Learning Journal #6

[Hadi Abdullah]

The history of a language can help a lot in learning the language. This is true especially in the case of Siraiki. As the languages of Pakistan and North India developed together in a limited space, there was a lot of interaction between them. Languages picked up words, letters and sounds from each other. This is true in the case of my mother tongue, which is an amalgamation of Arabic, Hindi, Persian and Turkish. Knowing this fact was very important during late 19th and early 20th century. This was because greatest Urdu poets of the era, like Ghalib and Iqbal, were not trained in Urdu but were taught Arabic and Persian instead. This factor contributed heavily towards the quality of the material the poets produced and therefore, is a excellent example of how the history of a language can play such a major role in helping one learn the language.