Those who found themselves in the position of defending a conscious or unconscious adherence to the new spelling were quick to cite their devotion to the ‘correct’, Quranic pronunciation of Arabic words. And among those who opposed the shift and came out in support of traditional or historical usage, many blamed vague, reviled figures like Zia or the Deobandis for promoting the cause of Arab imperialism in Pakistan. Serious reflection reveals that the villain (or hero) of this particular drama is not Arabic, but English.
Since the colonial period, information about diverse civilisations has surged into the English language. Much literature about Muslim culture has consequently emerged and particular spellings for words of Arabic origin have gained currency. Adoption of a certain spelling does not always result from a careful effort of representing classical Arabic pronunciation; it can be due to the most arbitrary of reasons. For instance, Turkish ‘kismet’ has triumphed in English usage over the Perso-Urdu ‘qismat’ or Arabic ‘qismah’, the phonetically inapt ‘purdah’ has driven out ‘pardah’, and ‘madrassah’, with the superfluous ‘s’, is seen at least as often as the sparer ‘madrasah’.
‘Ramadan’ is another such word. The alternative spelling ‘Ramazan’ — representing the actual pronunciation of the global numerical majority — continues to be seen in English, but while discussing Islamic practices, western scholars and journalists tend to privilege a particular Arabic dialect by opting for ‘Ramadan’. With augmented media focus on Islam and Muslims, the latter spelling can be seen more frequently. In the South Asian context, as use of the English language and script intensifies in the public and private spheres, so does the use of English terms for discussing traditional concepts.
It is only in the past decade with increased use of English and romanised Urdu in mobile text messages, print advertising and the internet that ‘Ramadan’ has become popularised, with the practice being most prevalent among English-using Pakistanis, indicating that the switch is more a function of convention or familiarity than of ideology. Interestingly, many people who have taken to writing ‘Ramadan’ still continue to say ‘Ramazan’.
Teaching O-level Islamiat through English has also played its part in changing Urdu ‘ummat’ to English ‘ummah’, ‘namaz’ to ‘salat’, ‘roza’ to ‘saum’ and ‘wuzu’ to ‘wudu’. For the study of Muslim religiosity, English clearly displays a preference for Arabic over Perso-Urdu terms. And this is what we see reflected in the speech patterns of those whose primary language is now English as opposed to Urdu. While Zakir Naik, as a speaker of English, says ‘Ramadan’, popular personalities of the Urdu media, like Javed Ghamidi, Tahirul Qadri, Farhat Hashmi, Aamir Liaquat and even Junaid Jamshed, say ‘Ramazan’.
When people move words like ‘ummah’ and ‘Ramadan’ into Urdu, they are not further Arabicising Urdu, but are employing globally-used English words within Urdu, speaking ‘Urlish’ having become the norm rather than the exception. Although much noise is made about promotion of Arabic in our society and supporters emphasise their devotion to the language of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) and the Holy Quran, said devotion hardly seems to evolve beyond efforts to read the Holy Quran in accordance with rules of tajwid. It is extremely rare to find people conversing in Arabic with friends or family or being able to read an untranslated book, even after years of living in the Middle East. If devotion alone is the cause of people turning the zwad of Urdu into a dwad, why doesn’t this happen across the board? Why stop at Ramadan? Why not also pronounce ‘maraz’ as ‘marad’, ‘fazl’ as ‘fadl’, ‘ghazab’ as ‘ghadab’ and Iqbal’s Zarb-i Kalim as Darb-i Kalim? After all, besides being of Arabic origin, each of these words is also present in the Holy Qur’an and is, by that token, sacred. However, even if on a purely instinctive level, people are largely still aware that even though these words may be Arabic, in Urdu they are consistently pronounced differently.
In Ramazan, we did hear the occasional television personality speaking Urdu with a painstakingly Arabic accent, mixing up dwads with zwads and affecting stronger swads and extremely guttural ains. This would appear to be an affectation at par with hopeful imitations, in a bid for sophistication, of the newly prestigious American accent by compatriots who may never have had cause to venture near that continent. The subcontinent is not quite new to Arabic, however much people may claim that now that we have done more research (read ‘met Arabs in the flesh’), we know that we spoke incorrectly in the past. Scholars, more learned in classical Arabic than those found among us today, lived here in the distant as well as recent past. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad is one example of a scholar whose mother tongue was Arabic, and who spent a significant part of his childhood in Makkah before coming to live in India. Despite his native knowledge of Arabic, audio recordings do not show him changing his zwads to dwads. The same is true for the late Allamah Rasheed Turabi, Maulana Maududi and Dr Israr Ahmad. They could hardly have remained unaware of the rules of classical Arabic elocution, but this did not impact the way they spoke Urdu.
