Archaism In Urdu

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6.2.14 Archaism in Urdu
In Urdu, an archaism is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current. This can either be done deliberately (to achieve a specific effect) or as part of a specific jargon (for example in law) or formula (for example in religious contexts). Many nursery rhymes contain archaisms. Archaic elements that occur only in certain fixed expressions (for example 'be that as it may') are not considered to be archaisms.
In Urdu, archaisms are most frequently encountered in poetry, law, and ritual writing and speech. Their deliberate use can be subdivided into literary archaisms, which seeks to evoke the style of older speech and writing; and lexical archaisms, the use of words no longer in common use. Archaisms…show more content…
due to trade relations, cultural exchanges, migrations and military expeditions. Urdu in India is basically developed in close contact with Persian, which was the language of administration and education during the period of Muslim rule. During this period Persian was the court language but there was no antipathy against local languages. In fact it is stated that the Muslim intellectuals like Amir Khusro and saints like Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia encouraged a language that could be understood by the common people. This is how Urdu was developed and in the latter days of the Mughal period it became the most commonly understood language, which was also used in the courts of the kings. Even after Urdu began to replace Persian as the language of poetry in the 18th century, Persian retained its official status for another century, and remained a rich source of literary vocabulary in Urdu language. Some elements of Persian grammar along with the vocabulary have been borrowed. Apart from Persian, Urdu also borrowed numerous vocabularies from Arabic language. In day-to-day Urdu speech and writings we observe many Arabic
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