Re: OT: of 'sar-aa-sar', 'din-ba-din' and 'kash-ma-kash' (Re: BOL

Date: Thu, 01 May 2003 21:02:29 -0700
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.misc
Size: 2,101 bytes

Surma Bhopali wrote:
> Following up on UVR's interesting post in another thread. I assume:
>
> - prefix 'aa' means 'tak'(to), example 'aamaraN' meaning 'maraN tak';
No, no! You are confusing two completely different languages.
The 'aa' prefix in 'aamaraN' is from Sanskrit. The 'aa' in
'sar-aa-sar' is from Persian and is not a prefix/preposition.
> - prefix 'ba'(also used as 'baa') means 'se'(by/from), example
> 'ba_kaayadaa' meaning 'kaayade se';
And now you're confusing two different things here. The 'in
between' -ba- does not mean 'ke saath'.
> In that case, IMO 'ekaaek' is in fact a combination of 'ek' and
> 'aaek'[something like ek-(aa-ek) -- reminds me of operator precedence
> thread] and the literal meaning is something like (from
> )one-to-one(another) which later evolved to mean 'achaanak'.
> 'yakaayak' is Urdu usage of 'ekaaek'.
It is highly unlikely that 'ekaaek' evolved into either of
these words. Etymologically, achaanak is not related to
'ekaaek'. The origin of yakaayak is Persian. Urdu borrowed
it as-is.
> 'din-ba-din' obviously means day-by-day. However, I don't think 'ma'
> (as in kash-ma-kash) is used with the same connotation as 'ba'. I
> think it started as a sort of colloquialised form of Hindi 'me.n'(in).
Not so. The 'ma' here is a direct import from Persian and
has nothing to do with 'me.n'. Random guessing of this kind
sometimes does lead to the correct answer, but it is far
more helpful to just look into a dictionary.
BTW, 'fa' is also used as a conjunction: waqtan-fa-waqtan
(waqt waqt par, samay samay par)
> Have heard people using 'dhakkamdhakkaa' which I tend to break as
> 'dhakkaa-ma-dhakkaa' and then as 'dhakke-me.n-dhakkaa' meaning too
> much of 'dhakkaa's. Pronouncing 'me.n' as 'ma' or 'm' and 'se' as 'sa'
> or 's' (example 'kamaskam') are results of human tendency to take
> short-cuts.
Not so fast. There's no short cut in kamaskam! And it's
because the so-called 's' is not an 's' at all. The word
is 'kam az kam'. You must either use it in this original
form from Persian, or you must use it as kam se kam.
-UVR.