Every language has its own special characteristics. It is these special characteristics that set one language apart from another. On the other hand, some aspects are the same in every language, for example, prefixes and suffixes. Bengali, as well as the other Indo-Aryan languages, comes from Sanskrit, however the languages of India’s Dravidian people belong to the Austrico-Negroid group of languages. They are Telegu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannad and Tulu.

At one time the Arabian Sea did not exist. The southwestern portion of India was connected to Africa by a land route. Austrico-Negroid is the name of the racial mixture that was created by the mixing of the Indian and African peoples of that time. The composition of those languages does not accord with Sanskrit style but they do use a great number of Sanskrit words. For example, more than seventy-five percent of Malayalam and more than fifty percent of Telegu and Kannad is Sanskrit. However in Tamil it is only about five percent [shatkará]. Incidentally, the English equivalent of the Bengali word shatkará is “percent”. The word is originally Latin-French, thus its French pronunciation is pársán. People have altered its pronunciation in English to “percent”.

The word “Tamil” comes from the word drávid́ – drávid́ → drámid́ → drámil → támil. The Kuruk language of the Oráons of northern India’s Chottanagpur is also a Dravidian language. Baluchistan’s Baluch and Brahui (Brohii) are Dravidian languages as well. They also use many Sanskrit words.

Among the languages of the Aryan language group of north India, Oriya and Bengali are the most closely related. Going north from Andra Pradesh up to Orissa’s Ganjam District one sees a great influence of Telegu. After that Oriyan influence begins. Bengali begins from the middle of Orissa’s Baleshvar and Dantan. Oriya is an Aryan-group language while Telegu and Tamil are non-Aryan languages. All the Aryan languages depend on prefixes and suffixes while this is less true with the Dravidian languages. They can create many words without the help of prefixes or suffixes.

There is no old Vedic word for “mango”. The late Vedic word was sahakára. The words ámra, raśála, and cyúta are not Vedic; they are pure Laokika Sanskrit. Aurangzeb and his brother, Dara Shiko, were both good Sanskrit scholars. Aurangzeb gave mango the Sanskrit name sudhárasa. Sanskrit has two words, ámra and ámla. There is a Sanskrit rule, ra-layorabhedah in which ra and la are interchangeable; both ra and la are pronounced. It was sour, or amla, hence it was called ámla. Afterwards it became ámra. For example, roma – loma [wool], rohita – lohita [red] – both are used. Neither amla nor ámra lacks a suffix. Ra and la are both suffixes. This characteristic is also quite noticeable in French as well as in Bengali, Gujarati and other languages.

Burmese, Kan Chin, Kachin, Martavan, etc. are Indo-Burmese languages. In Southeast Asia, Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai belong to the Malay language group (Bengal’s martamán variety of banana comes from Burma’s Martaban). These languages are non-Aryan languages but they incorporate Sanskrit words without any difficulty. Nowadays the Indonesian language has been given the name “Bháśá Indonesia”.⁽¹⁾ They call the ocean mahodadhi. I have seen many girls with the name Kusumsambhavá. In Thailand my driver’s name was Krśd́adás (that is, Krśńadás) and my cook’s name was Judhit́t́thir (that is, Yudhiśt́hir). The name of one street was Apsará Rájpat́h. In the government hospital it was written “Rájánukúl Háspátal”. There was an ancient custom in Thailand to speak with the king in Sanskrit. For that reason his comments were first translated into Sanskrit through a Sanskrit scholar. In India those individuals in the different states who were skilled in farming were honoured as krśipańd́ita. In Thailand they are called vrkśashrii. Thailand’s royal preceptor’s name was Muni Vamadeva. The present-day emperor, Bhumibal, is an extremely dharmik-natured man, thus many of his subjects would like his name to be changed to Dharmaraj.

I was talking about Indonesia. In Indonesia and Malaysia the Rámáyańa and the Mahábhárata used to be read in every home. Indonesia’s previous president, Sukarno (Soyekarna) was named after the Karna of the Mahábhárata. Sukarno’s father added the su to his son’s name so that his child might not have the faults that the Karna of the Mahábhárata had. One of Sukarno’s daughters was born on a rainy season night. At the time there were dense black clouds in the sky, thus the father, Sukarno, gave his daughter the name “Meghavarńá Sukarńaputtrii”.⁽²⁾ In the garden at my Lake Gardens residence, Madhumálaiṋca, there is a plant called “Hanuman prasanna” which has been brought from Indonesia. It is a medicine for heart disease so it has been named after Hanuman, the son of the wind god as described in the Rámáyańa. The world’s largest flower, rafloshia arnaldis also comes from Indonesia; there it is called mahápuśpa [“Great flower”] in Sanskrit. Thus we see that all these languages easily make use of Sanskrit words despite being non-Aryan languages.

