Junk-Urdu Phenomenon

#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.

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!!!!

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`

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

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

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.

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

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.

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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.

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.

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

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

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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.