THE URDUIZATION OF ENGLISH IN PAKISTAN A COMPREHENSIVESTUDY BY R OB ER T J, A UDRE Y E. K ENNE DY , A ND FA UZ IA S HA M IM

Air University, IslamabadPresented by Kulsoom Shahzor, Fizzah Irfan, Aamir Khan, and Sadia Munir

SECTIONS OF PAPER Background- introduction-

methodologyPresentation of data in contextSemantic analysis of selected data and

borrowingGrammatical aspects of borrowingIntegration of Urdu lexis in to English Conclusion

BACKGROUNDEnglish language at home in British Isles and abroad has undergone large scale lexical borrowing at different times in history.

Latin, French and Scandinavian words became part of English vocabulary at different times.

When English came in contact with indigenous languages of Britain different varieties like welsh, Scottish and Irish were formed.

INTRODUCTION It is observed that when English came in contact

with non native languages, a different variety came into being having the words specific to that culture being merged in English.

In recent past much focus has been laid on non native versions of English especially of this south Asian region.

Many people have worked on these languages, prominently known are Kachru , Shastri and Mehrotra. Kachru has worked on Pakistani English.

This paper basically aims to study the lexical transfer in Pakistani English.

URDUIZATION For the purpose of this paper the term not onlyincludes words form Urdu but also from otherindigenous languages of Pakistan which are verymuch used in English language.

Urdu stands as the official language of Pakistan. Spoken by 10% of the population Indigenous languages give contextual stability to English

language. Lexis used due to non availability of suitable word in

English Used for influence

METHODOLOGY Corpus data collected from Pakistani Englishlanguage dailies and selected weekly andmonthly publications over a period of 7 yearsi.e. from 1986-92

FrameworkKachru’s pioneering work on Hindu lexicalBorrowing considered with some additions six new categories introduced partitions of older Kachruvian categories

CATEGORIES OF ILLUSTRATIONSUse of articlesDescriptive labels for peopleEdibles Law and orderMarriages/divorce Wallahs

PRESENTATION OF DATAArticles in use – encompasses wide

range of dataExample While in another incident … fivemotorcyclists armed with pistols, looteddore (string) worth 8,000, from a guddi(kite) shop ( 19 January 1990) Other similar words include :Chimta , chappati, paan daan ,churri etc

DESCRIPTIVE LABELS FOR PEOPLEThese words are used when a particular type ofperson is described

ExampleWhen at last army would be told to nab themuch awaited elements, the latter simply won’tBe there and only a few “jooti chor” and “murghichor” type criminals would come in hand. (9 July1990)

EDIBLES Example Tanoori rotis and naans are flat leavenedbreads,baked in hot clay ovens ortandoors.Other examples include :Charga , nehari, siri paye, tikkas , haleem,aloo cholay etc

LAW AND ORDER SITUATIONThe mob was staging dharna ( sit in ) in front ofthe sub divisional magistrate office in support oftheir demands (PT 15 September 1988)Other similar examples include :Hartal , gherao , challan etc

Weddings/divorce Why cant our shadis be something like , O.K. bringIn the dulha ( groom ) and dulhan ( bride), theirClose friends and relatives: eat , have fun and that’sit ?one solid day’s affair! What is the super hypeAbout dholkis , dholak , mehandis , baraats andvalimas (MAG 17- 23)

WALLAHS There have been every style of cheatingincluding the PANI WALLAH who helps thecandidates to transport the answers in theexamination hall. Other examples include :Taxi wallah , doodh wallah and khokawallah etc

INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES LEXIS IN USE

Process of Urduization has vocabulary from regional languages as well. The languages under consideration are Punjabi , Sindhi , Balochi and Phusto. Used in different contextual settings accordingly

PUNJABIWhat people often suspect is that delay after acrime is deliberate to allow the notoriously corruptelements of the police to strike the best possibledeal known in the local parlance as “Muk-Mukao”(settlement / bribe )

Balochi Sajji or saj is vension – deer meat for theuninitiated –roasted on an open fire , and is thegreat delicacy from Baluchistan province.

