1-Does language affect identity?
Yes, language of a person affect his/her identity in considerable manner.

2-Does identity affect language?
If answer of 1 is yes, thn answer of 2 can not necessarily be in an affirmation. However, taking a broader spectrum, identity of a person can have varied effects on the language.

3- Is the relationship between language and identity deep rooted or shallow?

Relationship between language and identity of any individual can be deep rooted. The language of any area is often formed as per environmental/climatic/topographic conditions as well as of the attitude of people towards life.

4-The ingredients of identity i-e age, gender, culture, politics, history etc are to what extent related with language?
Age , gender and politics do not have greater extent with the language, however, history and culture are related with the language to greater extent.

5-Does the dominant language or culture make the subordinate language inferior or it is the mentality of the speakers that they start to associate superiority to the dominant language?

Actualy it is the thinking level of any individual which take superiority complex or dominance of any language or culture. If speakers feel pride in their language and culture, they are not affected by superiority of language or culture.

6-Why the people living in multilingual societies find one or the other language more expressive?

Mentality and thinking pattern of any person feels him home and expressive in some specific language. Some people feel comfort speaking in urdu, while other feel comfort in Pushto or Punjabi, Sindhi or Balochi. All depends upon their mindset.

7-A study conducted in Armania reveals that the people of Armania finds Russian to be more expressive language than their native language , is it also applicable on Pakistani situation?

Yes it is applicable in Pakistan as well, people though being Pakhtun, Sindhi, Baloch or Punjabi feel comfortable coversing in Urdu, while some other person feel themselves more expressive in their native languages...

8- How and to what extent teaching of English is affecting Pakistani languages?

Teaching of English is affecting Pakistani languages in greater extent. People have to study in English, then official language is als English, so for joining any service either government organizations or private enterprises, they have to speak and write in English, gradualy they try to speak in English putting their own languages aside..

9- What will be the affect of massive borrowing of English words in Pakistani languages in coming fifty years?

The texture of our languages will be disturbed manifold and some of the words will alltogether become extinct.

10- Can this massive borrowing lead to extinction of these languages?

Gradually, some of Pakistani languages will go extinct.

11-Do you esteem your native languages? if yes , to what extent? And if no, why?

Yes, I feel esteem in my Pothowari langauge a lot, because it is my base, its my root, its my land. Whenever i get some good person i try to speak in Pothowari and like speaking in it. I feel myself proud of being a Pothowari, though often get some comments from some people that there is no plain land in Pothowar, there is no fruiting tree and the people's mood swing and the people are not trustworthy, but people of every area varies. This is pothowar which gave space for Islamabad and people from whole country has settled well in Rawalpindi and Islamabad and there are very less Pothwaris remained in these cities....I love my soil.

12- The language used to communicate with their peers by our youth is gradually shifting from regional languages to English, why is it so?

People go with the trends, they often feel themselves more expressive in English, because it is in market and in demand. You cannot sell anything which is not in demand in market similarly, regional languages have less demand in market so people try to change their trends...

13- The division of education system in English medium and Urdu medium is infect dividing the society on linguistic basis, how this division can be blurred?

This system is breaking our ethos. Now the country is clearly divided into stratas and this English Urdu medium has played its major role in stratification of society. Now every tom dick and harry is trying to send their childern to English medium school how many down graded that school could be, but they will send their childern only to make them compatible to the competitive future. There should be no English or Urdu medium, curricula should be same for every school so that this class system can be blurred.

14- To preserve our language identity, what measures are needed to be taken?

Our language identity can be preserved by promotion of culture, traditions, folklores, mores, values of any specific regional language. As per certain estimates there are 32 languages being spoken in country, but people are gradually leaving their cultural practices and feel themselves uplift through speaking in English. This trend should be degraded. People should admire their languages and should owe them instead of going for English things...

1-Does language affect identity?

Ans. Definitely language affects the identity. As languauge is an ingredient of identity. Language gives rise to the feeling of nationhood. Nations are united on the basis of language among many other factors. In karachi we see that the Urdu speaking and Pushto speaking communities are divided into separate groups and that language is the major driving force behind the sectarian violence in many parts of our country. Language is the source of people to people contacts and in our neighbouring country we see that India has so many different communities identified on the basis of language. If you travel from one part of India to another then one would observe the change in dialect and language at every few hundred kilometers travelled. A chinese speaking person is identified from his accent, similarly a non. English person is also easily identified from his accent.


2-Does identity affect language?

Identity obviously plays a dominant role in the development of language. A language depicts the customs and culture of the nation and the inhabitants of that part of the world. The Arab culture and the Arab society would be reflected in the Arab language and similarly the English society is reflected in the English language. The words in the Englsih dictionary are nothing but the result of evolution. The identity of the people and their culture led to the addition of different words and phrases with the time. Same is the case with other languages. The versatility that we observe in different languages spoken all over the world in due to the identity of its speakers.


3- Is the relationship between language and identity deep rooted or shallow?

