Junk-Urdu Phenomenon

we asians are not afraid of coming to western countries to earn pounds and dollars,we dont mind wearing western clothes in desi style,we dont mind dating ``gori mames`` and we dont mind corrupting their language, but when our children ``ghusaao`` english words into their urdu/hindi/punjabi, we are up in the arms...!!! Isn`t it hypocracy? We should be happy that our children do try to speak their mother l tongue,albeit ``corrupted``.In fact we are responsible for leaving them in this confused frame of mind and identity crisis.If we are trying to move with the moving world and accepting the changes,then these changes will also have to be accepted....languages can not lag behind when everything else is undergoing change.Today only I read headline in the local news paper(in a uk city) `Nappy ``GURU`` job panned as potty.English people are also using words from our languages.Punjabi,urdu and hindi have nothing to fear from english,they should rather be afraid of politicians in their own countries.

we asians are not afraid of coming to western countries to earn pounds and dollars,we dont mind wearing western clothes in desi style,we dont mind dating ``gori mames`` and we dont mind corrupting their language, but when our children ``ghusaao`` english words into their urdu/hindi/punjabi, we are up in the arms...!!! Isn`t it hypocracy? We should be happy that our children do try to speak their mother l tongue,albeit ``corrupted``.In fact we are responsible for leaving them in this confused frame of mind and identity crisis.If we are trying to move with the moving world and accepting the changes,then these changes will also have to be accepted....languages can not lag behind when everything else is undergoing change.Today only I read headline in the local news paper(in a uk city) `Nappy ``GURU`` job panned as potty.English people are also using words from our languages.Punjabi,urdu and hindi have nothing to fear from english,they should rather be afraid of politicians in their own countries.

Interesting article....!!
If any1 around here has the experience of going to public school of pak and being taught Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and biology in Urdu...??? Ppl. when these ppl. try to teach this stuff in urdu, it really creates a scene....
Acceleration is ``issraa``.....
cetripital and cetrifugal forces are ``makaz gurez and markaz something quwwat``....
the funniest and most imcomprehensible is the mathemtical concept of ``zoo izaaf-e-akal`` which in english is called as ``Lowest common multiple``......for majority of urdu students these terms remain incomprehensible as they cannot relate them properly...e.g. in the case of ``zoo-izaaaf-e-akal``....i used to wonder as what it has to do with ``aqal`` till my dad explained me the meaning of ``akal`` which different than that of ``aqal`` and explained the concept to me:)

I guess,,,,either the whole this needs to be translated into rather more comprehensible urdu or the students need to be taught a differnt urdu than that of the ``urdu subject text books`` OR english needs to be adopted as a medium of studies specially for science subjects.

I can put forth even funnier examples from my LLB course,,,,trust me the urdu legal language is soooo very difficult and sometimes sounds funny....jus to add a lil spice heres an example....``Restitution of Conjugal rights`` will be called as ``daawa zan-aashoee``, if you put these terms to a student who has average knowledge of both urdu and english, he will be able to make better sense out of english term than the urdu...!!

re:#42 by AlephNull on March 28, 2004 2:44pm PT
A belated thanks for your correction.
Sridhar

rsridhar #38

{{an Italian who became a great Tamil poet and literary figure viz Constanitine Beluchi?}}

Costanzo Beschi

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#37Goddess Bibi,

it is an excellent idea of yours counting from 0--Infinity in Urdu if one wants to kick the habit of mixing English language with Urdu. I wish you embark on this mission and get successful and if you do, please open a surgery right opposite to the ARY offices in Dubai call it ``Therapist in Junk Urdu Phenomenon``.

You see kids grow up to speak language(s) which they are brought up with both at home and at school. In Pakistan, unfortunately, parents speak in Junk Urdu at home with their children, so do the teachers at school and therefore, kids coming out of school speak the same Junk Urdu. Somehow this vicious circle must be interrupted.

