DOCSLIB.ORG

An Overview of Linguistic Structures in Torwali, a Language of Northern

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
An Overview of Linguistic Structures in Torwali, a Language of Northern AN OVERVIEW OF LINGUISTIC STRUCTURES IN TORWALI, A LANGUAGE OF NORTHERN PAKISTAN The members of the Committee approve the masters thesis of Wayne A. Lunsford Donald A. Burquest ____________________________________ Supervising Professor Paul R. Kroeger ____________________________________ David A. Ross ____________________________________ Copyright © by Wayne A. Lunsford 2001 All Rights Reserved AN OVERVIEW OF LINGUISTIC STRUCTURES IN TORWALI, A LANGUAGE OF NORTHERN PAKISTAN by WAYNE A. LUNSFORD Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN LINGUISTICS THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON December 2001 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people contributed individual efforts to help bring this thesis to completion so I want to take a mo- ment to say thank you. To begin with, I want to express my appreciation to Don Burquest, who served as my committee chair. I benefited a lot from his knowledge of linguistics and experience advising many thesis stu- dents like myself. His comments and suggestions regarding the content and organization of this paper were in- valuable, and his encouragement kept me going. I also appreciated the other members of my committee, Paul Kroeger, who helped broaden my understanding of some of the grammatical issues addressed in this paper, and David Ross, who has a much better understanding of the languages of Pakistan than I do and was willing to share that knowledge with me. Joan Baart, who has a great deal of experience working in the languages of northern Pakistan, also read several drafts and offered many helpful suggestions for which I am grateful. I also want to say thank you to Mike McMillan, who helped format some of the figures used in this paper. Many thanks to the speakers of Torwali, who are some of the most hospitable people in the world. We were grateful to them for allowing us to live with them and become students of their language and their way of life. Special recognition is due to Jahangir, who worked with me almost daily in our home in Peshawar, allow- ing me to elicit data, analyze it and learn the language, Rahimullah, who took time off from his work during my visits to Bahrain to help me learn the language, elicit language data and learn about the Torwali culture, and Inamullah, who understands many of the phonological and grammatical features of the language and took time to discuss them with me. Muhammad Zaman also offered me a great deal of assistance—meeting with me on a number of occasions and responding to many questions sent via email. There were so many other Torwali speakers whom I would also like to recognize, but space does not allow me to mention all of them individually. They have taught me so much, and I hope to have many more opportunities to learn from them. iv My wife, Valerie, and sons, Sean and Jordan, have been incredibly supportive and patient throughout this whole project, but especially during the last few months as I pulled everything together into the present form. I could not have finished this without them. Finally, I want to thank the Lord, my God, for His sustaining grace and strength. November 20, 2001 v ABSTRACT AN OVERVIEW OF LINGUISTIC STRUCTURES IN TORWALI, A LANGUAGE OF NORTHERN PAKISTAN Publication No.______ Wayne A. Lunsford, M.A. The University of Texas at Arlington, 2001 Supervising Professor: Donald A. Burquest The people who speak Torwali live in the foothills of the Himalayas in Northern Pakistan. Their language belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family and can be categorized as a strong head-final language. It has a split-ergative system with ergative case markers used in the future tense and perfective aspect. Grammatical relations are indicated primarily by postpositions. The counting system uses a base-20 system as opposed to a base-10 system as found in English. This project provides an analysis of the phonological system, including a look at the phoneme inventory, phonological processes, syllable structure and tone. It also provides an introduc- tion to the morphology and syntax systems employed in the language. Finally, an analysis of a narrative text is presented, and some initial features of Torwali discourse are described, namely characteristics of profile and peak, spectrum and participant reference according to the principles of discourse analysis put forth by Longacre (1981, 1996). vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................. iv ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ ix LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................ xii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The people and their language ......................................................................... 2 1.2 Sociolinguistic situation ................................................................................... 4 1.3 Relationship to other languages ....................................................................... 5 1.4 Previous research ............................................................................................. 6 1.5 Current study .................................................................................................... 7 2. PHONOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 9 2.1 The consonant system ...................................................................................... 9 2.2 Consonant phones ............................................................................................ 9 2.3 Consonant phonemes ....................................................................................... 11 2.4 Phonological processes .................................................................................... 