The relation between identity and language is a deep rooted one. Arabs are a nation on the basis of their language. Arab league has 22 members, thus language is the major impetus of this organisation. The Arabs are also muslims like other muslim countries but they have their separate identity on the basis of their language. Thus language and identity are hand in glove with each other.



4-The ingredients of identity i-e age, gender, culture, politics, history etc are to what extent related with language?

Language itself is one of the ingredients of identity alongwith other factors like age, gender, culture, politics, history. If we take Pakistan’s example then the four provinces are divided on the basis of language. Even there is talk about the seraiki province. Thus even politics is being handled on the basis of language. History obviuosly is the result of language, the history of different periods of time that we have is the result of cultural contacts between different rulers and the ruled. In this day and age there is a lot of change in the speaking and writing habits of the people. But the bonds of nationhood are still peculiarly designed on the language.




5-Does the dominant language or culture make the subordinate language inferior or it is the mentality of the speakers that they start to associate superiority to the dominant language?


A language is known by the number of its speakers and the number of countries in which it is spoken. Dominant language is one which has the highest number of speakers world over. It is a fact English is the second most spoken language of the world and also the English speaking block of countries are dominating the world economy uptill now. Although chinese is the most spoken language but because it is limited in terms of its scope therefore the West is dominant. Thus the west’s dominance in the world economy makes their language superior world over. The superiority is attached not on the basis of the mentality rather on the basis of the market value of that language.



6-Why the people living in multilingual societies find one or the other language more expressive?

It is the observation that differs from person to person. People often find other language more expressive at times when their own issues and problems are not highlighted in a better way in their local language. They find faults with the language in order to press for their own problems. The truth might not be the same as people think all the time.



7-A study conducted in Armania reveals that the people of Armania finds Russian to be more expressive language than their native language , is it also applicable on Pakistani situation?

Well in pakistan generally this is not the case. In pakistan English is the dominating language which is not the native language of any of the areas that come under Pakistan’s territory. Thus English is considered as more expressive language in Pakistan. In the case of Armenia Russian is one of their native language alongwith Armenian. while Pakistan cannot say that English is its native language.


8- How and to what extent teaching of English is affecting Pakistani languages?


Well the English language is taught in Pakistan as a requirement because in the 21st centruy if one has to move forward then he/she must be equipped with all the tools of progress. English is the language that is spoken world over. Now the teaching of english is affecting Pakistani languages in one way or other but we must remember that Official language of Pakistan is English. Thus although we are independent politically but culturally we are still the slaves of west. English is affecting the languages definitely but still these languages find space to grow and have their own identity. The print and electronic media also have sections for the local languages. But English being the dominant language has definitely taken the larger share in Press as well.




9- What will be the affect of massive borrowing of English words in Pakistani languages in coming fifty years?


In coming fifty years English would definitely be a major driving force in the Pakistani society and all over the world. The pakistani languages would be facing some serious challenge from English but even till that time Pakistan might not have achieved nuiversal education for all. Majority of population is illiterate still and therefore the affect of english on local languages will not be so pronounced even fifty years later.



10- Can this massive borrowing lead to extinction of these languages?


No, certainly not. This borrowing cannot and will not lead to the extinction of these languages as these languages are the bread and butter of the people. The native people who speak these languages love them and cannot allow their own identity to get eroded with the incursion of foreign languages.


11-Do you esteem your native languages? if yes , to what extent? And if no, why?


Well the native language has its own place while the English language has its own place. The two cannot be intermingled. I do hold my native language in high esteem because that is the language that I used to communicate with my near and dear ones since childhood. English was at that time not known to me. Thus the native language must be held in high esteem by the native people.



12- The language used to communicate with their peers by our youth is gradually shifting from regional languages to English, why is it so?

Well this is happening in the so called educated families where speaking English is considered as a status symbol at times. Also it is a fashion that we consider anything foreign as charismatic even if take the example of dressing and latest fashion. But these are still a minority. If we look at our village folk who are 60-65% of the population. Thus while it might be the case among the youth in the cities that they communicate in English but they are only a tiny minority at this time.



13- The division of education system in English medium and Urdu medium is infect dividing the society on linguistic basis, how this division can be blurred?


There is a bipolarity in the education system of Pakistan. The english medium teaching system is the more preferred one. This lingual division also indicates the difference between the haves and have nots. This division can be blurred only if the government leads to a unitary system that will provide same standard of education to the students of public institutes as in the private schools and colleges.


14- To preserve our language identity, what measures are needed to be taken?

In order to preserve our language identity it is mandatory that the print and electronic media plays its role. As it is the media that have an audience coutrywide and thus they must ensure that they give proper time and space to all the local languages.

Secondly the government must shun its policies of kowtowing its foreign masters and must not allow the influx of foerign language into its culture.

The people who are the speakers it is their biggest responsibilty to keep their identity alive. We have taken impression of Indian culture into our society to some extent. Thus it is our responsibilty as the nation that we must avoid being overwhelmed by the foreign languages in preference to our local languages.

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CSS 2009, 2010, 2011 Qualifier