your analysis on Urdu is spot on.

One question that always bothered me: Urdu is a hotch-potch of many languages. Speakers of Urdu SHOULD have been able to speak many languages because it is very easy if you already know many words from different languages.

Practically, Urdu speaking people USUALLY don’t speak any other language. Is it their arrogance (like English people)? Even if they try, they cannot speak a sentence of other languages. For example, I know people from Karachi who have been sharing a flat with Punjabis for 7-10 years. Whenever they try to speak a sentence of Punjabi for fun, they completely fail. I don’t understand that.

You are right. I agree that Urdu is a mix of several languages and being a relatively modern language it has a natural habit of taking words from other languages. It is very easy to “borrow” words from other languages as long as they belong to the same lingual group. In fact Turkish language is not in our lingual group, but anyhow we have several words from that language, because of historical close links. We are not the only ones who borrow words. Europeans also do it as per fashion. Once it was Latin, then French and now English, but still these conscious Europeans are very concerned about preserving their own languages. For example Denmark, this is a country with a population of only 5 million people. They really care about their own language. Even the higher education system is mainly based on the Danish language. On contrary we see that Pakistanis take pride in English schools even if it means that they are learning less English. I have witnessed a lot of pupils who can say many quite difficult words in English, but if you ask them to make a sentence in English they won’t be able to do that They can

Now, since the inception of Pakistan, there has been this most unfortunate trend of “purification” in which an artifical purity was created in urdu in which local vocabularies were discouraged from entering mainstream use while english and arabic had tacit support as nothing could be done against them (like accusing the users of Islam dushmani etc.).

Add to that the resentment felt by non-urdu majority and a conscious or sub-consicous attempt by them at shunning urdu as a reaction to what Urdu came to represent (the economic interests of a ‘certain class’ ??)

The reason our anchors can’t go two sentences without reaching for english (bad one at that) is that they have no vocabulary in Urdu. There is no vocabulary in Urdu because there is hardly any literature being written in Urdu. Newspapers don’t count because they use a very limited and cliched form meant for the lowest common denominator. There is hardly any literature because the critics would not allow any “impure vocabulary” (read native pakistani words) in and therefore ended up turning Urdu into some clinically pure freak of linguistics which only a dwindling minorty of so called intellectuals speak. So, Urdu literature has become a casualty of the culture and language wars.

The rest of us have gone back to using what is best in Urdu, the framework which uses whatever words you throw at it. Instead of using Persian, Punjabi, Pushto, Sindhi words, we are now using English in the “upper” classes, Arabic words in the “religious & nutcase” classes and native words and accents in the “working” classes.

I am of course with the working classes, and my problem isn’t that Urdu isn’t “pure” any more , rather that it isn’t “properly evolved” anymore. I think the artificiality imposed on Urdu and its main users (Pakistanis) has come back to bite Urdu in the a$$ with a vengeance…

My advice would be counter-intuitive. If you want Urdu (especially prose) to survive with it’s Muslim and eastern shades, then let the local languages in. Otherwise it will end up being a bad imitation of pidgin english with some remnant grammatical constructs thrown in. Kind of what Mr. Malik’s “Urdu” already sounds like.

“CJ Musharraf on February 23rd, 2008 10:40 pm

Breaking News!

A consesnes is being developed to reach a formula to reinstate desposed CJ and other judges.

1. To transfer present PCO judges to Sharia courts and reinstate desposed judges.

2. To lodge reconsideration of illegal PCO in front of presnt PCO judges for review of their oath and then bring back all judges to their orignal pre november 2 position.”

I will urge the Admin to start a debate on this issue when he feels the time is appropriate.

I have written these comments before and they are STILL relevant. Tab’an has infact already touched the issue in this thread. We need to create a lot more awareness about this very important issue! This is what I wrote in the thread about Asma Sherazi’s interview.

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I have one important request to you. The request is in fact to all Pakistanis, but the effect will be much higher if you [Asma Sherazi] start doing it. Please avoid speaking English in Urdu programs. By doing that many people don

i normally switch off when he comes up..previously he was PTV