The Death of Imagination

Today at Mumbai Grill, I overheard the real reason for the name change: apparently there's another local restaurant with "Bombay" in the name that threatened to sue or something. The owner has a prior claim to it through family connexions (apparently the original restaurant is in Champaign) but proving that would be enough of a hassle that he decided just to give in.

My source is an energetic young desi I don't recall seeing there before. I also overheard a customer questioning him in Hindi regarding his origins and discovered that he was Panjabi. Just to confirm, I said, "ਕੀ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਹੋ?" (Stupidly omitting the pronoun, thus making it somewhat ambiguous whether I was speaking Panjabi with a respectful verb but Hindi with a familiar one. I think he parsed it as Panjabi, since he in turn asked me if I spoke it and I had to confess I knew only a few words.)

Ever since I started going there, I've been trying to suss out the background of the staff, but without much success because my spoken comprehension just sucks. I even thought they might be Gujjus. (Frankly, the way to bet given their dominance of the local retail market.) Well, that goes a ways to explaining the lack of any Bombay specialties there. At first I thought the cuisine was generic North Indian to cater to Gora expectations, but it could be that that's just what they know how to cook.

खिड़की / کهڙکي / ਖਿੜਕੀ khiRkee "window" (Skt. खडक्किका khaḍakkikā; cf. खण्ड kaṇḍa "piece, section")

Not much to say about this one, so in the interests of padding out the entry, I'll note the English loan विंडो viNDo used particularly in computer contexts, e.g. प्रलेख विंडो pralekh viNDo "document window". And, of course, in the name of the world's most ubiquitous software, विंडोज़ / ونڈوز / ਵਿਂਡੋਜ਼.

पुस्तकालय pustakaalay, ਪੁਸਤਕਾਲਾ pustakaalaa, کتاب گھر / ਕਿਤਾਬ ਘਰ kitaab-ghar, دارالکتب daarulkutub "library"

So far, there's been great unanimity in the vocabulary I've been presenting, but that isn't by design. It's a by-product of the fact that I've been sticking mostly to basic vocabulary, which tends to show little difference between Hindi and Urdu (and Panjabi, in most instances). But you don't have to stray very far into the realm of "higher vocabulary" before you start hitting divergences.

The word किताब / کتاب / ਕਿਤਾਬ kitaab for "book" (from Arabic via Persian) will be understood anywhere, but that doesn't mean it's always the preferred usage. Shapiro's Primer, which explicitly teaches the sort of "shuddh-Hindi" found in the Indian educational system, ignores it completely in favour of पुस्तक pustak (a direct borrowing of Sanskrit पुस्तकं). (Always a bit more practical, McGregor alternates between the terms, but with noticeable bias towards पुस्तक.)

ਪੁਸਤਕ pustak is also the first translation listed in the Mahan Kosh Panajbi lexicon and enters into more compounds and collocations in the Singh Brothers dictionary than ਕਿਤਾਬ. But the latter is the only term used by Shackleton in his basic Panjabi grammar; it also beats out its Sanskritic rival 44,700 Ghits to 8,820. Perhaps needless to say, but Teach Yourself Urdu recognises only كتابيں kitaabeM and not *پستكيں pustakeM.

Since all the common terms for "library" basically equate to "book house", it's not surprising to find divergent NIA equivalents. The second element in the Hindi word listed above is Sanskritic आलय aalay "abode" (as in हिमालय Himaalay "abode of snow"), which has the Panjabi form ਆਲਾ aalaa. Panjabi ਪੁਸਤਕਾਲਾ gets about ten times the hits of ਕਿਤਾਬ ਘਰ kitaab-ghar which is literally a "book house", but I suspect that's because only Indian Panjabis commonly use Gurmukhi. Pakistani Panjabis rarely write their language and, when they do, many words are indistinguishable from their Urdu cognates. (کتاب گھر kitaab-ghar is, naturally, good Urdu as well.)

It's impossible to determine easily the relative frequency of کتاب گھر and دارالکتب in Urdu because the latter is lifted wholesale from Arabic. Literally, it is a "dwelling place (daar) of books (kutub)". If you're wondering about the different spelling here, it's because this word incorporates an Arabic "broken plural", a usage typical of higher registers of Urdu, Persian, and other Arabic-influenced languages.

