The master himself, Ghalib, referred to the language when he wrote the verse:

Rekhta kay tumhinustaadnahin ho Ghalib
kehtehainaglayzamanay main koi Mir bhitha

As an aside, Urdu did not form in the camp of the Mughal armies contrary to popular belief although the word ‘Urdu’ is derived from the Turkic word “Ordu” (Army), the same route from which comes the English word ‘horde’.

Only those languages survive that fuse within them different languages in the vicinity and, according to Syed Mazhar Jamil, Urdu is one of them.

All the regional languages of Pakistan have a great impact on one another, he told the audience on Wednesday evening during a session on the second day of the 8th International Urdu Conference being held at the Arts Council.

The tendency of Urdu has always remained to borrow words from various languages, he explained, adding that languages that discontinue the consumption of different languages do not emerge and fail to survive.

Sindhi and Urdu poet and writer ImdadHussaini, who translated the works of Faiz Ahmed Faiz in the Sindhi language, recalled the time he met Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar in India. Kumar greeted him in Sindhi and that left a mark on Hussaini.

When people talk to a stranger in their mother tongue, it results in a strong relationship between those people, he said.

Nevertheless, the language of communication is also necessary, which in the case of Pakistan, is Urdu, he said, adding that the importance of the mother tongues is no less than the language of communication.

According to Ahmed Fawad, who came to attend the session from Swat, Pakhtuns love to talk in Pashtu but they prefer to read Urdu literature.

MuneerRaisani, a Brahvi speaker, said there are various words used in Urdu and Brahvi languages that are borrowed from Persian.

He explained that Persian influenced the Urdu and Brahvi languages when Persian was the court language in India and Kalat region. Ayub Sheikh, who is fluent in various languages of Pakistan, said that people always think in their mother tongue so its importance can never be neglected.