23 2.5 The vowel system ............................................................................................ 26 2.6 Syllable structure ............................................................................................. 33 2.7 Prosodic features .............................................................................................. 35 3. TYPOLOGY OF TORWALI ................................................................................... 40 3.1 Morphological typology ................................................................................... 40 3.2 Constituent order typology .............................................................................. 43 4. SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES .................................................................................. 51 4.1 Nouns ............................................................................................................... 51 4.2 Personal pronouns ............................................................................................ 54 vii 4.3 Demonstrative pronouns .................................................................................. 56 4.4 Descriptive adjectives ...................................................................................... 58 4.5 Numerals .......................................................................................................... 59 4.6 Verbs ................................................................................................................ 61 4.7 Adverbs ............................................................................................................ 63 5. FEATURES OF MORPHOLOGY .......................................................................... 65 5.1 Inflectional morphology ................................................................................... 65 5.2 Derivational morphology ................................................................................. 80 6. CLAUSE-LEVEL FEATURES ................................................................................ 88 6.1 Verb operations ................................................................................................ 88 6.2 Predicate nominals and related constructions .................................................. 90 6.3 Grammatical relations ...................................................................................... 94 7. DISCOURSE FEATURES ........................................................................................ 98 7.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 98 7.2 Profile and peak .............................................................................................. 101 7.3 Spectrum .......................................................................................................... 109 7.4 Participant reference ........................................................................................ 113 7.5 Summary .......................................................................................................... 122 8. CONCLUSION .........................................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Pashto, Waneci, Ormuri. Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern
    SOCIOLINGUISTIC SURVEY OF NORTHERN PAKISTAN VOLUME 4 PASHTO, WANECI, ORMURI Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan Volume 1 Languages of Kohistan Volume 2 Languages of Northern Areas Volume 3 Hindko and Gujari Volume 4 Pashto, Waneci, Ormuri Volume 5 Languages of Chitral Series Editor Clare F. O’Leary, Ph.D. Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan Volume 4 Pashto Waneci Ormuri Daniel G. Hallberg National Institute of Summer Institute Pakistani Studies of Quaid-i-Azam University Linguistics Copyright © 1992 NIPS and SIL Published by National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan and Summer Institute of Linguistics, West Eurasia Office Horsleys Green, High Wycombe, BUCKS HP14 3XL United Kingdom First published 1992 Reprinted 2004 ISBN 969-8023-14-3 Price, this volume: Rs.300/- Price, 5-volume set: Rs.1500/- To obtain copies of these volumes within Pakistan, contact: National Institute of Pakistan Studies Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan Phone: 92-51-2230791 Fax: 92-51-2230960 To obtain copies of these volumes outside of Pakistan, contact: International Academic Bookstore 7500 West Camp Wisdom Road Dallas, TX 75236, USA Phone: 1-972-708-7404 Fax: 1-972-708-7433 Internet: http://www.sil.org Email: [email protected] REFORMATTING FOR REPRINT BY R. CANDLIN. CONTENTS Preface.............................................................................................................vii Maps................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Languages of Kohistan. Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern
    SOCIOLINGUISTIC SURVEY OF NORTHERN PAKISTAN VOLUME 1 LANGUAGES OF KOHISTAN Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan Volume 1 Languages of Kohistan Volume 2 Languages of Northern Areas Volume 3 Hindko and Gujari Volume 4 Pashto, Waneci, Ormuri Volume 5 Languages of Chitral Series Editor Clare F. O’Leary, Ph.D. Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan Volume 1 Languages of Kohistan Calvin R. Rensch Sandra J. Decker Daniel G. Hallberg National Institute of Summer Institute Pakistani Studies of Quaid-i-Azam University Linguistics Copyright © 1992 NIPS and SIL Published by National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan and Summer Institute of Linguistics, West Eurasia Office Horsleys Green, High Wycombe, BUCKS HP14 3XL United Kingdom First published 1992 Reprinted 2002 ISBN 969-8023-11-9 Price, this volume: Rs.300/- Price, 5-volume set: Rs.1500/- To obtain copies of these volumes within Pakistan, contact: National Institute of Pakistan Studies Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan Phone: 92-51-2230791 Fax: 92-51-2230960 To obtain copies of these volumes outside of Pakistan, contact: International Academic Bookstore 7500 West Camp Wisdom Road Dallas, TX 75236, USA Phone: 1-972-708-7404 Fax: 1-972-708-7433 Internet: http://www.sil.org Email: [email protected] REFORMATTING FOR REPRINT BY R. CANDLIN. CONTENTS Preface............................................................................................................viii Maps.................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Language Documentation and Description
