Murdering a language
By Justice Katju
यद्यपि बहुनाधीशे तथापि पठ पुत्र व्याकरणं
स्वजनः श्वजनो मा भूत , सकलं शकलं सकृच्छकृत
This is a shloka in Sanskrit
A father is telling his son
” O son, although you have studied a lot, still you must now learn grammar. If you study grammar, you will not pronounce ‘ svajan ‘ as ‘ shvajan ‘, ‘sakalam ‘as ‘ shakalam ‘ and ‘ sakrit ‘ as ‘ shakrit ‘.
In Sanskrit, ‘ svajan ‘ means one’s own people, while ‘ shvajan ‘means a dog. ‘ Sakal ‘ means total, while ‘ shakal ‘ means a piece. ‘ Sakrit’ means once, while ‘ shakrit ‘ means excrement or shit.
Nowadays, words in Urdu are often mispronounced, even on TV, and in my opinion this is murdering a great language.
I often hear people saying jila instead of zila, jaroor instead of zaroor, jabardast instead of zabardast, jamaana instead of zamaana, gajal instead of ghazal, bujurg instead of buzurg, kafila instead of qafila, jaada instead of zyaada, jindagi instead of zindagi, najar instead of nazar, sairi instead of shayari, phaij insead of faez, makbool instead of maqbool, खान instead of ख़ाँ, खैर instead of ख़ैर, etc
Once in the Allahabad High Court a lawyer referred to a colleague of mine as Justice Reja, instead of Justice Reza.
There is a line in a sher ( couplet ) of Ghalib ;
” ग़ालिब ब-ख़स्ता के बग़ैर कौन सा काम बंद है ? “
( Ghalib ba-khasta ke baghair kaun sa kaam band hai ?
Many people pronounce Ghalib as Galib
Also, many people have great difficulty in pronouncing ‘ ख़ ‘ and instance pronounce it as ‘ ख ‘. Also, they pronounce ‘ बग़ैर ‘ as ‘ बगैर ‘,
Once when I was a Judge in the Allahabad High Court, a lawyer appeared before me, and said he was moving a ‘ petisun ‘ ( pronouncing ‘sha’ as ‘sa’ ). I asked him whether he believed in Lord Shiva. He said yes. I then told him ” Then say ‘ Shiva Shambho, Shiva Shambho, Shiva Shambho ‘ 100 times in the morning everyday before coming to Court “.
When such mispronunciation is done in my presence, I feel as if someone has hit me on the head with a stick.
Correct or incorrect pronunciation makes the distinction between a cultured person and a ‘ganwaar’ ( rustic )
