I remember this. I saw this manuscript in Rome. Kannu, you would be too young to remember this but I got so excited about this. What a great way to write. Much more efficient eh?
Absolutely fascinating. I wonder if we can have an app which does this for us? It would increase my efficiency at least 20-30%!
Very interesting
I am studying Farsi. Its now been couple of months that I have been attending classes. First of all, its not easy for an empirical positivist like me to understand the rather free flowing mechanism of learning languages. Grammar rules, punctuation, vocabulary are all foreign bodies to me. But interestingly enough, I read this article:
“Urdu is a mixture of Persian, Arabic and Turkish words formed with the intermingling of invading Muslim armies and local Hindi-speaking Hindus. It’s a Turkish word which means Army camp, hoard, etc.”
Almost everyone who knows something about the Urdu language knows this statement, which is logically incomprehensible, historically incorrect and linguistically misleading. Irrespective of the fact as to who made this statement, why it was made and when it was initiated for the first time, one thing can be said with utmost certainty that it has profound socio-political and socio-linguistic impact in the Indian Subcontinent for the last 150 years, i.e., with the advent of British Raj in this region.
One can draw a few inferences from this falsehood which has shaped our perception, consciously and sub-consciously that Urdu is not a native language of the Indian Subcontinent rather it’s a language of foreign invaders. Consequently it must be disowned if not hated.
Historically it is incorrect because the Muslim rulers did not introduce any new language. Instead they gave a new script (Persio-Arabic or Nastaliq), which was comprehendible to the spoken language of India. They even invented and introduced new signs or letters for the new sounds which are utterly local to the existing Persio-Arabic script, i.e., all the aspirated sounds of Bha, Pha, Tha, Gha, Dha, Rha, Lha and retroflexed sounds like Rah, Taa, Daa, etc. Hence all the tens of thousands of words spoken in Urdu containing these sounds have their origin in the early Vedic or middle Vedic era, i.e., 400 to 600BC.
In addition to that all the infinitives (Masader) ending on Na sound like Aana, Jaana, Khana, Peena, Uthna, Baithna, Perhna, Likhna, Sona, Jagna, Chalna, Bhagna, Larna, Dhukna, Boolna, Sunna, Kehna, etc. All are words of this language being spoken as the vernacular of early Vedic and middle Vedic period.
The process of loaning words from other languages is a sign of a living and progressing language. Urdu is one such language.
All the speakers of Urdu neither became Muslim by including Persian or Arabic words nor are they now converted to Christianity by including English words in its words corpus. On the contrary, perhaps, the Indian ruling elite believe that they will become Muslims if they use Arabic and Persian words, so they are making conscious efforts to replace most of these words with Sanskrit words. This policy may have socio-political advantages albeit not without socio-political repercussions.
As a student of linguistics only one comment can be made on this current policy of India that such a policy leads into secluding more people and ethnic groups rather than integrating them.Lets analyse a few historical facts. The Turks started converting to Islam in 920AD with the invasion of Arabs. The Arabs put their foot on the soil of Sindh in 711AD but they were in constant contact with the Indian Subcontinent for centuries prior to Islam. The Ottoman Turk Empire was established in 1299. Lahore was under the rule of Mahmud Ghaznavi in 1254AD.
However, the interaction of Persian speaking people with India via trade goes back to the before Christ (BC) era. In short, the cultural association of Persian and Arabic-speaking people with the Indian people predates Islam.Arabic, Persian and Turkish vocabularies were brought to India by traders, invaders and preachers. Turkish is the only language which was restricted to invaders or rulers whereas Arabic was introduced by traders as well as early invaders which remained restricted to present day Sindh and southern Punjab. Persian, the most influential of the three, remained the language of invaders, traders and preachers over the centuries. Interestingly, the language of preachers and Sufis and early Muslim poets in India always remained Persian … neither Turkish nor Arabic.
Coming to the misstatement mentioned in the beginning of this article, let’s analyse the empirical data as to how many words of Turkish are borrowed by Urdu? Based on this data the inference will be made on whether Turkish has any part in the making of Urdu. Leaving aside the syntax and grammar of the two, which are completely different, many people believe the theory of Urdu’s derivation from Turkish, and a few have attempted to prove it too.
One such attempt was made by Mr Purdil Khattak who wrote Urdu aur Turki Kay Mushtarik Alfaz published by Muqtedarah Qaumi Zuban (1987), Islamabad. He did make a great effort and was able to enlist only 2,608 words, which are commonly spoken by a Turkish speaker and an Urdu speaker. If we take this statement as it is even then in a language which has over 3,00,000 words with the base of more than 80,000 Lexemes (as contained in 21 volumes of Urdu Lughat of Urdu Lughat Board Karachi, a meticulous work completed in 25 years), 2,608 words means 0.8 per cent of the total words, which itself means nothing to that claim that Turkish contributed in the formation of Urdu.
The most interesting part of this research is that the list of 2,608 words common in Turkish and Urdu only contains 24 words which are pure Turkish. The rest are either Arabic, Persian or English words used commonly by Turks and Urdu speakers.
