Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
Yea, thats all we need. More divisions.
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
^^
Yeah, already Sindhis, Baluchis, and Pathans complain about limited employment opportunities. Without learning Urdu and English their employment opportunities will further reduce causing more hatred from these ethnic groups.
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
I hope they don't pass this bill. Urdu should remain the national language. The other languages can remain as provincial languages.
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
^ Agreeeed
8 is a lot
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
haha. Yes, I am bitter due to hatred I see all around. This week my cousin got beaten up in Sindh University, Jamshoro for being an Urdu speaker. But this is not the excuse for stopping passing of this bill which makes perfect sense to me, even if there was no hatred around.
I don't know why every second post from you is crying about hatred for urdu speakers. If one off criminal action is quoted as hatred by entire population I think it is very unfortunate.
Yesterday there was an attempt to bomb shia religious procession by some criminals. Does this mean entire non-shia population hate shias.
It is unfortunate to give ethnic, religious, racist color to criminality. Unless the entire population of the country starts looking at crime as a crime irrespective of religion, ethnicity... we will always see criminal activity hiding behind these facades and getting away from punishment.
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
this is yet another stupid move... i oppose this.
Urdu should be our only national language. its always good to teach your provincial languages in schools, recognize them, support and promote them on regional level, for example by always producing (only regional official documents) in two or more languages, one in Urdu our national language, others in major regional language in that area, but having 8 different national languages is nothing but divisive. this bill should not pass
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
Yea, thats all we need. More divisions.
Agreed! It will turn into a big mess.
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
its a symbolic move to give other languages equal status. urdu is by now the most commonly spoken language in the cities of the country. it wont disappear because other languages are being given their due place. the fear that this will create divisions assumes the underlying divisions are currently helped by forcing urdu over other languages. instead of papering over cracks with urdu, establish economic and social linkages between provinces. people tend to find a way to talk when they need to, without the government telling them how.
there was a very nice programme hosted by saleem safi (jirga) where he invited poet representatives of each language to discuss the issue. overwhelimingly the feeling was on how urdu (and to some extent punjab) had sucked away whatever little intellectual and poetic resources they had. our intellectuals should not feel victimized by our unnecessary insecurity.
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
does all this make a difference in practice?
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
Yea, thats all we need. More divisions.
Word.
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
I don't know why every second post from you is crying about hatred for urdu speakers. If one off criminal action is quoted as hatred by entire population I think it is very unfortunate.
Yesterday there was an attempt to bomb shia religious procession by some criminals. Does this mean entire non-shia population hate shias.
It is unfortunate to give ethnic, religious, racist color to criminality. Unless the entire population of the country starts looking at crime as a crime irrespective of religion, ethnicity... we will always see criminal activity hiding behind these facades and getting away from punishment.
This is the comment on my personal opinion only, which everyone has the right to disagree with. The main point of this thread was the promotion of regional languages in Pakistan, and looking for alternative to Urdu as a lingua-franca.
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
So they are now trying to do what India did... Maybe 50-60 years ago this would have been a very good idea (we might have held on to east pakistan too) but not anymore... lets just stick to urdu and promote local languages to ensure they dont die off without giving them national status... its too late to change the system.
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
what does 'national language' really mean spock. its just giving the local languages a bit more status... otherwise what are you guys thinking is the result of this?
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
i was comparing it with india where they have alot of national languages...
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
i guess there is a bit of word confusion about ‘official’ vs ‘national’ language. they have an ‘official language’ of Hindi, which is for all practical purposes the same as our case of Urdu. They then have several ‘unofficial’ national languages, comparable to our ‘regional’ languages. Thats what wikitells me anyway.
My point is they’ll settle on something for official communications which is going to be urdu. In the cities where there is a lot of different ethnic groups they’ll still speak urdu. So if this gives what we presently call ‘regional languages’ a bit more status, and makes those strongly attached to their languages some pride, whats the harm.
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
^ India has official languages 'Hindi' and 'English' but individual states can legislate and declare other languages as THEIR respective official languages. For example, people in Tamil Nadu do not need to learn Hindi to sit in exams and work for government. Then there are thousands of other languages (regional languages) spoken across the huge country which have no 'official' status.
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
well anyway.. its pretty difficult to go to that sort of system now. like spock says that could have happened 50 years ago... urdu is pretty much established now. which is why i find the alarmism strange.
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
this is yet another stupid move... i oppose this.
Urdu should be our only national language. its always good to teach your provincial languages in schools, recognize them, support and promote them on regional level, for example by always producing (only regional official documents) in two or more languages, one in Urdu our national language, others in major regional language in that area, but having 8 different national languages is nothing but divisive. this bill should not pass
Aceones has a point. A national language is called a national language because it's a communication medium for everyone in the country. Majority can speak and understand it.
By that token, how can they make Pashto or Balochi or Saraiki a national language and when half of the country dont even understand the language.
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
like spock says that could have happened 50 years ago... urdu is pretty much established now.
The change can not happen in two days. It can be a gradual change. Again look at Bharat's example. Urdu was very much established there in 1947. But they have been Sanskritizing their language gradually. Today they have reached the stage where it is getting difficult to comprehend an Indian speaking Hindi. This was not the case in 70s or 80s, when they would use all Urdu words and still would call it Hindi. In future Urdu and Hindi would become more and more mutually unintelligible.
Same can be done in Pakistan. It can be a gradual shift. The start would be to gradually reduce the amount of prime-time on TV given to Urdu programs. It's because TV plays a big role in how people behave and speak. More and more time should be given to regional languages on TV.
Again. There is no difference in today and 50/60 years. All that is needed is the political will to achieve one's goal. And we have good example in the form of Bharat.
The shift from Urdu to regional languages is not as difficult as people think. Most words which make Urdu what it is, do not even belong to it. They are mostly Persian, Arabic and Turkish in origin. The same words can be used in any regional languages. We just need to discard using Urdu grammar.
Re: NA bill proposes eight national languages
Aceones has a point. A national language is called a national language because it's a communication medium for everyone in the country. Majority can speak and understand it.
If what makes a language national language is the condition that majority can speak and understand it, then Punjabi deserves to be the national language of Pakistan more than Urdu. And Punjabi grammar is so similar to Urdu grammar that non-Punjabis who currently can understand Urdu will have no problem understanding Punjabi either.