My two children both born and brought up in the UK are fluent in two European languages, which they use extensively at work. I tell you they never mix these languages when they speak. I have staff (I run a business) from some six fifferent European countries, and I notice that they never mix English language with their own native languages when they speak amoung temselves. Guess what! Only we Pakistanis and Indians do and we do it proudly.

#37Goddess Bibi,

it is an excellent idea of yours counting from 0--Infinity in Urdu if one wants to kick the habit of mixing English language with Urdu. I wish you embark on this mission and get successful and if you do, please open a surgery right opposite to the ARY offices in Dubai call it ``Therapist in Junk Urdu Phenomenon``.

You see kids grow up to speak language(s) which they are brought up with both at home and at school. In Pakistan, unfortunately, parents speak in Junk Urdu at home with their children, so do the teachers at school and therefore, kids coming out of school speak the same Junk Urdu. Somehow this vicious circle must be interrupted.

My two children both born and brought up in the UK are fluent in two European languages, which they use extensively at work. I tell you they never mix these languages when they speak. I have staff (I run a business) from some six fifferent European countries, and I notice that they never mix English language with their own native languages when they speak amoung temselves. Guess what! Only we Pakistanis and Indians do and we do it proudly.

re: this article
Author bemoans that Urdu is not pure anymore. Which language is?
I know personally that Tamil has so changed in Tamil Nadu that the so called ``pure Tamil`` (or SenTamizh as it is called) is confined only to the books. In other words, spoken Tamil is so different from written one that if i speak the way it is written, people will think i am crazy!
For a long time as a Tamilian growing up in Delhi, i did not know the Tamil equivalent of the word ``Thanks``. Most Tamilians i know, when they want to say Thanks in Tamil, they just use the English word. It took me a while to figure out the actual Tamil word for ``Thanks``.
Even the script that is used by Tamilians today is different from one in the ancient past (and was introduced by an Italian who became a great Tamil poet and literary figure viz Constanitine Beluchi? There is the Italian connection that the Gandhi family can flaunt!). All the ancient texts are in a script that nobody knows today. Tamil is the second most ancient Indian language after Sanskrit. Sanskrit is literally dead as a spoken language and Tamil as was once spoken is dead too.
If this can happen to 2 most ancient and very popular languages in India (Tamil was spoken in all of South India more than 4 centuries ago for thousands of years; all others like Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam evolved out of Tamil), is it surprising that Urdu is undergoing a similar fate? It is falling prey to fashion. It is fashionable nowadays to use English words, especially in the subcontinent to show off that one is educated. One can see it being done in every language. Urdu is no exception.
Urdu`s problem is confounded by the fact that a very small percentage of people can claim it as their mother tongue. For Tamilians Tamil is mother tongue. For Bengalis it is Bengali. For Punjabees, it is Punjabi. Whose mother tongue is Urdu?
In Pak, Urdu has grown due to official patronage and also because a lot of people thought is stylish to speak Urdu. Punjabis in Pak prefer Urdu to Punjabi and then bemoan that Punjabi is languishing!
Urdu will keep changing as other languages have. Purists wil keep complaining but who cares. Cling on to what is best in Urdu. Personally, i like the sher-o-shaiari and the poetic aspect of Urdu which i think will never die.
Sridhar

though i despise the recent pakistani dramas with their half-urdu half-english (unglish) sentences, and though there is nothing more mesmerizing then hearing someone speak solid unadulterated urdu or punjabi (etc.), due to the fact that knowledge of english has become an `elitist` notion in Pakistan, English should be the national language so that everyone from the jharru vala to the rickshayvala to the bank manager can communicate in one and the same language.

Exactly what Dadi says and I can`t agree with it more. I`ve spent all my schooling years in Abu Dhabi, which is quite multi-cultural. Every single year of my schooling life, I came across `language complexed` Pakistanis who got embarrassed if a fellow Pakistani would start speaking to them in Urdu, loud enough for others to hear the conversation. And how could I forget those ::fat:: aunties who`d proudly tell people that their children speak English so often that they stammer speaking in Urdu.

lahori200: English has become ``Modern English`` but it`s still English! And there are lots of `pure` languages, in which, the most informal conversations between people never require replacing a native word with its English version. Why is the wide usage of the English language having such a huge impact on Urdu?

jay: The disability to fill application in English; that`s another story. The article`s more about how English words are substituting ordinary Urdu words used in everyday conversations.

