Pervaiz Munir Alvi
Words travel from place to place and as a result spread from language to language. We all have heard the phrase “Spread the Word?. But be careful how you spread it. By mixing languages you might be creating the dreadful redundancy. Take the case of the Potomac River flowing through the capital of the United States of America or Lake Lynn in the state of West Virginia. You do not see a redundancy there? Look again. Potomac is a Greek word meaning river like in Mesopotamia, the land between rivers and Lynn is a Celtic or Welsh word meaning lake. Ok. How about Sahara (or Sierra) Desert. Sahara is an Arabic word, pronounced “Sa-ha-ra” and means desert. You don’t want to say “River River”, “Lake Lake or “Desert Desert”. Do you?
When it comes to redundancy, Pakistan too has its fair share. Names in Pakistani Urdu language are full of redundancies. How about “Mall Road” or the famous “Grand Trunk Road” commonly known as “G.T. Road”. The original intended names were “The Mall” and “The Grand Trunk”. The words “Mall” and “Trunk” do not need redundancy by attaching the word “Road” to them. But it is there never the less. Live and well. Now air transportation companies often have names like “Airlines” or “Airways”. Not to confuse any body but there is a Pakistan International Airlines and also a British Airways. One does not say “Airway Line”. Also one does not say “Motorway Road”. Then why train systems are often called “Railway Line”. Is it that because the rail tracks look like two parallel lines.
Pakistani landscape is dotted with old historic forts. Pakistani words “Qala” (or Qila as some would say), “Hassar”, or “Kot” all mean Fort. Yet one time or the other we all have heard of “Fort Shahi Qala” or “Qala Rohtas Hassar” or Fort Rani Kot. And what about the phrase “Five Rivers of Punjab”. Doesn’t “Punjab” stand for “Five Rivers” and does black become blacker when called “Kala Siah”
How about “Sir Syed Ahmad Khan” or “Dr. Allama Iqbal“. In Arabic language the word “Syed” is a word of respect and is used as a pre-fix just like one would use the word “Mr.” in English language. And those of British subjects knighted by the sovereign, instead of “Mr.” could be addressed as “Sir”. Yet redundancy has its way and like it or not the nation is stuck with “Sir Syed”. Similarly “Doctor” or “Allama” the titles of the highest level of academic achievement need not to be repeated, but in this case they are. But being a president and a general at the same time is not being redundant at all. In Pakistan one could be both simultaneously. Just call me President-General or General-President as you please.
And then we often hear names like “Dr. Adil Najam PHD“. Good thing doctors in Pakistan are M.B., B.S. and not M.D., otherwise there will be too many “Dr. so and so MD”. Leave it to our Pakistani friends in the USA to tell us that “He is an MD doctor” as compared to a “PHD doctor”.
But now that “Mr. Mir Jamali” and “Mr. Mian Nawaz Sharif” are no longer the Prime Ministers of Pakistan, the media does not have to be redundant by calling a “Mir” and a “Mian” as a “Mister” at the same time. May be like these two former “Mr. Prime Ministers” the redundancy is out. Repeat. May be redundancy is out; or is it?
Dear ahsan Sahab, Saheb, or Sahib. (I am only joking here). Pronunciation of words is a regional thing so I will just simply let it go. Your points are just as valid as mine. I hope we all are enjoying ATP in best of the way. I may be deviating here a bit, but I do have one question. Should Urdu words, like names for instance, when written in English letters, have a country wide standard spellings? I will like to have some input on this subject.
Mr. Alvi,
I am still enjoying your post and you comments.
“About ‘Sir-Syed’. Millions in Pakistan use ‘Syed’ as a pri-fix to their names. In fact we Pakistanis are very fond of using self-styled lofty pri-fixes.”
The words ‘Syed’ or ‘Sheykh’ in Urdu are not used in the same sense as they are used in classical Arab. In Urdu we use many words of respect or authority as the family names like – Chaudhry, Khwaja, Khan, Syed, Sheykh … etc.
