A Syntactic Symphony: Exploring Verb Morphology in Pakistani Languages

Urdu: Urdu, Pakistan’s national language, inherited much of its verb morphology from Persian and Arabic. 75 % of Urdu words came from Persian, 25% from Arabic, and only a fraction of 1 % from the remaining languages. Even the word Urdu is not an Urdu word but Turkish in origin, and it means ‘troops’ or ‘cantonment. If you ever visit Turkey, you can see ‘The Urdu Academy’ in Turkey, which is a military school/headquarters, not a traditional school. One interesting thing about Urdu is that even the national anthem of Pakistan has only one word in Urdu, and that is "ka.”. Verbs agree with the subject person and number, commonly through suffixes. For instance, the verb “karna” (to do) transforms into “karta hoon” (I do) and “karte hain” (they do) to reflect the subject. Additionally, Urdu verbs showcase a rich system of tenses and moods conveyed through prefixes and suffixes. The past tense marker “kiya” (did) combines with “karna” to form “kiya tha” (had done), demonstrating the intricate interplay of morphology in conveying temporality. <a href="https://medium.com/@riazleghari/a-syntactic-symphony-exploring-verb-morphology-in-pakistani-languages-c090c4b0e8e7">Read More</a>