Rather than excessive exposure to Arabic, the rupture caused by a pronounced inclination for English is the source of the changes we see around us today. Those worried by these globalising influences can rest assured on one point — there is little fear of Pakistan moving towards a name change. The imam conducting taraweeh may frequently have concluded with a prayer for Bakistan’s prosperity, but English already has the letter ‘p’ and Arabic is in the process of following suit and developing a special letter.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 9th, 2011.
COMMENTS (32)
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Funny how only accolades of this Arab & Muslim hating author see the light - any criticism is duly suppressed.
So are you a Urdu speaking Hindustani Pakistani first and foremost and then perhaps a - "minor" kind-of-a Muslim then eh Zahra?
Its not the language that matters.
Its the mindset that considers God/Khuda/Allah to be so small and human-like that He would have different emotional responses depending on how He is addressed.
That is a symptom of something very seriously wrong with our nation.
Very nice article. Indeed transliteration can be tricky. Having lived abroad, people would call me Abid. However, we pronounce it as Aabid. I feel adhering to the normal local/commonly used pronunciation in transliteration helps people from across the globe to speak in as close an accent as possible.
More than what is emphasized, I feel it will be easier to understand the use if we draw an anology from the pronunciation of Dua'leen and Zua'leen in Surah Al Fatihah. The difference in pronunciation actually symbolizes the difference between the ideological clash between the Wahabis of Arabs and the Shi'ites of Persia (goes back to safawid Dynasty).
These words, their usage, and pronunciation denote a deeper sense of guarding ones ideological identity and promoting it than the mere need for assimilation of adoption need of languages.
In this case and other similar ones, I feel the reason why the pronunication of the words is more inclined towards persian (in the sub continent) is because of its prevalence in the sub continent when it was not only used by urdu poets as a medium of expression, but it also used to be taught as a part of curriculum in schools. There has also been a major influence of Sufis and saints (a lot of them with a persian background) in India which one can still see today with even Hindus being regular visitors to Sufi shrines.
@Megreen: it's Ramzan when talking fast but in formal setting, people say Ramazan in urdu always and everywhere - listen to ptv news.
Interesting article, I have heard native Arabic speakers pronouncing both as "D" as well as "Z" although "D" is more common. In our case, Urdu is written and generally spoken with a mixture of Farsi and Hindi tones and accent. Arabic words in Urdu are mostly pronounced with Farsi or Hindi accent, some people especially clergy who are generally fluent in Arabic choose to pronounce all words (including ones from Farsi and Hindi) with Arabic accent. That speaks of diversity within Urdu Language. An Example is how most of us pronounce V and W. Very few people know difference between "V" and "W" and that they are pronounced differently, but since both are represented by a single alphabet in Urdu we don't understand it well. For people who understand Tajweed , “V” is Farsi “vow” and “W” is Arabic “Wow”. Another common mistake or assumption is to represent letter "kaaf" with two dots with Q and second Kaaf with K. It is correct in a few cases but mostly causes English speaking people pronounce it very wrong. In Farsi letter "ghain" is pronounced same as "Kaaf" with two dots, while in Arabic is same as in Urdu ie "ghain". Also when languages are written in non native scripts it creates interesting pronunciations. Some examples are letter "J" which is pronounced almost as "KH" as in "Khalid" in Spanish and is pronounced as "Y" in some Scandinavian languages. In "Gaddafi" and Abu "Ghraib" letter "G" represents "kaaf" and "ghain" respectively. Arabic/Urdu/Farsi letter “geem” is pronounced mostly as “J” is pronounced in “Jinnah”, however Egyptians pronounce it as “G” in “Great”. We can be more united and tolerant if we respect and celebrate our diversity. “Unity in Diversity”
The meaning of ' urdu ' is lashkar and it is one of the fastest growing and more diverse language which incorporates all wherever it travels. Urdu zindabad!
Blockquote
‘Ramadan’ is another such word. The alternative spelling ‘Ramazan’ — representing the actual pronunciation of the global numerical majority — continues to be seen in English, but while discussing Islamic practices, western scholars and journalists tend to privilege a particular Arabic dialect by opting for ‘Ramadan’. Blockquote
In all my years of interaction with Arabs belonging to various different nations, I am yet to hear anyone of them say "zwaad". Please tell me WHICH dialect of Arabic does not go for "dwaad". In fact I've had Arabs tell me that there isn't any "zwaad". But anyway, I'd like to have some reference on that point where you say that a "particular Arabic dialect" is the privileged one.
