WORD FOR WORD : Khaled Ahmed
Khaled Ahmed's article appear in Pakistani newspaper "Daily Times." He is a linguist and it is amazing to read how word are connected to each other and how one word is derived from another or transforms into yet another. This is important because it shows how human language evolve and how one culture is related to another. Here read one of his column:
WORD FOR WORD: Why is North ‘no good’? —Khaled Ahmed
Each civilisation reacts intriguingly to directions. How were East and West named? What was the method of designating directions? We know that the sun determined directions in most civilisations.
In India, directions were determined by facing the rising sun. The name purva (east) means early, prior and first. English previous is of the same origin. Russian pervi (first) is from the same group.
When you face east towards the sun, on your right hand is south which is daksh. This is an auspicious direction and the right hand is considered sacred. When you give alms you give with the right hand. That’s why it is called dakshina. In Urdu at times we call south dakkan.
In Arabic east is mashriq. It is from the root shrq meaning hole. Light comes out of it. The motto of Punjab University is ex oriente lux (out of the East comes light).
The Greeks named the Arabs from the direction they said they had come: east. Sarakenos, a form of sharq. This came to English as Saracens and to French as Sarazzin.
In Urdu, we use ishraq as a kind of enlightenment. Mashriq doesn’t have a bad connotation.
As one stood facing the sun, the right hand (yemen) was south, and left hand (shamaal) was north. Yemen is the name of the country in the south of Arabian peninsula. It means the right hand and that means auspicious.
But the north gets a rough deal in Arabic. It is shamaal. In the Quran the people of shamaal will go to Hell and the people of yemen will go to Heaven. It becomes clear that directions have good as well negative meanings.
It is said that in Egypt when the shamaal (north) wind blew people started preparing their shrouds because of its deadly effect. From there anything that covers you like a shroud is shamlah. Today we use it to describe the cloth we wind around our headgear.
When a large piece of cloth is wound around something it gives us a sense of containment. Hence any contained matter is shaamil, but the truth remains that it comes from an inauspicious root that makes shamaal (north).
Inclusion, a good word, is shamuliyat. All the habits that make the package of our personality are called shamayal. When in Urdu you describe your sweetheart as hur-shamayal you are pointing to her habits and physical attributes. The name shamayala means beautiful.
On the other hand all names derived from yemen mean good. From yameen to maimanat all good names come from the right hand, so to speak. Even Al Qaeda’s Ayman al Zawahiri derives his name from the same root. Amir Khusrau’s rag aiman was derived from the same sense.
The left hand has a raw deal. Syria is Shaam in Urdu but the Syrians prefer the ancient name Surya. Because of its location in the north, Shaam is derived from the root shm meaning left hand. We use shumi in Urdu as misfortune. Shum is a miser — the most unfortunate man according to the Quran.
But Arabic devised a way to bestow honour on the left hand too. It is done through the sense of making things so easy that they could be done with the left hand. The left hand is in the root ysr in Arabic. Yassir is someone who makes things easy. Making the Quran easy for children is Yasr nal Quran. When you have good times the period is called yussr.
In Urdu, west is maghrib. It comes from the Arabic root ghrb meaning to go away or leave. It points to the departure of the sun. We also get ghareeb meaning strange, one who goes away or someone who is in foreign lands. In Urdu it means poor. *
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005%5C10%5C30%5Cstory_30-10-2005_pg3_3
WORD FOR WORD: Why is North ‘no good’? —Khaled Ahmed
Each civilisation reacts intriguingly to directions. How were East and West named? What was the method of designating directions? We know that the sun determined directions in most civilisations.
In India, directions were determined by facing the rising sun. The name purva (east) means early, prior and first. English previous is of the same origin. Russian pervi (first) is from the same group.
When you face east towards the sun, on your right hand is south which is daksh. This is an auspicious direction and the right hand is considered sacred. When you give alms you give with the right hand. That’s why it is called dakshina. In Urdu at times we call south dakkan.
In Arabic east is mashriq. It is from the root shrq meaning hole. Light comes out of it. The motto of Punjab University is ex oriente lux (out of the East comes light).
The Greeks named the Arabs from the direction they said they had come: east. Sarakenos, a form of sharq. This came to English as Saracens and to French as Sarazzin.
In Urdu, we use ishraq as a kind of enlightenment. Mashriq doesn’t have a bad connotation.
As one stood facing the sun, the right hand (yemen) was south, and left hand (shamaal) was north. Yemen is the name of the country in the south of Arabian peninsula. It means the right hand and that means auspicious.
But the north gets a rough deal in Arabic. It is shamaal. In the Quran the people of shamaal will go to Hell and the people of yemen will go to Heaven. It becomes clear that directions have good as well negative meanings.
It is said that in Egypt when the shamaal (north) wind blew people started preparing their shrouds because of its deadly effect. From there anything that covers you like a shroud is shamlah. Today we use it to describe the cloth we wind around our headgear.
When a large piece of cloth is wound around something it gives us a sense of containment. Hence any contained matter is shaamil, but the truth remains that it comes from an inauspicious root that makes shamaal (north).
Inclusion, a good word, is shamuliyat. All the habits that make the package of our personality are called shamayal. When in Urdu you describe your sweetheart as hur-shamayal you are pointing to her habits and physical attributes. The name shamayala means beautiful.
On the other hand all names derived from yemen mean good. From yameen to maimanat all good names come from the right hand, so to speak. Even Al Qaeda’s Ayman al Zawahiri derives his name from the same root. Amir Khusrau’s rag aiman was derived from the same sense.
The left hand has a raw deal. Syria is Shaam in Urdu but the Syrians prefer the ancient name Surya. Because of its location in the north, Shaam is derived from the root shm meaning left hand. We use shumi in Urdu as misfortune. Shum is a miser — the most unfortunate man according to the Quran.
But Arabic devised a way to bestow honour on the left hand too. It is done through the sense of making things so easy that they could be done with the left hand. The left hand is in the root ysr in Arabic. Yassir is someone who makes things easy. Making the Quran easy for children is Yasr nal Quran. When you have good times the period is called yussr.
In Urdu, west is maghrib. It comes from the Arabic root ghrb meaning to go away or leave. It points to the departure of the sun. We also get ghareeb meaning strange, one who goes away or someone who is in foreign lands. In Urdu it means poor. *
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005%5C10%5C30%5Cstory_30-10-2005_pg3_3
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