Hindi-Urdu conversational styles/exchange patterns

[Mike Morgan]

Dan,

then I assume, as hinted at in previous email, the most likely
prospect for finding differences in dialoguic language (i.e.
differences in turn-taking strategies, etc as you mentioned) would be
differences between the Urdu of Pakistan and the Hindi of India.

In India -- I have lived in both Mumbai (a VERY multilingual city) and
Delhi (more or less a Hindi+English speaking city -- though granted
some Punjabi is still heard, but much less than before, and even most
Sikhs speak Hindi most the time nowadays), and although I spend most
of my time (work and play) with Deaf and thus Sign Language users, I
have still had considerable contact with speakers who would
self-describe themselve as both Hindi and Urdu speakers. But, aside
from a certain greater tendency to use insh'allah as an additional
future marker (i.e. in ALL positive future statments) by Muslims, and
a few of the lexical differences which I am sure you know about, I
have noticed nothing different. Which of course is just anecdotal
evidence. PLUS, of course, I don't hang around with Indians who would
be described as being predominantly non-secular quite as much, and I
myself clearly belong to NEITHER group. so there may be more
differences in intra-communal discourse.

BUT again I am not aware of any such studies... BUT your question has
piqued my interest as well, so I will now defintiely be on the look
out ;-)

On 8/14/13, Everett, Daniel <DEVERETT at bentley.edu> wrote:
> Mike,
>
> Thanks. Yes, I am aware that they are the same language. When I taught at U
> of Manchester, I regularly assigned intro students to interview folks on the
> "curry mile" about Hindi and Urdu. The language attitudes vary quite a bit.
>
> However, now that the cultures are diverging I am interested in exactly
> those "stylistic" differences. Though they are mutually intelligible, are
> different strategies occuring for dialogue in different contexts, especially
> contexts that exist in one cultural context but not another?
>
> I did not want to prime my question in any way, hence it could have given
> the impression that I wasn't aware of the well-known fact that they are the
> same language.
>
> I am interest in variable rates of shift for culture and language and how
> one can come to affect the other.
>
> Dan
>
> Everett, Daniel. in progress. Dark matter of the mind. University of Chicago
> Press.
>
> On Aug 14, 2013, at 1:51 PM, Mike Morgan wrote:
>
>> Dan,
>>
>> I am not sure you will find anything, since at the conversational
>> level they are one and the same language. (and, at least in some parts
>> of India -- Mumbai for example -- everyone -- except right wing Hindu
>> fanatics -- will admit that the purist Hindi speakers are the
>> Muslims... because "pakka" Hindi = Urdu).
>>
>> Differences only come into play at "higher" stylistic levels... and
>> when politics comes into play (i.e there may well be a LOT of
>> differences in speeched of Hindu "fundamentalist" wing politicians in
>> Hindi vs Muslim "fundamentalist" politicians in Urdu. (Also of course
>> difference in writing styles... beond the obvious difference ins
>> cript.)
>>
>> OR, given the 60-some years of separation there might be differences
>> at the conversation level between the Hindi-Urdu of India and the Urdu
>> of Pakistan.
>>
>> BUT, that said, I am unaware of any such contrastive studies off hand...
>>
>>
>>
>> On 8/14/13, Everett, Daniel <DEVERETT at bentley.edu> wrote:
>>> I am looking for a study contrasting or comparing conversational (in
>>> particular turn-taking) patterns in Hindi vs. Urdu.
>>>
>>>
>>> Dan
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> mwm || *U*C> || mike || माईक || мика || マイク (aka Dr Michael W Morgan)
>> sign language linguist / linguistic typologist
>> academic adviser, Nepal Sign Language Training and Research
>> NDFN, Kathmandu, Nepal
>
>


-- 
mwm || *U*C> || mike || माईक || мика || マイク (aka Dr Michael W Morgan)
sign language linguist / linguistic typologist
academic adviser, Nepal Sign Language Training and Research
NDFN, Kathmandu, Nepal