Urdu (?)-English vocabulary in Buddhist archeology and architecture

"Archaeologists Uncover 2,000-Year-Old Buddhist Site In Pakistan", by Neil Bowdler, Radio Mashaal (2/3/21).

When I watched the embedded video in that article, it sounded to me as though the archeologists were speaking Urdu or something close to it (e.g., I heard them repeatedly use the word matlab  مَطْلَب  ["meaning; purpose; motive"; Hindi spelling मतलब]) and caught many other words that I recognized from my knowledge of Hindi-Urdu and Nepali, but I was astonished at how much English vocabulary was mixed into the language the archeologists were speaking.  Not only did they use a lot of English vocabulary, it was mostly not heavily accented with their local language.

Here are some of the English words and phrases that I heard in the interviews:  "important site development", "800 century year ago", "complex", "rainy season", "dwelling monks", "meetings", "religious", "philosophy", "schooling areas", "institute", "architecture", "Buddhism", "Buddhist site", "religious tourism… peace… harmony".  I cannot guarantee that this is a complete list of all the English words and phrases in the interviews (total length 3:38), nor that I have transcribed each and every item exactly the way they said it.  Still, this list should give a fairly good idea of the nature of the mixed language they are speaking.

Sunny Jhutti agrees that it's Urdu and says that the main speaker is a Pathan from the Peshawar area, and that he has a Hindki accent.  "Punjabi and Urdu have tons of loan words from Iranian, Arabic, and English."

Surendra Gambhir, who has a Ph.D in Linguistics and has taught courses in Hindi, Urdu, and Hindi rural dialects for more than three decades, and is an Associate Professor Emeritus of South Asian Studies at Penn, says that it is definitely not Urdu. "I did not understand a word of what they were saying."

Milind Ranade says:  "I guess it’s Pashto language; I may be wrong but it’s not Urdu, but pretty close to it. I assume the script is the same. As for the amount of English in the interview, it’s true with ALL Indian languages (except Sanskrit, of course). All are hybrids of English now. It’s a big subject for a discussion, and we should have it one day. I also would like to introduce you to my friend from Iran, Mr. Shekarchi. He has some extremely caustic views about it.

 

[Thanks to Daniel Waugh]