I had a bet with my friends of not using a single English word for an hour in our girly gossips and I could hardly do it for a few minutes. I`m not a `complexed` individual (I`d rather be mute than be embarrassed of using my mother-tongue) but I completely agree that the new Urdu-English mixed talking style has successfully brainwashed even the clear cut Urdu speakers. Despite being an unlucky user of this new language, I think awareness should be spreaded. Perhaps, we can start by making an effort to learn how to count in Urdu, from 0 to infinity. (Yes Aunties, I`m not happy about not being able to count in Urdu after 20 onwards. Your kids probably aren`t either.)

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Pure languages die. Because the masses do not care for the purity or otherwise of the language. It is convienience that matters. Also it is false to blame other languages for corruption of a language. The language develops by corruption and bastardization. The English of 400 years ago was nothing like the English today. In the global village ultimately everybody will be speaking the same bastardised language which will have words frorm all over.

real urdu,

Here is another pakistani lamenting about the fate of urdu the usual impotyent pak attitude. What cant you do something about it. In pakistan, one cannot write the admin service exam, the equivalent of IAS in india, in Urdu. In india one can do this. So much for the pak national language.

What pakistan needs is an identity, a dose of self respect. One can make a beginningg by accepting that tahmed bin urstruly abu yassar of faisalabad is a pariah.

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It is nice to see the Govt. officials, film celebrities, sports and ordinary people from pakistan and India visiting and enjoying each others` company. What bugs me is that though Urdu and Hindi languages are almost one and the same when spoken, yet these people prefer to converse in a kind of English language. Doesn`t it make you wonder how mindful and proud and proud and very proud we are of our heritage?

i did a little research in Oxford (UK) on the effect of the English language on other major languages; I asked Germans, spanish, italians, Russians, and Polish, whether they use English words in their respective languages when they speak, the answer was definitely NO. When I asked French, I was laughed at.

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In my opinion, Punjabi is the most versatile and adaptable language on the sub-continent, or for that matter in the entire world :)- Punjabi language has the capacity to massacre any word in english, urdu, french, arabic, farsi, pashto, hindi, spanish. Or even a Punjabi word, depending on what village one comes from in Punjab.

My favorite is emasculation (sp?0 of the word ``Mohammed Chaudhry Sahib`` to ``Mumd Chawee Saab`` :)- Check out Academy of Punjab at http://www.apnaorg.com

Urdu itself is a Turkish word; it means army (or lashkar). It was also called ``rekhtah`` meaning broken or in pieces.

Rekhtah kay tum hi ustaad nahin ho Ghalib
Kehtay hain aglay zamanay mein koi Meer bhi thaa

The Urdu language did evolve in army camps in India.

Mohammad Gill

This may be slightly off topic but reading this piece reminds me of my own shortcomings when it comes to my mother tongue.
I must confess, that despite having lived the first 18 years of my life in Pakistan my English is by far stronger than my Urdu. I blame my ``middle class`` education for that.

Most of my gora friends took some language as a second language in High school. It occurs to me Urdu was taught to me in a similar fashion (as a second language) at my school most of my life. So can you really blame me for being inarticulate and needing english to complete my thoughts started in Urdu? I still can`t read Urdu as well as I can english, my Urdu vocabulary is akin to a midget standing next to Shaquille `O Neal when compared to my English, and I could write pages in English in the time it takes me to do one in Urdu. :/ The irony is that when I moved to USA for college my Urdu became stronger as I became more culture consious and my English weaker thanks to the joys of street language.

Regardless I do think that Urdu will be fine. Certainly it will change and evolve. And purists will argue its being diluted but the same could be said for any lanuage. Look at english. Words like shizzle, yo, hombre, homie, all become more and more common place as time goes by. I don`t think any of these words was ever part of the english language, as perhaps `minutes` or `seconds` were never part of urdu. Each generation defines its own language and ultimately its a change that cannot be stopped.