    Language Documentation and Description ISSN 1740-6234 ___________________________________________ This article appears in: Language Documentation and Description, vol 17. Editor: Peter K. Austin Countering the challenges of globalization faced by endangered languages of North Pakistan ZUBAIR TORWALI Cite this article: Torwali, Zubair. 2020. Countering the challenges of globalization faced by endangered languages of North Pakistan. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description 17, 44- 65. London: EL Publishing. Link to this article: http://www.elpublishing.org/PID/181 This electronic version first published: July 2020 __________________________________________________ This article is published under a Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC (Attribution-NonCommercial). The licence permits users to use, reproduce, disseminate or display the article provided that the author is attributed as the original creator and that the reuse is restricted to non-commercial purposes i.e. research or educational use. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ______________________________________________________ EL Publishing For more EL Publishing articles and services: Website: http://www.elpublishing.org Submissions: http://www.elpublishing.org/submissions Countering the challenges of globalization faced by endangered languages of North Pakistan Zubair Torwali Independent Researcher Summary Indigenous communities living in the mountainous terrain and valleys of the region of Gilgit-Baltistan and upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern
    [Show full text]
  • Social Transformation of Pakistan Under Urdu Language
    Social Transformations in Contemporary Society, 2021 (9) ISSN 2345-0126 (online) SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION OF PAKISTAN UNDER URDU LANGUAGE Dr. Sohaib Mukhtar Bahria University, Pakistan [email protected] Abstract Urdu is the national language of Pakistan under article 251 of the Constitution of Pakistan 1973. Urdu language is the first brick upon which whole building of Pakistan is built. In pronunciation both Hindi in India and Urdu in Pakistan are same but in script Indian choose their religious writing style Sanskrit also called Devanagari as Muslims of Pakistan choose Arabic script for writing Urdu language. Urdu language is based on two nation theory which is the basis of the creation of Pakistan. There are two nations in Indian Sub-continent (i) Hindu, and (ii) Muslims therefore Muslims of Indian sub- continent chanted for separate Muslim Land Pakistan in Indian sub-continent thus struggled for achieving separate homeland Pakistan where Muslims can freely practice their religious duties which is not possible in a country where non-Muslims are in majority thus Urdu which is derived from Arabic, Persian, and Turkish declared the national language of Pakistan as official language is still English thus steps are required to be taken at Government level to make Urdu as official language of Pakistan. There are various local languages of Pakistan mainly: Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, Kashmiri, Balti and it is fundamental right of all citizens of Pakistan under article 28 of the Constitution of Pakistan 1973 to protect, preserve, and promote their local languages and local culture but the national language of Pakistan is Urdu according to article 251 of the Constitution of Pakistan 1973.
    [Show full text]
  • Study of Distinguishing Features of Pakistani Ameer Ali At
    Study of Distinguishing Features of Pakistani Ameer Ali at. al STUDY OF DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF PAKISTANI STANDARD ENGLISH Ameer Ali1, Abdul Wahid Samoon2, Mansoor Ali3 1,2Applied Linguistics at the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, 3English at College Education and Literacy Department Sindh. Pakistan. [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] ABSTRACT The current research has adopted a qualitative approach to investigate the linguistic differences of Pakistani Standard English in contrast to British Standard English. We studied morphological, lexical, and hybrid characteristics of Pakistani Standard English. Besides, we investigated the linguistic features to prove the fact that cultural context determines the use of a language. Moreover, the findings of this research also support the fact that a language keeps evolving in different contexts leading to the development of different varieties of the language. However, the researchers have studied comparatively many varieties of Englishes, but this research investigates the distinguishing features of Pakistani Standard English employing secondary data from Dawn e-newspaper. Additionally, the researchers have also qualitatively codified the data into broader themes. The findings of this research will help readers in understanding the role of a cultural context in developing a new variety of a language. Consequently, they will be able to carry out further research in the field of World Englishes. Hence, this research is a systematic investigation of Pakistani Standard English and its differentiating features. Keywords: Englishes, varieties, Pakistani Standard English, different contexts. ABSTRAK Penelitian ini telah mengadopsi pendekatan kualitatif untuk menyelidiki perbedaan linguistik Bahasa Inggris Standar Pakistan berbeda dengan Bahasa Inggris Standar Inggris. Para peneliti mempelajari karakteristik morfologi, leksikal, dan hibrida dari Bahasa Inggris Standar Pakistan.