The tendency to use prefixes, root verbs and suffixes is bound to remain in those languages which use Sanskrit words, even if they are not descended from Sanskrit. The same holds true for the Dravidian languages. Italian, French and Spanish use prefixes and suffixes the same way that Latin does. The Latin language is very close to Sanskrit. The Latin word “fraternity” is formed by adding the suffix “nity” to the root word “frater”. Latin frater, Vedic bhrátar, Laokika Sanskrit bhrátá; Latin mater, Vedic mátar, French mere, English “mother”, Bengali mátá; Latin pater, Farsi pedar, French p re, Vedic pitar, Sanskrit pitá, Bengali pitá, English “father”. All these languages evolved from Sanskrit; thus if one can learn one of these languages one can easily learn the others.

Vedic sapta, old Latin septas, French sept (the pronunciation is se because in French the last consonant is generally not pronounced), Bengali sát. Thus in English the seventh month is called “September”. Similarly “October” comes from octos. In Bengali at́ comes from aśt́a [eight]. “November” comes from nova [nine] and “December” comes from deca [ten]. At that time the year used to be counted from the month of March.

Let us talk about suffixes. A suffix is an activized faculty. When an activized faculty is endowed with the qualities of the original root verb it is known as a suffix. As with Sanskrit, Bengali has its own suffixes. Sometimes a vowel is pronounced one way when one suffix is added and a different way when a different suffix is added. Take, for example, the Hindi word laŕká (here the ŕa [laŕká] is pronounced with a hasanta). If the suffix pan is added then the pronunciation changes to lad́akpan (laŕakpan). If the suffix ii is added to the Bengali word chelemánuś it becomes chelemánuśii but it can also be chelemánśii. Here the na is pronounced with a hasanta. Thus a small change occurs in the verb and noun when the suffix is added. They become transformed into the different verb forms and adverbs. Those who understand acoustics know that this happens due to suffixes. “Sub + fix = suffix”. Here “sub” is a Latin prefix. The English synonyms for “sub” are “behind”, “under”, “below”, “beneath”, etc. The word “be” means “nearby”; “hind” means “that which is hidden”. Thus “behind” means “that which is hidden nearby”. Many people mistakenly pronounce the word “behind” as biháińd́. It should be either beháińd or baháińd́. The suffix is hidden behind the word or the verbal root. One whose existence or expression is subservient to another is a subject. If the suffix “ive” is added to “subject” it becomes “subjective”.

When a suffix is used to indicate number then changes also occur in the verb. For example, “medium” is singular but the plural is “media”. Likewise the singular “radius” is “radii” in the plural and the singular “memo” is “mema” in the plural. The Latin “terrain” is “terranean” as an adjective. In English it means “earth” and in Bengali mat́i. That which is in the middle of the earth is “medi-terranean”. In precisely the same way the Latin prefix “sub” is used to mean “beneath” or “below” or “under something or someone”. We say “underground” in English to mean “beneath the soil” (this is a compound word). Its Latin synonym is “subterranean”. In ordinary English we can say “underground room” while in refined English we can say “subterranean chamber”. Of course, the word “chamber” is not originally English; it comes from the French word chambre. People who did not know French mistakenly began pronouncing it cembár.

I pointed out that by adding the suffix a change in pronunciation occurs. In the word “suffix” the prefix “sub” has been added to the word “fix”. Here the “b” is changed into “f”.

Changes in pronunciation when suffixes are employed happen in all languages except for Sanskrit. Of course, there is a corresponding change in pronunciation in Sanskrit when there is a change in spelling. For example, ap + ja = abja; vák + bhava = vágbhava; vák + maya = váunmaya; yác + ná = yáciná (the na is transformed into palatal na)). Sanskrit is a language in which pronunciation is inextricably tied to spelling. It is pronounced just as it is spelt while in all other languages the pronunciation undergoes changes. For example, in Hindi we write maeḿ, we read myány; we write meḿ; we read men. In Bengali also we do not always pronounce something the way we write it. For example, we write se hásche [he is laughing] but we pronounce it se hánsche, that is, we add a candrabindu to the pronunciation of hásche. Conversely, in Sanskrit we pronounce sah hasati just as it is written, not sah hánsati. In Hindi it is both written and read with the candrabindu, for example, hans rahá hae.

