Language Blog

I haven’t managed to finish the last few posts that I’ve started here. Moving on to translate whole sentences, in my state of advanced ignorance in Hindi and Punjabi, has taken a bit more time and effort than expected. I might have to break down and buy a “how to speak Hindi” book to augment the online reading I do. The sites that I use for learning Hindi are nice, but I have a tendency to “overeat” and open five, six, seven of them at once and get lost in the information. Sometimes it’s nice to have a book, something pulpy to hold and read, one single source on which to focus.

For the most part, this blog is similar to my Twitter feed, which is me talking into the void. Yesterday, the void talked back. Ben, from Lexiophiles, added me to his list of top 100 language blogs at #97. Hmmm. That’s unexpected. Thanks for the acknowledgement, guys. But I hope no one gets the wrong impression that I have any idea what I’m doing here. This blog is my effort to learn; all teaching is incidental

Anyway: I’ll be away from home and — hopefully — away from a computer until next week. No language learning until then. I will have several hours in airports and planes to think about which direction to go next with this blog. It’s time to develop a plan.

This is a companion post to a previous post that lists the consonants of the Punjabi alphabet. Or, in other words, now I can finally provide some closure to being able to read Punjabi. (Making sense of what I read, of course, is a totally different problem.)

The first three letters of the alphabet — ੳ, ਅ, and ੲ — are not used by themselves. Each serves as a foundation on which independent vowels are formed. Vowels take two forms: (1) independent vowels, which stand alone or can be used as the first letter in a word, are formed by adding a vowel sign to one of the three bases; and (2) dependent vowels, which are formed by adding a vowel sign to a consonant (in the second case, the vowel can not be the first letter of the word).

Dependent Vowels

Independent Vowels

OK. I’ve trudged through the 100 most common Hindi words and incorporated suggestions and corrections. Now, I’ve incorporated those changes into the spreadsheet of the 1899 most common words.

Have a look. It is posted as a Google Spreadsheet: Common Hindi Words.

If you would like to help me develop it, please let me know. The list comes from the Hindi Google Group, and I am modifying it to fit my aims. Email me at kirk.kittell@gmail.com if you want to help me edit the spreadsheet online. Else, if you want to download your own copy:

• Copy a version of the spreadsheet (if you have a Google account, this will copy the spreadsheet to your Google Documents)
• Download the spreadsheet as: .xls - .csv - .html - .ods - .pdf - .txt

In the course of stumbling through the top 100 most commonly used words in Hindi, I got some helpful advice regarding my mistakes and omissions. Now it’s time to finally put that advice into play and update the first ten posts of ten words each…

1 to 10

8. अपने
ap-ne
(adjective) ours (plural form of अपना)

11 to 20

11. होता
ho-taa
(verb) happening - singular masculine imperfective aspect of होना

14. हुए
hu-e
(verb) becoming - plural masculine perfective aspect of होना

19. रहा
ra-haa
(auxiliary verb) masculine singular form of continuous aspect auxiliary verb

21 to 30

25. अपनी
ap-nii
(adjective) her own; hers - feminine form of अपना

26. होती
ho-tii
(verb) happening - singular feminine imperfective aspect of होना

31 to 40

32. रहे
ra-he
(auxiliary verb) masculine plural form of continuous aspect auxiliary verb

35. रही
ra-hii
(auxiliary verb) feminine singular form of continuous aspect auxiliary verb

36. होने
ho-ne
(verb) oblique infinitive form of होना

38. हुई
hu-ii
(verb) becoming - singular feminine perfective aspect of होना

41 to 50

OK

51 to 60

51. गये
ga-ye
(verb) plural perfective aspect of जाना, to go

53. आदि
a-di
(noun) et cetera 

58. उन्होंने
un-hon-ne
(pronoun) oblique case of they 

61 to 70

65. उनकी
un-kii
(adjective) theirs; his - formal

71 to 80

OK

81 to 90

OK

91 to 100

92. उनका
un-a-kaa
(adjective) theirs; his - formal

96. इसका
is-a-kaa
(adjective) his - informal

Vinay, Pradeep, thank you again for all of your help. And now, on to something more practical: not just words, but sentences.

Key

• Generally, h denotes aspiration.
• For ਤ, ਥ, ਦ, and ਧ, the underlined t and d denote dental consonants, i.e., the tongue is placed behind the front teeth. ਟ, ਠ, ਡ, and ਢ, with d and t not underlined denote retroflex consonants, i.e., the tongue is placed further back in the mouth with its tip against the palate.
• The first three letters, ੳ, ਅ, and ੲ, are not used on their own. They are used in combination with dependent vowels to form independent vowels, e.g., ਉ is u, ਆ is aa, and ਈ is ii, however by themselves they represent nothing.
• Alphabetical order is left to right, down to the next row then left to right, etc.

