All lessons › Reading unit 12

Duniyā kā Naqshā · The World in Urdu

countries whose Urdu names will surprise you

Some countries keep their English names in Urdu. The interesting ones don't. Egypt is Miṣr, Greece is Yūnān, and Syria shares its name with the evening. These names arrived centuries before English did, riding caravan routes through Persian and Arabic, and reading them is a tour of history. Duniyā = world, mulk = country. Chalo.

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The phrases

مصرMiṣr: 🇪🇬 EgyptArabic's own name for Egypt, unchanged
یونانYūnān: 🇬🇷 Greecefrom 'Ionia', the Greeks the East met first
چینChīn: 🇨🇳 Chinasame spelling as chain (peace), context decides
روسRūs: 🇷🇺 Russiashort and old, via Persian
ترکیTurkī: 🇹🇷 Türkiyethe country and the adjective in one word
ایرانĪrān: 🇮🇷 IranPersian's own name for Persia
عراقIrāq: 🇮🇶 Iraqstarts with ain, the throat letter
شامShām: 🇸🇾 Syriaalso the word for evening, one of Urdu's best homographs
فلسطینFilastīn: 🇵🇸 Palestineends in the long -īn
ہسپانیہHispāniyā: 🇪🇸 Spainvia Arabic; plain 'Spen' is also heard now
ہندوستانHindustān: 🇮🇳 India (the classic name)land of the Indus, hind + stān
بھارتBhārat: 🇮🇳 India (the official name)the one in the khabarnāma
افغانستانAfghānistān: 🇦🇫 Afghanistananother -stān, 'land of'
بنگلہ دیشBanglādesh: 🇧🇩 Bangladeshdesh = country, in Bengali
سری لنکاSrī Lankā: 🇱🇰 Sri Lankaas spoken, two words
نیپالNepāl: 🇳🇵 Nepallong ā carries the stress
سعودی عربSaūdī Arab: 🇸🇦 Saudi ArabiaArab, not 'Arabia', in Urdu
اماراتImārāt: 🇦🇪 UAEshort for Mutahidda Arab Imārāt
امریکہAmrīkā: 🇺🇸 America / USAends in gol he
برطانیہBarṭāniyā: 🇬🇧 Britainfrom 'Britannia', via Arabic
فرانسFarāns: 🇫🇷 Franceas heard, no silent letters
جرمنیJarmanī: 🇩🇪 Germanysoft j, long ī
کینیڈاKaneḍā: 🇨🇦 Canadawith the retroflex ḍ
آسٹریلیاĀsṭreliyā: 🇦🇺 Australiaopens with alif madda, the long āā
جاپانJāpān: 🇯🇵 Japantwo long ā's, evenly weighted
اٹلیIṭlī: 🇮🇹 Italywith the retroflex ṭ

Good to know

✨ Pakistan is the rare country that named itself in Urdu: pāk (pure) + stān (land). The name was coined in 1933 in Choudhry Rahmat Ali's 'Now or Never' pamphlet, woven from the regions it hoped to unite, and it doubled as a word that already meant something beautiful.
✨ Shām means both Syria and evening, so 'Shām kī shām' (an evening in Syria) is a real, grammatical, and slightly poetic sentence.
✨ The -stān in Afghanistān, Hindustān, and Pākistān is the same Persian 'land of' that English borrowed for made-up places. Urdu speakers can name real ones all day.

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