Myths about Urdu

[MilesTogo]

What is the difference between Urdu and Hindi? Other than the way you write it?

I think that author of the original article has a website where he talks about Urdu and Hindi extensively. Try that.

 

[StingRoy]

I am liking this thread... Lets thank history that even if Urdu is predominant in Pakistan and Hindi in India, the very fact that both have common roots in India helps us in conversing with each other... reminds me of a couple of instances where I have been approached with a fellow south asian in the US, curious to know where in Pakistan I am from... I just return a smile... just enough for him to realize we were once from the same country.

If you look at the numerous youtube inserts in the forums which help us in getting the view from the other side, it is this common root which helps us in understand what we speak and constantly reminds us that we both share so much from our past history and culture...
I can't imagine this happening if we were speaking entirely different languages. Although Hindi is predominant in north India, but it is widely understood in the south, the north east and all the far reaches of our country. If you think about it, it is the only language which binds Indians from different cultures, different languages, different cultural backgrounds together.... so can't we take this example to atleast feel connected across the borders?.. sharing a common root of the most widely understood language in the south asia?
Peace out...

 

[fas]

We have to aknowledge that urdu/hindi is one of the finest language in the world. I believe when it comes to determning what a good language is, it is possible to come to common term. Let me give you an example.

Here in Norway we speak bokmål, which is a very ugly language when it comes to the flow of speaking. Theres hardly any songs, everyone aknowledges that its not a very pretty language and therefor more and more people have started speaking swedish here in Norway, because it got much more flow and its easier to speak. For your knowledge these to languages are like urdu/hindi and punjabi, not a big difference. Now what we are seeing is that we are getting a problem in Oslo where people are changing there norwegain and mixing it with swedish, and the gov is all pissed out about it and they are taking stupid measures to stop this natural way of emerging languages.

What we see from this here, is that one criteria is flow, and i mean there is hardly any other language that got so much flow than urdu/hindi. Maybe Persian, as Iqbal said "my urdu is sweet but my persian is sweeter". The other thing is how fast it spread out. The dominant language earlier was persian and in merely 100 years the language was changed. Thats an incredible power. Just think about all the other languages in the country that didnt get this much dominance. Some of it is because of the rulers but its still incredible.

Third point is that urdu/hindi is very soft and delicate langugae just look at how many big poets there have been. And i am nativley from delhi and we are not very famous for speaking with manners, but we got many in our family from luchnow and damn its a joy to hear them speak, when they use "hum" all the time. Just wonderful.

Now these are my viewpoints, not neccecerily right.

I wanna ask my indian fellows here: tha language that amithab uses in who wants to be a millionaire, is that what the common indian understands or is it top difficult?

 

[MastanKhan]

Punjabi, Sindhi Urdu/Hindu(Hindustani) all are languages that have the potential to unite people rather than divide if used in the right way.

Hi,

The thing is, that languages do not unite people together but divide them----a language is the identity of an individual ethnic group---after religion, more people may have been killed because they speak different language---in one nation, different langauges are the root of all the evil and hatred that is abundant in the community for one who speaks a different language.

Languages are one of the most important cause / factor of nationalism---a freedom movement / a war.

 

[U-571]

i dont know why people say, urdu is 90 percent persian, i can speak to a persian, i have many persian classmates, but they cannot understand me, i cannot understand them, but i can very well understand an indian guy, first of all there's a difference in pronounciation, ascent, second, there arnt many words that are persian in urdu, and for me persian is a strange language, so much for a pakistani guy understanding 90 percent of the persian speaker!

 

[MilesTogo]

Hi,

The thing is, that languages do not unite people together but divide them----a language is the identity of an individual ethnic group---after religion, more people may have been killed because they speak different language---in one nation, different langauges are the root of all the evil and hatred that is abundant in the community for one who speaks a different language.

Languages are one of the most important cause / factor of nationalism---a freedom movement / a war.

That is why British tried to export their language to the entire world...

 

[EjazR]

@Mastan Khan

You are right, language is used by extreme ethnic nationlists which form the same social groups as religious nationalists.

But the languages I mentioned Punjabi Sindhi and Urdu/Hindi are languages common across the border. That is why this common language trait can help people understand each other more easily IF used in the "right way".

Similarly, Bengali is spoken by a good chunk of the Indian population and is the national language of Bangladesh. hence it allows people to communicate and converse as well as share the common bengali culture between India and Bangladesh.

These languages I mentioned is not any language imposed on people without their consent like English or Farsi. Ofcourse that doesn't mean automatically that everyone will have friendly relations. The arab countires have a single langauge across 20 odd countires and they still have plenty of problems. But if used in the right way, this shared culture can help in improving relations among the countries in the subcontinent.

 

[Mrityunjay Rai]

I wanna ask my indian fellows here: tha language that amithab uses in who wants to be a millionaire, is that what the common indian understands or is it top difficult?

We understand what he says (Because of we learn sanskrtiized hindi in school ) but dont use in day to day life.

 

[eastwatch]

The following is a text of what I have read somewhere. Before partition really took place, Pundit Nehru, Maulana Azad and others were thinking about the national language of India (united). They concluded that there would be one language that would be called 'Hindustani,' but this language would have two scripts. One would be Devnagri and another would be Arabic. An Indian would be required to learn both the scripts and would be allowed to write in any of these two.

