Urdu
Urdu is the official language of Pakistan and is also widely spoken in India. In Pakistan it is the mother tongue of about 10 million people and is spoken fluently as a second language by perhaps 80 million more. In India, where it is spoken by some 50 million Moslems, it is one of the official languages recognized by the constitution. It is also widely spoken in Fiji, South Africa, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and Germany. 

Urdu is very similar to Hindi, the most important difference between them being that the former is written in the Perso-Arabic script, while the latter is written in the Sanskrit characters. Urdu also contains many words from Arabic and Persian, while Hindi makes a conscious effort to preserve the older Indian words. After the partition of India in 1947, Hindi became the principal language of India, and Urdu of West Pakistan. The older term Hindustani, embracing both languages, has fallen into general disuse since partition.

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