Indian Words

When I lived in London, an Indian friend Raja would always say, “Hey Man!” whenever we met. His name was ‘Raja’, but everyone called him ‘Roger’. He used the word ‘man’ quite liberally and would add it into any conversation at least a few times, the same way some people do with profanity. He had long hair, was extremely chilled, a bit of a hippie, so I kind of expected him to say something like that. One day he must have said it about ten times in one conversation that I simply had to point it out. I suggested he was overusing it just a little. He raised his eyebrows and looked at me very seriously and told me that I did not realize the true significance of what he was saying. I asked him to elaborate and he told me that this was one of the earliest greetings and words used by our ancient Indian ancestors, and connected them to their humanity. I must admit even though I was intrigued, I still thought this was the ramblings of an eccentric at the time. Still, I wanted to hear what he had to say. He explained that the word ‘man’ originally came from Sanskrit that was part of the original language that all European languages had branched off from, over centuries as people migrated Westwards. The Sanskrit word itself was ‘manu’. The original meaning of ‘manu’ was similar to the gender-neutral word ‘human’, as in mankind. After learning about this from him, I researched what he had talked about and found that indeed he had a point, based on the study of language – linguistics.

I wanted to explore the archaic and modern influence of the Indian languages on English. We know that hundreds of words were appropriated into the language from the colonial age when the British ruled India. But well before this, there were already ‘Indian words’ in the whole of Europe. This was observed in the 16^th Century when visitors to the Indian subcontinent noticed similarities among Indo-Persian and European languages.

A hypothesis was formed that there was a relationship between them. Sir William Jones, a philologist, remarked in a lecture on linguistics in 1786 that the structural similarity between Sanskrit, Greek and Latin had to be more than a coincidence, suggesting that there was a common source. Just a few decades later, the term Indo-European was used to describe the relationship and by the mid-1850’s it was accepted that there was a strong historical and geographical relationship which has now been researched for at least the last two hundred years. Proto-Indo-European is the root of these languages that are interconnected like the branches of a tree.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

This also parallels the movement and migration of people known from the genographic project, a genetic anthropological study to examine the migration patterns of people over thousands of years using gene markers in their DNA. There is a strong correlation between the migration patterns and the prevalence of languages related to those people who migrated. 

Ancient DNA and the Proto-Indo-European Homeland Credit: Anthrogenica.com

It is thought that somewhere on the Eurasian Steppes the archaic Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language was born. There are many competing theories about when and where this happened, but many point to the area of the fertile crescent and the rise of agriculture, around 12000 years ago, being the catalyst for the spread and differentiation of these languages. Indo-European languages then flourished over this area as migrations continued in all directions. As a result, we have language trees and common roots of many words in the modern languages that resemble the original words and sounds very closely and others that have changed over time.

Spread of the Proto-Indo-European word for ‘Brother’ Credit: Bigthink.com

I was particularly interested in the connections between the Sanskrit words that had given rise to many of the Indian languages including Urdu and Hindi and the Germanic language- English. English was first used in India as early as the 1600’s, but the official language of the East India Company was originally Persian and later replaced by English in the 1830’s, together with Urdu and Hindi. This was maintained when the British Raj took over governance of the country from 1857 until 1947.

 Urdu and Hindi are both very similar in their syntax and phonology which makes them interchangeable in general speech, although they have totally different scripts. Urdu has a Perso-Arabic script with grammar derived from Persian influence and Hindi has the Devanagari script drawn from Sanskrit. The core vocabulary of both Hindi and Urdu are almost identical being derived mostly from Sanskrit with a substantial component of loanwords from Persian and Arabic. ‘Hindi’ denoting the language comes from the word ‘Hindu’, which is the Persianized version of the Sanskrit ‘Sindhu’ meaning a large body of water or river. This was not originally a religious label, but referred to the civilization of the Indus river valley and was an ethno-geographical term. Since the 16^th century and colonization, the languages evolved into cultural identities of the speakers, but this incontrovertible relationship between the two also gave rise to the concept of ‘Hindustani’ as a pluricentric language with two standardized registers and was endorsed by Mahatma Gandhi as a unifying fusion language. It is also the third most commonly spoken language in the world after English and Mandarin.