In English also the pronunciation changes. The English word “housewife” has two different pronunciations with different meanings. When “housewife” is pronounced “huzif” it means “that in which odds and ends are kept”, and when it is pronounced “housewife” then it means “the mistress of the house”. The English word “Sandwich” is not pronounced “sand – wich”, but rather sandich. Similarly “Greenwich” is pronounced grenich. “Gloucester” is not pronounced glaceśt́ár but glaśt́ár. “Pall-mall” is pronounced pel-mel rather than pal-mal. “Viscount” is pronounced váikáuńt́. “Lieutenant” is pronounced left́enyáńt́, “colonel” is karnel. We write “parliament” but we read it párlimeńt́; we write “government” but say gabhmeńt́; we write “party” but say pá-á-á-t́i; similarly we write “forty” and say fa-a-a-t́i, and so on.

Bengali is a living language. It has many suffixes of its own. For example: giri – dádágiri; paná – belellápaná; iyá – há-bhátiyá → hábháte; ilá – á-dekhilá → á-dekhle. English also has these kinds of suffixes but most of its suffixes are taken from Latin. The native English suffixes “ing” and “ed” do not come from Latin – they are native English. It should be borne in mind that when “ed” is added to a noun it forms an adjective and when it is added to a verb it creates a gerund or a verbal adjective. However there is a difference in pronunciation. For example, when “ed” is added to the root verb “learn” to form an adjective then it is pronounced lárned and when it becomes a verbal adjective then it is pronounced lárnd. Similar is the case with “loved” (lábhd́ – verb) and “beloved” (bilábhed́ – verbal adjective). In Sanskrit, on the other hand, this does not happen. Sanskrit is pronounced exactly as it is written. For example, if the suffix kta is added to a word the varga will change but the pronunciation will not – muc + kta = mukta, not muckta. Here the ca varga is changed into ka varga. In English it changes sometimes and sometimes it does not. The English word “conjunction” has three parts: the prefix “con”, the root verb “junct” and the suffix “ion”. Here the pronunciation becomes kanjáḿshán instead of kanjánt́iyan when the suffix “ion” is added. Similar is the case with “connection”, “option”, “conjunctivitis”, and so on. The word “conjunctivitis” means “that disease which infects another individual if they remain nearby”. However in the case of “question” the pronunciation is questiyan rather than queschen.

These changes in the pronunciation of the word occur due to the addition of the suffix. However hardly any change occurs when the prefix is added. This should be borne in mind. The spelling mistakes that people make are generally due to the addition of the suffix, not the prefix. Thus if very big words are to be spelled correctly then the word should be broken down into its three component parts – prefix, root verb and suffix, for example – “preposition”. Here there are three parts – “pre”, “posit” and “ion”, that is, prefix, root verb and suffix. This breaking it down into its three parts affords little scope for spelling errors while writing a word.

If the Bengali word samabhivyáhára is broken down into its respective parts – sam (prefix) – abhi (prefix) – vi (prefix) – á (prefix) – hr (root verb) + ghaiṋ (suffix) – then there is no scope for error. It is ineffectual to try to remember the spelling of the word “assassination” by trying to remember “ass” after “ass” then “i” then “nation”. So if one wants to know the spelling of a word then one should know the prefix, root verb and suffix. Some other examples are “correlated”, “corrected”, etc. The “r” is doubled in the word “corrected” because of the light vowel. In Sanskrit also the letter following a light vowel is doubled.

There is an observable difference between Sanskrit and Bengali that can be attributed to the use of suffixes. In Sanskrit, for example, the word created by adding the suffix ghaiṋ to ni-sad can be spelled either nisáda or niśáda while in Bengali it is spelled niśáda. This arises due to the addition of the suffix, thus one should be more careful with the suffix than with the prefix. Such carefulness in spelling will keep a person on firm ground.

