The Centuries Old Language And Google Translate.

As a part of my job I am obliged to look up the new things happening in the world of internet and technology daily especially those related to Pakistan, along with writing about them. Yesterday I came across the news that Google translate added 13 new languages to their database; and to say that when I learned Sindhi and Pashto (two languages spoken extensively in Pakistan) were a part of those 13 languages, it makes me feel strangely giddy. Maybe I am just too attached to different languages.

Let’s be clear I have zero understanding of the Pashto language (sadly) but I am fluent as a bird (is that the proper terminology? Oh well) in the Sindhi language. I grew up in a household were we speak Sindhi, breathe Sindhi (sort of) and Urdu and English is something I learned to speak due to interaction with different people and school.

Even though I am fluent in all the three languages and can read and write in them pretty well (since I am saying this for myself, a bit bias is there) I always think in Sindhi and occasionally English (mainly due to the fact I read English books a lot). The Sindhi language has always fascinated me, I don’t know why but it does. It maybe the fact that the origins of the Sindhi language cannot be traced, or the fact that (If you’ve ever heard the language being spoken) it is a very soft language. I don’t know how else I can put it but that’s what it is, it is interesting to listen to it, and some of the vocabulary and the idioms are so different and describe a situation so perfectly that in my can’t be expressed in another language.

It just is fascinating, I don’t know maybe it is because I grew up with this language, or because the culture is so colourful and full of literature that oozes Sufism (let’s not forge for a while the state the province Sindh has fallen in to due to corrupt politicians and feudalism etc and only remember the likes of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Sachal Sarmast, GM Syed, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Abida Perveen, and many more influential Sindhi’s) it’s a but overwhelming. Perhaps the only language that has fascinated me more than my own mother tongue, is French; but that is a story for another day perhaps.

Well thank you for listening to my little rant.

Little question for the readers: Has any language fascinated you? Which language do you wish you spoke fluently?