Why has Urdu still not been released on Duolingo?

[TheGreatScorpio]

Why has the Urdu language still not been released on duolingo, at least even on incubation, despite having so much interest? On one of the post, I read that the option for contributing was there but apparently removed, is that so? I have also sent a request (again) and would be willing to contribute along side other people. It shouldn’t that difficult either as Hindi is also available and Hindi and Urdu are really similar as many will know so it’s mostly a matter of converting from the Hindi script to the Urdu script.

[DragonPolyglot]

I wonder if Duolingo considers Hindi and Urdu the same language since technically Hindustani (Hindi+Urdu) is a single pluricentric language. Even native speakers of Hindi or Urdu agree that they have pretty much the same language, save for the writing system and religious-based preferences in formal speech (Urdu prefers Arabic words, Hindi prefers Sanskrit.) Personally I would love to have a course for just Urdu, and take the Hindi course separately, because I love Urdu a lot and I feel like it should be treated separately from the equally lovely but different Hindi.

[TheGreatScorpio]

And I’m sure there would be a lot of contributors willing to contribute to the course, like me. Was there ever an option to contribute to Urdu in incubator before?

[DragonPolyglot]

I've never seen an option specifically for Urdu, however you can choose "enter other" (and type in the language name) in the incubator application page if you want to contribute to a course that includes an unlisted language (that is, a language that is not listed as one of the options).

[PriyaSinghJatti]

1) Lengthen the Hindi tree

2) Add Urdu

[DeniMo6]

Now that DL has Arabic as an option, I am hoping that learning the script will help. As Hindi and Urdu are similar except for writing, perhaps by learning the writing style one will be able to write in Urdu after learning Hindi. Native speakers, am I way off base here?

[coenfuse]

Yeah you could write in Urdu once you learn Hindi. Not for all, but for the most part.

[DeepikaPadam]

Are the Arabic letters the same as Urdu? If I learn to read Arabic letters, will I be able to read Urdu?

[DeniMo6]

Sadly, no. I was mistaken. While the letters are similar, they are not the same. See this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdu_alphabet

[mantodea93]

If they ever get a Farsi/Persian, they're much closer in writing systems.

You can learn the basic gist from Arabic, but the writing stylization is fairly different.

[Dhawal.Vaghela]

The Hindi tree is still very short. And there are many languages in queue that are more requested than Urdu.

[TheGreatScorpio]

I mean I’ve been following the Urdu forums and there have been forums as far back as 4 year ago (maybe even further back as I only had one glance) requesting an Urdu course on duolingo

[IrumIslam]

Me too! I’ve been waiting patiently for the past 5 years for Urdu to appear... you can only imagine my frustration when I see full courses of languages that are for fictional languages or those spoken by a very very small minority. I imagine Urdu would attract a LOT of learners! Especially because there are a large proportion of British Pakistanis who can only speak English, myself included!

From this I have got the impression that Duolingo have a grudge against Pakistanis and other Urdu speakers!

[iMansoorAliKhan]

haha I guess the whole world has grudge against pakistan for many reasons esp for its Geographic position for the most.

[Dhawal.Vaghela]

Oh ok. I didn't know about those things.