The word Urdu is derived from the same Turkish word ordu (army) that has given English horde.Since the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire until the British Raj, Hindustani, written in the Urdu script, was the language of both Hindus and Muslims. The population of Hindi-Urdu speakers is the fourth largest of the languages of the world, after Mandarin Chinese, English and Spanish. The two varieties of Hindustani are nearly identical in basic structure and grammar, and at a colloquial level also in vocabulary and phonology. Since the end of the Mughal period in the nineteenth century, the varieties of Hindustani have been the lingua franca for much of South Asia. Apart from specialized vocabulary, it is mutually intelligible with another register of Hindustani, Standard Hindi, which is associated with the Hindu religion.

It is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan, and an official language of five Indian states and one of the 22 scheduled languages in the Constitution of India. Urdu /ˈʊərduː/ (اُردُو )), or more precisely Modern Standard Urdu, is a standardized register of the Hindustani language that is associated with the Muslim religion.

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