PHUSTO A view of Khattak dance presented at Rawalpindi

Arts Council Tuesday. Other prominent examples from phusto include:Loya jirga , khassadar , kor etc

Sindhi As, in Sindh , “Ralli”has been made through ancienttimes, it is thus an integral part of Sindh’s literatureso that the bard of Sindh, Shah Abdul Latif ,remembers the Ralli and also calls it Gindi. ( Ralli is apatchwork quilt or coverlet)

RELIGION AND RITUALS Religion as separate category: religion (Islam) religion (others i.e. Christianity , Hinduism ,

Sikhism , Zoroastrianism )The six categories stated in beginning for wholecorpus will be taken separately for religion

Explanation through examples : He also manipulated a “Tasbih” of large ivory beads with considerable dexterity.

After ‘zohr’ (noon) and ‘asr’ (afternoon) prayers several persons switch on fans and start taking a nap, caring the least about other “namazis” (people offering prayers” who go to the mosque to offer prayers.

These Jama’at wallahs hate me as much as they hate her. They in fact hate everyone who isn’t Jama’at wallah ( a member of the political party Jama’at –i- Islami )

Qawwali …. Is a typical sub-continental chorus song, with a mystical flair, sung by Muslim singers all over south

Asia in Darghas( shrines) or private gatherings . Renowned qawwal Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan electrified the hall with his qawwalis and ka’afis (seraiki poems)

HYBRID Word formed from element of both Urdu and English, termed

‘hybrid 'by Yule and Burnell and Kachru, are common features in the print media in Pakistan.

For-example: (prefixes)brandy-paanii, mini-jirga, pre-dholki.(suffixes) Lahorites, Mohalla-wise, Punjabize.

NOUN+NOUN BILINGUAL COMPOUNDSThese kind of collocations are in common use. They are mostly used in sentences on

contextual basis

Noun+noun bilingual compounds are Assemblywala, baba suit, baigaar camp and

rabi season.

ADJECTIVE NOUN HYBRID COLLOCATION Adjective+ noun hybrid collocation which occurs

frequently is desi (local/indigenous) plus English noun:

With our politicians more willing to confide in foreign correspondents rather than their desi counterparts, the Financial Times correspondent developed good contacts on both sides of the political divide (NL October 1989).

HYBRID VERB COLLOCATION Hybrid verb collocations (English verb plus

Urdu noun) are also found: The Prime Minister laid a floral all on the

mazar of the saint after Maghrib [sunset] prayers, and offered fateha[opening chapter of the Holy Quran recited as prayer for the dead].

To offer fateha, to embrace shahadat are common hybride verb phrases in Pakistani English.

SEMANTIC BORROWING

Semantic aspects of borrowing: Urdu lexis in context, two major factors appear to us to be at work: Borrowing to fill lexical gaps(Kachru 1978:110) Borrowing to intentionally ,convey atmosphere, shades of

meaning and experiences which are tightly bound up with the local background cultures(Paltt et al.1984:89)

The use of borrowed lexis to fill lexicalgaps is not uncommon in many types of writings as Sey (1973:64) ‘ In describing a culture, p, in the language of culture q, it is not unusual to adopt expressions from the languge of culture p where by so going a greater degree of clarity in exposition could be achieved’

PROMINENT WRITERS AND USE OF URDU LEXIS

Pakistani anthropologist Akbar S. Ahmad (1987and 1988), political scientist Mohammad Waseem (1989), politician Benazir Bhutto (1988)and the novelist Bapsi Sidhwa (1980, 1983 and1988) all us Urdu lexis in their works.

ART FORM AND FLORA Examples from general categories of art

forms and flora: It is also related that he [Haddu Khan], would

begin his Khayals in a very restful and slow tempo. After singing both asthaii and antara in that way he would sing boltaans and tans, and then the slow khayal would be followed by a drut or fast chhota khayal. His tans were clear and lyrical touching the high register.