And if this terminological richness weren't enough, there is also the recent English loan लाइब्रेरी / لايبريري / ਲਾਇਬਰੇਰੀ laaeebreree. I'm not sure exactly what niche it fills in the respective languages' ecologies, but certainly the related borrowing लाइब्रेरियन / ਲਾਇਬਰੇਰੀਅਨ laaeebrerian seems to be giving native coinages like पुस्तकाघ्यक्ष pustakaadhyaksh ("book supervisor") and ਪੁਸਤਕ ਪਾਲ pustak-paaL ("book protector") a run for their money. (I have to confess, I was kind of hoping for "library-wallah" myself.)

बोटी / بوٿي / ਬੋਟੀ boTee (cf. Sanskrit वटक vaṭaka "small lump") "small piece of flesh"

The inspiration for today's word came from yesterday's lunch. So why didn't I post it yesterday? Because I had a more ambitious post planned that would discuss the systematic use of feminine gender to derive diminutives in NIA. Maybe next time. For now, all you need to know is that बोटी has a big brother बोटा boTaa which does not seem to be in common use nowadays, but which is more likely to be a direct descendant of वटक.

Another common morphological process in NIA is reduplication, as seen in the Panjabi expression ਬੋਟੀ ਬੋਟੀ ਕਰਣਾ boTee boTee karNaa "cut to pieces". Hindi equivalents include बोटियाँ काटना (काटना kaaTnaa "cut"), बोटियाँ उड़ाना (उड़ाना uRhaanaa "blow"), and टिक्का-बोटी करना tikkaa boTee karnaa where टिक्का is a near-synonym borrowed from Persian (تكه). (By the way, टिक्का tikkaa / تكه tikka provides a rare instance of a true morphological divergence between Hindi and Urdu. In Hindi, the common Persian suffix -ah is treated as -aa, whereas in Urdu, it is pronounced short.) Another less grisly verbal expression is बोटी चढ़ना boTee charRhnaa "become fat or plump".

प्याज़ / پياز / ਪਿਆਜ਼ pyaaz "onion"

A quick one today, inspired by wwidsith. Not much to say about this term, since it's a straightforward loan from Persian. It does however spawn the nisbah adjective प्याज़ी / پيازي / प्याज़ी pyaazee which in addition to meaning "oniony" has the extended meaning "of reddish colour". (For Hindi, Platts gives "crimson" whereas my Panjabi sources agree on "pinkish". Anyone have an opinion on how to describe the hue of Indian onions?)

Another term (which may well be more common in Panjabi) is गण्डा gaNDaa / ਗੰਢਾ gaMDhaa, which looks tadbhava, but I'm unsure of the exact origin. The Panjabi diminutive ਗੰਢੀ gaMDhee has among its meanings "clove [of garlic]" (i.e. ਥੋਮ ਦੀ ਗੰਢੀ). Garlic also has an assortment of names in NIA--so many in fact, they're probably best explored in another post.

चाबी / چابي / ਚਾਬੀ chaabee "key"
कुंजी / کنجی / ਕੁੰਜੀ kuMjee "key"

Again, I'm left with intriguing questions about distribution of variants and no obvious place to seek answers. My dictionaries all list both words, but my grammar books list only one each--चाबी / چابي chaabee for Hindi/Urdu and ਕੁੰਜੀ kuMjee for Panjabi--so I can only assume from this that these are the more common variants in each language.

When I learned चाबी, my first reaction was That looks suspiciously like Portuguese, so I was quite chuffed to see that Platts agrees with me in deriving it from chave. That derivation would also explain the earlier Hindustani variant चाभी chaabhee, as I can't think of any other word that shows this sort of variation in medials.

Since, as mentioned before, Panjabi preserved the inherited contrast between /v/ and /b/, this would indicate that ਚਾਬੀ must be a borrowing from Hindustani. Still, that doesn't stop it from entering into a number of idioms. ਚਾਬੀ ਘੁਮਾਉਣਾ caabee ghumaauuNaa "turn[*] the key" means "tutor" and ਚਾਬੀ ਦੇਣਾ "give key" is to wind a watch or clock. (In Hindi, the latter is चाबी भरना chaabee bharnaa "fill key".)

Panjabi ਕੁੰਜੀ has the extended sense of "note, annotation" whereas its Hindi counterpart कुंजी is mapped to English "key" in its computer terminological uses, e.g. कुंजीपटल kuMjeepaTal "keyboard"[**] (with पटल "covering" apparently used as a kind of collective suffix) or आंकड़ा गूढ़लेखन कुंजी aaMkRaa guRhalekhan kuMjee "data encryption key". Again, if Platts is to be believed, the ultimate etymological root is the surprising कुञ्च kuñja "elephant tusk". I suppose we have a working hypothesis on what early Indian keys are made from!