I dont know whether to side with the author or not on this junk-Urdu question. First of all author failed to clarify the natural, circumstancial and necessited addition of English words from using English words as a show off. A kid growing up in english peaking environment will naturally mix words. The necessitated English words would be scientific and technological terms with no equivalent of Urdu. My background is chemistry and there are more chemicals in the world than the number of Urdu words in the best Urdu dictionary. There are 35-40 million organic componds with no more than few hundred having trivial Urdu names. It is futile to develop Urdu names for 40 million organic compounds for 100, 000 or so total Muslims chemists in the world.

The show off is show off and must not be appreciated. But people have to be honest here. Using English in Urdu is not the only show off around. The show off of other kind and its appreciation has been going on for 2 centuries. The show off by elites, intelligentia, poets and writers making use of additional 100,000 words from Persian and several thousands from Arabic is a major Urdu dilemma. Attaching it to religion, Muslims and thus Pakistan are other limitations of it.

People will jump all over if I use the same junk-Urdu term for classical and most modern Urdu poets. They made it difficult to understand by common folks by intentionally using incomprehensible Urdu (IIU). Most Urdu speakers stand behind this practice of show off by IIU using literati of past 200 years. Author does not mention switching from khuda hafiz to allah hafiz and other Arabization taking place of Urdu words.

Discourage show off not just adding English but Persian and Arabic too otherwise it looks very subjective and opinionated. Stop going wah wah over classical Urdu poets who lived in an environment where Persian was considered sophisticated and superior.

Additionally I agree with sac comments about artifically elevated Urdu status being crushed between English and native languages in Pakistan. It is not in any danger of dying because it is the first lanuage of millions of Pakistanis, favored by the religion and helped from 500 million Hindi speakers in India. Ultimately it will reach its normal level of one of the five major Pakistani languages.

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Whaat..Urdu is the languare of Lashkars? I thought its the language of love and sher-o-shairy. It seems to have too many words for love (like eskimos have for ice), pyar, mohabet, ishk, chahat..etc. I always thought Ishk is the more carnal kind of love.

Zaf:
I agree Urdu is original...
``important organs (aankh, naak, kaan, moonh, honT, haath,
Taang), and so on``
Well, many other organs and the gaalis associated with them have nothing to do with Persian.

So what if Urdu dies?

The elite has abandoned Urdu and the masses are following suit.

I had predicted the demise of Urdu crushed between English on one side as the language of business and regional languages as languages of the heart. It may happen more quickly if folks like the writer of this article also give up hope. Sure the bombayite in blinking sneakers wants to listen to some `gazals` when he wants to appear cultured but Urdu`s days are sadly numbered. Years of indoctrination by textbooks could not stop Pakistanis from welcoming the Indians in the face of economic and media-inspired realities. The same realities spell doom for Urdu.

later
-sac

While ARY Channels are the single biggest contributor to distorting the Urdu language, GEO is the most positive contributor. For example, the news anchors and programers of this network try to do their best to speak in pure Urdu. Even the news coverage from around the world in which a person may be talking in English, is translated in Urdu.

I agree with Sadozai. People using English words in Urdu are the ones who have command over neither language. ARY is set up in the UK and has hired low quality people from India and Pakistan to run the daily shows. The result is obvious.

Dear Kabir:

The excerpts were taken from a series of articles, ``Urdu hai jis kaa naam,`` written for a discussion group. The whole article is very long, in fact I was thinking of publishing it in the form of a small book ... but you know these ``makroohaat e duniyaa!``

In any event, I`ll try to post the article here at Chowk, in the form a short series.

Thanks for liking the excerpts.

Zaf

Dear Zaf,

It was a breath of fresh air to read your comments, which try to dispell this myth about the origin of the Urdu. I like to believe in it and I would be grateful if you would publish your article. I for one, and I am sure many more would like to read it. If not i would like to get hold of your article.

