Hindi and Urdu

How similar are Hindi and Urdu? I had read on the Pakistan board they are for all intents and purposes the same save for written in different script. Correct?

So, if I learn one - I can speak the other?

I had also read that Hindi/Urdu is-are easy language/s to learn - as easy as indonesian the poster had written. Is this true because indo is a REALLY ez language :-)

Where is Urdu spoken in India?

Thanks

In colloquial usage, not much difference. But in literary usage...heap big difference. Hindi tends to be Sanskritized and Urdu borrows more from Persian and Arabic.

Shukriya...Urdu, Hindi
Dhanyavaad...Hindi only

Thank you- English

Look at this colloqual usage and the subtle difference:

Aapke rehne ka intezaam ho gaya hai - Urdu, Hindi
Aapke rehne ka prabandh ho gaya hai - Hindi only
Arrangements have been made for your stay...English

More on this...you can use Urdu words in Hindi and still call it Hindi. But you cannot use sanskritized words in Urdu and call it Urdu.

Can't be better put!

I was speaking Punjabi in Pakistan last year and the locals said I spoke Urdu

hey thanks - thats plenty close. trouble is maybe too close. when you learn a bit of one - yo get too lazy and dont apply to learn the other -ive done this with indonesian and malay.

thx

hey Guys!
I'd like to make some observations here.

I studied hindi in the West of India, now use it predominantly with Northern Indians , Punjabis and Pakistanis and Yes, it tends to be the urdu version.

I was born Tamil and speak Tamil which has nothing to do either with Sanskrit or Hindi but I've found that down south, ppl tend to use (& study ) the non-urdu ( or original Hindi ) version more then their counterparts in the North.

i hesitate to call this "sanskritized" because, I studied Sanskrit in High School and did'nt see too much similarity with Hindi but I aint no language expert !! bin too long in the USofA

urdu is ,interestingly, an indian language , and not pakistani as usually misunderstood by people, and i was told urdu is not really welcome in punjab or frontier provinces of pakistan ,sometimes even sindh

one thing is ,urdu is a beautiful language ,sound as well as script

In the 1998 film Dil Se, a Sufi inspired song 'Chhaiyya Chhaiyya' ,
an ode to the language itself, the song goes ,
"Woh yaar hai jo khushboo ki tarah, Jis ki zubaan Urdu ki tarah "

roughly translates to

"A friend is like a fragrance, with a language (sweet) like Urdu".

Indeed. Indeed!