An Indian Idiosyncracy
Chai - wai ... doodh - woodh ... paani -waani ... khana - waana ...
These utterenaces are so utterly familiar to us, we hardly ever contemplate about them. It usually never strikes us that this is a typical Indian idiosyncracy. As far as I know, nothing of this sort is prevalent in non-indian languages. This is one of the fascinating things, which seems so innocuos at face value but is so surprising if you think about it.
What does it tell about our society ? How did it evolve ? Did we inherit it from other languages ? When did it first make its appearance ? What changes happened in out society which made this popular ? Why is this so pan Indian ? These any many numerous questions come to my mind of which I have no answer at the moment. But I would like to say something about the form it takes.
These utterenaces are so utterly familiar to us, we hardly ever contemplate about them. It usually never strikes us that this is a typical Indian idiosyncracy. As far as I know, nothing of this sort is prevalent in non-indian languages. This is one of the fascinating things, which seems so innocuos at face value but is so surprising if you think about it.
What does it tell about our society ? How did it evolve ? Did we inherit it from other languages ? When did it first make its appearance ? What changes happened in out society which made this popular ? Why is this so pan Indian ? These any many numerous questions come to my mind of which I have no answer at the moment. But I would like to say something about the form it takes.
- Marathis usually put a "Bee" sound for this effect. e.g, khaana - beena, raasta - beesta, etc. The interesting thing is that they also change the starting vowel sound.
- UP'ites (near Kanpur, Lucknow) do not change the starting vowel sound but add "A" sound. e.g, khaana-aana, paani-aani, etc.
- Biharis, some UPites add "W" sound and keep the staring vowel sound intact. Like the examples I gave at the start of this article. Incidentally this is the form preferred in literature. (I am also a Bihari, BTW).
- Bengalis add a "T" sound and like the Biharis keep the vowel intact.
- Punjabis do this trick with "Sh" sound. movie-shoovie, rotti-shotti, etc.
I am sure the south Indian languages must be having their own such idiosyncracies. And the special form it takes must be having the same diversity so typical of India and her languages. The Marathis stand out in this great Indian melee by changing the starting vowel. Please let me know of the particulars of other languages like Gujarati, Oriya, Assamiya, Kannada, Telugu, Mallu, etc. The only language I suspect this to be absent is Tamil. But am not sure.
Can somebody enlighten me ?
posted by Aghori at 2:51 am
11 Comments:
nice observation. initially i thought that perhaps in english this does happen. but deep thought into it proved otherwise. how is it that we never notice these little things?
we have one more such idiosyncracy ... sometimes we repeat a word twice to emphasise (or to make it funny) very often this happens with number words ... like char-char books ...
such linguistic idiosyncracies endlessly fascinates me
Well, Tamilians do use such stuff...also with changed vowels...
ex. Vatti kitti - vatti means interest
Mani kini- mani means bell
your own name- prasadam kirasadam
The joke that has come in a movie uses Eng. words...like bus-ukku, kiss-ukku...
So the Tams use "K" sound for this effect ... WOW ! then this must have something to do with shared hostiry of all of us ... I would like to know whether this is prevalent in Nepal (most certainly yes, they even use Devnagri script), Bhutan and Sri Lanka ...
I guess I used ki in all the examples...sorry to disappoint...they use everything under the sun., only my ex. were biased...
pinnakku- mannakku ., pinnakku is some food for cows...
ok., there is an obsession in Tamil literature
to start all words with the same letter., like
Vettaiaada vengaiyum velamum ...
karka kachadara katravai katrapin...
is it common to other languages as well ?!
@IG
It is a form used very commonly in hindi poetry ... this phenomenon has a name called some alamkaara which I forgot ... but nothing of a obsession ... this style is as common as other styles
Well.. all languages have idiosyncrasies more or less unique to them... Take English for instance... They use words that are spelt the same but spoken differently depending on meaning - read (present and past tense) - wind (noun and verb). They have words that are spoken the same but written differently... their and there, hair and hare. We have no such things in any Indian languages as far as I know.
this is not merely a linguistic idiosyncracy ... this goes beyond and becomes a cultural trait ... that is why it is so pan indian ... BTW, I have learnt that hawaiian language also doubles up the word for emphasis
Good post... I think these idiosyncrasies are used only in the informal conversations but not in literature or formal talk. But these definitely make the language livelier....
@lilith
several times I have heard bengali junta saying gaan-taan for music ... and some more things like that ... but lately I have learny that such rules are very flexible and ppl might have individual nunances to the broad rules ... of course most of happens (fascinatingly) unconsciously ...
I dont think any non Indian languages have this thing!
I am a mallu, but I just cant remember any such combinations spoken in Malayalam.
But I did find a website which uses this Idiosyncracy www.moovyshoovy.com
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