NOUN-TO-VERB BILINGUAL SHIFT

The word miswak. Both Qureshi and Sarhindi translate miswak as ‘toothbrush’, which is not accurate rendering of the word English; there is no exact word for word translation.

EXAMPLE

The word also sometimes appears as a noun-to-verb bilingual shift in Pakistani English: Every family has at least one branch

who are health fiends… they get up with the lark, insist that the whole household run a couple of miles, and scoff at toothbrushes, handing out maswak instead.

RELIGIOUS LEXIS Example of religious lexis pertaining to Ashura during the Holy month of Moharram Thousands of mourners are expected to participate in the

Zuljinnah processing where Shiya scholars and “Zakaring” will recite “Nohas” and “Marsias” to pay glowing tributes to the great martyr, Hazrat Imam Hussain(A.S) and Ahle-Bait. Various other small “Alam” processions would also be taken out from various faculties of the city.

DELIBERATE USE

The choice of an Urdu word instead of an English word in such cases depends to a large extent oh the ‘deliberate use’ of Urdu lexis by writers in order to convey shades of meaning.

For Example: adda (stand/ station), bazaar (market), chaddar( cover), chowkidar (guard/ watchmen).

SINGLE WORD DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS

The word awami (people’s/of the people) is also often employed for its ‘political load’. Formed from the noun awaam (people), the adjectives awami.

In collocations such as ‘awami suit or shalwar-kamez’, ghareeb awam.

NUMEROUS MEANINGSKachru has observed that when

borrowed into Indian English, often only one meaning of a term is borrowed, whereas in the source language the borrowed item may have numerous other meanings.

Pardah( curtain, layer, screen, wall).

EXAMPLE The Punjabi word Chittar literally

means an Old, discarded piece of footwear. It is often used in Punjabi villages to whip a person, not only to punish him physically, but also to shame him.

The area Police brought 18 handcuffed accused and announced that they would be punished publicly with ‘Chittars’.

GRAMMATICAL ASPECTS OF BORROWING

NOUN PLURALS For noun plurals we have noted

the following patterns the most common of which for an Urdu singular noun used in English to take the English plural inflectional morpheme

EXAMPLE: The situation is no better in the

feudal backwaters of Sindh, Punjab, and KPK where big jagirdars [landholders] heartlessly oppress poor people living on their land (PT 1 sept 1989).

ADJECTIVES WHICH FUNCTION AS NOUNS ALSO OFTEN TAKE THE ENGLISH

They want to show off their being highly educated they don’t like to be called paindoos ( rustics) by their friends who see them reading urdu newspapers only.

THE WORD KUTCHERY (DISTRICT COURTS) WHICH APPEARS IN PRINT NORMALLY WITH Y SIGULAR ENDING IS GENERALLY WRITTEN IN THE PLURAL WITH AN –IES ENDINGS

Adviser to CM KPK holds kutchery (N 3 OCTOBER 1987) headline

ISLAMIC LEXIS

He is a momin

BROKEN PLURALS IN ARABIC The graveyards of shuhada is being

respected by people.

THE ENGLISH –S PLURAL AND THE ARABIC PLURAL ARE SOMETIMES USED INTERCHANGEABLY WITH IN THE SAMEARTICLES 1200 maktabs (elementary religious school) to be

converted into primary schools

URDU NOTIONS GENDER Chhura (dagger) Chhuri (table knife) The accused attackedthem with a chhuri

saying that he was taking revenge because their father had married his mother secretly.

WALLAH AND WALLI As soon as the churiwali entered a home all

young girls would surround her.

PLURALS OF FOOD IN PAKISTANI ENGLISH The much increased intake of oil drenched

parathy samosay and pakoray also played havoc with the digestive system

FEMININE SOUND ENDS AT (I) TAKE (AN) FOR PLURAL. If it was up to me rathore would receive so

many jootian that the decision would be made automatically

LEXICAL INTEGRATION

Discussion about some of the ways in which Urdu borrowings are “integrated” into English.

