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11ej25 OP t1_j6x5e21 wrote

Reply to comment by c0ltanheart in Student humiliated in Pakistani school for speaking Urdu, Pakistan's national language by 11ej25

>self-internalized colonization

Basically, yes.

Paradoxically, Pakistanis will become defensive regarding Urdu at times (they will argue that it isn't the same as Hindi, even though linguists would sayb they are essentially the same language, at least in colloquial usage. edit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi%E2%80%93Urdu_controversy)

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c0ltanheart t1_j6yktyp wrote

I'm East Asian so I didn't know any of that except that Urdu is the main language... really it's that similar to Hindi?? Does the Indian PM Modi's nationalism have to do with Pakistan much at all? Sorry if that's a stupid question btw I know Pakistan is different from India

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11ej25 OP t1_j6yy89y wrote

Urdu and Hindi are similar (just as British and American English are similar) but written in different scripts. In formal literature, the vocabulary is different, though.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi%E2%80%93Urdu_controversy

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c0ltanheart t1_j6z7oak wrote

Ahhhhh, thank you for the insight. I kind of get it more now, I can understand several similar village dialects to my parents' ("Teochew") despite not speaking the "Hakka" or "Hokkien" dialects, which always confused me because I didn't actively speak either.

Fascinating. I wish that such similarities between dialects could be seen more and more of a wonderful handy thing that connects cultures in being able to communicate instead of being used in the name of xenophobia. All dialects should be held as equal, not just the simpler colonizer one that we've adapted into communicating internationally.

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