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- Native speakers of Urdu are spread across South Asia. The vast majority of them are Muslims of the Hindi–Urdu Belt of northern India, followed by the Deccani people of the Deccan plateau in south-central India (who speak Deccani Urdu) and the Muhajir people of Pakistan. The historical centres of Urdu speakers include Delhi and Lucknow, as well as the Deccan, and more recently, Karachi. Another defunct variety of the language was historically spoken in Lahore but centuries before the name "Urdu" first began to appear. However, little is known about this defunct Lahori variety as it has not been spoken for centuries. Although the majority of Urdu-speakers reside in Pakistan (including 30 million native speakers, and up to 94 million second-language speakers), where Urdu is the national and official language, most speakers who use Urdu as their native tongue live in India, where it is one of 22 official languages. The Urdu-speaking community is also present in other parts of the subcontinent with a historical Muslim presence, such as the Biharis and Dhakaiyas (who speak Dhakaiya Urdu) in Bangladesh, the Urdu-speaking members of the Madheshi community in Nepal, some Muslims in Sri Lanka and a section of Burmese Indians. In addition, there are Urdu-speakers present amongst the South Asian diaspora, most notably in the Middle East, North America (notably the United States and Canada), Europe (notably the United Kingdom), the Caribbean region, Africa (notably South Africa and Mauritius), Southeast Asia (notably Singapore) and Oceania (notably Australia and Fiji). Other communities, most notably the Punjabi elite of Pakistan, have adopted Urdu as a mother tongue and identify with both an Urdu speaker as well as Punjabi identity. (en)
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