Scripting a new identity: The battle for Devanagari in nineteenth century India
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Rizwan Ahmad is Assistant Professor of English at the American University of Kuwait, Kuwait City. After earning an M.A. and M. Phil. in linguistics from the University of Delhi, Rizwan taught English and linguistics at the University of Science and Technology in Yemen for several years before starting his graduate work at the University of Michigan. He received a second M.A. and a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Michigan. His main research interests are language ideology,
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2021, Language and CommunicationCitation Excerpt :In California, for instance, the address term dude and the quotative like are generally taken to be emblematic of surfers and valley girls, respectively. The sociolinguistics literature is replete with other examples of linguistic emblems from different cultures around the world (see, e.g., Ahmad, 2008; Gal, 2013; Wong, 2016). An important point about linguistic emblems is that as indexical icons, these complex signs stand for the objects they represent not only by being directly linked with them (by virtue of contiguity) but also, crucially, by sharing with them some essential qualities or properties (by virtue of similarity) (Agha, 2006; Harkness, 2015).
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Morphology, orthography, and the two hemispheres: A divided visual field study with Hindi/Urdu biliterates
2017, NeuropsychologiaCitation Excerpt :The present research explored this possibility by studying visual field asymmetries in word naming in Hindi and Urdu. These languages present a unique opportunity to examine the contribution of orthographic properties since they are practically identical in their morphophonology (as well as in their grammar and lexicon), but are written in completely different orthographies (see also Ahmad, 2008; Rao et al., 2014). As such, it becomes possible to isolate for study the contribution of orthographic differences, while keeping other linguistic differences constant.
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Writing the smile: Language ideologies in, and through, sign language scripts
2011, Language and CommunicationCitation Excerpt :In noting this, I do not mean to denigrate Stokoe’s incredibly important work for, as mentioned above, his efforts to demonstrate that sign languages can be described according to formal linguistic criteria were deeply significant for Deaf social validation. Indeed, as many scholars have shown, developing a script has as much to do with symbolically representing the social group associated with the language as representing the linguistic properties of the language itself (e.g., Schieffelin and Doucet, 1998; Ahmad, 2008). SN, though not as effective in capturing the formal properties of sign languages, can imply a close relationship between sign and spoken language through its resemblance to alphabetic scripts for spoken languages.
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Polyphony of urdu in post-colonial North India
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Urdu in Devanagari: Shifting orthographic practices and Muslim identity in Delhi
2011, Language in Society
Rizwan Ahmad is Assistant Professor of English at the American University of Kuwait, Kuwait City. After earning an M.A. and M. Phil. in linguistics from the University of Delhi, Rizwan taught English and linguistics at the University of Science and Technology in Yemen for several years before starting his graduate work at the University of Michigan. He received a second M.A. and a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Michigan. His main research interests are language ideology, multilingualism, and sociolinguistics of orthography. His Ph.D. dissertation examines the semiotic complexity of Urdu in India.