Lably
Skip to content

Phonological history of Hindustani

  • 11 min read
  • 5 chapters

Explore on Lably

ToursExplore Lably’s 3D tours

Indo-Aryan etymologizing

The history of Hindustani language is marked by a large number of borrowings at all stages. Native grammarians have devised a set of etymological classes for modern Indo-Aryan vocabulary:

  • Tadbhava (Sanskrit: तद्भव, "arising from that") refers to terms that are inherited from vernacular Apabhraṃśa (Sanskrit: अपभ्रंश, lit. 'corrupted'), from the dramatic Prakrits, and further from Sanskrit. An example is Hindustani jībh (जीभ جیبھ) "tongue", inherited through Prakrit jibbhā, from Sanskrit jihvā. Such words are the focus of this article.
  • Tatsama (Sanskrit: तत्सम, lit. 'as it is, same as that') refers to words that are borrowed into Hindi or Old Hindi directly from Sanskrit with minor phonological modification (e.g. lack of pronunciation of the final schwa). The Hindi register of Hindustani is associated with a large number of tatsama words through Sanskritisation. An example is Hindustani rūp (रूप روپ) "form", directly from Sanskrit rūpa.
  • Ardhatatsama (Sanskrit: अर्धतत्सम, lit. 'half-same as that') refers to words that are semi-learned borrowings from Sanskrit. That is, words that underwent some tadbhava sound changes, but were adapted on the basis of a Sanskrit word. An example is Hindustani sūraj (सूरज سورج) "sun", which is from Prakrit sujja, from Sanskrit sūrya. We would expect Hindustani *sūj from Prakrit, but the -r- was added later on after the Sanskrit word. Such adaptation to Sanskrit occurred continuously and as early as the Middle Indo-Aryan stage. Adapted words were crucial to determining the date and chronology of sound changes.
  • Dēśaj (Sanskrit: देशज, lit. 'indigenous') refers to words that may or may not be derived from Prakrit, but cannot be shown to have a clear Sanskrit etymon. This is sometimes complicated by Sanskrit re-borrowing of Prakrit words. Such words sometimes usually derive from Non-Indo-Aryan languages—including Dravidian, Munda, and Tibeto-Burman languages, though they can also just be onomatopoeias as well. An example is Hindustani ōṛhnā (ओढ़ना اوڑھنا) "to cover up, veil", from Prakrit ǒḍḍhaṇa "covering, cloak", from Dravidian, whence Tamil uṭu (உடு) "to wear".

In the context of Hindustani, other etymological classes of relevance are:

  • Perso-Arabic loanwords, which came to Old Hindi (mostly from Classical Persian). The pronunciation is closer to Classical Persian, rather than modern Iranian Persian. The Urdu register of Hindustani is associated with a large number of Perso-Arabic loanwords. An example is Hindustani zubān "tongue, language", from Classical Persian zubān (whence Iranian Persian zobân).
  • Borrowings from Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages. Modern Hindustani, while based primarily on the language of the Khariboli region, comes from a dialectal mixture. Many of the Western Hindi dialects are transitional to Punjabi and the Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages, and have donated words to Hindustani that underwent Northwestern sound changes. We often encounter doublets like Hindustani makkhan (मक्खन مکھن) "butter", borrowed from Northwestern dialects—compare Punjabi makkhaṇ (ਮੱਖਣ مکھݨ)—, and Hindustani mākhan (माखन ماکھن), the native tadbhava term which is now archaic/obsolete outside of fossilized phrases.

Like many other languages, many phenomena in the historical evolution of Hindustani are better explained by the wave model than by the tree model. In particular, the oldest changes like the conditioned retroflexion of dental stops and loss of ṛ have been subject to a great deal of dialectal variance and borrowing. In the face of doublets like Hindustani baṛhnā (बढ़ना بڑھنا) "to increase" and badhnā (बधना بدھنا) "to increase" where one has undergone retroflexion and the other has not, it is difficult to know exactly under what conditions the sound change operated. One often encounters sound changes described as "spontaneous" or "sporadic" in the literature (such as "spontaneous nasalization"). This means that the sound change's context and/or isogloss (i.e. dialects in which the sound change operated) have been sufficiently obscured by inter-dialect borrowing, semi-learned adaptations to Classical Sanskrit or Prakrits, or analogical leveling.

Sign in to keep reading

4 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in India

MuslimsAdherents of IslamPresidencies and provinces of British India1612–1947 British directly-ruled administrative divisions in IndiaStates and union territories of IndiaIndia is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 sSikhsReligious groupInternational Alphabet of Sanskrit TransliterationTransliteration scheme for Indic scriptsPrime Minister of IndiaHead of government