Re: Urdu words/translation
Awesome rant Bro Maripat.If I happen to meet any of the Urdu elites of Hyderabad I'll try discuss this with them.
Originally Posted by Maripat
Ye toone kya kiya? Mujh ko hi faash kar diya!
Mein hi to ik raaz tha seena-e-kaynaat mein!
What is it that you did? You exposed me!
I was the only secret in the heart of world!
The short and short of it is that I have not got any Urdu education but have felt irked at the state of affairs in our country. That is why I am faking Urdu here. After independence from the British there was a systematic campaign to destroy Urdu in India. The enemies of Urdu have largely succeeded. My heart sank when the first letter I received from my brother was in chaste Hindi. But let me potpone the rant.
My preference will be:
Your Local nature Reserve : Aapka Maqaami Mehfooz Qudarati Ahaata
To visit and learn more please contact : Sair aur mazeed ma'aloomaat ke liye rabta karein
Deer Leap wood : Hiran Zaqand Ban
Coming back to the rant. First of all my apologies because I speak out of sentiments and not authority.
Above questions were related to technical terminology.
Now technical terminology is not a trivial matter for any language - except for English.
For other European languages also the situation is slightly better.
But if you have any familiarity with technical terminology you'll recognize that even English had to accommodate a lot.
Coming back to Urdu - I am of the opinion that Urdu should develop its own technical terminology - support from Arabic and Persian is not very far away and no other language has such an advantage.
One scientific terminology dictionary was prepared in Hyderabad, India long back. But what of it? If the language itself is completely destroyed then where can it be used? I suppose there should be a concerted effort to prepare material using such terminology including writing of books. Then the next question is as to who shall use the books and material? My answer is that we Urdu speakers should try to be scientifically literate in the sense that those who are not in science they should make it a habit to at least read popular science articles in Urdu and those who are scientifically educated try to communicate in Urdu. There are very serious problems at both of the fronts. Once some body sent a message on one of a very active discussion groups of our Aligarh educated people to the effect that we should start communication science in Urdu. Very soon people received a letter from another user to the effect that this is a conspiracy of government to deprive Muslims of modern English education. In reality the Op must have been a sincere well wisher of Muslims but the conspiracy theorist killed the whole proposal. Then there is the problem at the opposite end. I was associated with a person who has got many science books translated into Urdu. I could not convince him that we should prepare scientific terminology in Urdu.
He had got his whole education in English and was completely aware of the fact that languages like Urdu have to make special effort to be able to imbibe science. He thought that usual Urdu dictionaries will be sufficient to handle the matter and for the rest you should just use the English words. From my personal experience I can testify to it that this attitude is not any better than the other attitude that we have seen above. Both are damaging. The second attitude is damaging because we are refusing to avail and excellent opportunity to inject significant growth into Urdu language.
My rant is still not over. Out of 28 states of India Bihar is perhaps the best one in having kept Urdu alive. An scholar from that place was asked about those people who hold potential for serving scientific cause in Urdu. The interlocutor answered that there is a person in Lucknow and another in Hyderabad. Then there was a question specifically about Aligarh - is there any one in this town? The scholar relented and gave a name. I'll not divulge that name at the moment but I have met this person. He is the one who told me about the scientific terminology efforts of Hyderabad, India. He also told me that Pakistan government also took the task of preparation of scientific terminology and they came out with a dictionary. apparently it was the Hyderabad dictionary with little or no improvement. I personally do not mind that. The tragedy is the following. This person has a whole thick diary in which he has collected lots of Arabic (and Persian?) technical terminology and when he translates English articles into Urdu then words, Urdu words, do not fail him. But one day when I visited him at his home he showed me B.Sc. level science books from Pakistan where he showed me that they have just written English terms in nastaliq. What zapped me is the thing that he was appreciative of that.
Alright - the rant is over for the time being. I'll appreciate your feedback.
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