Using Hindi and Urdu as examples, illustrates the shortcomings in the definition of South Asian languages that has been attempted in Britain so far. Argues that description and definition of a language have to include aspects of culture, religion, script, politics, and the speakers' own perception of their language and language choice. (SED)

Describes the problems Hindi students have with the indefinite article "a/an". They use one or the other dependent upon whether or not the following noun or adjective begins with an orthographic vowel, rather than a phonological one (producing "an European"). Suggestions for improvement using the students' native language are given. (PJM)

Examines the origin, development, and nature of Pakistani English as a distinct language variation with its own cultural and linguistic identity. Lexical borrowing from Urdu is discussed as is the formation of new words through the use of English affixes with Urdu and English bases and though semantical or grammatical shifts. (JL)

This book focuses on the languages spoken by people of South Asian origin living in Britain and is intended to assist individuals in Britain whose work involves them with speakers of these languages. The approach taken is descriptive and practical, offering linguistic, geographic, and historical background information leading to appreciation of…

This document presents papers dealing with various aspects of Marxist literary influence, and more specifically socialist realism, in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Included are articles that deal with such subjects as the All-India Progressive Writers' Association, creative writers in Urdu, Bengali poets today, Indian poetry in English and…

The recognition of the systematic nature of the interference of the mother tongue when learning a second language is among the most significant advances in linguistics for the teaching and learning of foreign languages. The work of Weinreich showed that interference between language systems--the absorption of loan words, calques, and phonological,…

The work completed under this contract constitutes one phase of the Medieval India Bibliographical Project. This phase consisted of the systematic compilation of a bibliography of works in the Hindi and Urdu languages concerned with the premodern history of Islamic domination of the Indian subcontinent. The purpose of this research was to list…

Presents an ethnographic study that explores young bilingual children's early literacy experiences in three different languages (English, Urdu and classical Arabic) and in three strikingly different types of classes in England. Focuses on one bilingual boy of a Pakistani background. Aims to integrate non-dominating language and literacy practices…

THIS 15-UNIT INTRODUCTION TO URDU IS BASED ON A LITERATE VARIETY OF DIHLAVI (I.E. OF DELHI) URDU AS EMPLOYED TODAY IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN. BRIEF SKETCHES OF INDO-PAKISTANI LIFE ARE INCLUDED IN THE MATERIAL AND ALTHOUGH A LARGE PART OF THIS INFORMATION IS APPLICABLE TO NORTHERN INDIA AS WELL, MUCH IS STRICTLY PAKISTANI IN CONTENT. UNIT FORMAT…

This Reader is the second of a four-volume series in Urdu prepared by the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University. (See "A Course in Urdu," ED 013 435-7; "A Reader of Modern Urdu Poetry," ED 022 163; and "An Urdu Newspaper Word Count," AL 002 059.) This volume is intended for use at the second-year level of a comprehensive program of…

This paper explores what kinds of advantages and strengths the process of learning to read simultaneously in different languages and scripts might bring about. It is based on a socio-cultural view of learning and literacy and examines early literacy in three parallel literacy classes in Watford, England. It analyses the learning experiences of…

An annotated bibliography of universally available curriculum materials for Hindi, Urdu, Kashmiri, Khowar, Marathi, Nepali, and Panjabi contains listings for 33 items available through the large depository systems of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) and ERIC. Some are available only in microfiche. An index categorizes the…

Examined the use of the mutual exclusivity constraint in naming objects among young children monolingual in English or bilingual in English/Urdu or in English/Greek. The study used three tests of the constraint: disambiguation, rejection and restriction. Findings revealed that bilingual children used the constraint to a lesser extent than…

Investigation of how 19 adult males listened to and recognized unknown foreign languages (Farsi, Punjabi, Spanish, Indonesian, Arabic, Urdu) indicated that the untrained listeners made complex judgments in describing, transcribing, and identifying phonetic, segmental, suprasegmental, and other impressionistic language details. (Author/CB)

The paper addresses a key issue in language planning of the third world countries, specifically Pakistan, a country that remained under the shackles of Colonialism till 1947. But, still the country does not have a clear cut language policy. Being richly multilingual and multicultural, it had to cope with the problem of a second language, the…