URDU LINGUISTICS: HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

In developed countries, so much attention is paid to linguistics, as much as other scientific and social sciences, but now it is being formulated in the way of mathematics and statistics. The scope of linguistics is very wide. Today, many problems of history, civilization and society are being solved with the help of linguistics in developed countries. Mutual similarities and differences of languages ​​are being ascertained. Linguistics also helps in understanding the script and literature of ancient and dead languages. Such tribal languages ​​which have no script, their script has been devised with the help of linguistiscs. With this, the mutual sharing and differences of different races and languages are being known and information is being obtained about the place of birth along with the age of nations and languages. A phonetic script (IPA) has been devised to bring any language of the world into writing, after minor modifications. Linguistics helps in the dating of manuscripts.  With its help, efforts are underway to formulate rules by which a second language can be learned in a very short period. It is being used in the military to create secret codes and read others' secret codes. Efforts are underway to create a translation machine that can translate from one language to another. To benefit from these blessings, it is necessary to build research and teaching in Urdu linguistics on a strong foundation. Linguistic research in Urdu began in the eighteenth century. It became somewhat regular in the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, the use of linguistic knowledge of languages in developed countries increased and scientific research was adopted. However, in terms of quality and quantity, Urdu lags far behind other developed languages. At present, the need for and importance of linguistics is also being realized and modern technology has been used in linguistic research in Pakistan as well. Centre for Research in Urdu Language Processing (CRULP), FAST-NU and Centre for Language Engineering UET Lahore are good examples. The need is to review critically the work done so far and determine its quantity and quality, so that in near future Urdu linguistic research can be established in the right direction on scientific grounds. This article is an attempt in this direction.