    [Show full text]
  • Grammar of Urdu Or Hindustani.Pdf
    OF THE URDU OR HINDUSTANI LANGUAGE. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Crown 8vo, cloth, price 2s. 6d. HINDUSTANI EXERCISES. A Series of Passages and Extracts adapted for Translation into Hindustani. Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. IKHWANU-9 SAFA, OR BROTHERS OF PURITY. Translated from the Hindustani. "It has been the translator's object to adhere as closely as possible to the original text while rendering the English smooth and intelligible to the reader, and in this design he has been throughout successful." Saturday Review. GRAMMAR URDU OR HINDUSTANI LANGUAGE. JOHN DOWSON, M.R.A.S., LAT5 PROCESSOR OF HINDCSTANI, STAFF COLLEGE. Cfjtrfl (SBitton. LONDON : KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO. L DRYDEN HOUSE, GERRARD STREET, W. 1908. [All riijhts reserved.] Printed by BALLANTYNK, HANSOM &* Co. At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh TABLE OF CONTENTS. PACK PREFACE . ix THE ALPHABET 1 Pronunciation . .5,217 Alphabetical Notation or Abjad . 1 7 Exercise in Reading . 18 THE AKTICLE 20 THE Nora- 20 Gender 21 Declension. ...... 24 Izafat 31 THE ADJECTIVE 32 Declension ...... 32 Comparison ... 33 PRONOUNS Personal. ...... 37 Demonstrative ...... 39 Respectful 40 Reflexive 41 Possessive 41 Relative and Correlative . .42 Interrogative . 42 Indefinite ....... 42 Partitive . 43 Compound. .43 VERB 45 Substantive and Auxiliary 46 Formation of . 46 Conjugation of Neuter Verbs . .49 Active Verbs . 54 Irregulars . .57 Hona 58 Additional Tenses . 60 2004670 CONTENTS. VERB (continued) Passive Verb ....... 62 Formation of Actives and Causals ... 65 Nominals 69 Intensives ..... 70 Potentials Completives . .72 Continuatives .... Desideratives ..... 73 Frequentatives .... 74 Inceptives . 75 Permissives Acquisitives . .76 Reiteratives ..... 76 ADVKRBS ......... 77 PREPOSITIONS 83 CONJUNCTIONS 90 INTERJECTIONS ....... 91 NUMERALS ......... 91 Cardinal 92 Ordinal 96 Aggregate 97 Fractional 97 Ralcam 98 Arabic 99 Persian 100 DERIVATION 101 Nouns of Agency .
    [Show full text]
  • English Language in Pakistan: Expansion and Resulting Implications
    Journal of Education & Social Sciences Vol. 5(1): 52-67, 2017 DOI: 10.20547/jess0421705104 English Language in Pakistan: Expansion and Resulting Implications Syeda Bushra Zaidi ∗ Sajida Zaki y Abstract: From sociolinguistic or anthropological perspective, Pakistan is classified as a multilingual context with most people speaking one native or regional language alongside Urdu which is the national language. With respect to English, Pakistan is a second language context which implies that the language is institutionalized and enjoying the privileged status of being the official language. This thematic paper is an attempt to review the arrival and augmentation of English language in Pakistan both before and after its creation. The chronological description is carried out in order to identify the consequences of this spread and to link them with possible future developments and implications. Some key themes covered in the paper include a brief historical overview of English language from how it was introduced to the manner in which it has developed over the years especially in relation to various language and educational policies. Based on the critical review of the literature presented in the paper there seems to be no threat to English in Pakistan a prediction true for the language globally as well. The status of English, as it globally elevates, will continue spreading and prospering in Pakistan as well enriching the Pakistani English variety that has already born and is being studied and codified. However, this process may take long due to the instability of governing policies and law-makers. A serious concern for researchers and people in general, however, will continue being the endangered and indigenous varieties that may continue being under considerable pressure from the prestigious varieties.
