File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2001/postcolonial.0110, message 205


From: "Hock, Zarina" <ZHock-AT-NCTE.ORG>
Subject: RE: humble request for information
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 15:11:49 -0500


The grammar and syntax are essentially the same for both, so linguists
consider  Hindi/Urdu as one language. Take for example the simpler sentences
in either language (e.g., "She is coming" or "This is a mango") and they
sound identical in Hindi and in Urdu. It's most often the lexicon that is
different. Vocabulary is more Sanskritized in Hindi, whereas in Urdu it is
inspired by Arabic and Persian. In literary texts, the structures in Urdu
may adopt Persian forms but are intelligible to Hindi speakers.

Hope this helps. 

Zarina Hock

-----Original Message-----
From: Josna Rege [mailto:Josna.Rege-AT-dartmouth.edu]
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2001 2:55 PM
To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Subject: Re: humble request for information


--- You wrote:
...would it be fair to characterize Hindi and Urdu as same? In the last 50 
years Hindi has been Sanskritized so much, and Urdu Arabicized so much, that

the old Hindustani, Gandhi's, and Bose's, choice language, is being lost. 

--- end of quote ---

Very true, Salil. The Hindi we were taught in school as the official
national language had been systematically Sanskritized, and thus for many of
us who grew up in regions where Hindi-Urdu was not spoken as a first
language, the only sources of the Persian and Arabic words in the language
were Hindi film songs. For me, learning the Arabic script could provide a
bridge to the kind of Hindi-Urdu that is still spoken (albeit with
differences)  by so many in both India and Pakistan, and thus has the value
of affirming, rather than denying, a shared literary-cultural heritage.  

Josna


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