be contradicted that the earlier name of Urdu was also ‘Rekhta’ meaning ‘Intermingled’ i.e. Persian mixed with Arabic, Sanskrit and Hindi. Over the years it has adopted words from other languages such as Marahti, Punjabi, Gujrati etc. In western India Urdu is still known by the name of ‘Gujari’ and in one of the states of India namely Andhra Pradesh its old name ‘Dakhni’ continues.

Urdu is one of the major and youngest member of modern Indo-Aryan languages family, born and bred in India as a result of the cultural thesis which began in the 10th century A.D. due to trade relations, cultural exchanges, migrations and military expeditions. Urdu in India is basically developed in close contact with Persian, which was the language of administration and education during the period of Muslim rule. During this period Persian was the court language but there was no antipathy against local languages. In fact it is stated that the Muslim intellectuals like Amir Khusro and saints like Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia encouraged a language that could be understood by the common people. This is how Urdu was developed and in the latter days of the Mughal period it became the most commonly understood language, which was also used in the courts of the kings. Even after Urdu began to replace Persian as the language of poetry in the 18th century, Persian retained its official status for another century, and remained a rich source of literary vocabulary in Urdu language. Some elements of Persian grammar along with the vocabulary have been borrowed. Apart from Persian, Urdu also borrowed numerous vocabularies from Arabic language. In day-to-day Urdu speech and writings we observe many Arabic words.

Urdu, unlike Arabic and Persian languages, is an Indo-Aryan language akin Hindi. If we compare and contrast the structures of these two language we find that both the languages share the same Indic base especially at the phonological and grammatical levels. At these two levels the two languages appear to be one language, but at the lexical level they have borrowed so extensively from different sources that in actual practice and usage each has developed into an independent language. We have mentioned in the beginning that Urdu has borrowed elements from Persian and Arabic. But as far as Hindi is concerned it has borrowed numerous elements from Sanskrit language. The distinction between them can be marked at the orthographical level, where Hindi uses Devanagri and Urdu uses the Perso-Arabic script, indigenously modified to suit the requirements of an Indo-Aryan speech. History tells us that Urdu as a written language began to grow in the 12th century during the period of Muslim conquests in northern India, but its exact history is still a matter of dispute.

A brief outline of the origin and development of Urdu by Chatterji (1960) is necessary to discuss here. He distinguished five current “forms of Hindustani”:

1. Vernacular Hindustani – the local dialect of the Meerut and Rohilkhand districts west of Delhi;

2. Hindustani proper – the standard speech of Delhi, which developed from Khari Boli.

3. High Hindi;

4. Urdu or Muslim Hindi – the two literary forms of the above 2,

5. Bazaar Hindi – a simplified form of the above 3.

According to Chatterji, the above five varieties share a number of distinguishing grammatical features which mark them off from other closely related language and dialects and they are known in Indian Linguistics as the ka mē par se, is us, jis kis, nā tā ā gā group of dialects. The base on which the separate structures of High Hindi and Urdu have been built up consists of a “Common grammar and a common element of roots, affixes and words.” (Chatterji, 1960)

The recognition of Urdu as a language separate from Hindi has been given “because of its (a) Perso-Arabic script; (b) Its plethora of Perso-Arabic words, to the deliberate exclusion of pure Hindi and Sanskrit words; (c) The general Islamic and Persian feel of its atmosphere and its ideals in life and literature”. (Chatterji, 1963)

The rise of Urdu as a literary and official language began in the early eighteenth century. The Indian language variety adopted by the otherwise Persian-speaking Mughal rulers was that of the Delhi region, which became known as ‘Hindustāni’. It became the language of the Muslim elite all over North India, and was the lingua franca within the Mughal empire and particularly within the army. It was called in Persian (as we have pointed out in the beginning) Zabān-e-Urdu-e-mu’alla (i. e. the language of the camp and the court), hence the usual designation “Urdu”. In its role of official language, which it gradually took over from Persian in the 19th century many new lexical items were required in matters of government, law, commerce, education, the army, etc. For these purposes, Urdu borrowed numerous elements from Persian in order to fulfil the lexical gap. The high status of Urdu as the language of law and administration was maintained by the British when they replaced the Mughals.