There are some words that do not contain a suffix. They are non-Sanskrit words, for example, rajju [string], gubák [betel nut], etc. No matter how hard one tries to find a suffix in these cases it will be futile. Another similar non-Sanskrit word is anushiilana. The word anushiilana has been derived by adding the suffix anat́ to anu-shiil. This word has been forcibly introduced into Sanskrit. Actually, it is a native Bengali word. The native Sanskrit synonym for anushiilana is gaveśańá. Go + eśańá = gaveshańá (go means “cow” and eśańá means “search for”); its English synonym is “research”. In former times, teachers used to send their students into the forest in search of lost cows. They would find the cows after expending a lot of effort in the deep forest. Similarly, if one wants to learn about a subject in detail in the modern era then one will have to put a lot of effort into research. Thus the word gaveśańá is used to indicate hard and strenuous research. Guŕ [unrefined sugar] and kat́orá [small container] are old Vedic words but they are still in use today.

There are a lot of Farsi (Persian or Iranian) words in Bengali. For example, “that which is matured” is called válig; “that which is not matured” is called ná-válig. This word has undergone transformation and become ná-bálak in Bengali. The word nábálak is completely incorrect. People mistakenly consider it to be a word of Sanskrit origin.

The Bengali word supárii [betel-nut] is not a Vedic noun. Supárii in Sanskrit is gubák; in Hindi it is kashaelii; in Urdu it is d́áli. In Sanskrit, gubák → in Prákrta, guák → in Bengali, guwá. In Sanskrit, hat́t́ika → in Bengali hát. In Sanskrit, gubák hat́t́ika → in Prákrta, guwáhat́t́i → in old Bengali, guwáhát́i → in modern Bengali, Guwahát́i, that is, “a marketplace where betel-nuts are sold”. In the city of Calcutta there is a locality by the name of Guwábágán which means “betel garden”. There is another word for supárii in Sanskrit, puḿgaphalam, but actually it is not Sanskrit although it is used in a Sanskritized form. There is no old Sanskrit word for betel-leaf. In Laokika Sanskrit there are two words: parńa and nágaballarii. The word parńa has three meanings: (1) mature leaf, (2) turmeric leaf, and (3) betel leaf. The word parńashálá means “a hut thatched with mature leaves”, that is, a thatch-roof house. Nágaballarii is called nágarbilli or nágarbel in western India. There is no Vedic Sanskrit word for begun [brinjal]. The Laokika Sanskrit words for brinjal are várttáku, várttákii, várttikii, brhatii, vrntákam, and vyauṋganam. The Laokika Sanskrit words for puni shák [a reddish, spinach-like green] are putiká and potikii – potakii, upodiká and amrtaballarii in Vedic Sanskrit. There are many words which are not Sanskrit but which have been absorbed into Sanskrit in this way.

The main point is that the pronunciation changes when the suffix is added. In such cases where the suffix is added and the word undergoes change, the gender remains the same in Hindi. For example, if the feminine suffix ii is added to the masculine word umdá it does not become umdii. Similarly, if the feminine suffix ii is added to the masculine word buland it does not become bulandii (bulandii does not mean “high” but rather “height”). In both feminine and masculine cases it becomes buland. Likewise, if the feminine suffix ii is added to the word paráyá it does not then turn into the feminine word paráyii.

The Sanskrit for the Bengali word kalam [pen] is lekhanii. In both Urdu and Hindi it is also kalam. The Sanskrit word lekhanii is feminine. In Hindi the word kalam is feminine but in Urdu it is masculine. In Hindi one says merii kalam (feminine) [my pen] while in Urdu one says merá kalam. When the suffix is added in Hindi to indicate number then the pronunciation also changes, for example, laŕkii → laŕkiyán [singular → plural]. Here the change in the vowel occurs due to the addition of the suffix. Similarly, we have the singular ánkh and the plural ánkhe, the singular latá and the plural latáyen, and so on. In old Urdu one used to say laŕkiyán cáhatiin haen but nowadays it has become laŕkiyán cáhatii haen. This is due to the influence of the suffix.

Tamil is one of the oldest languages of India. It is more than four thousand years old. Tamil had two daughters: Northern Demi-Tamil and Southern Demi-Tamil. There are two languages in the Northern Demi-Tamil group – Telegu and Kannad. Southern Demi-Tamil also has two languages – Tamil and Malayalam. In addition there is the Tulu language which is a mixture of Northern Demi-Tamil and Southern Demi-Tamil.

