Proverbs?

There is this interesting concept of various ന്യായം in malayalam.

Apparently, these are Sanskrit proverbs.

A couple of interesting ones:

ലൂതാതന്തുന്യായം - (ലൂത = spider, തന്തു = thread). Just as a spider weaves its own thread, makes the web and then destroys it, one person destroying what he himself made.

കൈമുതികന്ന്യായം (കിം ഉത) A rhetoric question that assumes knowledge without saying clearly what is known. E.g. "പിന്നെപ്പറയണമോ?"

കാകതാലീയന്യായം (കാക = crow, താലീയം = fruit of palm) "Post hoc ergo propter hoc" - after this therefore because of this. For example, the crow sat on the palm tree and coincidentally the fruit fell down does not imply that the sitting of the crow caused the fruit to fall down.

Do you know of others?

Fear

Just as നെയ്യ് comes from the Sanskrit സ്നേഹം, the word for fear, പേടി comes from the Sanskrit ഭീഷ് (meaning fearsome). (Such words are called തത്ഭവം )

That might sound like a far cry. But it is not that difficult to see. It is conceivable that ഭീ was transformed to പീ. What about the ഷ? There is this etymological rule that in some words the ഷ gets transformed into a ട. Thus, ഭീഷ് -> പീട് -> പേടി.

Land and Sea

Sometimes, even simple everyday words have very interesting etymology.

The other day I came across these two.

The common word for sea is കടല്‍. It comes from കട + അല്‍. We see കട in കടക്കുക, to cross. The അല്‍ is the same one what we see in അല്ല no. Thus കടല്‍ means "that which cannot be crossed".

On the other hand, land is കര. Originally, it means shore. It comes from the root കര that we see in കരന്നു പോവുക which means to gnaw, to dissolve, to decay. Of course, the water gnaws at the shore.

Isn't it interesting?

P.S. I finally have a copy of ശബ്ദതാരാവലി - the giant mallu dictionary! The above two tidbits are from that. Keep tuned for more :-)

Cuts and bruises

The other day my mom told me she was using some മുറിവെണ്ണ. I found it a bit funny since we can split മുറിവെണ്ണ in two ways.

One is മുറിവെണ്ണ = മുറി + വെണ്ണ meaning a piece of butter :-)
Of course, the correct split is മുറിവെണ്ണ = മുറിവ് + എണ്ണ meaning oil for a cut.

We see the same root മുറി in other common words like തേങ്ങാമുറി = a half of a coconut. A "room" is called മുറി - of course, you 'cut the house' into rooms.

The mallu word for bruise is പരുക്ക് . I don't really know the etymology of that. May be it is related to പരുപരുത്ത, meaning "rough". Perhaps, പരുക്ക് refers to the scar left behind after a bruise. Any ideas?

Can you drink with your feet?

There are a number of words that use one-letter suffixes to create new meanings. Invariably, most of these came from Sanskrit.

പം means 'That which drinks'. Thus we have ദ്വിപം 'that which drinks twice' or an elephant. (Of course, it first 'drinks' into its trunk and then drinks into its mouth :-) Similarly we have പാദപം 'that which drinks with its feet' or a tree.

ജം is another common suffix. It means 'that which is born from'. For example, ജലജം 'that which is born of water' or a lotus.

ദം means 'that which gives'. Hence ജലദം 'that which gives water' or a cloud.

ഗം means 'that which goes or that which goes through or by'. For example, ഖഗം 'that which goes through the sky (ഖ)' or a bird. ഉരഗം 'that which goes using its body' or a snake.

There are also some other lesser known one-letter suffixes even though they are part of some common words. An example is ത്രം which means, 'that which protects from'. We see it in the common word പുത്രന്‍ meaning 'one who protects from പു (one of the hells)'. (I think the idea was that having a son born is so lucky it will protect you from the hell പു ). Or ആതപത്രം 'that which protects from sunshine' or an umbrella.

ധി means 'a collection of'. As in, വാരിധി 'a collection of water' or ocean.

Of course, we can combine them produce new words. For example:
അബ്ധിജം = അപ് + ധി + ജം = that which is born from a collection of water (അപ് ) = that which is born from sea = lotus

Roots

Ran into the online version of കേരള പാണിനീയം. Especially the one on roots.

Check it out!

The origin of God

In an earlier post, we looked at some of words meaning God. Let's dig in a bit deeper.

Most of the current words seem to be derived from Sanskrit.

For example, ദൈവം, ഈശ്വരന്‍ , ഭഗവാന്‍ etc. comes from the Sankrit roots.

There is an "older" word for God - ആണ്ടവന്‍ This word does not appear in Gundert's, but a related word does. അണ്ടര്‍ - meaning god. Gundert gives two origins:

• അണ്ഡം (universe) -> അണ്ടം -> അണ്ടര്‍
• അണ്ണ (above) -> അണ്ട -> അണ്ടര്‍
  

Given that this is such an old word, I subscribe more to the second etymology. (അണ്ണ is the same root from which we have അണ്ണന്‍ - elder brother)

I also noticed an interesting connection with another word അണ്ട (young bamboo shoot). Gundert says it comes from ആണ്‍ + തൈ = അണ്ടൈ -> അണ്ട by means of some neat ആദേശസന്ധി. I think this will be a deep, male-centric, etymology for the god-word as well: God is the "Male Shoot" or the male form - the പുരുഷന്‍ - of the godhead.

But somehow this interpretation seems very forced. If there is a word for the the male form, there should be a word for the female form as well - and I don't know of any. Also, the etymology given by Gundert indicates a non-sexist God - especially with the -അര്‍ suffix, as opposed to the -അന്‍ suffix.

Interestingly, one of the tamil words for God is ഇറൈ which also means "above".