I have a British Raj heroine, and very occasionally she lets slip a word in Urdu (the fact that she's in the habit of doing this has relevance to the plot). I chose Urdu because a) some expressions are similar to Turkish, which I'm fluent in and b) my aunt remembers some Urdu as her father was in the Indian Army. However, I'm not always sure that the expression is suitable for a well-bred young lady. For example, we say 'suratsız' in Turkish to describe a sour-faced person, but is 'badsoorat' used the same way? Any help appreciated!
It's not so much a matter of finding the words on Google or in a dictionary, it's more a question of suitable useage. As I said, Turkish has similar/same words to Urdu, but perhaps they aren't always used in the same way. Turkish also has shared words with Arabic, well, they are Arabic in fact, which is why people outside villages don't use them much, e.g. a sophisticated girl wouldn't say "yalla" for "hurry up", even if that is what it means when you look on Google. I guess I'll just have to go ahead using few words, and try and find someone to proof read at the end.
thing is, if you google the words, you may get hits that will let you know if it's suitable or not... you can even google "does xxxx mean xxxx in english?"... creative googling works wonders...
