Words borrowed by/from Malayalam
Devakumar Sreevijayan
S. Rajeev - rajeev@travancore <raj...@travancore.Eng.Sun.COM> wrote:
>
>The number of words borrowed by Malayalam from Sanskrit is, of course,
>immense. But a number of Malayalam words have made their way into
>Sanskrit and English. Interestingly, the ones I know about are all related
>to agriculture and crops.
>
>inchi -> sringiver (Skt.) -> ginger (Eng.). via Portugese
S.K. Pottekat relates, in his Himalayan travelogue (I forget the title;
was it 'Himavante MukaLThattil?' -- no, that was by Rajan Kakkanadan,
an excellent travel book, by the way, of his treks among the major--
and some obscure--pilgrimage centers in the Himalayas. Rajan Kakkanadan
is the brother of the writer Kakkanadan, and he is the one who played
Esthappan in Aravindan's eponymous film. He is a painter in real life,
based in Delhi.) about how he was seized with gas trouble in Kedarnath,
and finding no medical shop, went looking around for 'inchi'. He finally
found a grocery shop and then realized to his dismay that he did not
know the Hindi word for inchi. So he clutched his stomach, and started
yelling 'Inchi! Inchi!, gesticulating wildly all along, his face screwed
up in a tight grimace, trying to convey the very odious and painful nature
of his predicament. The grocer was thoroughly puzzled. He scratched
his head. He scratched again. Then a bulb flashed deep inside his balding
head and he grinned, and darted inside his dingy shop. Pottekat was relieved,
but it was not fated to last, as the grocer returned, triumphantly holding up
a rusty nail. 'Kinchi, sahab!', he announced, flushed with success, while
Pottekat groaned.
Later Pottekat discovered that the elusive word in Hindi was 'adrak'.
He never stopped wondering how the grocer had interpreted his wild
pantomime into an overwhelming passion for carpenter's nails.
>naranga -> naranga (Skt.) -> naranj (Arabic) -> orange (Eng)
The arrow of derivation might actually point the other way. I suspect
lemons and oranges (Naranja in Spanish and Portugese) came with the
Portugese. The word 'Mesa', for table, comes from Spanish/Portugese.
Also 'almirah'. Maybe even 'verandah'. My grandfather's house has
two 'bhranda's, "Thekke bhranda" and "Vadakke bhranda". For some
reason, these rooms used to frighten me as a child; perhaps I
associated them with stark raving mad relatives, waiting in the
dark musty corners of the room to pounce on me, among the old steel
trunks that my grandfather brought back from Burma, all locked, secret,
bearing ancient tags, and with his name stencilled in large dusty
white letters.
Dev
Dev
S. Rajeev - rajeev@travancore
by Malayalam. Here are some that come to mind:
honeymoon -> madhu vidhu
intellectual giant -> buddhi rakshasan
cottage industry -> kudil vyavasayam
cuisine (Portugese) -> kusini
A lot of interesting words come from the communist technical lexicon:
reactionary -> pinthirippan
revisionist -> thiruthalvaadi
bourgeois -> moorachi (this is my favorite made up word. I have no idea of
its origin, but it does *sound* despicable, doesn't it?)
One of the most intriguing such connections -- I am not sure it was a
translation or borrowing, but perhaps poetic insight, is:
sic transit gloria mundi (latin from Virgil, I think) <->
ha! sri bhuvil asthira (Kumaran Asan in "Veena poovu")
meaning:
thus passes glory in the world <-> alas! glory is impermanent in the world
The number of words borrowed by Malayalam from Sanskrit is, of course,
immense. But a number of Malayalam words have made their way into
Sanskrit and English. Interestingly, the ones I know about are all related
to agriculture and crops.
inchi -> sringiver (Skt.) -> ginger (Eng.). via Portugese
tekku -> teak (Eng.) via Portugese
chakka -> jackfruit (Eng.) via Portugese
adakka -> arecanut (Eng.) via Portugese
copra -> copra (Eng.) via Portugese
A couple of others are possibly of Tamil or perhaps Malayalam origin:
kettu maram -> catamaran (Eng.)
kanji -> congee (Chinese!). Yes, this is a thick rice gruel popular in Hong Kong,
Singapore etc., for breakfast
kashu -> cash via Port.
kattil -> cot
manga -> mango via Port.
naranga -> naranga (Skt.) -> naranj (Arabic) -> orange (Eng)
parayan -> pariah
S. Rajeev
Saptho Nair
I like to add:
'Milakatanni' (spelling wrong for sure!) in English
is the distorted form of
Mulaku (pepper) Tanni ( water) in Tamil/Malayalam.