Punjabi Alphabet

From the Houston Chronicle, 6 August 2008:

Houston todavía puede seguir recibiendo aguaceros y experimentar tormentas en el día de hoy a medida que la humedad dejada por la tormenta tropical Edouard se condensa y luego se precipita, según meteorólogos.

“No estamos anticipando un patrón organizado de lluvia”, dijo el meteorólogo del Servicio Meteorológico Nacional (SMN) Charles Roeseler. “En algunas zonas podría llover una pulgada, tal vez dos, pero no como ayer”.

Full article: “Las lluvias de Edouard no dan señales de receso en Houston.”

Vocabulary:

• todavía - (adverb) still
• puede - 3rd person singular present indicative / 2nd person singular imperative form of poder
  • poder - (auxiliary verb) can, could  [conjugate]
• seguir - (transitive verb) to follow [conjugate]
• recibiendo - gerund form of recibir
  • recibir - (transitive verb) to receive [conjugate]
• aguaceros - (m. noun) downpour
• experimentar - (intransitive verb) to experience; to feel [conjugate]
• tormenta - (f. noun) storm
• medida - (f. noun) measurement
• humedad - (f. noun) dampness; humidity
• dejada - (adjective) untidy, slovenly
• condensa - 3rd person singular present indicative / 2nd person singular imperative form of condensar
  • condensar - (transitive verb) to condense [conjugate]
• luego - (adverb) later; then, next
• precipita - 3rd person singular present indicative / 2nd person singular imperative form of precipitar
  • precipitar - to precipitate [conjugate]
• según - (preposition) according to
• meteorólogo - (m. noun) meteorologist
• anticipando - gerund form of anticipar
  • anticipar - (transitive verb) to advance [conjugate]
• patrón - (m. noun) pattern
• organizado - (adjective) organized
• lluvia - (f. noun) rain
• dijo - 3rd person singular preterite indicative form of decir
  • decir - (transitive verb) to say [conjugate]
• alguna - (adjective) some
• zona - (f. noun) area
• podría - 1st/3rd person singular conditional indicative form of poder
• llover - (impersonal verb) to rain [conjugate]
• pulgada - (f. noun) inch
• tal - (adjective) such
• vez - (f. noun) time, occasion
• ayer - (adverb) yesterday

Words ranked number 91 to 100 in the spreadsheet of the most common Hindi words (courtesy of Hindi Google Group and Resource Center for Indian Language Technology Solutions):

91. व्यक्ति
vyak-ti
(f. noun) a person; a particular person

92. उनका
un-a-kaa
(adjective) theirs; his - formal

93. लिये
li-ye
(verb) took; received; accepted. This is the masculine plural, perfective aspect of लेना, “to take.”

94. इसलिए
is-a-li-e
(adverb) so; therefore

95. तीन
tiin
(adjective) three

96. इसका
is-a-kaa
(adjective) his - informal

97. ऐसी
ai-sii
(f. adjective) of this sort

98. विशेष
vi-shesh
(adjective) 1. particular, special, distinctive. 2. excellent.

99. बड़ी
ba-dii
(f. adjective) big, large; great

100. अथवा
ath-a-vaa
(conjunction) or

The following resources were helpful for this set of words:

• Verbix, for the conjugation of लेना
• Universal Word - Hindi Dictionary for the definition of इसलिए
• As always: The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary

Now that I’ve made it to 100 — except, of course, for the lingering blanks — I am going to shift focus for some time. First, the spreadsheet of most common Hindi words needs to be completed; from 41 to 60, the definitions are included, but for the others I didn’t include the information in the spreadsheet. Second, the previous posts need to have styles and errors fixed. Thanks to Pradeep and Vinay, I learned about things I was missing or had translated incorrectly. Now I will go back and fix the errors.

The next step is to put some of this new knowledge to use, to find sentences containing this set of 100 words and help to give them more context and meaning.

The idea to start over and study Hindi from the most common words down originated from a video interview of Tim Ferriss that I watched some weeks ago. He attacked Japanese in the same way, first learning the words he was mostly likely to see — a list of the most commonly used words in the language — and building his knowledge around that. It made sense to me. Ultimately, it might not be the best way, for for self study, preparing myself for what I was most likely to see seems like a good idea.

Now to go and apply the knowledge practically, then we’ll see if this is right.

Words ranked number 81 to 90 in the spreadsheet of the most common Hindi words (courtesy of Hindi Google Group and Resource Center for Indian Language Technology Solutions):

81. दूसरे
duu-sa-re
(adverb) another; secondly

82. हाथ
haath
(m. noun) hand (as in giving a hand)

83. भाषा
bhaa-shaa
(f. noun) language; speech

84. मेरे
me-re
(pl. adjective) my

85. मैंने
main-ne
(pronoun) I - This is the first person singular ergative case of मैं. ने denotes ergative case.