I am a newcomer on the Chowk, therefore, I am not sure I am allowed to give my contact details here, however, editors of the Chowk have them.

Please note that I am not an expert in languages the purpose of publishing my article is to raise awareness of the `Junk Urdu Phenomenon` hoping it will jog readers` interest and will join the compaign by writing to the Thakurs and Pundits of the TV and film industry who are the main culprits here.

The effects of the `Junk Urdu Phenomenon` can also be applied to Hindi, as it is a sister language, sharing a similar culture to that of our own.

Kabir Malik

Akbar - Urdu did not come from sky. It evolved. Try reading 19th century urdu literature - you will find yourself buying an Urdu dictionary. English language itself is no exception. Let me introduce you to some words in english which you would not even dream had come from arabic or persian :

admiral - ami:r-al-bahr `ruler of the seas`
albacore - al-bukr `the young camel`
alcohol - al-koh``l `the kohl` [yep, the arabs gave westerners the word to get drunk by]
algorithm - al-Khowarazmi `the (man) of Khiva`
arsenal - dar as,s,ina`ah `house of making`, i.e. `factory` - s,ana`a make
candy - short for `sugar candy`, from sugar + qandi `candied`, from qand `cane sugar`
giraffe - zara:fa
jasmine - ya:smi:n - from Persian
kismet - qisma `portion, lot` - qasama divide
lemon - laymu:n - from Persian
mattress - matrah `place where something is thrown, mat, cushion` - tarah`a throw
orange - na:ranj - from Sanskrit
satin - probably zaytu:ni: `of Zaytu:n` (a city in China)
scarlet - siqilla:t `(cloth) adorned with images`
sofa - s,uffah `raised dais with cushions`
spinach - isfa:na:kh
sugar - sukkar - from Sanskrit
syrup - shara:b `beverage` - shariba drink
zenith - samt `path`

Kabir,

Purity of language is a noble pursuit. There is nothing more mellifluous on the ears than listening to somebody speaking a language perfectly, with minimal infusion of jarring alien phrases.

Most here will argue that the purpose of language is communication, and given that the news is essentially a utilitarian pursuit than a literary one, I may be inclined to agree with them. I remember those indecipherable Hindi bulletins on Doordarshan from my childhood, they`d go to ridiculous lengths to preserve the sanctity of the language and end up alienating most of their viewers!

But I`m with you on the need to preserve as many languages intact as possible. Good luck!

PS>> Urdu news bulletin on DD National is STILL indecipherable!!!!

#15 by Zaf on March 25, 2004 10:51pm PT

More delusions of the purists- the fact of the matter is that no language has been STATIC, but has evolved, changes its words as per the politically prevelant language of the elites of the day-
the aryans did that with sanskritization of the local occupied lands, the moghuls did that with persian and arabic, now the latest elites are doing it with English-

It is but NATURAL. Only idiots would resist it.

Can anyone say that the Urdu spoken by the PAkilanders is the `CORRECT` one and that spoken by the Indian Hyderabadi Muslims `INCORRECT`= the choice between UK English and the American English is again a matter of Political positioning of your preference.

SOmeone told me that Urdu Academy of Letters actually translates english words in Urdu, and they came up with this translation for Car Indicators.

Barqi Qumquma barai tabdeeliye Rukh

Dear Kabir saahib:

I fully endorse your views on the corruption of Urdu by the media. By the way, have you ever listened to FM radio channels? I guess they are worse culprits of them all. Not only they use a ridiculously slangish Urdu-English amalgam, they also *speak* in a mock English accent! Can anybody believe this? Can anybody imagine a Spanish speaking his/her native/national language in, say, the Japanese accent? Isn`t this border on lunacy?

And what`s more, they don`t even know proper English either. Just ask them them to stop using Urdu words and speak plain English ... and our ``presenters`` would start babbling the next sentence!

