Rizwan Ahmad | Qatar University (original) (raw)
Papers by Rizwan Ahmad
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2023
Based on an analysis of a corpus, in this study we examine: (a) the linguistic structure of Musli... more Based on an analysis of a corpus, in this study we examine: (a) the linguistic structure of Muslim personal names, (b) their etymological sources, and (c) some changing patterns among the younger generation. Firstly, we present a typology of the naming patterns by showing that there are four major typesone-part, two-part, three-part, and four-part names. While one-part names are formed from the given name only, the other three types are complex as they are composed of additional names containing honorific titles, caste titles, patronym, and husband's names in case of married women. Secondly, by examining the linguistic sources of one-part and two part names, we show that Muslim names are primarily derived from Arabic and Persian. Our study further shows that while Indian Muslim names trace their origins to Arabic, the structure of their names differs significantly from Arabs and other Muslims especially those in southern India. Finally, we demonstrate a shift in the naming pattern among the younger generation in that some names and honorific titles are declining. We conclude our paper with some possible social factors that may contribute to the shift.
Gulf Studies
This chapter analyzes the major transformations that Qatar’s economy went through during the 2017... more This chapter analyzes the major transformations that Qatar’s economy went through during the 2017 Gulf crisis. This chapter argues that the Gulf crisis has proved to be a “blessing in disguise.” Qatar confronted unprecedented economic challenges immediately after the blockade, which forced it to take three broad policy initiatives: domestic production, trade diversification and crisis management strategy. This broad policy shift spawns immediate benefits for the country in managing the crisis effectively as well as in making the country resilient to international shocks, whether it is the COVID-19 pandemic or Ukraine war.
Multilingua, 2020
This study examines the communication strategies employed by Qatar’s government in dealing with t... more This study examines the communication strategies employed by Qatar’s government in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The study contributes to a growing body of work on the sociolinguistics of crisis communication. We focus on the use of South and Southeast Asian languages, spoken largely by blue-collar migrant workers, which are often seen as peripheral even though they are spoken by a large segment of the population. The deployment of these languages during Qatar’s COVID-19 awareness campaign assumes further significance against the backdrop of a series of measures taken by the government in the last few years to strengthen the status and use of Arabic. We analyze multilingual printed pamphlets, multilingual audio-visual communication through radio and social media, as well as interviews conducted with key figures who were part of the awareness campaign. Our examination of the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability of the multilingual awareness materials rev...
The Routledge Handbook of Arabic and Identity, 2020
Multilingua, 2020
This study examines the communication strategies employed by Qatar's government in dealing with t... more This study examines the communication strategies employed by Qatar's government in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The study contributes to a growing body of work on the sociolinguistics of crisis communication. We focus on the use of South and Southeast Asian languages, spoken largely by blue-collar migrant workers, which are often seen as peripheral even though they are spoken by a large segment of the population. The deployment of these languages during Qatar's COVID-19 awareness campaign assumes further significance against the backdrop of a series of measures taken by the government in the last few years to strengthen the status and use of Arabic. We analyze multilingual printed pamphlets , multilingual audiovisual communication through radio and social media, as well as interviews conducted with key figures who were part of the awareness campaign. Our examination of the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability of the multilingual awareness materials reveals that while the different languages and modes of communication were important in spreading awareness, equally critical, if not more, was who carried the information and in what forms. We show the significant roles community and religious leaders and social media influencers played in disseminating the awareness information to the diverse migrant language communities.
Many recent studies, academic and non-academic alike, have argued that the use of Urdu in Bollywo... more Many recent studies, academic and non-academic alike, have argued that the use of Urdu in Bollywood has started to decline. These studies, important as they are, however, suffer from some limitations. They are either impressionistic or based on non-representative data. Furthermore, they do not specify the object of the study or the site of the assumed decline of Urdu. Therefore, it remains vague which element of Urdu, for example sounds, words, syntax or script is under investigation. Similarly, it is not clear which component of film for example titles, dialogues or songs are experiencing the decline. Fulfilling this research gap this paper makes two contributions. Analyzing songs from 1959 to 2010's, it empirically demonstrates the decline by documenting the shift in the pronunciation of the sounds /kh̲ /, /gh̲ /, and /q/ from the Urdu to Hindi phonetic norms. Singers from the 1990's, unlike those from the previous generations, merge them with the sounds /kh/, /gh/, and /q/. The paper also makes a methodological contribution in that it shows how language in cinema can be studied empirically using a corpus.