This list contains 1,546 pure Arabic words most of them are Quranic words such as ayat (Quranic verse), bait (house), azeem (great), barq (thunder), jahil (illiterate), jannat (heaven), jamal (beauty), jaib (pocket), jehad (holy war), dakhil (interior), jurm (crime), dalil (proof), deen (religion), ambiya (prophets), ahim (important), fatwa(religious decree), atraf (sides), fashi (eloquent), ghafil (indolent), fikr (thought), khaber (news), hakim (ruler), haal (present), khalis (pure), khas (special), harb (war), hilal (crescent), khilaf (opposite), hudood (limits), and so on.
In the same list, 485 words are pure Persian, borrowed from Turkish such as aab-o-hawa (weather), ambaar (heap), asoodah (well off), ashiyana (home/nest), arzoo (desire), arasta (decorated), badan (body), bahaar (spring season), bohran (crisis), buland (high), badter (worst), Beyzar (dejected), kahkasan (galaxy), kiswar (country), kutubkhana (library), madad (help), marasim (relations), masroor (ecstatic), mard (man), maakhana (pub), medaan (ground), murdar (dead), etc.
But there are so many words that I grew up with that I find common. Angur (grapes), rooz (day), hafte (week), maa (month), saal (year), jangal (forest), manzil (house), raah (path / road), yek baar (once), do bar (twice), sefed (white), buzugh (big/elder), nazik (thin), tazeh (fresh), khaley (empty), khoub (good), nerem (soft), ananas (pineapple), peyaz (onions), lobeya (beans), bird (perendeh), sheyer (lion), lebas (clothes) and so on and so forth.
While I am struggling with the verbs, the compound verbs, the issue that the sentence structure is Subject Object Verb, but the words are quite common, i am surprised at this level of similarities between Hindi and Urdu with Persian. But I guess I shouldnt be surprised. Fascinating. I am also heavily struggling with writing left to right and the damn diacritical marks. The punctuation/ diacritical marks are so important, you have to be precise and remember what the hell it is. Not just that, you could have the same letter but it could be a vowel or it could be a consonant. And one letter can have three pronunciations. Just kill me. Why the hell did I have to pick this up? I should have picked up something simpler, like mine clearing..
Here's an interesting way of looking at languages. I never considered it so. So if you want to be in business or in law or in diplomacy, knowing more languages helps, son. One of the reasons why I am going to start learning Persian/Farsi.
It's good you are learning Latin but you should get Ma to enhance your Hindi. It's a very rich language and will stand you in good stead.
Incidentally, talking about languages and going extinct, it's my belief that gods and worshippers have the same status. When the worshippers of a god die out, the god also dies. Their existence as far as the human realm is concerned is finished. Yes you might have their statues, their paintings, even the hymns that were sung to them but if there are no worshippers, then there is no god. Baal was the sun god of the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians but he isn't worshipped now. You are named after the son of the sun god so you will appreciate this example. He was a jealous god, demanding human sacrifice in some cases. But his worshippers died out or were killed. And now the only thing left of him are paintings, statues and some hymns. Have a think about this argument, there are some very good logical and philosophical holes in this argument. See if you can pick them?
Also think about if we need to save these languages and if we don't, what will be the loss? And how much should we spend to save our history. Also look up the history of Esperanto as a language :)
Love
Baba
Rescuing Endangered Languages Means Saving Ideas - Miller-McCune
http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/rescuing-endangered-languages-means-saving-ideas-35246/
August 19, 2011
Rescuing Endangered Languages Means Saving Ideas
While saving the world’s threatened languages may seem informed more by nostalgia than need, federally funded researchers say each tongue may include unique concepts with practical value.
By Emily Badger
Endangered languages don’t seem as self-evidently valuable as, say, endangered species essential to the functioning of a healthy ecosystem. If the world loses Chuj, a particularly endangered Mayan language of Central America, or Itelmen, a language with fewer than two dozen native speakers on an isolated peninsula in the far east of Russia, people will still be able to communicate. They’ll just do it in Spanish, or maybe Russian. And history will move on.
Human language, though, encapsulates more than just different ways to say to “hello.”
“The debate about the universality of language, that we all have the same ideas and therefore language is just a function of history, that we’re basically using verbs and nouns [to say the same thing] — that’s a hypothesis,” said Anna Kerttula, the program officer for Arctic Social Sciences at the National Science Foundation. “Or maybe it’s reached the level of theory. But that’s in no way been proven.”
THE IDEA LOBBY
Miller-McCune’s Washington correspondent Emily Badger follows the ideas informing, explaining and influencing government, from the local think tank circuit to academic research that shapes D.C. policy from afar.As the famous example says, Eskimo have numerous words to describe what Americans would just call “snow” and “ice.” This suggests language systems don’t merely translate universal ideas into different spellings; they encode different concepts. And when we lose a language, we risk losing those concepts.
A lot of concepts are on the edge of oblivion — out of about 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, half are projected to disappear by the end of the century, if not sooner.
“That’s an amazing amount of knowledge,” Kerttula said.