However, I`m not convinced with your following assertion:

``From a historical perspective, Urdu is a Lashkari language; therefore, we are led to believe that the pasting in of English words and phrases into Urdu is acceptable.``

I think it`s a myth that has acquired the shape of a gospel that Urdu is a mixture of various languages. Sometime back I wrote an article on the subject ... an excerpt here:

THE ORIGINS OF URDU:
Everybody and his neighbor knows that Urdu is a hybrid language and
was *born* after the invasion of the Perso-Arabic-speaking Muslims
when they had to interact with the native population.

Right? Wrong! On many accounts.

We see that Urdu is a totally independent language and apart from many
loan-words, it has nothing to do with Persian. The grammar has
remained almost entirely intact. The Persian izaafat can be easily
regarded of as borrowed phrase and not
grammatical rule.

Some people also mention the method of pluralization of some
Perso-Arabic words in Urdu, like kitaab --> kutub; masjid -->
masaajid; manzil --> manaazil, etc. are a testimony that Urdu grammar
is influenced by Persian. But the argument is ditto: the
local ``Urdu`` words are not allowed to be pluralized using this rule.
Just imagine bandar --> banaadir or mandir --> manaadir :)

But leaving grammar aside, Persian also could not affect some
fundamental nouns of Urdu like basic relationships (maaN, baap, beTaa,
beTee, bhaa`ee, behn, maamooN, naanaa, daadaa, chachaa and, even,
saas!), basic numbers (aik, do, teen, chaar, paanch, das, bees, sau,
etc.), important organs (aankh, naak, kaan, moonh, honT, haath,
Taang), and so on.

Also, according to Martynyuk`s statistical article (published in Urdustudies.com),
the 20 most frequent words in ``written`` Urdu language (which
-- according to my limited mathematical ``skills`` -- constitute about
38.4% of the entire Urdu corpus) do not contain a single Perso-Arabic
word!

This is sufficient to prove that Urdu was not *invented* by Muslims
and was already present in Delhi and adjoining areas at the time of
Qutubuddin Aybak`s conquest of Delhi in 1193.

---

The question is -- according to the popular belief -- if Urdu was
really created by the interaction of Muslims and the locals, why no
new language was produced in other parts of India - for example,
Punjab, Sindh and Bengal -- where similar interactions had taken
place? Why not in the NWFP province, where the entire
Pashtu-speaking population converted to Islam?

The theory that Urdu is a mishmash of several languages has been
rebuked by many linguists, both Western and native,
but none more expressively than Dr. Shaukat Sabzwari in his book,
Daastaan e Urdu:

aik nazariya (theory) jise maiN Ghair-sanjeeda (non-serious) samajhtaa
hooN ye hai k Urdu khichRee hai: chiRiyaa laa`yee chaaval kaa daana,
chiRaa laayaa mong kaa daana, donoN ne mil kar khichRee pakaa`yee.
(1987)

The fact is that no living language of the world can be immune to
outside influences. Look at English: it has borrowed extensively from
languages from around the world -- including Urdu -- but nobody calls
it an amalgam of those languages. This borrowing occurred in many
other Indian languages as well.

Zaf

Kabir

Urdu is already a laskhari lanuguage. Let the original words from other languages mix in.

Let Missile be missile in Urdu. Let atom be atom in Urdu.

If you try to Urduize Missile through Persian or Arabic, you end up with the most unconvincing and a difficult word.

Enrich Urdu directly by the local South Asian languages - Punjabi, Sindhi, Hindi, Sansikrat etc. Eventually aim to have Urdu/Hindi just one language.

The films & media have already done it.

I agree with the author. Urdu still holds the charm in speaking and writing.
But it has many environmental effecting it is absorbing...
Talking about Poetry...
Urdu Poetry is still holding some words, synomns and phrases which
donot have any direct relationship with the people, culture and there
ways of living and communication. Taking the example of Pakistan
inheritance of Sub-continent`s richness. Therefore it doesn`t look
appealing when a person living in planes, a city habitant uses words
like:

Munjh-dhar (I passed by Ravi n Chenab, and opened my eyes wide to
see a clue of deep waters but failed to have any, so how come
a munjh-dhar can originate from waterless rivers.)