In the course of time a Sanskritized form of Hindustani was being developed throughout the 19th century as a reaction to Urdu. This became the high Hindi of Chatterji’s classification as discussed above, with all new lexical items necessary for a “high” language being supplied by loans from Sanskrit. The resulting split into two standard styles of Hindustani has led to what Chatterji calls “two mutually antagonistic language by virtue of difference in script and differences in higher vocabulary”. (Chatterji, 1963)

Apart from the historical evidences regarding the formation and development of Urdu we notice that the socio-political history of India during the last 1000-years has played a great role. After Mohammad Ghauri conquered Delhi Sultanate in 1193, there occurred drastic changes in the social, cultural and linguistic structures of the country. These changes served to develop a composite culture and gave birth to a new language. Since Delhi was ruled by the Muslim rulers, so this language was given patronage by the ruling class and thereafter began to be used by a large number of people. It gradually became the lingua franca of the region. In course time, it travelled from northern part of India (the nucleus of Muslim power) to the west, from where in due course it moved to the southern part (Deccan). Indeed, the numerous Khānqas (monastries of Muslim saints) could come in close contact with the indigenous people through the same language. This may be a historical fact because some historians and linguists are of the opinion that Urdu was been in Khanqah (seminary) of Shaikh Baba Farid, the Punjabi Sufi poet who lived at Pak Pattan now in Pakistan. The patronization of Urdu by the political magnates and Sufis contributed immensely to the formation and configuration of the language. Probably, the first Urdu poet was Mas’ud Salman (1046-1121), a Sufi, followed by yet a number of other Sufis such as Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (1140-1268), Baba Farid Ganj Shakar (1173-1265), Nizamuddin Aulia (1230-1325), Amir Khusrau (1253-1325) and Khwaja Banda Nawaz Gesū Darāz (1321-1422) of Gulbarga, etc.

During the reign of Allauddin Khilji (1296-1316) and Mohammad Bin Tughlaq (1325-51) Urdu spread over large parts of Gujrat and Southern States of India. The Southern State like Golconda and Bijapur which enjoyed an autonomous status during the early 14th century, became the centres of Urdu language and valuable literary works were produced by its patrons. The main contributors of Dakhni Urdu literature are Miravji (1595-1663), Bahauddin Bahan (1388-1506), Khwaja Banda Nawaz Gesu Daraz, Mulla Wajhi (? 1635), Quli Qutub Shah (1565-1611), etc. Due to the wider spread of Urdu in this southern region, some scholars believed that it is a South Indian language, which flourished in Golconda and Bijapore in Deccan for two centuries before it came to north India. No doubt in these two states Urdu was the official language. There are some historians who believed that Urdu, like Bhakti movement, came to north India from the South, symbolizing the unity of India.

In North India along with Amir Khusrau, Kabir Das (1440-1518), Guru Nanak (1419-1538), Afzal (d.1625), Abdul Wasey Hansvi and Khan Aarzu (1687-1755) also played an important role in forming and developing the language. The literature in Dakhni highly influenced the people of North India and due to that the North Indian scholars and writers also started writing in Urdu. A well known poet of 16th century namely Vali Dakhni’s (1649-1707) literary tradition became popular in the north, which was followed by the eminent writers of Delhi, Lunknow, Patna and Rampur.

LINGUISTIC CLASSIFICATION: GENETIC

Languages are classified in three main ways: 

	I.	Genetic or Genealogical classification 
	II.	Typological classification 
	III.	Areal classification

I. Genetic or Geneological classification:

In genetic classification languages are observed in order to find out the similarities and correspondences between them. These observed similarities are explained by stating a definite point of contact between languages at some point in time. Genetic classification comes under the area of Historical linguistics thus historical linguistics is based on the fact that languages show remarkable similarities to one another and here the hypothesis is that they were once the same language. India is represented by five language families out of these Indo-Aryan is the major language family. The languages, which are included in the Indo-Aryan family, are mainly spoken in Northern- India. This language family is associated with the Aryans who come to India in 1500 B.C. The history of Indo-Aryans begins from the date when the Aryans appeared at the North-Western part of India in 1500 B.C.

