The word “Urdu” is basically originated from Turkish word “Ordu” meaning “an army”, “a camp”, or “a legion”; justifying its multicultural and diverse origins, can truly be regarded as a living language still undergoing changes and expanding its bases to new horizons.
It is a fine amalgam of three culturally and orally very rich and diverse languages, i.e. Turkish, Arabic and Persian, three of the languages with very rich culture and history harmonizing with each other to develop and originate a new language called “Urdu”. So, we can say that it is the nature of this language to engulf any convenient elements of other languages and fit them in like its own indigenous elements.
Though, it has changed and evolved a great deal all through its history, now spanned well over some 900 years, Roman Urdu is one such recent example of how it expands itself. It is basically the name given to the trend and practice of writing words of Urdu with Roman alphabets.
As is this common with majority of changes, they are not conveniently welcomed by the convention lovers; so is the case with this instance as well. The advent and propagation of this new found trend is not embraced with open hearts and minds by convention lovers and many acclaimed scholars claim that majority of “Arabic Script” lovers of the language find it quite offending to them and language.
As a matter of fact, the advent of Roman Urdu has been made possible with the advances in Information Technology and other contemporary technological developments, and it is most widely used in text messages over cell phones or in the form of “chatting” through internet.
The fact of the matter is that with the passage of time this new found innovation is making its mark on the language itself, and perhaps to the good of it.
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