Learning journal 6 - 105 Pravaas

[Pravaas Gurung]

Knowing the history of India/Pakistan and the Islamic influence in the indian subcontinent has helped me learn Urdu in two major ways. First, because I already speak some Nepali, there are many words similar to the Hindi and Urdu words. Urdu developed out of the Hindi spoken in north west India, which is both geographically close to Nepal, as well as having shared roots in "classical sanskrit". At times I am able to discover the correct word for something in Urdu is quite similar or the same as in Nepali in discussion; when I do not explicitly know the word in Urdu I attempt the Nepali (or a Urdu-ized version of it) word, and many times my language partner has not realized that I did this (i.e. they just thought I already knew the word in Urdu). However, more helpfully, I am able to recognize many words that share similarities with Nepali when others are speaking.

Second, knowing how Islam influenced the north-western Hindi to transform into Urdu has been helpful particularly in regard to religious or religiously related words. For example the word for bad - "haram" and sin - "gunnah" were borrowed or derived from arabic, even though there already existed words with those meanings in Hindi. Further, because I discuss religion with my Pakistani friends often, I recognize the importance of words with specific meanings that do not exist in English as any single word. These words come about from their importance specifically for Islam, so languages like English with strong Christian backgrounds simply do not have them. For example, there are three words for pilgrimage in Urdu. First, "ziarat" is a general term for pilgrimage or a long and tiresome/wearisome time. Then "haj" refers to the annual pilgrimage to Mecca at the end of the last Muslim month, while "umra" is a shortened pilgrimage to Mecca at anytime.