'Punjabis reluctant to accept Punjabi as mother tongue'

[Harold Schiffman]

 Forwarded From: edling at lists.sis.utsa.edu


Daily Times



'Punjabis reluctant to accept Punjabi as mother tongue'



A large number of Punjabis are reluctant to accept Punjabi as their
mother tongue, as they fear they will be considered illiterate if they
speak the language, Punjabi intellectuals and scholars said on Friday.

They said the International Mother Language Day, which is being
celebrated today, should remind Punjabis of their origins and
ancestry. They said locals should take pride in their mother tongue
instead of feeling shy of communicating in the language. They said the
upcoming census could register Urdu as the mother language of Punjab,
as most men had started using Urdu instead of Punjabi, which they
feared could lead to invalid data collection.



Full story:

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C02%5C21%5Cstory_21-2-2009_pg7_32

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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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