Language Information
Urdu is an language from the Indo-Aryan language family that is primarily spoken in South Asia, especially in Pakistan (where it is the national language). It is also a recognized language in India, and is an official language in several Indian states.
There are over 70 million native speakers of Urdu and an additional nearly 170 million who speak it as an additional language, making Urdu the 10th-most widely spoken language globally.
Spoken Urdu is mutually intelligible with Hindi, although the two languages differ in writing systems. Urdu is written using a modified Persian (Nastaliq) script, while Hindi uses the Devanagari script.
At Indiana Univeristy, the Dhar India Studies Program offers 3 years of Urdu language instruction, from beginning through advanced.