While I was preparing for next week's language history presentations, I stumbled upon some articles that were discussing a current problem that Urdu is facing that is very similar to what the Arabic language is facing too.Urdu is traditionally written in a Perso-Arabic script called nastaliq, a flowy and ornate and hanging script. But when rendered on the web and on smartphones and the entire gamut of digital devices at our disposal, Urdu is getting depicted in naskh, an angular and rather stodgy script that comes from Arabic. And those that don’t like it can go write in Western letters.
This kind of information is important to know. It shows how much Urdu speakers respect their language and try hard to preserve it. It's also important to know for non-native speakers. Making sure I write in Nastaliq shows my appreciation and respect for the language as well.
Comments
Do you think that non-Roman languages will eventually be faced with a situation when people write in Roman characters on mobile devices and only use the script in formal situations? Even in English people are dropping the use of cursive writing, which is being taken out of school curricula?