@Ali Tanoli:
You need a spell-check before you sent your stuff out including using the capital "M" when referring to our Prophet (PBUH).
Beautifully written, Zahra! Just what we should expect of someone with a decent familiarity with two of the sub-continent's important cultural languages: Urdu-Hindi and Farsi. You are quite right to remind us that the Arabic scholarly tradition has been in continuous existence in the sub-continent for more than a thousand years. It is neither a product of the so-called Wahhabi surge, nor is it a function of the regime of General Zia, although both might have been contributors of debatable significance to it.
Let me just give the readers a few examples before moving on. What is perhaps the first Arabic lexicon was compiled in Sindh more than a thousand years ago. Perhaps the most famous Arabic commentary on Tirmizi's canonical hadith collection was written by someone with the surname "al-Sindhi". One of the masterworks of the Hanafi school of Islamic jurists, which has come to be known as the Fatawa-al-Hindiyyah, was compiled in Arabic in India during Aurangzeb's era and can still be found in the library of Hanafi muftis around the world; one of the greatest ever theological masterworks was authored around two and a half centuries ago by Shah Waliullal Dehlavi. In our own century, Abul Hassan Ali al-Nadavi's Arabic works run in the dozens and can still be found selling like hot-cake at road-side book-sellers in the streets of Cairo and Amman. That most of us self-proclaimed 'educated' and 'enlightened' Pakistanis are hardly aware of this aspect of our historical and cultural legacy is a sad fact; an effect, perhaps, of the sharp rupture in the education system of Muslims (Deoband v. Aligarh) which ocurred during the latter half of the nineteenth century.
But it is also true that our wise forebears had the good sense to recognize that as words and concepts of Arabic origin kept filtering into our native languages and cultures such as Punjabi, Urdu-Hini, Sindhi etc., further enriching these already rich languages and cultures, those words and concepts adopted a life of their own. In their journey from one language to another, and from one culture to another, these words and concepts retained their ‘essence’ but changed ‘forms’. Ramadan became, as you rightly point out, "Ramazan" in the classical dialect of Urdu-Hindi, which some people in Karachi still speak. And in Punjabi, it became "Ramzan" - and in the Punjabi dialect of Hindi-Urdu which has emerged as the one of most numerous of all Urdu-Hindi dialects, it remains "Ramzan", often reverently called "Ramzan Shreef". In the Anglicized dialect of Urdu-Hindi (which so many of the readers of this newspaper might be speaking) it is fact becoming Ramadan, as it once was in Arabic. The Arabic “Allah” became “Khuda” “Salat” became “Namaz” and Shariah became Shariat first in Persian and later in Urdu-Hindi etc.
None of this is a cause for alarm; in fact, this growing phonetic diversity of the ummah (or ummat, if you please) is a cause for celebration. It shows that much as we live in perpetual anxiety about the fate of it, the fold is only expanding. It is my understanding of the Islamic tradition, and I invite my readers to agree with me, that none of these pronunciations or words has any inherent superiority over another - the words that have the greatest acceptance in the eyes of God are those that are spoken with the greatest earnestness, and with the deepest sincerity. That seems also to have been the creed of the illustrious forebears whom you mention, who despite the greatest mastery over classical Arabic, took care not to flaunt it unnecessarily before the lay Muslim, whom they dutifully taught and preached to, with great respect.
In sum, this is what I am saying, and what, if read it correctly, Zahra too has argued: while it is best to read the Quran with the correct classical pronunciation, when words of Quranic origin are pronounced in other languages and dialects, they should be pronounced just as they have generally pronounced in those languages. Thus, ‘Ramadan’ in global English, ‘Ramazan’ in Urdu-Hindi and ‘Ramzan’ in the Punjab dialect of Urdu-Hindi.
@Amreekan: Before you go on that patriotic rant and talk of Pakistani pride, can you first call yourself PAKISTANI, instead of Amreekan? Meh!
It is not Ramazan or Ramadan, its is Ramzan. Funny that "educated" people would laugh at a person saying "Prince Charlus" instead of "Charles" but find it offensive if Arabic words are pronounced more correctly.
Whether "liberal" or "conservative", hypocrisy is our national character.