There are three stages of development of Indo-Aryan family. These are : 

		1.	Old Indo-Aryan 
		2.	Middle Indo-Aryan 
		3.	New Indo-Aryan

1. Old Indo-Aryan (OIA) :

The period of Old Indo-Aryan extends from 1500 B.C. to 500 B.C. During this period there developed the Sanskrit language. The two varieties of Sanskrit which developed during this period were : 

		(a)	Vedic Sanskrit 
		(b)	Classical Sanskrit

2. Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA) :

This is the second stage of the development of the Indo-Aryan family of languages. This period extends from 300 B.C. to 1000 A.D. During this period there developed the Prakrit, which are of the following types: 

		1.	Shaurseni Prakrit 
		2.	Magdhi Prakrit 
		3.	Ardh-Magdhi Prakrit 
		4.	Paishchi Prakrit.

By the end of middle Indo Aryan there developed the Apabhramsha branches which are of six types: 

		1.	Shaurseni Apabhramsha 
		2.	Magdhi Apabhramsha
		3.	Ardh Magdhi Apabhramsha
		4.	Marathi Apabhramsha
		5.	Brachad Apabhramsha
		6.	Kaikai Apabhramsha

3. New Indo-Aryan (NIA):

This period extends from 1000 A.D. till date. During this period there developed all the new or modern Indo-Aryan languages like Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Gujrati, Bangali, Assamese, etc. New Indo-Aryan languages originated from Apabharmsha which developed from Prakrit. The Aryans came to India in two groups. According to Hoernle, a German Scholar, who was first the person to point out in 1880, that the Aryan came to India in two groups – the appropriate date of the coming of first group is 1500 B.C., the second group came to India after the first group had settled here. According to him, when the second group entered the Madhyadesha, it expelled the Aryans belonging to first group and occupied their place. The first group settled around the second group and formed a circle. But according to Grierson when the Aryans came in the second group they did not expell the first group from Madhyadesh. Knowing that central place is occupied the second group settled around the first group and formed a semi-circle. Hoernle and Grierson, however, agree that the Aryans came to India in two different groups and one settled around another.

The languages belonging to the inner group are spoken in the region of Madhyadesha. The languages belonging to the outer group formed a semi-circle. It starts from Sindh and cover the area of Punjab, Maharashtra, East Orissa, Bihar, Bengal, and Assam. The classification of the New Indo-Aryan languages is as follows:- 

	A.	Languages of Outer Groups:
		a)	North-Western Branch:-
			1.	Lahanda (Western Panjabi)
			2.	Sindhi 
		b)	Southern Branch :-
			3.	Marathi 
		c)	Eastern Branch:-
			4.	Bengali 
			5.	Assamese 
			6.	Oriiya 
			7.	Bihari 
				i)	Maithili – spoken in Darbhanga 
				ii)	Maghi  - spoken in Gaya and Patna 
				iii)	Bhojpuri – spoken in Eastern U.P. and Western Bihar
	B.	Languages of Central groups:-
			8.	Eastern Hindi 
				i)	Avadhi
				ii)	Bagheli
				iii)	Chattis Garhi
	C.	Languages of Inner Groups:-
			9.	Western Hindi
				i)	Khari Boli 
					(1) 	Urdu
					(2)	Hindi
				ii)	Haryanvi 
				iii)	Braj Bhasa
				iv)	Bundeli
				v)	Kannauji
			10.	Punjabi
			11.	Gujrati 
			12.	Rajasthani
			13.	Bhili
			14.		Khandeshi
				vi)	Pahadi Languages 
			15.	Eastern Pahadi
			16.		Middle Pahadi
			17.		Western Pahadi

Urdu is a new Indo-Aryan language. It originated by around 1000 A.D. in North India i.e. in and around Delhi. Urdu originated through a linguistic process. It emerged as a result of the historical changes which took place in the languages and dialects of Northern India. A new language emerged out of an old one. This is the natural historical process of the origin and development of languages. When a language dies out it gives birth to another language. Prakrit originated from Sanskrit and Apabhramshas originated from Prakrit. Apabhramshas ultimately died out giving rise to other new Indo Aryan languages. Urdu is directly related to Shaurseni Apabhramsas. At 1000 A.D. Shaurseni Apabhramshas started fading out and in its place a number of dialects emerged. Khariboli is one such dialect. It has been grouped under Western Hindi, which is directly related to Shaurseni Apabhramsha. Urdu, from the very beginning, had adopted the linguistic features of Khadi boli. It is directly based and derived from Khadi Boli that is why in Urdu the noun, pronoun, verb and adjective ends with the vowel /ā/.