    [Show full text]
  • Proposal for Characters for Khowar, Torwali, and Burushaski 1
    Proposal for characters for Khowar, Torwali, and Burushaski 1 ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2/WG 2 PROPOSAL SUMMARY FORM TO ACCOMPANY SUBMISSIONS 1 FOR ADDITIONS TO THE REPERTOIRE OF ISO/IEC 10646TP PT Please fill all the sections A, B and C below. Please read Principles and Procedures Document (P & P) from http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/principles.htmlHTU UTH for guidelines and details before filling this form. Please ensure you are using the latest Form from http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/summaryform.htmlHTU .UTH See also http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/roadmaps.htmlHTU UTH for latest Roadmaps. A. Administrative 1. Title: Proposal to add characters needed for Khowar, Torwali, and Burushaski 2. Requester's name: (1) Elena Bashir, Ph.D.; (2) Sarmad Hussain, Ph.D.; (3) Deborah Anderson, Script Encoding Initiative, UC Berkeley 3. Requester type (Member body/Liaison/Individual contribution): (1) Individual researcher at University of Chicago; (2) Head, Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing, FAST National University of Computer and Emerging Science, Lahore,with proposal supported by National Bodies and local user-community organizations; (3) Liaison member SC2 and WG2 4. Submission date: May 2006 5. Requester's reference (if applicable): Dept. of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago (USA) 6. Choose one of the following: This is a complete proposal: Complete proposal (or) More information will be provided later: B. Technical – General 1. Choose one of the following: a. This proposal is for a new script (set of characters): Proposed name of script: b.
    [Show full text]
  • The Formation of Modern Hindi As Demonstrated in Early 'Hindi' Dictionaries
    The formation of modern Hindi as demonstrated in early 'Hindi' dictionaries BY STUART MCGREGOR zooo GONDA LECTURE Stuart McGregor is Emeritus Reader in Hindi at the University of Cambridge. He has written many studies on Hindi and Hindi Literature, e.g. OutlineojHindi Grammar (Oxford 1972., 3rd revised and enlarged edition, Oxford 1995), Hindi Litcmt11roof the NilleleetJtband Ear& Twentieth Centuries (Wiesbaden, 1974) and The OxjordHindi-E11glisbDictioNary (ed.; Oxford 1993; electronic version, z.ooa,-.Com­ mittee on Institutional Co-operation, Champaign, Illinois) 2000 G01 OA I.ECTURU Eighth Gonda lecture, held on 23 November 2ooo on the premises of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The formation of modern Hindi as demonstrated in early 'Hindi' dictiOnaries BY STUART MCGREGOR ROYAL NETHERLANDS ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Amsterdam, zooi THE FORMATION OF MODERN HIND! AS DEMONSTRATED IN EARLY 'HIND!' DICTIONARIES Modern Hindi has been widely seen as a new language that came into existence at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the product of new political condi­ tions in north India: a language to be distinguished historically from forms of north Indian language current before it. Research on these languages provides various illustrations, however, of the extent to which modern Hindi shares fea­ tures of lexical repertoire as well as grammatical structure with them, and of the depth and strength of its roots in pre-existing language usage. It is my intention today to look at lexical and grammatical connections be­ tween older language and modernHindi, making use of evidence from early dic­ tionaries. In the course of working in Hindi lexicography over a considerable number of years I came to realise the great interest of the early dictionaries, not only as documenting the history of Hindi lexicography, but also for the in­ formation relevant to my present subject that they proved to contain.
