Urdu is the official language of Pakistan and one of fifteen languages constitutionally recognized by the Indian government. Urdu is an Indo-European language which most likely began in the vicinity of Delhi before spreading to the rest of the Indian subcontinent before transforming itself from a dialect into a formal language. Urdu and Hindi have been called both distinct languages as well as dialects of the same language. Urdu is sometimes referred to as "raikhtha", whose literal translation means "a rough mixture". The Hindustani language is thought to encompass both Urdu and Hindi and to represent the common root of the two languages. The largest difference between Hindi and Urdu is that the latter is written in a modified Arabic script with the Nasta'liq font while the former is written in the Devanagari script. About 100 million people in India and Pakistan are able to speak or understand Urdu.