‘Urdu can become an inclusive language’

ISLAMABAD:

By making Urdu more inclusive of regional languages will only make it stronger and help build cohesion in society.

This was stated by speakers during the closing session of a three-day international conference on the Urdu language by the National Language Promotion Department.

‘All languages of the country are important, but Urdu is our national language. Urdu has a glorious past, a brilliant present and a bright future,” stated Federal Parliamentary Secretary Ghazala Saifi on Friday.

Urging teachers and researchers to come forward for the development of Urdu, she stated that there is a need to adopt a cohesive approach towards Urdu and other regional languages.

Is this the death of the Urdu language?

Renowned poet and writer Amjad Islam Amjad stated that there is a need to bring Urdu ‘closer; to all the other regional languages of Pakistan.

The inclusion of vocabulary from different mother tongues in Urdu will help bring them closer, he suggested.

Dr Salma Shaheen, while addressing the event from Peshawar, said that Urdu is an important language of the sub-continent and is spoken in many countries.

Jamshoro University Urdu Department Head Dr Sofia Khushk said that Urdu as a language has immense capacity to absorb dialects and words from different languages.

“Urdu has no conflict with other languages,” she said, adding, “No doubt Urdu should be written in its own script rather than Roman, but too many restrictions should not be imposed and it should not be associated with any specific dialect.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15^th, 2020.