The interaction between speakers of the English language and Hindustani during the time of the British Raj left an indelible mark on both languages. There are many English words that have been incorporated into Hindi, particularly during the 19^th and 20^th centuries where modern inventions which had no Hindi equivalent were used. Likewise, there are over 700 words that were learnt by English soldiers, administrators, governors etc, that were transported back to Britain and adopted into the English language. These Indian words came from a variety of languages including Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and the ancient language of Sanskrit. Of course, there are literally hundreds of languages in daily use in the Indian subcontinent with at least 22 scheduled languages and two official languages of the government of India, Hindi and English.

Here is a compiled list of favourite words that are commonly used in English that have Indian origins:

 

Avatar- originally from a Sanskrit word avatarana meaning descent, referring to the descent from heaven by a Hindu god into an earthly incarnation. Later on it became a reference for the embodiment or personification of something and is now commonly used as a graphic representation. 

Bandana- from the Sankrit roots of the Hindi word bandhna, ‘to tie’. A piece of cloth worn around the head or neck originating from the Indian subcontinent.

Blighty- A corruption of the Urdu word vilayati, meaning ‘foreign’. Originally used by British troops in Colonial India as a term of endearment for home. It was then commonly used in the early 20^th Century to refer to Britain and is still used now.

Credit:Sepiamutiny.com 

Bungalow- from the Hindi and Urdu word baṅglā, literally meaning ‘house’ in the Bengali style

Cash- This word is controversial in that it may have also been derived from the Middle French word caisse, as in a case where money was kept which would have been a more local explanation. However there is evidence from logs on ships in the 16^th century that it was only used to denote money after the establishment of the East India Company and the word kasu was already used in Tamil, itself derived from the Sanskrit karsa. 

Cot- from the Hindi khat, a small light bed or crib for a child.

Cummerbund- Urdu origin from the Persian kamarband. Kamar meaning waist.

Cushy- from Urdu and Hindi Khushi which was derived from the Persian word khoši meaning easy, happy, soft.

Dinghy- from ḍīngī in Urdu and Hindi denoting a small rowing boat used on rivers and lakes in India.

Doolally- from the town of Deolali, which in the 19^th Century was the location of a British army base and sanatorium where soldiers were sent before leaving for Britain. Those that became mentally deranged after contacting a fever, or Tap in Urdu, were said to have ‘gone Doolally’.

Dungaree- from the Hindi ḍūṅgrī referring to the coarse calico fabric that was worn by labourers in the Dongari area of Mumbai.

Guru- from Sanskrit Guruh which literally means weighty or heavy used to denote a spiritual leader, as a teacher or one to be honoured.

Jodhpurs- Named after Jodhpur in Rajasthan where similar full-length trousers, baggy around the thighs and hips and narrowed down to the ankle were worn by the Rajputs for horse-riding. They enabled more freedom of movement and were based on Churidar pyjamas.

Juggernaut- after the Sanskrit jagannātha a form of Vishnu- lord of the universe in Hinduism. The massive Jagannath Temple in Puri, Odisha is well known for its festivals of Rath Yatra when thousands of devotees pull large wooden forms of Vishnu along with his brother and sister along on giant chariots through the streets. Used in English to describe a large vehicle as well as being used metaphorically.

Credit: nationalheraldindia.com

Jungle- from Sanksrit jaṅgala, meaning sparsely grown, arid and uncultivated land. Now used in English to mean any mass of wild and tangled vegetation. 

Karma- from Sanskrit karman, the sum of a person’s actions in life as well as the effect of the actions, hence fate. The cycle of cause and effect is embodied in karma.

Credit: karma-a-osud.cz

Loot- from the Hindi luti, the one who plunders or steals 

Mogul- From Hindi and Urdu originally from the Mongol Emperors known as Moghuls, such as Sha Jahan, the chap who commissioned the Taj Mahal. Used in English to indicate the leader in a field such as a ‘Media Mogul’. 

Punch- From the Hindi and Urdu word panch meaning ‘five’. The drink was originally made up of five ingredients and was particularly popular with the East India Companies’ Employees. 

Pundit- From Sanskrit Payndita, a learned man, scholar or teacher, also a priest.

Pyjamas- From Hindi and Urdu paijaamaa, meaning garment of the leg, originating from Persian. These are still the traditional dress in many parts of India, loose and comfortable that are now worn at bedtime in many Western countries.

Credit: movies.ndtv.com 

Shampoo- derived from the Hindi champo, meaning ‘to knead’ or massage.

Tickety-boo- My personal favourite and an interesting story behind this one. Originally it came from the Hindustani reply to an officer enquiring how everything was going. ‘Thīk hai, bābū’ literally meant, ‘It’s all right, sir’. This was shortened to Tickety-boo!

Credit: Buzzfeed.com