Core 201: Pakistan & Modern South Asia — Vocabulary Flashcards

Key vocabulary terms and definitions drawn from Week 1–3 notes on language, modernity, ethnicity, and the genealogical turn in South Asian studies.

End of Islam

The idea that in colonial times Islam ceased to be a verbal noun describing Muslim practices and became the proper name of a subject in its own right.

Monolingual & Mononomological Modernity

A framework of modernity in which transformation is understood through a single language and a single overarching rational logic.

Monolingualism of the Other (Derrida)

The claim that one language cannot be fully owned by its speaker; the language one speaks is always partly alien and not entirely mine.

Nature of Language

Languages are not owned; no language or word is identical to itself; meaning is context-dependent, scattered, multiplied, and unstable across contexts.

Dialect

A subordinate form or variety of a language arising from local vocabulary, pronunciation, and idiom; often distinguished from the standard language but still a linguistic system.

Boli (speech/language/dialect)

Speech, language, or dialect; mode of speaking; a form of linguistic expression used in conversation and writing.

Upa (prefix)

A Sanskrit prefix meaning near/toward; towards, under, on, by, with; indicates proximity or association.

Binomial Nomenclature

The two-name system for classifying living organisms (genus + species) introduced by Carl Linnaeus.

Carl Linnaeus

The father of modern taxonomy who developed binomial nomenclature for naming species.

Weinreich’s Witticism: A language is a dialect with an army and a navy

The sociolinguistic idea that political and military power determines whether a speech form is labeled a language or a dialect.

Genealogical Science

The study of genetic history and its social implications, using data to reconstruct origins and migrations of populations (e.g., Jewish origins).

Ancestry Testing

Genetic testing used to infer an individual’s or group’s ancestral origins and genealogical connections.

Platts Dictionary (Urdu, Classical Hindi, English)

A historical dictionary by John T. Platts (1884) that compiles Urdu, Hindustani, and English terms, including entries like boli and Hindi terms.

DIALECT

A historical and linguistic term for the forms and varieties of language; see also dialect as a language variety with its own vocabulary and idiom.

Ethnos of the Earth

A concept describing how ethnicity and related identities are interwoven globally within international order and governance.