[*] Causative of ਘੁੰਮਣਾ ghuMNaa "rotate".
[**] Beside borrwed कीबोर्ड keeborD, of course.

चेला / چيلا / ਚੇਲਾ chelaa "disciple" (Sanskrit चेटकः ćeṭakah "slave, servant")

As a name for followers of a guru, this word has found its way into English-language New Age usage. There's a rhotic variant in Indo-Aryan, चेरा / چيرا / ਚੇਰਾ cheraa which retains the original meaning of "servant".

Another Sanskrit word for "slave" or "servant" is दास dāsa, which survives in the daughter languages nearly unchanged (i.e. दास / داس / ਦਾਸ daas). The original meaning is uncertain, but it seems to have been applied to various hostile peoples in contact with the early Aryans; as these people were subjugated, it acquired the meaning of "slave".

दास has also made it into religious use, acquiring more positive connotations in the process. In some traditions, it may even be used as a title for a sat guru or pure teacher, as this is a "servant" of the true god. Likewise, it has been incorporated into various theophoric names. For instance, the ancient Sanskrit author कालिदास Kālidāsa was literally a "servant of Kali". Mahatma Gandhi's given name, महात्मा Mohandaas, indicates devotion to Krishna; he had brothers named रामदास Raamdaas (also a Marathi saint) and देवदास Devdaas (the protagonist of an eponymous Bengali novel--and now a hit movie starring Shahrukh Khan!). Panjabi singing star ਗੁਰਦਾਸ ਮਾਨ Gurdaas Maan has a given name which memoralises devotion to the Sikh Gurus, two of whom (ਅਮਰ ਦਾਸ Amar Dass and ਰਾਮ ਦਾਸ Raam Daas) had the same element as a surname.

When I saw that the Indians had named their lunar satellite चंद्रयान-1 Chandrayaan-1, I was immediately curious what the name meant. The first element, चंद्र chandra, was immediately familiar as a Sanskritic word for "moon" and I thought यान yaan might be some kind of tatsama derivational ending. Sadly--as the "1" at the end should've tipped me off--it's even more prosaic than that: "Moon-vehicle". The yaan is the yāna of familiar Buddhist terms like Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna.

LAME! I mean, c'mon people! How many cultures have a richer cosmic mythology than Hinduism? They couldn't find anything in the legends of the lunar deity Chandra to furnish a more interesting name than that?

I've still got election on the brain, so I thought I'd look at some terms for legislative bodies.

सभा / سبها / ਸਭਾ sabhaa (same in Sanskrit) is a venerable Indo-Aryan word believed to derive from the same PIE etymon *sebho- which yields English sib(ling) and German Sippe. The original meaning is something like "meeting, assembly, council". In modern India, it appears in the names of both the various unicameral state legislatures or विधानसभा / ਵਿਧਾਨ ਸਭਾ vidhaansabhaa and the two houses of the Parliament of India, the लोक सभा / ਲੋਕ ਸਭਾ lok sabhaa or "Popular Assembly" and the राज्य सभा raajya sabhaa / ਰਾਜ ਸਭਾ raaj sabhaa or "State Assembly". (No prizes for guessing which is the upper and which is the lower house.)

مجلس majlis / ਮਜਲਸ majlas is an Arabic loanword (from the root جلس "sit", so literally "session") that is ubiquitous in the names of legislatures and councils from Morocco to the Maldives. The bicameral assembly which governs Pakistan is known as the مجلس شوری majlis-e-shooraa or "Council of Consultation".

लोथ / لوته / ਲੋਥ loth "corpse" (cf. Sanskrit लोष्टं loṣṭa "lump, clod")

Illustrating its use, a passage from the Adi Granth (p. 280).

ਸੰਤ ਕਾ ਦੋਖੀ ਅੰਤਰ ਤੇ ਥੋਥਾ ॥ ਜਿਉ ਸਾਸ ਬਿਨਾ ਮਿਰਤਕ ਕੀ ਲੋਥਾ ॥
Santkā dokhī antar te thothā. Ji­o sās binā mirtak kī lothā.
The slanderer of the Saint is empty inside / without the breath [of life], like the corpse of a dead man.

Colloquially, the Panjabi term also means "bulky person".