	/ghoRaa/ 		(Noun) 		‘horse’
	/meraa/ 		(Pronoun) 		‘mine’
	/gayaa/ 		(Verb)		‘went’
	/baRaa/ 		(Adj)		‘big’

The Khadi Boli sentence is as follows: 

		meraa ghoRaa maara gayaa
		‘my horse was killed’

Urdu adopted the skeleton grammar of Khadi Boli and also its grammatical rules e.g. Khadi Boli is SOV and so is Urdu.

Haryavi is another important dialect which has influenced Urdu during the course of its development. Haryanvi is one of the dialects of western Hindi. It is spoken in North-West side of Delhi. During the 12th century A.D. the old Urdu directly came under the influence of Haryanvi. Though Urdu is based on Khadi Boli but there are much affinities between Haryanvi and old Urdu. Following are some of the linguistic features of Haryanvi adopted by Urdu during its early development:

1) In Haryanvi the plural is formed by adding - āN the end of the noun. The same feature is found in old Urdu. 

	kitābāN 		‘book’		(from kitab (s))
	logāN	 	‘men’ 		(from log (s))
	bātāN	 	‘talks’		(from baat (s))

2) In Haryanvi the past indefinite tense is formed by adding yā to the verbal root. In old Urdu the same practice is also found. 

		dekhyā 		‘saw’		
		chalyā 		‘walked’
		sunyā 		‘heared’

In modern standard Urdu this feature of Haryanvi was dropped and the past indefinite tense was formed simply by adding ā to the verbal root. 

		dekhā 		‘saw’
		chalā 		‘walked’
		sunā 		‘heard’

3) Like Haryanvi in old Urdu also we find only /D/ sound instead of the [R] sound. 

		baDa 		‘big’		 	
		buDha 		‘old’

In old standard Urdu /D/ is replaced by the sound /R/ (buRha)

4) In Haryanvi dialect some times the short vowels are lengthened. This linguistic feature is also found in old Urdu. 

		māT 	(from miTTi)	‘soil’		
		jāgah 	(from jagah) 	‘place’

5) Due to the influence of the Haryanvi dialect the aspiration of the certain Urdu word is lost. 

		saki  	(from sakhī) 	‘female friend’	
		hāt 	(from hath) 	‘hand’
		kuch	(from kuch) 	‘some’

6) Certain vowels are nasalized in old Urdu where there is no nasalization. This is because of the influence of Haryanvi dialect on Urdu. 

	seeN 		(from se)		‘from’
	barsaaNt 		(from barsāt)	‘Rainy season’

Urdu originated through the process of mixing or amalgamation of two types of languages: 

	1.	The Indigenous dialects like Khadi boli and Haryanvi.
	2.	Arabic and Persian

Urdu has been influenced greatly by Persian and Arabic in the course of its development. This linguistic influence is found in Urdu at various levels, which are discussed as follows:

1. Orthography:

Urdu has adopted the writing system from Persian and Arabic. The present day writing system of Urdu is called nasta’liq.

2. Phonology:

Urdu phonology also shows the influence of Persian and Arabic languages. The following Perso-Arabic sounds are found in Urdu phonology without which the Urdu phonology is incomplete: 

	1.	The sound 	/x/(ﺥ)	as in /xās/ 	‘special’
	2. 	The sound 	/Gh/(ﻍ)	as in /Ghair/	‘stranger’
	3. 	The sound 	/z/(ﻧ)	as in /zaban/	‘language’
	4.  	The sound 	/zh/ (ﺛ)	as in /mizhgā/ 	‘eye brow’
	5. 	The sound 	/f/(ﻑ)	as in /fāsla/	‘distance’
	6. 	The sound 	/q/ (ﻕ)	as in /qalam’	‘pen

These six sounds exclusively come from Perso-Arabic sources. They are not found in Indo-Aryan language.