This was an excellent and thoughtful analysis, and respite from all the shrill discourse that surrounds the issue of Islamization in Pakistan. Having said that, I do not completely agree with the argument. I believe there is plenty of empirical evidence to suggest that the change is not just in writing but also in the way people speak (phonetics). I agree that people do not necessarily say 'ramadan' with the Arab 'dhad,' but they also do not say "ramzan' as they used to in Urdu. "Ramzan" has now become more of a "Ramazan" with an addition 'a' sound, which is something of a hybrid between the Arabic and Urdu. There is something of an effort to mimic without losing some of the authenticity of the original in all of this. Also, your argument seems to be that Pakistanis are not using the Arabic 'daad' in other words derived from the Quran, and this leads you to argue that the shift in writing/orthography is not ideological, but that's not true, because not all Arabic origin words are as ideologically marked as "Ramadan," and it's also true that people have started using other explicitly ritualistic Islamic terms like salat and wudu more frequently than they used to. In any case, your point that the popularity of the English usage of Arabic terms in popular print is very interesting, and does suggest that there are multiple sources to the Arabization of language process. Wish the ET would publish more analysis like this and fewer liberal ideological rants.
Shall we go even a step further than discussing spelling of holy month, appearance/seeing of moon and witnessing, visiting graveyards and mausoleums, whether a stone grave is allowed or not, ways of prayers, way of standing during Nimaz, timings of prayers, reciting various wazifaz, mistakes made by others in translating Quran, performing various rituals and festivals and so many other things in performing religion are being made difficult and disputed by our Mullahs. This might keep our younger generation away from performing essential religious rituals. Our religion is very easy and simple to adopt/practice and should remain in same spirit. If you do not interfere in other`s religious views, there will be no disputes.
Pronouncing "Ramadan" or "Ramazan" is a trivial issue .. what actually counts is the real spirit of this holy month with which it should be celebrated as Allah says that He is the one to reward us for our fasts & all our good deeds in this month.
Very interesting read. So here is my conclusion. First your forefathers tried to shun Indian accent in preference to Farsi accent (claiming it is more muslim) now this generation is shunning the Farsi accent in preference to Arabic (again in the name of Islam), I don't know when it will stop.
Well if we're going into specifics of culturally inspired spellings, in Pakistan it has never been Ramazan, always was Ramzan.
When reading. Quran there is something. Called tajweed ,it is necessary for every muslim to read according to those rules. All your confusions will solve
There was no use of writing this article.
Nice article. Useful and has a clear insight into the changing trends of Urdi and Urlish becoming a norm rather than exception within Pakistan.
@SharifL: We have articles about bombs and grenades everyday. What do you want the rest of the world to do? Stop living? Sometimes change is nice. And this article provided that change.
Okay, wait. You shouldve discussed this with me before getting into such a long debate. The primary reason for saying Ramadan instead of Ramzan is globalization. In Islam, it is not a question of etymology but universality. If I go to Malaysia or Egypt as a Pakistani, words like Eid and Ramzaan disappear - I find myself saying Aid-ul-Fitri or Ramadan. English is the universal language of the day and Arabic plays that role within the context of Islam. The two make a nice combination together. Simple.
Well researched indeed. Tolerance is key and individuals are entitled to use any pronunciation they like. I choose what influences me and I'm not giving that right up. But I also realize that comes with respecting others right to do the same. COEXIST!
P.S: Its so good to know where Doctor Aamir liaqat hussain stands on this.
Aren't there much more important issues in Pakistan to focus on? Each language borrows words and spellings from other lanagauges. Why spend so much time on this ramzan/ramadan issue? Shameful!
Loved this article!! I completely agree with everything, and am impressed with the references you were able to find. I hope you dont mind me freely borrowing those examples in arguments with friends here in the U.S. about why I continue to say 'Ramzan' instead of the westernised 'Ramadan'. I even correct my white American friends when they say Ramadan. I tell them I am an Urdu speaker, and not an Arabic speaker. And in my language, it's 'Ramzan'. I have been able to get them to change their pronunciation.
Seeing Urdu words on billboards spelled out in English (in Karachi) is already too much -- let us not Anglicize the pronunication of the holiest of our months. And let us be proud of national language!
just because you can't find fault with the writer's argument doesn't mean that you dismiss the whole piece as unimportant. opinion pieces don't just cover bomb blasts and target killings. they are also about cultural tends, identity issues, language, history, etc and this piece gave a well researched analysis of the trend of forced/abrupt arabization in our country
My apologies, but I have completely failed to comprehend the argument you're trying to put up with this painstakingly well researched article. Ramadan or Ramazan, surely not reason enough to instigate a bawling out session? Just saying.
Deoband madrassa had been big contributer of true islanmic teaching to hind musalman and was bigest pro united india movment may god bless those peoples. there is nothing wrong to pronunce ramadan instead of ramazan same way muhammad or mohammad or mohammed with three diffrent words its english u can do it any way like owais or awais or ozair or uzair or safir or safeer any other lang can be diff so chill mill maan.