Saturday, January 21, 2012

How frog might have got its names मेंडक का नामकरण कैसे हुआ होगा





Let’s walk with our ancestors today and go for frog-watching in different parts of the world at different stages of human migration. Switch on your time machines. Now   you are right at the time of the first sighting of frog in human history. It is rainy season and you hear the frogs croaking:  
   
Tar tarr trr tar trr tarr tarr...टर टर्र, टर्र, टर टर्र टर्र ....

Our ancestors try to mimic the sound as  
TAR TAR टर टर 
They name this ‘tar tar’ croaking animal as ‘TARTAR’टर टर 
Each generation of ancestors is trying to pass on the name TARTAR to their next generation and ‘TARTAR’s name undergoes mutations:  
TARTAR टर टर (proposed first word for frog)
DARDAR
DARDUR दर्दुर (frog in Sanskrit) > DADUR (frog in Hindi)
DADUR दादुर (frog in slang Sanskrit)
DADDUR
DADDUY
DADDU डड्डु (frog in Punjabi, Hindi)
TADDU
TODDU
TOUD
TOAD टोड 
**

Somewhere else migrating human populations are playing with the word DADURA

DADURA (Frog in Sanskrit)
JAJURA (mutation from D>J or J>D is very common in Sanskrit words)
CHAJURA (mutations between CH>J or J>CH are very common)
CHAYURA
CHURA (Frog in Swahili)
**
DADURA (Frog in Sanskrit)
TADURA
TAJURA (mutation from D>J or J>D is very common in Sanskrit words)
TAYURA
TAVURA
TAVULA
TAVALU
TAVALAI தவளை (Frog in Tamil)
**
DADUR दादुर (frog in slang Sanskrit, Hindi)
DADDUR
DADDUY
THATUY
THATA (frog in Ayapathu, an Australian language)
**
On a frog trail, we pass through a village.  We see children playing and jumping. They join us. As we spot a new species of frog, the children start jumping.  A child asks me: “What’s its name?” I ask him back, “you tell me. Haven’t you seen it earlier?” Not to be taken as low-witted, the child says KRIDA (word for play in Sanskrit)!    
DADUR or DADDU has a new name now: KRIDA. The word travels with our ancestors down the time:

KRIDA क्रीडा (play in Sanskrit)
GRIDA
GRODA (frog in Swedish)
**
KRIDA क्रीडा (play in Sanskrit)
KRIDAK क्रीड़क (player in Sanskrit)
KYIDAK
KODAK (frog in Indonesian)
**
KRIDAM क्रीड़म (play in Sanskrit)
KYIDAM
KINDAM (introduction of nasal sound)
MANDIK (re-arrangement of letters)
MANDUK मंडूक (another Sanskrit word for frog)> MENDAK मेंडक (frog in Hindi)
MADUK> MEDAK मेडक (frog in Hindi)
BADUK
BEDUK बेडूक (frog in Marathi)
**
Several centuries have passed in our travels with ancestors. We come to Europe and find that people migrating into Europe have given another name to frog: PRAKSHE which mean projectile in Sanskrit. People down the centuries continue their play with this word:

PRAKSHE प्रक्षे (projectile in Sanskrit)
FRAKSHE
FROKSHE
FORKSHE
FORSK (frog in old French)> FROSKR (frog in Old Norse)
FORKS
FROX (frog in old French)
FROXA
FROKKA
FROGGA (Old English)
FROG

**
PRAKSHE प्रक्षे (projectile in Sanskrit)
PRAKHE
FRAKHE
FROGE
FROG

***
PRAKSHE प्रक्षे (projectile in Sanskrit)
FRASHKE
FROSHCHE
FROSCH (Frog in German)
BROSCH
VROSCH
VORSC (Frog in Middle Dutch)
**
PRAKSHE प्रक्षे (projectile in Sanskrit)
PRAKSHEPIT प्रक्षेपित (projectile sent)
PRAKSHEPIT
PPITRAKSHE (rearrangement of letters)
PTRAKSHE
BTRAKSHE
BTRACHOSH
BATRACHOS (frog in Greek)

Back from our time-travel let's check the English dictionary for etymology of frog. It says:
Word Origin & History

frog
O.E. frogga, a dim. of frox, forsc, frosc "frog," from P.Gmc. *fruska-z (cf. O.N. froskr, M.Du. vorsc, Ger. Frosch "frog"), probably lit. "hopper" (cf. Skt. provate "hops," Rus. prygat "to hop, jump"). The L. word (rana) is imitative of croaking. As a derogatory term for "Frenchman," 1778 (short for frog-eater), but before that (1652) it meant "Dutch" (from frog-land "marshy land"). To have a frog in the throat "hoarseness" is from 1909.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

This blog post is dedicated to Dr Biju S Das and his team of frog lovers at the University of Delhi

Added on 09 January 2014

PRAKSHE प्रक्षे
PRAKE
PARKE
MARKE
MARHKE
MERHAK
MEDAK
MADEK
MADUK
MANDUK मंडूक 
MENDAK मेंडक 

10 comments:

  1. The theory of mutation that you have put forward here to make us understand the various shifts is applausable.
    However,it appears that this can be treated as a suitable example to demonstrate that Indo aryan and Latin languages have deep ancestral roots.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks you Alok. You are right. Linguists believe that Latin, Greek and Sanskrit are daughters of a proto-Indo-European language that is now extinct.

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  3. Updated: DADUR दादुर (frog in slang Sanskrit>
    DADDUR
    DADDUY
    THATUY
    THATA (frog in Ayapathu, an Australian language)

    ReplyDelete
  4. thanks for the great effort for putting together the evolution of names in different languages. it is very new to me and highly interesting. This information will be equally interesting for naturalist and researchers. Sir , I am very much pleased and highly privileged for dedicating this to our lab.

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  5. Thanks Dr Biju. While writing the post, I was enjoying imaginary pains and pleasures of being in the field as part of your frog search expeditions. Hats off to you for your great work on frogs.

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. D>J
    dyuti>jyoti द्युति >ज्योति
    pradyot>prajyot प्रद्योत>प्रज्योत
    pradumn>prajumn प्रद्युम्न> प्रज्युम्न
    deepak>jyopak> दीपक> ज्योपक
    aaditya>aajyotya आदित्य >आज्योत्य
    daah>jwah दाह> ज्वाह
    khadyot>khajyot खद्योत >खज्योत

    P>B; B>P
    PAUDHA>BOOTA पौधा > बूटा
    PAPA>BABA पापा > बाबा
    PATAL पटल >BATAL >TABLE

    Word with triple mutation J>D ,P>B, ए>E
    PRAJ प्रज >BREED
    >

    ReplyDelete