86. तुम
tum
(pronoun) you (informal)

87. बीच
biich
(m. noun) middle. बीच के is the preposition between.

88. वाली
vaa-lii
(f. suffix) 1. (added to noun) a person employed in the preceding noun. 2. (added to adjective) adds emphasis to preceding adjective. 3. (added to noun, adjective, or noun phrase) gives adjectival properties to preceding word. 4. (added to verb) gives agentive meaning to preceding verb. Feminine form of वाला. http://www.geekofalltrades.net/2007/02/grammarwallah.html has a good explanation of how the word works.

89. बड़े
ba-de
(pl. m. adjective) big, large; great; elder

90. प्रति
pra-ti
1. (f. noun) copy of an original. 2. (f. noun) section, group (of a larger whole). 3. (prefix) again, back again, re-. 4. (preposition) towards, against, anti-. 5. (preposition) each, every; per. 6. (preposition) similar to.

Pradeep also says that रति in used on the cover of letters in place of to.

Pradeep had a good suggestion. He said — and I’ll paraphrase, to entertain myself — that I’m a nut and a dope for worrying about individual words because they don’t mean anything. In these top 100 words: he’s right. Maybe if I was learning a list of, say, types of fruit or days of the week, slogging through individual words would make sense. In this case, going through the top 100 words, it really doesn’t.

For example, in English, I bet the word been is one of the top words, perhaps in the top 100. How would I explain the word been to someone? It’s a form of to be, but it doesn’t stand alone. You use it with other verbs — say, has been – to indicate progressive tense. What I’m getting at: for a beginner, that’s all arcana. Ask a native speaker to explain something that he or she knows by heart, but has a tricky description, and you might not get such a great response. I had to look up that been was used in the progressive case. I just knew that we… well, that we use been, and I could make a sentence with it.

There’s Pradeep’s suggestion for improvement: use sentences. It’s a good idea. Once I get to 100 words, I will change course and think about the context of the words, not just the words themselves. I think at 100 words, I should be able to tackle bbc.co.uk/hindi and find plenty of instances of the words here. That’s the reason I started with the most common words: because there are more of them out there in the wild than the other words.

Words ranked number 71 to 80 in the spreadsheet of the most common Hindi words (courtesy of Hindi Google Group and Resource Center for Indian Language Technology Solutions):

71. इसी (is-ii)
(adjective, singular oblique) this (emphatic)

72. देश desh
(m. noun) 1. place, region. 2. country; nation.

73. यदि (ya-di)
(conjunction) if; whether

74. सभी (sa-bhii)
(adjective, pronoun) every single one; absolutely all

75. नाम (naam)
(m. noun) name, title

76. वर्ष (varsh)
(m. noun) a year

77. ऐसा (ai-saa)
(adjective - singular) of this sort

78. विकास (vi-kaas)
(m. noun) opening, expanding

79. अपना (ap-naa)
(adjective) one’s, one’s own; his, her, my

80. ऐसे (ai-se)
(adjective - plural) of this sort

These ten words are taken from a spreadsheet of the most common Hindi words (courtesy of Hindi Google Group and Resource Center for Indian Language Technology Solutions). Many many thanks to Vinay from the Hindi group for dropping by to advise and correct on Wednesday. (I’ll respond to the comment soon. I’m trying to digest it still…). I don’t think I could have as much patience as you to read and try to help someone like me stumble and fumble through this.

Words ranked #61 to #70:

61. वहाँ
va-haan
(adverb) there.

62. भारत
bhaa-rat
(m. noun) India.

63. लिया
li-yaa
(verb) taken. This is the singular perfect form of लेना, to take.

64. प्राप्त
praapt
(adjective) 1. obtained; acquired; incurred. 2. come upon, found.

65. उनकी
un-kii
(adjective) theirs; his - formal

66. लोगों (lo-gon)
(pl. noun) people. This is the oblique plural form of लोग, people.

67. गयी (ga-yii)
(verb) went. This is the feminine singular past participle of जाना, to go.

68. लगा (la-gaa)
(verb) seemed. This is the masculine singular past participle of लगना, to seem.

69. अन्य (an-ya)
(adjective) other, different.

70. होगा (ho-gaa)
(verb) will be. This is the third person future tense of होना, to be.

There should be some sort of disclaimer that goes with all of this, say: every time I write “this is” it really means “this is probably, I think.”

Help with this post comes from:

• Vinay. Pointing out that गये is a participle of जाना steered me in the direction of understanding गयी.
• Google Translate was a huge help for लगा.
• Verbix helped me understand the conjugation patterns for a variety of the verbs.
• Wikipedia [Hindi-Urdu grammar] helped me understand the future tense.
• geocities.com/lordvaruna - I don’t know whose web site it is, but it was helpful to see another view of verb conjugation.
• Last, never least: The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary

Edit (15 August 2008): Updated with help from Pradeep — see Errata, Words 1 to 100 for changes.