LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 17:2 February 2017
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Semantic Change in Language Borrowing:
The Case of Arabic Borrowed Words in Urdu

Farheen Anwar, Ph.D. Scholar

Abstract

Urdu, a member of the Indo Aryan language family, came into existence with the interaction of Muslim soldiers of different nations with the local people from Northwestern part of India. It was developed in 12th century AD. In Delhi, there was the Muslim rule, and most of the people migrated from Punjab and settled in and around Delhi. Later in 1193 AD, Delhi was made the capital of new Muslim empire. Though this was a political development, it also had a great impact on the sociocultural life of northern India. Along with the cultural mixture, the process of linguistic amalgamation also started. The mixture of words from different languages led to the formation of a new language which was known as mixed language by many scholars; later it was named as Urdu. With the spread of Islam in 711 AD to the 20th century, there were sociocultural and religious changes. Arabic words had made their way in Urdu language directly or through Persian. With the arrival of Muslim soldiers there was a mass conversion of the people to Islam and this was responsible for the rapid borrowing of Arabic words. Urdu borrowed much of its vocabulary from many foreign languages like Turkish, Persian and Arabic Katzner (2002) says that “Urdu is the official language of Pakistan and is also widely spoken in India. In Pakistan, it is the mother tongue of about 10 million people, but is spoken, fluently there as a second language by perhaps 100 million or more. In India, where it is spoken by some 50 million Muslims, it is one of the official languages recognized by the Constitution”.

Keywords: Urdu, Arabic words in Urdu, semantic changes, language borrowin

2. Purpose of the Study

Purpose of this research paper is three-fold, firstly to understand about semantic change and borrowing, secondly to show the extent of Arabic borrowed words in Urdu, thirdly to analyze the types of semantic change that are taking place. Many studies have been conducted to show the Arabic-Urdu relationship, but there is no specific study on semantic change of Arabic words in Urdu. Urdu language has borrowed its vocabulary from Arabic in almost all domains. Most of the words are from the religious domain. This paper focuses on how meaning is changed when words are borrowed from Arabic to Urdu language and on the types of changes that occur.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


Farheen Anwar, Ph.D. Scholar
Department of Linguistics
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh 202002
Uttar Pradesh
India
farheen.anwar03@gmail.com
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