LEXICAL INTEGRATIONPakistani journalists writing in English make use of integration often.

They easily mix Urdu lexis while writing in English.

LEXICAL INTEGRATION Some of the conventions used to

write Urdu lexis in Pakistani English dailies include:

ItalicsSingle or double quotation marksCapital or bold lettering andUnderlining (rarely)

EXAMPLES: The result is that in most of our

cities a few live in luxurious houses comparable to the best villas of the rich in the West, whereas majority of people live in hovels, jhuggis, katchi abadis or in one or two-room houses lacking the basic amenities (FP/P 24 June 1989---editorial.

EXAMPLES (CON.)

The residents of the sector have little need to venture outside their own little Afghan enclave. Apart from the weekly Itwar bazar where everything is available . . . It is a home away from home (NL June 1990).

Other methods writers use to introduce 'unfamiliar' lexis into their writing are:

glossing, appositives, and annotation.

GLOSSES

A gloss is normally  one word translation of the term in English, although phrases and sentences are also used, as can be seen from the examples below:

Federal Minister for Culture Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has invited two singing stars of the world, Michael Jackson and Madonna, to perform in Pakistan. But the religious scholars condemned it and termed it as an act of Shaitaan (devil) (NS/L 11 October 1991)

They kept him in illegal confinement and punished  him on not paying the "Kharcha Pani" (bribe) (NS/L 22 September 1991).

APPOSITIVES An appositive is a word or phrase usually set

off by commas or dashes, placed beside another so that the second word  explains the first. The word or i.e. is also sometimes inserted between the two terms in apposition:

The barber, the woodcutter, and the ironsmith ——though all skilled —— are called "kammis" or workers here (M Magazine 28 October 1988).

They were hereby liable to the punishment of 'tazir' —i.e. lashes monetary fine and rigorous imprisonment (FP/L 9 September 1989).

ANNOTATION Annotation, as used here, is the explanation of

an Urdu word in a text through a grammatical or discoursal device other than an appositive.

The member was also informed about the methods, modus,operandi, and the people known here as patharidars who provide shelter to the dacoits (TFT 29 June — 5 July 1989).

Math is a famous traditional cultural game of Sindh and  present people's Government is making all-out efforts for its promotion at the international level (N 26 August 1989).

CONCLUSION Platt, Weber and Ho point out that all living languages are in

constant state of change. Muzaffar A. Gaffars reflects: When we speak English in addition to the occasional

'accha' or 'Wah!' we often dive into our repertoire of Urdu when we fail to find an English word where an Urdu 'lafz' is dying to interject itself . . . the question to ask perhaps is "are we doing the right thing?" If you answer  instinctively you will say "of course not", " we should be ashamed of ourselves" and make other humbling statements  of thus ilk. But wait, Think a bit and try to relate  your self-criticism to the purpose of language. Any language. Is it to be a purist or us it to communicate (meaning to have common understanding with the other party).

BORROWING IS BI-DIRECTIONAL

Since our society while recognizing the continuing importance of English has come out massively in favor of Urdu, let us now move rapidly and efficiently towards making this an accomplished and efficient reality. This would imply acceptance of the fact that Urdu is no longer and cannot be the same as it was in Ghalib's time, and that, at the twentieth century it must open itself to a large world of sophisticated technology and high-level research. If in doing so it ends up as a curious mish-mash of Urdu and English, so be it. For those with eyes to see it is already a mish-mash.

HASSAN CONCLUDES: Actually Urdu and English are no longer to definably

separate languages in Pakistan. So much “nativized” appears in Urdu in an odd-mixing manner that we would do well to recognize evolution of a mode of expression better described as Urdish than as Urdu or English. Purists in either language might recoil in horror at such a development but we refer to what is not what such people think ought to be. this process of mixing has been going on for more than a century. there is no harm in recognizing it, if it represents a natural trend in language evolution in our country (which it does), let it continue.

THANK YOU !