'CCha' in Chinese became 'Chaya' in Malayalam.
--Saptho
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Saptho Nair, Dept. of Electrical Engr. | (612)-625-3474(ph#)|
| Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.| sap...@ee.umn.edu |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
S. Rajeev - rajeev@travancore
> In article <2klgim$e...@engnews1.Eng.Sun.COM>,
> S. Rajeev - rajeev@travancore <raj...@travancore.Eng.Sun.COM> wrote:
>
> mulakuthanni (Tamil, means chilli water, i.e. rasam) -> mulaktoni (this
> is a popular vegetable can food (soup) among Australians.
> Varandha -> veranda (English)
> guru -> guru (English)
There are plenty of *Indian* words in English, e.g. bungalow, jungle,
shampoo, chintz, calico, cowrie, cummerbund, deodar, thug, musk,
juggernaut, cheroot, palanquin, etc. I was talking about *Malayalam* words.
mulakutanni -> mulligatawny soup is standard on many Indian restaurant
menus everywhere.
> Then, you can see similarities between the words like:
> maathavu & mother, pithaavu & father, naamam & name (Japanese say 'namai'
> for name!), sunathan & son, kashumanga & cashewmango, dauhithri & daughter,
> etc.
>
> This used to be my favourite subject to talk with my friends. I had
> a Romanian friend in Australia who used to tell me the equivalent
> words in all European languages for certain Sanskrit words, and thus
> trying to prove to me that Aryans came to India from Europe, and so
> Sanskrit is an Indo-European language!! Surprisingly, I found out that
> counting numbers in Irish sounds very similar to Sanskrit!!!
>
> Also, the Britannica Encyclopaedia defines Sanskrit as an Indo-European
> language, as Aryans were originally Europeans (most probably from
> Ireland).
>
> regards,
> MY (Bindu).
It is widely accepted that Sanskrit and Greek/Latin had a common ancestor,
known as Proto-Indo-European. Hence the similarities, which were first
pointed out by British Indologists in the 19th century CE, and by the
German Max Mueller. The connections are very close, and startled these
Europeans when they first observed them. The roots are identical, e.g.
pitr (Skt.) <-> pater (Latin),
bhratr <-> frater, etc.
A good reference for this (and *much* else) is "The Wonder That Was India"
by AL Basham, a remarkable book about India before the arrival of the
Mohammedans.
Malayalam is really Tamil with an immense amount of Sanskrit included
in it. It started to have a distinct existence from Tamil perhaps around
the 10th century CE. Sanskrit has had a pervasive influence on Malayalam,
perhaps more than on any other language.
The Aryan-as-European subject is fraught with controversy; indeed the
very concept of "Aryan" is debated. I shall bow out of that particular
can-of-worms discussion.
S. Rajeev
S. Rajeev - rajeev@travancore
---
In article K...@news.cis.umn.edu, sap...@viterbi.ee.umn.edu (Saptho Nair) writes:
> Rajiv, that was a good list.
> I like to add:
> 'Milakatanni' (spelling wrong for sure!) in English
> is the distorted form of
> Mulaku (pepper) Tanni ( water) in Tamil/Malayalam.
> 'CCha' in Chinese became 'Chaya' in Malayalam.
> --Saptho
Thank you, Saptho.
You are quite right about mulakutanni etc. but does anybody say
"tanni" for water in Malayalam? The only instances I can think of are
"tanneer" in poetry (e.g. "dahikkunnu bhaginee kriparasa mohanam
kulir thanneer ithasu nee omale"
- Asan, "Karuna").
I'd say mulaku tanni is a Tamil phrase.
I missed out on kayar -> coir. Thanks, Austin, for pointing this out.