Prologue My intellectual engagement with Professor Ramakant Agnihotri started when I was studying... more Prologue My intellectual engagement with Professor Ramakant Agnihotri started when I was studying for my Masterís degree in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Delhi. As a first year student, I took a course on the principles and methods of language teaching with him. At that time, since I was more interested in the structure of language, I did not take the course very seriously in the beginning. But Ramaís (nay Agniís, as we used to call him amongst us) innovative way of teaching made the course immensely interesting. Agni encouraged us to think critically and relate theoretical knowledge gained in class to real world experiences. By the end of that term, Agni had kindled a spark of enquiry in me about the social and psychological aspects of language, and my fascination with syntactic theories and the beautiful trees that they generated had started to wane. In the following semester, I decided to sit in his sociolinguistics class as an auditor. An added attraction of the course was that his class had many beautiful girls. The decision to ìflirtî with the field of sociolinguistics later turned out to be a serious business. After completing my Masterís degree, I wrote an M. Phil. thesis, under his supervision, examining the sociolinguistic aspects of Urdu and Hindi news bulletins of the All India Radio. By that time, sociolinguistics had become my passion, which culminated into a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA in 2007. Although it has been more than a decade since I graduated from the University of Delhi and left India in pursuit of my academic career, I have stayed in touch with Agni through email, phone calls, and personal visits. This attests to the fact that in addition to being a fine scholar, he is an excellent human being. Our last meeting took place at the silver Jubilee celebrations of the South Asian Linguistic Analysis (SALA-25) conference at the University of Illinois, USA, in 2005. He looked as enthusiastic and dynamic as ever; he came to my presentation and asked questions and gave valuable feedback on my paper. I feel privileged to contribute to this festschrift volume in honor of Professor Ramakant Agnihotri. This paper is dedicated to his scholarship in the field of linguistics.
Modern Asian Studies, 2015
Many scholars, politicians, and the lay people alike believe that Urdu in North India symbolizes ... more Many scholars, politicians, and the lay people alike believe that Urdu in North India symbolizes a Muslim identity and culture. Based on an eight-month long ethnographic study and quantitative language data collected in Old Delhi, this
article challenges this notion and shows that the symbolic meanings of Urdu have been mutating in post-colonial India. A cross-generational study involving both Muslims and Hindus shows that different generations assign different meanings to Urdu. Unlike the older generation, Muslim youth do not identify
themselves with Urdu. A study of the Urdu sounds /f/, /z/, /kẖ /, /gẖ /, and /q/ in the speech of Muslim youth further demonstrates that they are losing three of these sounds. Another transformation involves the adoption of the Devanagari
script to write Urdu by many Muslims. This change in the literacy practices of Muslims reinforces the shift in the symbolic meanings of Urdu. I argue that the transformation in the symbolic meanings of Urdu is reflective and constitutive of the sociopolitical changes that Muslims have undergone in the twentieth century.
Language in Society, Cambridge University Press, 2011
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2023
Based on an analysis of a corpus, in this study we examine: (a) the linguistic structure of Musli... more Based on an analysis of a corpus, in this study we examine: (a) the linguistic structure of Muslim personal names, (b) their etymological sources, and (c) some changing patterns among the younger generation. Firstly, we present a typology of the naming patterns by showing that there are four major typesone-part, two-part, three-part, and four-part names. While one-part names are formed from the given name only, the other three types are complex as they are composed of additional names containing honorific titles, caste titles, patronym, and husband's names in case of married women. Secondly, by examining the linguistic sources of one-part and two part names, we show that Muslim names are primarily derived from Arabic and Persian. Our study further shows that while Indian Muslim names trace their origins to Arabic, the structure of their names differs significantly from Arabs and other Muslims especially those in southern India. Finally, we demonstrate a shift in the naming pattern among the younger generation in that some names and honorific titles are declining. We conclude our paper with some possible social factors that may contribute to the shift.
Gulf Studies
This chapter analyzes the major transformations that Qatar’s economy went through during the 2017... more This chapter analyzes the major transformations that Qatar’s economy went through during the 2017 Gulf crisis. This chapter argues that the Gulf crisis has proved to be a “blessing in disguise.” Qatar confronted unprecedented economic challenges immediately after the blockade, which forced it to take three broad policy initiatives: domestic production, trade diversification and crisis management strategy. This broad policy shift spawns immediate benefits for the country in managing the crisis effectively as well as in making the country resilient to international shocks, whether it is the COVID-19 pandemic or Ukraine war.
Multilingua, 2020
This study examines the communication strategies employed by Qatar’s government in dealing with t... more This study examines the communication strategies employed by Qatar’s government in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The study contributes to a growing body of work on the sociolinguistics of crisis communication. We focus on the use of South and Southeast Asian languages, spoken largely by blue-collar migrant workers, which are often seen as peripheral even though they are spoken by a large segment of the population. The deployment of these languages during Qatar’s COVID-19 awareness campaign assumes further significance against the backdrop of a series of measures taken by the government in the last few years to strengthen the status and use of Arabic. We analyze multilingual printed pamphlets, multilingual audio-visual communication through radio and social media, as well as interviews conducted with key figures who were part of the awareness campaign. Our examination of the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability of the multilingual awareness materials rev...