3. Lexicon (Vocabulary):

The Urdu vocabulary consists of a large number of words from Persian and Arabic. According to an analysis there are about 75% Perso Arabic words in Urdu. The rest of the words come from Indic sources. Urdu words can be grouped in two categories. 

	(a) Simple words		(b) Compound words

Most of the Perso-Arabic words in Urdu are simple words but a large number of Perso-Arabic compounds are also used in Urdu. For e.g. 

	dard-e-dil
	dar-ul-hukūmat

LINGUISTIC CLASSIFICATION: TYPOLOGICAL

Typology is the classification of languages or components of languages based on shared formal characteristics. There are three significant propositions given in the definition of typology. These are :

i) Typology involves cross-linguistic comparison, all typological research is based on comparisons between languages.

ii) A typological approach involves classification of either: 

	a)	Components of languages, or 
	b)	Languages

iii. Typology is concerned with classification based on formal features of language. The first use of the word typology in linguistic literature, according to Greenberg (1974), may be traced to the thesis presented by the Prague linguists in the First Congress of Slavonic Philologists held in 1928.

When we talk of typological classification it means classification based on all the system of languages such as phonological, grammatical, semantic etc.

a) Grammatical typology:

Urdu has SOV word order, 

		billī 		dūdh		pītī 		hai
		S		   O		 V

Urdu is a post positional language e.g. 

		kitāb mez par hai 
	      	postposition

In Urdu the genetive follows the governing noun so the adjective also follows the Noun 

	yeeh 	Ahmad 		ki 	kitāb hai 
		governing 	genetive 
		noun 
	yeeh 	Ahmad 	ke 	kapRee 	acchee haiN 
		noun	genetive 	adj

Urdu makes greater use of suffixation but it also has infixation and prefixation. Here case, gender, number, tense is used and the relative weight is placed upon each. For example:

Prefixation: 

	/bee-/ /beekār/ 	‘use less’		/beewafā/ 		‘disloyal’
	/beejān/ 		‘nonliving’		/beehayā/		‘shameless’
	/nā-/ /nāahal/	‘not suitable’	nālāiq		‘idiot’ ‘worthless’

Suffixation :

	/-gār/ /Xidmatgār/ 	‘servant’		/madadgār/ 		‘helper’
	/-mand/ /hunarmand/	‘creative’		/dardmand/		‘sympathetic’

Infixation:

	/-ā-/ /masjid (sg)	‘mosque’		/masājid/  (pl) 	‘mosques’
	/naqsh/		‘impression’	/naqāsh/		‘one who makes impression’
	/māni/ 		‘meaning’		/maāni/ 		‘meanings’
	/tasvīr/		‘photo’		/tasāvīr/		‘photos’

b) Phonological typology:

Based on different ways in which the sounds and sound features of languages are organized into phonological systems and syllable structures.

Voicing is phonemic in Urdu. Many sounds have voiced and voiceless counterparts. Voiceless plosives and fricatives become vocalized in junction sequences, before voiced plosives (whether aspirated or unaspirated), e.g. /xidmat gār/ ‘servant’ and voiced plosives and fricatives become unvoiced in junction, with voiceless consonants.

Aspiration is also phonemic in Urdu, e.g. 

	/pal/ 	‘moment’		/phal/ 	‘fruit’

Retroflexion is also phonemic in Urdu, e.g. 

	/kharā/	‘genuine’		/khaRā/		‘straight’, ‘standing’
	/mār/	‘bashing’		/māR/		‘of rice’
	/gārā/	‘squeeze’, ‘mud’	/gāRa/		‘burried’
	/dāl/	‘pulse’		/Dāl/		‘twig’, ‘to pour’