However, India was divided into two and then into three. It is unfortunate that along with the country itself, this language Hindustani has also been divided somehow into two along religious line. Today, you open a Hindi newspaper in India, you will seldom find those so-called Urdu words that are commonly used by both the communities in their daily conversation. Opposite is true about the uses of vocabularies in Urdu as well, people go out of their way and tend to use those Persian words which are not quite understood by the common people.

Neither Hindiwalas should try to wipe away words that have roots to Turkic, Arabic or Persian languages, nor the Urduwalas should stop using words that are related to Sanskrit. Urdu and Hindi are basically one language, therefore, people should not be allowed to edit it in religious lines.

 

[eastwatch]

Hi,

The thing is, that languages do not unite people together but divide them----a language is the identity of an individual ethnic group---after religion, more people may have been killed because they speak different language---in one nation, different langauges are the root of all the evil and hatred that is abundant in the community for one who speaks a different language.

Languages are one of the most important cause / factor of nationalism---a freedom movement / a war.

In case of South asia, it was divided not on language but on religion, faith and culture. Bangladesh is also not really divided on the language, but mostly due to geographical distance.

Division of a country is not that sweet for any body. But, since it has somehow been divided, therefore, its common language should
be allowed to play a role to unite people.

 

[Spring Onion]

sir sir sir
i m not saying tht its not a pakistani language or mislim's language. yar i m 4rm Lucknow. kabhi aana ho to jarur batiega.and han most important it is also an indian language which is also spoken by millions of indians.
so finally it means when u talk abut urdu it does not always mean pakistan or muslims only.

and plzz plzzz dont 4rg8 Munsi Premchandra ,a gr8 writer of urdu

In Lukhnow (Lucknow) They dont say Jarur its zarur not jarur

 

[Spring Onion]

The following is a text of what I have read somewhere. Before partition really took place, Pundit Nehru, Maulana Azad and others were thinking about the national language of India (united). They concluded that there would be one language that would be called 'Hindustani,' but this language would have two scripts. One would be Devnagri and another would be Arabic. An Indian would be required to learn both the scripts and would be allowed to write in any of these two.

However, India was divided into two and then into three. It is unfortunate that along with the country itself, this language Hindustani has also been divided somehow into two along religious line. Today, you open a Hindi newspaper in India, you will seldom find those so-called Urdu words that are commonly used by both the communities in their daily conversation. Opposite is true about the uses of vocabularies in Urdu as well, people go out of their way and tend to use those Persian words which are not quite understood by the common people.

Neither Hindiwalas should try to wipe away words that have roots to Turkic, Arabic or Persian languages, nor the Urduwalas should stop using words that are related to Sanskrit. Urdu and Hindi are basically one language, therefore, people should not be allowed to edit it in religious lines.

do you think that would have been practical specially when South India is totally different and they hate to speak hindi? ?? They say their own language is richer and older than hindi why they should speak hindi.

And if you have the chance to visit South India you will feel 180 degree difference.

 

[Bhaarat]

do you think that would have been practical specially when South India is totally different and they hate to speak hindi? ?? They say their own language is richer and older than hindi why they should speak hindi.

And if you have the chance to visit South India you will feel 180 degree difference.

Hindi is one of the many language in India. In south, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam are spoken. Not just south, but even in North, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Haryanvi, Rajasthani is spoken. In North-East again, several different languages are spoken in Nagaland, Assam, Tripura, Arunachal, Sikkim, Meghalaya, and Mizoram. In the east, Gujarati, Marathi, are spoken. In the east, Orriya and Bengali are spoken. So, you see, India has many languages, and hindi is one of them. But majority of Indians can understand Hindi compared to other languages. Hindi is the mother-tongue mostly in the ganga plains. The oldest language of India is Sanskrit and most other Indian languages are direct or indirect descendents of this language.

 

[Spring Onion]

Hindi is one of the many language in India. In south, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam are spoken. Not just south, but even in North, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Haryanvi, Rajasthani is spoken. In North-East again, several different languages are spoken in Nagaland, Assam, Tripura, Arunachal, Sikkim, Meghalaya, and Mizoram. In the east, Gujarati, Marathi, are spoken. In the east, Orriya and Bengali are spoken. So, you see, India has many languages, and hindi is one of them. But majority of Indians can understand Hindi compared to other languages. Hindi is the mother-tongue mostly in the ganga plains. The oldest language of India is Sanskrit and most other Indian languages are direct or indirect descendents of this language.

I know that what languages are spoken where.

I again will repeat that with South India refusing to accept any other language other than their own would it had been feasible to have Urdu/Hindi as a common language as was thought by Nehru and Azad??

 

[Iggy]

I know that what languages are spoken where.

I again will repeat that with South India refusing to accept any other language other than their own would it had been feasible to have Urdu/Hindi as a common language as was thought by Nehru and Azad??

Yep even there was some agitation in Tamil Nadu against making Hindi as our national language..Love for their mother tongue is strong in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and extreme in Tamil Nadu..As for Kerala most of the parents love to see their children talk in English rather than their mother tongue or Hindi..There are some initiatives from prominent people and newspaper to save Malayalam but was not a success