Dasht-
Sehra (Talking about Dasht is also beyond imagination as
man has now civilized enough not be a wanderer but settled
down nd gone are the days Majnoo Calling Laila in Dasht
and words circling Qabilas and Camels.)

Bulbul (If you ask from any child residing in main cities to know
or seen any bulbul, fakhta, maina in real than kid will
blast a cracker in your mind.)


Mehtaab (I think these words have been tired of glowing as there meanings objects have)
Khursheed

Kaleeja
Jigar (There were times when people were aware of sentiments associated with thm
Now people have a mind filled with the diseases they carry to stimulate health
hazards.)


Majnoo (Replacements have come but they are not given much praise)
Laila


I am not criticizing some obseleteness but fresh urdu words must replace urdu
rather injecting english and making it junk.

Traffic Signal [English] = [Hindi] `Aavak Jaavak Soochak Danda`

but last thing from Kbir reminded me...

Urdu hey jis ka naam, hamee`n jaantey hei`n Daagh~~~
Saaarey jeha`n mei`n dhoom, hamari zubaa`n ki hey!!!!!!


I salute to all those persons who worked/working for Urdu.
esp. friends in MicroSoft who managed Urdu support in next comming versions of MS Windows.

Get in line after the French Ministry of Permitted English Words

Kabir:

ah another purist:)

don`t worry...urdu is resilient...

adaptation is another name of urdu...

rgds,

t

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#1,amit:
``Hari ghas pe le danadan, de danadan`` - I thought that would be sex!

Urdu`s homage to Panjabis:

Mirza Rafi-Sauda:
Sunaya raat jo qissa voh HeerRanjha ka
To ahl - dard ko Punjabiyon ne loot liya

If anyone remembers the beautiful and loving jokes about the Lahore-Lucknow cultural colorfulness. This IS the time and opportunity. In true Lahoree spirit, let us mutti-pao on this dry-boring subject and enjoy and celebrate our appreciation for each other.

In true cricket-fashion I say.

``Kul univer--sity meiN kissi suit-posh sey
poochha yeh mein Nein ``aap haiN kya koee seargent``?
kehnay lagay ke ``aap ko yeh bhhee nahee putaa!
I`m am the head of the Urdu department``

---

dilavar figaar

---

Well, I agree with the author to some extent, but I think normally the people who mix urdu and english words are the ones with limited vocabulary of either language, and their inability to communicate effectively neither in english nor in urdu, hence the crude mixture. These people are often the ones going to average pakistani schools where education standards are not that good, but they want to sound educated, modern and fashionable by speaking whatever english they know.

On the other hand the well educated people in pakistan also mix urdu and english but they mix whole sentences and not just words, which shows that they have enough command on both the languages but they choose whichever language serves their meaning better. For Example:

`Main nai aap ki khidmat main eik guzarish arz ki thi, but I doubt that it had the desired effect`

So i think there is nothing wrong with using such language as instanced above.

One more thing, Urdu is nothing but a mixture of different languages itself, there are hardly any words in urdu which are not taken from other languages. As far as my knowledge goes, the reason why it is called the lashkari language is that it was invented by the efforts of soldiers of different linguistic backgrounds trying to communicate to each other, so it is not a language but a name given to a mixture of different languages. Even in our National Anthem, all the words except `KA` are taken from persian, and this word `KA` is also used in hindi, so we can say that our national anthem is not in urdu.

But I may be wrong!

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Hi Kabir,

There is no point in being a purist in language, because any language is a dynamic evolving entity. As our life becoms more and more sophisticated, the language also changes to keep pace with it. I still remember desperate attempts by hindi purists to come up with a desi phrase to describe lawn tennis - ``Hari ghas pe le danadan, de danadan`` referring to the back and forth movement of a ball on a grass court :-)

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I have few concerns too:
can we have one word instead of the whole story...

Fridge = pani thunda karnay ki machine...oops err err ..make it pani aur khana thunda karnay ka bara saa dubba...

generator = bijli chalee jaayay tau aap ki zindagi asaan karnay wala aala