There is a word in old Tamil, kocces, whose modern form, kocce, is still used in Malayalam. The Bengali word, kaci, comes from this word. This is one example of the influence that Tamil has exerted over Bengali. The word kocce means “small” or “tender” and the word kocin, which means “small island”, has been created from it. The Bengali word pallii [small village] is also a Tamil word, not Sanskrit. In northern India one kind of luci [a deep-fried unleavened bread] is called puri. Puri is not a Sanskrit word. The Sanskrit for puri is somáliká and luci in Sanskrit is shaḿkhuli or shaḿkulii or shakkulii. In Bengali both luci and nuci are equally correct; similarly both leci and neci are correct. The altered form of koccepuri is kocceuri from which comes the word kacaori in modern Hindi and kacuri in modern Bengali. This is natural change. Many people think that the original Sanskrit for kacuri is karcariká but this is not correct because if a word had been derived from karcariká then its modern form would have been karcariká → kaccariá → kacariyá → kacre. There is no such word as kacre. There are many people who want to prove themselves scholars in Sanskrit but they do not want to put in the effort. They use many incorrect words as Sanskrit in this way. Such examples display no trace of the erudition of the author. Moreover, not only do they practise deceit in this way but they also do injustice to their successors.

Many people think that the English word “mango” comes from the Tamil word máuṋgá but it has not. In the Tagalog language of the Philippines the word máuṋgá also means “mango”, but this does not mean that the English word “mango” comes from it because the Philippines has not had any significant influence over the English language. There is a different reason why what we call ám in Bengali is called “mango” in English. Once there was a gentleman by the name of Mr. Ricecurry who came to work in this country during the rule of the East India Company. He was the first English gentleman to bring his wife here with him. Both Mr. and Mrs. Ricecurry were responsible for introducing many Bengali as well as north Indian words into the English lexicon. It is said that the night the missus heard an owl-call for the first time she was so shaken by it that she cried out several times “horrible, horrible”. She asked her maid: “Was that the sound of the famous Royal Bengal tiger of the Sundarban jungle?” The maid replied: “No ma’am, that was an ullu.” (Ullu in Urdu means “owl”.) Then the missus said, “Oh horrible, its name is ‘owl’?” Thus the Urdu word ullu entered the English lexicon in altered form as “owl”.

When the mango-seller would pass by the house of Mr. Ricecurry, Mrs. Ricecurry would not be able to restrain herself from buying that delicious fruit. Right away she would tell her orderly: “Man, go, go,…” that is, go and call the mango-seller. The orderly started to think that perhaps the lady was calling the fruit “mango”. Thereafter on his own the orderly used to tell the missus “mango, mango” when he would see the mango-seller. In time this “mango” became the English synonym for ám. Similarly, the words “rajah”, “jungle”, “shikar”, etc. have been changed into English words. When Mr. Ricecurry arrived in this country the custom of burning one’s wife on the funeral pyre when the husband died (satii) was still being practised. After Mr. Ricecurry returned to his own country his wife committed suicide in a woeful turn of events. Mr. Ricecurry then wrote to a friend of his in India about his wife’s death and used the word “suttee”, meaning satii, for her death. From then on the word “suttee” found a place in the English language.

The word yavana means “one who does not follow the Aryan customs”. Yavana’s wife was Yavanii and his daughter was Yavaniká. Sanskrit dramas begin with a kushiilava and end with a yavaniká. Two very young boys (as if they were Kusha and Lava) used to come out at the beginning of the drama and acquaint the audience with the drama’s name and with the actors and the actresses. At the end of the drama two yavaniká girls would come onto the stage and announce the conclusion of the drama. Due to this, the word yavaniká came to be used in Bengali drama for the conclusion.

Many words have entered Bengali in this way. Many of them, perhaps, cannot be traced through research. It would be futile to look for their prefix, root verb or suffix. Still it is good that these words be included in the language. It will not do to exclude any such word. Nowadays the Urdu word samjhaota [mutual understanding] is quite prevalent in Bengali. The equivalent Bengali word is bojhápaŕá but many people use the word samjhaota more. Many words have entered the language in this way and more will do so in the future. It is only proper to allow in those words that are yet to come. With the judgement of time those which will stay will stay and those which will go will go. A forcible attempt to confine a language will do harm to that language. Languages develop through this linguistic interchange so they must proceed ahead through interchange so that they can advance.

Footnotes

(1) Bháśá means “language” in Sanskrit. The other words under discussion in this paragraph are all Sanskrit. –Trans.

(2) [[Conventionally spelled “Sukarnoputri”.]] Its literal meaning is: Sukarno’s daughter the colour of clouds. –Trans.