The Routledge Handbook of Arabic and Identity, 2020
Multilingua, 2020
This study examines the communication strategies employed by Qatar's government in dealing with t... more This study examines the communication strategies employed by Qatar's government in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The study contributes to a growing body of work on the sociolinguistics of crisis communication. We focus on the use of South and Southeast Asian languages, spoken largely by blue-collar migrant workers, which are often seen as peripheral even though they are spoken by a large segment of the population. The deployment of these languages during Qatar's COVID-19 awareness campaign assumes further significance against the backdrop of a series of measures taken by the government in the last few years to strengthen the status and use of Arabic. We analyze multilingual printed pamphlets , multilingual audiovisual communication through radio and social media, as well as interviews conducted with key figures who were part of the awareness campaign. Our examination of the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability of the multilingual awareness materials reveals that while the different languages and modes of communication were important in spreading awareness, equally critical, if not more, was who carried the information and in what forms. We show the significant roles community and religious leaders and social media influencers played in disseminating the awareness information to the diverse migrant language communities.
Many recent studies, academic and non-academic alike, have argued that the use of Urdu in Bollywo... more Many recent studies, academic and non-academic alike, have argued that the use of Urdu in Bollywood has started to decline. These studies, important as they are, however, suffer from some limitations. They are either impressionistic or based on non-representative data. Furthermore, they do not specify the object of the study or the site of the assumed decline of Urdu. Therefore, it remains vague which element of Urdu, for example sounds, words, syntax or script is under investigation. Similarly, it is not clear which component of film for example titles, dialogues or songs are experiencing the decline. Fulfilling this research gap this paper makes two contributions. Analyzing songs from 1959 to 2010's, it empirically demonstrates the decline by documenting the shift in the pronunciation of the sounds /kh̲ /, /gh̲ /, and /q/ from the Urdu to Hindi phonetic norms. Singers from the 1990's, unlike those from the previous generations, merge them with the sounds /kh/, /gh/, and /q/. The paper also makes a methodological contribution in that it shows how language in cinema can be studied empirically using a corpus.
Prologue My intellectual engagement with Professor Ramakant Agnihotri started when I was studying... more Prologue My intellectual engagement with Professor Ramakant Agnihotri started when I was studying for my Masterís degree in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Delhi. As a first year student, I took a course on the principles and methods of language teaching with him. At that time, since I was more interested in the structure of language, I did not take the course very seriously in the beginning. But Ramaís (nay Agniís, as we used to call him amongst us) innovative way of teaching made the course immensely interesting. Agni encouraged us to think critically and relate theoretical knowledge gained in class to real world experiences. By the end of that term, Agni had kindled a spark of enquiry in me about the social and psychological aspects of language, and my fascination with syntactic theories and the beautiful trees that they generated had started to wane. In the following semester, I decided to sit in his sociolinguistics class as an auditor. An added attraction of the course was that his class had many beautiful girls. The decision to ìflirtî with the field of sociolinguistics later turned out to be a serious business. After completing my Masterís degree, I wrote an M. Phil. thesis, under his supervision, examining the sociolinguistic aspects of Urdu and Hindi news bulletins of the All India Radio. By that time, sociolinguistics had become my passion, which culminated into a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA in 2007. Although it has been more than a decade since I graduated from the University of Delhi and left India in pursuit of my academic career, I have stayed in touch with Agni through email, phone calls, and personal visits. This attests to the fact that in addition to being a fine scholar, he is an excellent human being. Our last meeting took place at the silver Jubilee celebrations of the South Asian Linguistic Analysis (SALA-25) conference at the University of Illinois, USA, in 2005. He looked as enthusiastic and dynamic as ever; he came to my presentation and asked questions and gave valuable feedback on my paper. I feel privileged to contribute to this festschrift volume in honor of Professor Ramakant Agnihotri. This paper is dedicated to his scholarship in the field of linguistics.
Modern Asian Studies, 2015
Many scholars, politicians, and the lay people alike believe that Urdu in North India symbolizes ... more Many scholars, politicians, and the lay people alike believe that Urdu in North India symbolizes a Muslim identity and culture. Based on an eight-month long ethnographic study and quantitative language data collected in Old Delhi, this
article challenges this notion and shows that the symbolic meanings of Urdu have been mutating in post-colonial India. A cross-generational study involving both Muslims and Hindus shows that different generations assign different meanings to Urdu. Unlike the older generation, Muslim youth do not identify
themselves with Urdu. A study of the Urdu sounds /f/, /z/, /kẖ /, /gẖ /, and /q/ in the speech of Muslim youth further demonstrates that they are losing three of these sounds. Another transformation involves the adoption of the Devanagari
script to write Urdu by many Muslims. This change in the literacy practices of Muslims reinforces the shift in the symbolic meanings of Urdu. I argue that the transformation in the symbolic meanings of Urdu is reflective and constitutive of the sociopolitical changes that Muslims have undergone in the twentieth century.
Language in Society, Cambridge University Press, 2011