I did not know about the Chinese word for tea.
S. Rajeev
Arvind Nair
In article <940227073...@travancore.Eng.Sun.COM>, Sri.R...@Eng.Sun.COM (S. Rajeev - rajeev@travancore) writes:
|> It is widely accepted that Sanskrit and Greek/Latin had a common ancestor,
|> known as Proto-Indo-European. Hence the similarities, which were first
|> pointed out by British Indologists in the 19th century CE, and by the
|> German Max Mueller. The connections are very close, and startled these
|> Europeans when they first observed them. The roots are identical, e.g.
|> pitr (Skt.) <-> pater (Latin),
|> bhratr <-> frater, etc.
|>
I believe Sir William Jones, a British civil servant in India (who
also compiled the first Sanskrit dictionary) was the first to notice
this. Later Mueller and others built on his work.
|> A good reference for this (and *much* else) is "The Wonder That Was India"
|> by AL Basham, a remarkable book about India before the arrival of the
|> Mohammedans.
|>
|> Malayalam is really Tamil with an immense amount of Sanskrit included
|> in it. It started to have a distinct existence from Tamil perhaps around
|> the 10th century CE. Sanskrit has had a pervasive influence on Malayalam,
|> perhaps more than on any other language.
|>
Telugu is also very heavily Sanskritized. The influence is of
course through borrowing, not structural (so one could argue that any
of Hindi, Marathi etc. is really more influenced), as in the case of
Malayalam.
|> The Aryan-as-European subject is fraught with controversy; indeed the
|> very concept of "Aryan" is debated. I shall bow out of that particular
|> can-of-worms discussion.
|>
|> S. Rajeev
|>
|>
Probably a good idea. I shall do likewise.
Arvind
joseph
In article <2klgim$e...@engnews1.Eng.Sun.COM>, raj...@travancore.Eng.Sun.COM (S. Rajeev - rajeev@travancore) writes:
>kanji -> congee (Chinese!). Yes, this is a thick rice gruel popular in Hong Kong,
> Singapore etc., for breakfast
Hm... I thought "Kanji" was the term used to refer to a person with,
shall I say... the personality of a wet towel. A typical "Kanji"
would usually be a teacher's pet. S/he would suck up to the teacher
at every opportunity. S/he will do the homeworks on time, will
not miss any lecture, and generally be so... uncool.
How that word got associated with a rice dish is beyond me !!
joseph
In article <940227073...@travancore.Eng.Sun.COM>, Sri.R...@Eng.Sun.COM (S. Rajeev - rajeev@travancore) writes:
>Malayalam is really Tamil with an immense amount of Sanskrit included
>in it.
My best friend is a Tamilian. He claims that Malayalam is really a
mutilated form of Tamil. I, being a Malayali, of course claim that
Malayalam is a refined blend of Tamil and Sanskrit.
Mareena Yesudas
S. Rajeev - rajeev@travancore <Sri.R...@Eng.Sun.COM> wrote:
>There are plenty of *Indian* words in English, e.g. bungalow, jungle,
>shampoo, chintz, calico, cowrie, cummerbund, deodar, thug, musk,
>juggernaut, cheroot, palanquin, etc. I was talking about *Malayalam* words.
Well then, the word 'kattamaram' is Tamil. The malayalam word is 'changadam'.
regards,
MY (Bindu).
S. Rajeev - rajeev@travancore
Oddly enough, turns out oranges are native to India/China
(vide Mandarin Orange; and "mandarin" itself derived from mantri).
So it is an Indian word ending up in Portugese and English.
Those Portugese sure got around (known as "paranthrees"). The
French were "paranki" (from Frank -> feringee?). Why cashews
are called paranki manga when they were brought to Kerala by the
Portugese I will never know. Do you know what the Dutch were called?
There is the interesting and little-known battle of Kolachel where
Marthanda Varma routed the Dutch fleet in the 16th century CE: this was
one of the few times an Indian prince defeated a colonial power.
The Dutch captain, Delanoy, then stayed on as a military advisor
to the Travancore princes for 40 years, and his grave is at the
fort at Kolachel in Kanyakumari District.
---
S. Rajeev
PS. This is my last post on this subject