Urdu will survive as it is a fusion of regional languages: Jamil

Syed Mazhar Jamil on region's impact on languages during the Urdu conference

KARACHI: Only those languages survive that fuse within them different languages in the vicinity and, according to Syed Mazhar Jamil, Urdu is one of them.

All the regional languages of Pakistan have a great impact on one another, he told the audience on Wednesday evening during a session on the second day of the 8th International Urdu Conference being held at the Arts Council. The tendency of Urdu has always remained to borrow words from various languages, he explained, adding that languages that discontinue the absorption of different languages do not evolve and fail to survive.



Jamil was the keynote speaker at a session on 'The Relationship of Urdu Language with Regional Languages of Pakistan'. The session was attended by other writers and poets of Urdu, such as Imdad Hussaini, Anwar Ahmed, Qasim Bughio, Ahmed Fawad, Ahmed Ataullah and Muneer Raisani. The session was conducted by Dr Ayub Shaikh.



Sindhi and Urdu poet and writer Imdad Hussaini, who translated the works of Faiz Ahmed Faiz in the Sindhi language, recalled the time he met Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar in India. Kumar greeted him in Sindhi and that left a mark on Hussaini. When people talk to a stranger in their mother tongue, it results in a strong relationship between those people, he said.

Nevertheless, the language of communication is also necessary, which in the case of Pakistan, is Urdu, he said, adding that the importance of the mother tongues is no less than the language of communication. "For centuries, different languages borrow words from languages of influence," he pointed out.



According to Ahmed Fawad, who came to attend the session from Swat, Pakhtuns love to talk in Pashtu but they prefer to read Urdu literature.

The speakers agreed that different accents add beauty to a language. Every person speaks a language in their own accent, especially if it is not their mother tongue, said linguist Qasim Bughio. We should appreciate all of them instead of criticising them, he said.

Muneer Raisani, a Brahvi speaker, said there are various words used in Urdu and Brahvi languages that are borrowed from Persian. He explained that Persian influenced the Urdu and Brahvi language when Persian was the court language in India and Kalat region. Ayub Sheikh, who is fluent in various languages of Pakistan, said that people always think in their mother tongue so its importance can never be neglected.

Before this session, the conference hosted a panel discussion on 'Urdu Drama and Film' with actors Mustafa Qureishi and Talat Hussain, and drama writer Haseena Moin. The discussion on the relationship of Urdu with other languages was followed by a session on 'Inauguration of Books', in which artist and cultural writer Salima Hashmi, journalist Wusutullah Khan and drama writer Asghar Nadeem spoke.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th,  2015.