Language as it is unspoke!

Today we are Facebooking and texting and partying and inboxing without realising, in most cases, that we are verbing.


Ejaz Haider February 06, 2011

Delightful read Anwer Mooraj Sahib’s piece! And the comments on it (on the website) just proved him right! One can’t ask for more as a writer!

It’s not just the English language, though. Years ago, when I began teaching at a government-run college, a student attempted an English-language test by writing an essay in Urdu. His argument: the language of the Raj be banished from Pakistan. Perhaps, I thought to myself. Except, so atrocious was his Urdu that I wrote on his paper a verse by Dagh: Nahin khel ay Dagh yaroan say kehdau/Keh aatee hai Urdu zubaan aatay aatay.

When I edited Daily Times and The Friday Times, I would, every six months or so, send George Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language” to my contributors. On one such occasion, Khalid Hasan, who would never let a poor sentence or phrase go unnoticed, wrote this in TFT:

“Orwell is the master I have always looked up to and I am glad to be joined at his feet by TFT's Ejaz Haider who, the other day, circulated Orwell's masterpiece to his contributors with the following note: Most of you must have read this essay. But it's always good to reread it; indeed, for those of us who pretend to be writers, this should be compulsory reading before and after writing every article. Every time I read it, I feel like trashing everything I have written so far.”

It is only right that I invoke KH today, February 5, as I sit and write these lines because two years ago, on this very day, he passed away. May he rest in peace. Another was the late Kaleem Omar who wrote for me in Daily Times. It is interesting that Mooraj Sahib has quoted him because in an article I wrote for DT in 2004, this is how I signed off:

“Today, there aren’t many Kaleem Omars or Khalid Hasans left who would sit up and take note of a word misused or, conversely, appreciate good usage. If there is any problem in this country that can justifiably be ranked as tragedy, it is that we have lost the language and the feel for the word.”

But language is dicey business and thin is the line that separates the appreciation of the language from pedantry. A tribe, the pedants, in whose hands a language begins to die because it is not supposed to grow, it must remain straitjacketed in presumably unchanging rule, there must be no experimentation. The linguistic Taliban, ‘sod them to Hades’!

It is precisely to guard against the pedants that Orwell’s sixth rule says “Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.” Never a split infinitive? The sentence must never end with a proposition? A sentence should never begin with ‘and’ or ‘because’? The proper use of semicolon should require a DPhil in linguistics? Bullshit. Did I say bullshit? There, I just saw one pedant faint!

As Stephen Fry said, “None of these [pedantic rules] are of importance to me — none of these are, I said. The old pedantic in me would have insisted none of these is of importance to me. But I am glad to say that I have outgrown that silly approach to language.” Oscar Wilde, says Fry, once left this note with his publishers: “I will leave you to tidy up the woulds and shoulds, wills and shalls, thats and whiches etcetera.” Take note subs!

The best part of experimenting is verbing nouns and the master craftsman, William Shakespeare, as Fry says “made a doing-word out of a thing-word every chance he got”. Some verbed nouns sound ugly and one feels opposed to languaging the noun action as actioning but that is because they are new and we are habituated to the old and don’t like them!

Today we are Facebooking and texting and partying and inboxing without realising, in most cases, that we are verbing. But the trick is to understand clearly the basic rules and then experiment. Without appreciating the language, one ends up writing gibberish and gibberishing the language is different from experimenting with it for new words and phrases to cherish the ‘sound-sex’ of them.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7th, 2011.

COMMENTS (11)

Shahzad Ahmad | 13 years ago | Reply I think the article is rambling in nature: sometimes it gave impression as if it were a piece of memoirs, with nostalgic overtones. Talking about one of his students, then eulogizing two great writers, the writer starts a literary discussion. He seems to have exalted Orwell therein. Afterwards, he takes to task those writers who 'commit' pedantry or quackery in the art and craft of writing. Finally, he embarks upon a hairsplitting, linguistic discussion. It is one of the most debated area in linguistics: prescriptivism and descriptivism. Compression of so many varied topics within with nothing conclusive makes this article a bit taxing the brain as Asfandyar puts it 'pointless'. But I think such is too blatant a comment. Besides, the writer knows 'agrezi' very well. This place is for opinions. Opinions might be right or wrong.We should respect others' opinions.
Mirzada Kakar | 13 years ago | Reply dear Respected : Its Really nice and inspiring article
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