आज का शब्द / آج كا شبد / ਅੱਜ ਦਾ ਸ਼ਬਦ

[muckefuck]

इतिहास / اتہاس / ਇਤਿਹਾਸ itihaas "history"
تاريخ / ਤਾਰੀਖ taareekh "history"

I'm not sure if anyone else has been following Language Log's continuing coverage of attempts to discern the identity of those responsible for the recent terrorist attacks in Bombay, but I'm finding them quite interesting. Naturally, they're focussing on linguistic evidence. Both those favouring a Pakistani origin for the terrorists and those arguing for a domestic origin are finding support for their theories; the only point of agreement seems to be that the chances that the "Deccan Mujahideen" is actually from the Deccan are small. In fact, if the recorded conversation broadcast on Indian news proves to be genuine, then the trail leads directly back to Panjab.

Ah, but the Indian states of Panjab or the Pakistani one? The jury's still out on that. Those arguing for an Indian origin focus chiefly on vocabulary; one commentator quoted in the Language Log article singles out the words प्रशासन prashaasan "administration" (Sanskritic), सरकार sarkaar "government" (Persian), and इतिहास itihaas (also Sanskritic). I'm not sure what the proper Urdu equivalents are for the first two, but is seems clear enough that Arabic تاريخ is preferred in the last case.

(Not universally, however; there seems to be clear indication in the form of 800+ Ghits that the absence of اتہاس in Pakistan has been overstated. Incidentally, here's where I confess that I've been guilty of a certain distortion when it comes to my discussions of "Panjabi" in these posts, since my point of reference is Indian Panjabi. There are several reasons for this bias: One is that I read Gurmukhi far better than Perso-Arabic script, which automatically makes me dependent primarily on Indian sources. Another is that Panjabi is hardly a written language in Pakistan anyway, where the prestige variety is Urdu, Moreover, as I mentioned in the last entry, Panjabi written in Perso-Arabic script is difficult to distinguish from Urdu in any case.)

Although some derivational elements are rather indiscriminate in their ability to combine with stems of varies origins, most collocate with terms of similar origin. Urdu/Pakistani Panjabi تاريخ دان marries the aforementioned Arabic element with Persian دان daan, a previously-discussed element meaning "receptacle". Indian Panjabi ਇਤਿਹਾਸਕਾਰ itihaaskaar, on the other hand, incorporates a different Persian stem کار kaar meaning "doing" and--by metonymy--a doer. इतिहासकार itihaaskaar also exists in Hindi (whereas the presence of اتہاس notwithstanding, اتہاسكار garners no hits at all) where it coexists with इतिहास लेखक itihaas-lekhak, a mere "history writer" (Panjabi ਇਤਿਹਾਸ ਲੇਖਕ).