    [Show full text]
  • Interferrence of Hindi and English in the Political Discourse of Parliament of India
    Interferrence of Hindi and English in the political discourse of Parliament of India Janjić, Marijana Doctoral thesis / Disertacija 2018 Degree Grantor / Ustanova koja je dodijelila akademski / stručni stupanj: University of Zadar / Sveučilište u Zadru Permanent link / Trajna poveznica: https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:162:106407 Rights / Prava: In copyright Download date / Datum preuzimanja: 2021-10-03 Repository / Repozitorij: University of Zadar Institutional Repository of evaluation works SVEUČILIŠTE U ZADRU POSLIJEDIPLOMSKI SVEUČILIŠNI STUDIJ HUMANISTIČKE ZNANOSTI Marijana Janjić INTERFERRENCE OF HINDI AND ENGLISH IN THE POLITICAL DISCOURSE OF PARLIAMENET OF INDIA Doktorski rad Zadar, 2018. SVEUČILIŠTE U ZADRU POSLIJEDIPLOMSKI SVEUČILIŠNI STUDIJ HUMANISTIČKE ZNANOSTI Marijana Janjić INTERFERRENCE OF HINDI AND ENGLISH IN THE POLITICAL DISCOURSE OF PARLIAMENT OF INDIA Doktorski rad mentorica dr. sc. Zdravka Matišić redovita profesorica u miru Zadar, 2018. SVEUČILIŠTE U ZADRU TEMELJNA DOKUMENTACIJSKA KARTICA I. Autor i studij Ime i prezime: Marijana Janjić Naziv studijskog programa: Poslijediplomski studij Humanističke znanosti Mentor/Mentorica: dr. sc. Zdravka Matišić, redovita profesorica u miru Datum obrane: 26. 2. 2018. Znanstveno područje i polje u kojem je postignut doktorat znanosti: filologija II. Doktorski rad Naslov: Interferrence of Hindi and English in the political discourse of Parliament of India UDK oznaka: 811.214.21'27:811.111 Broj stranica: 306 Broj slika/grafičkih prikaza/tablica: 33 tablice, 17 grafikona, 1 slika, 23 zemljovida Broj bilježaka: 268 Broj korištenih bibliografskih jedinica i izvora: 298 Broj priloga: 9 Jezik rada: engleski III. Stručna povjerenstva Stručno povjerenstvo za ocjenu doktorskog rada: 1. doc. dr. sc. Marijana Kresić, predsjednica 2. dr. sc. Zdravka Matišić, red. prof. u miru, članica 3.
    [Show full text]
  • A Case Study on the Language Situation in Northern Pakistan
    multiethnica 61 Linguistic diversity, vitality and maintenance: a case study on the language situation in northern Pakistan HENRIK LILJEGREN AND FAKHRUDDIN AKHUNZADA The multilingual and multicultural region of northern ce and advocacy that have been carried out in recent Pakistan, which has approximately 30 distinct languages, years, particularly through the work of the Forum for Language lnitiatives (FLI) and its partner organizations is described and evaluated from the perspective of throughout the region. language vitality, revealing the diverse and complex interplay of language policies, community attitudes and generational transmission. Based on the experience The region: its people and languages of conscious language maintenance efforts carried out It is essential to point out from the start that the re­ in the area, some conclusions are offered concerning gion dealt with here is not a single geopolitical unit the particular effectiveness of regional networking and with generally agreed on boundaries. lnstead, it is roade up of several political units with varying status within non-governmental institution support to promote local today's Pakistan. In order to operationalize the descrip­ languages and sustain their vitality in times of great tion and decide what areas and languages to include change. or leave out, a somewhat artificial decision was roade to define northern Pakistan as that part of the country that is situated above the 34th parallel, or all Pakistan­ I ntrod uction held territory north of the city of Peshawar. The three Northem Pakistan's mountain region is characterized main units that makeup this region of 125,000 km2 by great linguistic and cultural diversity.
    [Show full text]
  • Pandemic, Law,And Indigenous Languages in Pakistan
    Vol. 11 No. 01 2021 p-ISSN 2202-2821 e-ISSN 1839-6518 (Australian ISSN Agency) 82801101202103 PANDEMIC, LAW, AND INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES IN PAKISTAN Muhammad Hassan Abbasi Bahria University, Karachi Campus, Pakistan Maya Khemlani David Asia Europe Institute, University of Malaya, Malaysia ABSTRACT – Pakistan is a multilingual state with 74 languages (Siddiqui, 2019), with Urdu being its national language while English is its official language (Article 251 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan). However, the linguistic diversity, as per the law, has not been given proper status in Pakistan (Rahman, 2002). In the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, the role of medical health professionals, local police officers, media persons and educationists to create an awareness about the precautionary measures to fight Covid-19 among the indigenous communities in different regions of Pakistan is important. However, there is no practice prescribed in the law, to disseminate awareness in the local languages. Moreover, as most of the lexical items regarding the pandemic have been borrowed, the shift to local languages is more than challenging. In urban areas, indigenous communities are aware of the precautions to be taken during this pandemic as they use the mainstream languages (Ali, 2017 & Abbasi, 2019.) However, in the rural and northern areas of Pakistan this is not so prevalent. Some language activists and concerned members of the community in different parts of the state took this opportunity to educate the masses and started an awareness campaign about coronavirus pandemic in local languages (posters in local languages and short video messages on social media and YouTube).
    [Show full text]