Regarding lengthening, absolute length can be fixed for considering a vowel long or short. However, a vowel of relatively long duration is twice as long as a corresponding vowel with a relatively short duration in the same position. In fact, there is a great controversy about the length of vowels in Urdu. Long and short vowels are not Phonetically similar. They are mutually interchangeable in distribution. They are also distinctive. But the length of vowels does not appear to be an important feature in Urdu. The vowels /ī, O, e, ā, o/ are relatively short in final positions in polysyllabic words, although their qualities remain the same as they are not relaxed or lowered to the vowels /i, A,/ or /ō/, respectively. They are fairly long finally in monosyllabic words. The length of long vowels get affected if the following consonant is voiced or voiceless. Long vowels are normally shorter before a nasal consonant than before any other voiced consonants. But when the vowels are nasalsized, their duration gets prolonged, as in /chāNd/ ‘moon’. Long vowels do not occur before syllabic and geminated consonants while short vowels /i, ō and u/ do not occur word finally. The plural distinction in Urdu is maintained by nasalisation. For example. 

	/hai/	 ‘is’		/haiN 		‘are’
	/āyeegi/ 	‘she will come’	/āyeeNgī/		‘they will come’

c) Morphological typology:

Morphemes with in the word are conventionally divided into root derivational and inflectional. Derivational and inflectional elements are usually grouped together as affixes. Besides prefixes and suffixes, Urdu also has infixes.

Urdu also has person, number and gender categories and also tense mode categories:

person:

	/mai āyā/		‘I came’
	/tum aee/		‘you came’
	/voo āyā/		‘he came

number:

	/voo āi/ (sg)		‘she came’	         
	/voo āee/ (pl)		‘they came’
	/kitāb rakkhī hai/(sg)		‘book is kept’
	/kitābeeN rakkhī haiN/ (pl) 	‘books have been kept’

gender:

 
	/voo laRkā āyā/  	‘That boy came’
	/voo laRkī āī/	‘That girl came’

In Urdu the object noun also agrees with the verbing gender and so the adjectives always agree with the noun in gender. 

	/achchā laRkā ā:ta hai/ 	‘good boy comes’	
	/achchee laRkee ātee haiN/ 	‘good boys come’

In Urdu the verb agrees with the nominal subject or nominal object in gender so it also agrees with number e.g. 

	/laRkā khātā hai/ 	‘boy eats’	/laRkee khātee haiN/ 	‘boys eat’
	/laRkī khātī hai/ 	‘Girl eats’	/laRkiyāN khātī haiN/	‘girls eat’

In Urdu there is a Nominal subject and Nominal object and also it has a case system. 

	/laRkee    ko diyā/ 	‘Gave to the boy’

Oblique case:

	/uskā ghar achchā hai/  ‘his home is nice’

Genitive case:

	/ghar   se āyā hai/ 	‘he came from home’

Objective case:

Urdu is highly inflecting in nature leading to a large number of portmanteau morphs. 

	/jaeeNgī/		‘they (f) will go’

here, /jā-/ is the root, /ee-/ indicates third person, nasalisation indicates plural, /g/ is future tense marker, and /i/ indicates feminine gender.

LINGUISTIC CLASSIFICATION: AREAL

The basic assumption of Areal Typology (AT) is that typological relevant features may be borrowed by and from genetically unrelated languages via contacts in the same geographical area. Traditionally, AT was used to operate on relatively small geographical scales involving the relatively restricted language set. AT is a particular branch not only of typology but also of so-called contact linguistics. Its object of study is by no means restricted to morphology or syntax, it is not just concerned with lexical items or morphological forms. Its scope is much broader. It is concerned with the diffusion of phonological, morphosyntactic even intonational patterns i.e. structural scheme which are relevant from typological point of view.

Areal Features of Urdu:

a) Retroflexion:

It refers to the sounds during the articulation of which the tip of the tongue is curled and its back touches or approaches the hard palate. It is a phonological areal feature in Urdu. There are following retroflex sounds. 

	/T/ /TamāTar/	‘tomato’,		/Th/  /lāThī/  		‘stick’
	/D/ /Dāl/ 		‘branch’,		/Dh/ /Dhol/   		‘drum’
	/R/ /baRā/   	‘big’,		/Rh/ /chaRhnā/   		‘climb’

b) Aspiration:

It is produced by putting extra puff of air while pronouncing a consonant, especially the stop consonant. In Urdu phonology the aspiration is phonemic because it is responsible for change in meaning. For example. 

