TED Community » Azad Qalamdar

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I'm passionate about

Reuniting 'Hindi-Urdu' as "Hamari Boli" (Our Language) and having it recognized as the Lingua Franca of the greater Desi region i.e.South Asia, and adopted as the 7th Official UN Language.

An idea worth spreading

"Hamari Boli" (Our Language) is the new name of Hindi-Urdu, the Lingua Franca of Desis worldwide. Gratefully acknowledging the richness and unity of the Desi Culture as evident in the meticulous amalgamation of indigenous and foreign cultures from the early Aryan settlers to the Middle Vedic Civilizations to the Afghan and Turkic period to the British Raj to modern Day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh -entire South Asia indeed- and the Diaspora Desis and their descendants spread all over the world. It is the living testament to the diversity and inclusive spirit of the South Asian Sub-continent. .

The "Hamari Boli Initiative" is a full scale "Language Planning" Enterprise aimed at 'Hindi-Urdu' Script, Style, Status & Lexical Reform / Modernization

Simply put, Hamari Boli is re-unified Hindi-Urdu written in Roman, with a combined vocabulary drawn from both standard Hindi and Urdu, as well as all the regional languages, with generous helpings of English, as exemplified by Bollywood.

Talk to me about

Hamari Boli Dictionaries, Hindi-Urdu Romanization, Khan Academy Hamari Boli, Devanagari-Roman-Nastaliq Transliteration Engines, Translation Engines, Indo-Pak Peacebuilding, P2P Communication

Comments

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• A comment on Conversation: Let us bridge the great Urdu-Hindi divide (caused by the two registers using mutually illegible scripts)!

  Jan 8 2012: Hi Ahmer. got it now.. actually the confusion here is of terminology.. i guess a more accurate description of ur project will be "Addressing Devanagari-Nastaliq digraphia/divide -- through web/computer based tools"..
  
  u see, the Hindi-Urdu divide is not just about mutual illegibility.. its equally about the lexicon and most importantly about the popular status & perception of Hindi-Urdu - the sociolinguistic dimension.. in common perception;
  
  a) Hindi and Urdu are two separate languages! we both know the distinction is absolutely rubbish.. whatever the perceived differences, per linguistic criteria, 'Hindi-Urdu' is 'The Language'.. but the thing is that its not about the facts at all.. naked identityphilia perpetrated by the state and liguistic elite.. may seem harmless, but i know how far affecting repercussions it creates -- from my experience at English, Urdu Wikipedias and Khan Academy Translations Platform.. so frustrating keeping Hindi/Urdu wallas in line.. governments in India and Pakistan have both used divisive and elitist language policies for social control in the name of nation building.. worst victim is our education system, you must be well aware of how deep, biased and destructive the English Medium and Urdu Medium divide is.. here's a very good analysis by Prof. Tariq Rahman;
  http://www.viewpointonline.net/language-policy-multilingualism-and-language-vitality-in-pakistan-tariq-rahman.html
  
  b) Hindi & Urdu are erroneously imagined as synonyms/abbreviations of 'Standard Hindi' and 'Standard Urdu' . this is not the case. Standard Hindi/Standard Urdu are formalized styles -Standardized Register- of writing Hindi-Urdu (lexicon + script) which is only used in formal applications. nobody speaks that. colloquial vernacular all over India and Pakistan is Hindi-Urdu -the erstwhile 'Hindustani', which was the Official Language and Lingua Franca of British India- , called Hindi when written in Devanagari and Urdu in Nastaliq; now increasingly in Roman.

• A reply on Conversation: Let us bridge the great Urdu-Hindi divide (caused by the two registers using mutually illegible scripts)!

  Jan 5 2012: thanks Ahmer.. i coined the name Hamari Boli as the new name of reunited Hindi-Urdu to relieve it of the communal antagonism.. entirely neutral and carries a very pleasant inclusive air to it. hopefully Hindi & Urdu wallas wont have much trouble digesting :)
  
  HB is not about sidestepping Devangari/Nastaliq, perhaps i was lacking somewhere, here's a succinct articulation;
  
  "Hamari Boli is re-unified Hindi-Urdu written using either Roman -preferably- or Devanagari or Nastaliq, with combined vocabulary drawn from standard Hindi, Standard Urdu & Dakhini as well as all the naturalized words from regional Desi languages, with generous helpings of English as exemplified by "Hamara Cinema, i.e. the world's most prolific film industry, the Bollywood"
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Let us bridge the great Urdu-Hindi divide (caused by the two registers using mutually illegible scripts)!

  Jan 5 2012: hey great Ahmer! loved the presentation.. perfectly doable.. in fact, google has already done 50% of the work with their Roman-Devanagari & Roman-Nastaliq Transliteration Engines.. and even great is that their APIs are open.. their scheme is all phonetic based so we can very easily use google APIs/Data for developing a comprehensive 3-way (DevanagariRomanNastaliq) Engine as envisioned.. however, still needs very hardcore development and programming, been looking for a while but couldnt find anyone for volunteering.. estimated dev requirement is about $12k..
  
  the Hindi-Urdu divide is such unfortunate yet so tough to undo cos of the communal associations attached. even the very words Hindi & Urdu invoke the 'Other' image in commoners imagination.. am working on a Hindi-Urdu Reform & Modernization Initiative aimed at bridging the divide by bringing the whole range of Hindi-Urdu together (as spoken across India, Pakistan, greater South Asia and the 30Million+ Desi Diaspora) using roman script and develop & promote a neutral writing style as exemplified by Bollywood and popular media. The real value and significance of Hindi-Urdu is in its being the Lingua franca of the South Asian Subcontinent which is home to 400+ language subgroups, using 16+ distinct writing systems. Hamari Boli in Roman is the only practical means to reach all Desis equally!
  
  in technical lingo, "Hamari Boli" is the new name of Hindi-Urdu (written in Devangari/Nastaliq/Roman) and a full-scale 'Language Planning Inititiave' aimed at Hindi-Urdu a) Script, b) Style, c) Status & d) Lexical Reform & Modernization..
  
  currently compiling English-to-Hamari Boli Dictionary.. also directing 'Khan Academy Hamari Boli' --the HindiUrdu dubbing of KhanAcademy.org video library--. transliteration is among one of the several planned future undertakings.. will be very glad and grateful if you'd like to join and contribute..
  
  Cheerz/Azad
  
  www.HamariBoli.com
  www.youtube.com/khanacademyhindiurdu