Commonalities between Urdu and other Pakistani languages
Urdu has roots in Arabic and Persian and similarities with all the languages of South Asia.
Urdu has roots in Arabic and Persian and similarities with all the languages of South Asia.
LAHORE:
More than 700 people attended the second session of the Second International Urdu Conference organised by the Express Media Group at the Avari Hotel on Saturday.
The theme of the second session was ‘Urdu’s similarities with other languages of Pakistan’. Novelist Abdullah Hussain presided over the session, Dr Khawaja Muhammad Zakariya, Dr Anwaar Ahmed, Dr Najeeb Jamal and Dr Najiba Arif were on the panel.
The session was moderated by Aliya Shah. She said, “When I was in school, Urdu used to be one of the highest scoring subjects. Nowadays, children think Urdu is one of the toughest subjects... that is quite sad.”
Dr Arif spoke about the similarities between Urdu and Punjabi, “I’m a Punjabi but many people think I’m from an Urdu-speaking family.” She said that the beauty of Urdu was that people from various ethnicities, regions and countries could understand it.
Dr Jamal said that Urdu had roots in Arabic and Persian. It shared commonalities with almost all the languages in South Asia. He said that people who spoke Punjabi, Seraiki and Sindhi could understand Urdu very well because of their common roots. “If Urdu can’t be made the official language, we should at least take steps to save it from vanishing,” he said. “Urdu is the language of the poor,” Dr Ahmed said.
“One of the problems with Urdu is that its numbers are hard to learn,” Dr Zakariya said, “Maybe we could reach a consensus on how to solve this problem.”
He said, “We must condemn the practice of mixing languages while constructing sentences. If one cannot phrase an entire sentence in Urdu he should stick to the language he knows best.”
He also spoke against the practice of breaking down Urdu words to make them easier to read. One should only break down a sentence to make it easier to understand, he said.
Hussain, in his closing remarks, praised the speakers’ contribution.
Satirist Muhammad Amjad said, “The conference is a great initiative. It has allowed experts to get together and discuss how linguistic problems can be dealt with.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 13th, 2013.
More than 700 people attended the second session of the Second International Urdu Conference organised by the Express Media Group at the Avari Hotel on Saturday.
The theme of the second session was ‘Urdu’s similarities with other languages of Pakistan’. Novelist Abdullah Hussain presided over the session, Dr Khawaja Muhammad Zakariya, Dr Anwaar Ahmed, Dr Najeeb Jamal and Dr Najiba Arif were on the panel.
The session was moderated by Aliya Shah. She said, “When I was in school, Urdu used to be one of the highest scoring subjects. Nowadays, children think Urdu is one of the toughest subjects... that is quite sad.”
Dr Arif spoke about the similarities between Urdu and Punjabi, “I’m a Punjabi but many people think I’m from an Urdu-speaking family.” She said that the beauty of Urdu was that people from various ethnicities, regions and countries could understand it.
Dr Jamal said that Urdu had roots in Arabic and Persian. It shared commonalities with almost all the languages in South Asia. He said that people who spoke Punjabi, Seraiki and Sindhi could understand Urdu very well because of their common roots. “If Urdu can’t be made the official language, we should at least take steps to save it from vanishing,” he said. “Urdu is the language of the poor,” Dr Ahmed said.
“One of the problems with Urdu is that its numbers are hard to learn,” Dr Zakariya said, “Maybe we could reach a consensus on how to solve this problem.”
He said, “We must condemn the practice of mixing languages while constructing sentences. If one cannot phrase an entire sentence in Urdu he should stick to the language he knows best.”
He also spoke against the practice of breaking down Urdu words to make them easier to read. One should only break down a sentence to make it easier to understand, he said.
Hussain, in his closing remarks, praised the speakers’ contribution.
Satirist Muhammad Amjad said, “The conference is a great initiative. It has allowed experts to get together and discuss how linguistic problems can be dealt with.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 13th, 2013.