	/tālī/		‘clapping’,		/thālī/		‘plate’
	/pal/		‘moment’,		/phal/		‘fruit’
	/Dool/		‘bucket’,		/Dhool/		‘drum’
	/boolā/		‘spoke’		/bhoola/		‘innocent’
	/coolā/		‘attire’		/choolā/		‘a variety of gram’

c) Length:

Length refers to the time which is taken in the production of a vowel. If the time taken is short then it is called short vowel. In Urdu we find both long and short vowel. Length is phonemic in Urdu. 

	/kal/		‘tomorrow’,		/kāl/		‘deficiency’
	/pal/		‘moment’,		/pāl/		‘to bring up’

d) Nasalization:

Nasalization is phonemic in Urdu because it is responsible for change in meaning. In Urdu all the vowels can be nasalized. 

	/mai/		‘wine’,		/maīN/		‘I’
	/jū/		‘stream’,		/jūN/		‘louse’
	/kahā/		‘said’,		/kahāN/		‘where’
	/xūN/		‘blood’,		/xū/		‘habit’
	/bāNT/		‘to distribute’,	/bāT/		‘weight’

e) Reduplication:

Reduplication is the repetition of all or part of the base with or without internal change before or after the base itself. There could be complete reduplication, partial reduplication or who formation:

(i) Complete reduplication:

	/ghar- ghar/		/chaltee-chaltee/	
	/kabhī – kabhī/		/rootee-rootee/
	/achee-achee/		/pyārī-pyārī/

(ii) Partial reduplication:

	/ās-pās/		/roonā- dhoonā/		/cāl-Dhāl/

(iii) Echo formation:

	/rooTi-vooTi/		/chāyee-vāyee/		/khānā-vānā/

f) Conjunctive participles:

The conjunctive participles /kar/ /ke/ are very common in Urdu. 

/usnee soochkar kahā/ 				‘he think (cp) said’
/vooh dauR kar kursī par baiTh gayā/ 			‘he ran and sat down on the chair’
/usnee uskī ākhōN mee deekhkar darwāzā band kar diyā/	‘He looked into her eyes and closed the door’.

Conjunctives which are used most frequently in old Urdu and Middle Urdu texts are classified as follows:

1. Connective: 

	/aur/		‘and’,			
	/bhī/		‘also’

2. Adversative :

	/par/		‘but’,			
	/magar/		‘but’
	/leekin/		‘but’,			
	/balkī/ 		‘but, rather;

3. Conditional :

	/agar/		‘if’,		  
	/va-gar-na /	‘and if not’
	/jo/		‘if’

4. Concessive :

	/to/		‘then’,		
	/agarchi/		‘although’,	
	/pas/		‘then’

5. Conclusive:

	/phir/		‘then’

6. Causal:

	/kyōNki/		‘because’

g) The Dative Construction :

Predication involving experiences particularly experiences of states or conditions, that can be definitively “known” only or primarily to the subject undergoing them are treated differently in some languages from predications involving external acts, states or conditions, while other languages make no distinction here. Such experiences which we may call “Subjective”, typically include liking and disliking, states of health or sickness, happiness and unhappiness, dreaming, feeling, remembering, thinking, embarrassment, pity, doubt, pain, thrust, hunger, sleepiness, anger, urgency and “knowing” itself.

This category of “subjective experience”, as we might call it, is paradoxically marked in the languages that distinguish it, by describing it from an internal point of view, that is by putting the experiencing subject in an oblique case and either making the experience itself the grammatical subject or, less commonly, using an impersonal grammatical subject.

There are some statements in which objects can’t be ascertained. 

	mujhe 	pasand hai ,		mujhe buxār hai

“ Subject” as a Grammatical category:

This construction brings up the problem of “subject” vs “topic” and related matters. Some consider the oblique case experiencer as the “topic” as well as the “subject” and insist that the whole construction is impersonal, with the oblique personal reference to the experiencer a mere adjunct that can be dispensed with.

The dative subject construction gets its name from the fact that one of the NPs which is a prime candidate for the syntactic role of subject is marked by the dative case in Urdu. On the semantic level the dative subject is not an Agent but an Experiencer. What is “experienced” includes. 