Any word of foreign origin can be used differently in another language. Actually, even in the same language a word can be used with different meanings. Also, the same letter in different languages may carry different sounds. The Roman letter ‘V’ is used as W in latin, while F in German and B in Spanish. The sounds of letters or the meanings of words are not static. So, if we talk of redundancy in Urdu language, we should consider only how the words are used in Urdu and not in the language of the origin.
“About ‘Janab’ & ‘Sahab’ (not Sahib as some would like to say). The purley Urdu word ‘Janab’ stems from Turco/Persian word ‘Jan’ meaning ‘Dear’. Now this word is used in Pakistan as ‘MR.’ is used in English. ‘Sahab’ is an Arabic word meaning ‘Friend and Companion’ like ‘Sahaba Akraam’. Again in Pakistan this word is used to express respect towards others. Should both be used together. As Daktar said, it depends.”
The word ‘Sahab’ is more often written as ‘Saheb’ or ‘Sahib’. There is a reason to it. If you check an Urdu dictionary, you will find that there is a ‘zer’ below ‘baRy he’. But its pluriel is Sahaba as you have mentioned in Urdu as well.
“About the desert in North Africa. It is called ‘Sahara-e-Azam’ or ‘Great Desert’.”
Somewhere I missed a point. I thought that we were talking the redundancy in Urdu and English langues only. Of cource you are absolutely right to point out that in classical Arabic it is Sahara-e-Azam. Difficulty is that in English or in European languages it is always indicated as ‘Sahara’ and not ‘Great Desert’ or ‘Great Sahara’. The day this region will be designated as ‘Great Desert’ on the map, we will use this and will stop writing ‘Sahara desert’. I do not deny that there is a redundancy in ‘Sahara desert’, but I consider it a necessary redundancy which can not be avoided.
Wish you the Best.
Ahsan
Folks: Glad many of you have enjoyed this write up. I agree with Razi on ‘Mahi Mahi’. ‘Haleeb Milk’ (Babbi) and ‘Autobahn Road’ (khairsoomro) are good examples too. One might as well add ‘Vokes Wagon Car’ to the list.
About ‘Sir-Syed’. Millions in Pakistan use ‘Syed’ as a pri-fix to their names. In fact we Pakistanis are very fond of using self-styled lofty pri-fixes. I will not say more on this subject than I have already said in case I step on any toes.
About ‘Janab’ & ‘Sahab’ (not Sahib as some would like to say). The purley Urdu word ‘Janab’ stems from Turco/Persian word ‘Jan’ meaning ‘Dear’. Now this word is used in Pakistan as ‘MR.’ is used in English. ‘Sahab’ is an Arabic word meaning ‘Friend and Companion’ like ‘Sahaba Akraam’. Again in Pakistan this word is used to express respect towards others. Should both be used together. As Daktar said, it depends.
About the desert in North Africa. It is called ‘Sahara-e-Azam’ or ‘Great Desert’.
Janab Pervaiz Munir Alvi Sahib.
Is using ‘janab’ and ‘sahib’ together redundancy or a sign to excessive respect :-)
While in Engineering and Technology the Redundancy is a positive factor to inhance the security and safety, it appears that the same becomes an unwanted nuisence in the Language.
After going through the post and the comments I find that the Redundancy in the language is only rarely a repetition, but mostly a necessary addition to define an object withiut any ambiguity.
Sahara is an Arabic word for any desert, but to distinguish the North African desert (Sahara) from that of South Africa (Kalahari), there is no other way but to call them Kalahari Desert and Sahara Desert. Here Sahara is the name of a particular desert
The same is true with Sir Syed as pointed out by SA. The most poignant is mahi-mahi fish. Once it explained by Razi the real meaning of mahi-mahi, the object mahi-mahi fish becomes well defined without any redundency.
Ahsan