The languages of Pakistan
A very nice post on Language Log about how the variety of languages in Pakistan have been suppressed, ostensibly to carve a single national identity. An interesting stat quoted there was that according to their 2001 census, Urdu is only the 6th most spoken language (presumably first language, as the %ages add up to 100%) of the top 7.My perception based on what we see of Pakistani officialese, media coverage, and politicians-cricketers was that Urdu was the most spoken language, which means at least outside the country, the state-sponsored promotion has worked well.
As noted in this post ("napunsakalinguistics"), I know a few people who think Urdu is a preserve only of the muslim community and thus not meant for "us". If the Pakistani stats are true and if such a sentiment can be quantified, it can be further argued that Urdu belongs more to "us". Luckily, I also know people who have fallen in love with the language and have not shied from sharing this affection with me. Having recently obtained a nice Urdu dictionary and being able to finally make sense of some gems-é-"shayarii" and some Hindi film lyrics, I can only agree with their point of view.
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