	(i)	Physical sensation and conditions.
	(ii)	Psychological or mental states, including liking, perceiving
	(iii)	Wanting or needing
	(iv)	Obligation or compulsion
	(v)	Having kinship relations 
	(vi)	External circumstances or events affecting but not controlled by the Dative N.P.

(i) Physical sensations and conditions :

/bachchee ko ThanD lag rahi hai/ ‘The child is feeling cold’.

(ii) Psychological or mental states including liking, perceiving :

/mujhe apne watan ki yād āti hai/ ‘I am home Sick’

(iii) Wanting or needing :

/apko kya chahiye/ ‘What do you want’

(iv) Obligation or compulsion:

/mujhe jānā hai/ ‘I have to go’

(v) Having kinship relations :

/us ki ek behen hai/ ‘She has one sister’

(vi) External circumstances or events affecting but not controlled by the Dative NP.

Here we might put the common verbs of receiving/finding.

/mujhe mor kā ek par milā/ ‘I found a peacock feather’

g) Explicator Compound Verbs :

Here a finite verb, one of a limited set of special auxiliaries ‘completes the sense’ of an immediately preceding main verb in the absolutive form. The two verbs refer to a single event. Here in a group of two verbs semantic center of gravity is shifted from V2 to V1. In some cases the lexical emptying is almost complete. In other cases enough of the literal meaning is retained to render a literal CP+V interpretation plausible. 

	/kho baiThanā/ 	‘to loose’
	/le jānā/ 		‘to take away’
	/likh dena/		‘write down for somebody’
	/gir paRnā/		‘fall down’

In all the above examples the main action is represented by V1.

The function of V2 is manifold it connotes completion, suddenness, directionality, benefaction, intensity, violence, stubbornness, reluctance, regret, forethought, thoroughness, etc. depending on the items involved and on the circumstances. A given V2 combines only with such V1 as to have the semantic potential for it. Many unspecified V1 have the potential for combination with a number of V2. The selection of the particular one depends on the demands of the situation as the speaker sees it or chooses to characterize it. Because of the function of unfolding the latent semantics of V1 of characterizing the manner and implications of its performance more precisely the name explicator has been proposed for these V2. There is a strong component of directionality to this lexical specification : away from the speaker (come, take, arrive), up (rise, emerge), down (fall, throw, descend) and perhaps motionless (sit, stand, put). Sometimes they many have other connotations, such as suddenness (fall) or violence (throw). The connotation of “completion” probably emerges from the well-roundedness of the characterization of the action, a semantic completion or “completeness”, which is not the same as the pefective aspect and indeed compatible with the imperfective aspect.

h) Compound Verbs:

Compound verbs may be formed with root, participles, infinitives and Aorists. They are also formed with nouns and adjectives. Such compounds are known as Nominal compounds.

1. Compound formed with roots :

a. 		/uTha lānā 	‘to bring’,	
		/uTha laīN  kūza/ 	‘she brought the pot’.

b) In the sense of potentials: 

		/uTha saknā/ 		‘to be able to rise’
		/behosh hui aur nā uTh saki/	‘she became unconscious and could not rise’

c) Completive: 

		/ro chuknā/ 		‘ to have done weeping’
		/ro chukā thā/  		‘had done weeping

2. Compound formed with imperfect participles:

In the sense of continuatives:

		/satāte rehnā/ 			‘to continue or go on hurting’
		/agar yūN hi ye dil satāta rahe gā/	‘If this heart goes on hurting like this’

3. Compound formed with perfect participles:

In the sense of Habituatives :

		/diyā karnā/ 	‘to give frequently’, 	
		/satāyā nā karo/ 	‘don’t go on hurting’

4. Compound formed with infinitives :

a) Inceptives:

		/kehne lagnā/	 	‘to bring to call’
		/usko dushman kehne lage/ 	‘we begain to call him enemy’

b) Permissives: 

		/girne denā/ 		‘to allow to fall’

5. Compound formed with the Aorist:

Continuatives:

		/khāe janā/ 		‘to keep or go on eating’

6. Compound formed with Nouns and Adjectives:

 
		/dūr bhāgnā 		‘to go away’,		
		/dosh denā/ 		‘to blame’
		/apne karam ko dosh do/ 	‘please blame your own deeds’

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