She helps run a joint program of the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities that’s been trying for seven years to fund efforts at recording and documenting endangered languages before they disappear. (The program received an infusion of $3.9 million last week to pay for 10 fellowships and 24 grants.) The project may sound like a punch line for another anti-science tirade from a small-government politician, but its work touches on fundamental questions about how the brain works, how people express ideas, how societies adapt and how human history has evolved. And of how researchers benefit.
“We’re talking about neuroscientists, we’re talking about computer scientists, we’re definitely talking about historians, anthropologists and biologists in some cases” working on nearly extinct language, Kerttula said.
Lingua Preservation!
Ten endangered languages the NSF/NEH Documenting Endangered Languages program has attempted to preserve:
1. Bangime, Northern Bali
2. Navajo, Southwestern U.S.
3. Kosati, Louisiana.
4. Witchita, Oklahoma.
5. Arawak, Brazil
6. Máíhiki, Peru
7. Cherokee, Southeastern U.S.
8. Chechen, the Caucasis
9. Southeastern Tepehuan, Mexico
10. Defaka, NigeriaThe National Science Foundation actually has physical scientists working with Inuit people to identify different aspects of ice that aren’t captured in the English language but could inform our understanding of the changing Arctic ecosystem.
“If you don’t understand and don’t have the language for what ice is, what ice should be, you’re not going to understand how it’s changing,” Kerttula said. “Language is critical in recognizing change in your environment.”
One researcher receiving the money allocated last week, Jürgen Bohnemeyer at SUNY Buffalo, wants to know: If people talk differently about objects in space, does that mean they also think differently about them? He’ll investigate how spatial concepts are represented in 25 languages on five continents.
Another researcher, Pedro Mateo Pedro, will study how children acquire Chuj, the endangered Mayan language. Other projects will document endangered native languages in Oklahoma and the construction of Cherokee grammar. Some will develop learning and training resources for communities to record their own language.
A few of the researchers will be working with languages spoken by fewer than 30 elderly people. But the designation “endangered,” Kerttula says, isn’t necessarily a measurement of the small number of people still speaking a language. Rather, she said, languages become endangered when children no longer speak them.
Out of 92 languages known to have been used in the Arctic, for example, she says 72 still have some speakers. All but one (Greenlandic) are endangered, the result of the steady encroachment of other dominant languages like English into the domains of public schools and legal systems, television and now the Internet.
“Pretty soon, all of the domains of your life are in English, and the only place where you get to speak your native language is to your grandmother,” Kerttula said. “So how long is that language going to last? It’s basically not.”
The government program’s efforts of course won’t save them all.
“With 7,000 languages, that means 3,500 languages are going to disappear, and we’re funding how many projects a year?” Kerttula asked rhetorically. The National Science Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities aren’t the only ones doing this work; some individual states, for example, have programs that include keeping native languages on life support. But the number of programs worldwide is small, and for each language that one of them targets, there are exponentially more elements to understand, from grammar to vocabulary to the cognitive processes of children.
Kerttula is effusive about the individual projects now trying to do this. But, she adds, “It’s a Sisyphean task.”
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Editors every where beware, lol, so amusing. I confess to be guilty of all of them....
The top ten most irritating phrases:
1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science
Now this is excellent news, that British students are choosing tougher subjects and not namby pampy silly sod subjects which are seriously ruining the image of British education. I quote,
"Increasing numbers are focusing on mathematics, science and languages to impress admissions tutors who find it increasingly hard to identify the best candidates.
Some leading institutions - including Cambridge and the London School of Economics - have already drawn up lists of subjects they say are not academically rigorous enough. Students taking more than one A-level in areas including media studies, dance, sports studies and travel and tourism are unlikely to be given a place.
Results reveal more taxing subjects - which have suffered from long-term declines - appear to be making a comeback.
Mathematics entries were up by 4,500 to a record 65,239 - making it the second most popular A-level in the UK.
Entries in the three sciences - biology, chemistry and physics - also increased.
The number of pupils studying languages rose overall, with French increasing to its highest level since 2003. Spanish jumped to a record high, although German entries dropped again fell following a slump last year.
The biggest losers included some subjects often criticised as “soft”, with computing, general studies and expressive arts having fewer candidates than in 2007. "
My son asked me today about the languages he should take. His language history has been amazing and just tells you the rather sad progression the state makes in language training. He obviously knows Bengali, Hindi and English, but he then started learning french in school but his french is atrocious. You cannot learn a language by just doing 1 hour per week in school. Then he was drafted into Spanish lessons. And again that dribbled away.
Now he is in high school and has been asked to study Ancient Greek, which is only open to special high performance students. Good for him. But now he has to select two from Spanish, French, German and Latin for languages. He asked me about which languages should he take? Obviously I plumped for French and German and then he made a face like a quiche. On poking further, I found that German is not considered to be "cool". Hmm, poking and prodding further brought out the news that students taking German are called as Nazi's. Hmm.
So what does he want to do? He wants to take French and Spanish. French I can understand because he has been studying that for some time now, but Spanish? Oh! the reason is that all the girls are in there. And thus is the future of language education established.
