Q1.
Over this period loan words from Persian also began to enter regional languages and literature. Today we can hardly identify them as having Persian roots. Create a list of words in your regional language that might have Persian roots. You may be surprised by your findings!
Answer
Method first. Persian entered Indian languages mainly through administration, trade, court life and food, because Persian was the language of the Mughal administration. So hunt in those fields: words for offices and paperwork, for money and markets, for buildings, clothes and dishes. Then check each guess in a good dictionary — many Hindi dictionaries mark the origin as फ़ा० (Persian) or अ० (Arabic).
| Field | Words with Persian roots | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Administration | sarkār, daftar, kāġaz, tārīḳh, tankhwāh, rozgār | government, office, paper, date, salary, employment |
| Market and money | bāzār, dukān, sauda, kharīd, nafā-nuqsān | market, shop, deal, purchase, profit and loss |
| House and things | darwāza, dīwār, mez, kursī, chādar, chashmā | door, wall, table, chair, sheet, spectacles |
| Land and time | zamīn, āsmān, roz, haftā, sāl | land, sky, day, week, year |
| Food | nāshtā, sabzī, namak, gosht, shorbā | breakfast, vegetables, salt, meat, broth |
| Everyday describing words | safed, garm, sust, āsān, ḳhūbsūrat, dost | white, warm, slow, easy, beautiful, friend |
And it is not only Hindi. The same administrative vocabulary travelled with the administration:
- Bengali — jomi (land), kagoj (paper), dokan (shop), bazar, khobor (news), tarikh (date).
- Marathi — jamin, bazar, dukan, khurchi (chair), tarikh, hushar.
- Telugu and Kannada — kāgitamu/kāgada (paper, from kāġaz), jamīnu, dawākhāna (hospital), tarājū (weighing scales).
- Odia — kagoja, bajāra, jami, tārikha.
One distinction worth making, and it will impress a teacher: several of these words are originally Arabic and reached India through Persian — kāġaz, kursī, daftar, aḳhbār, zilā, jeb. Persian was the carrier, not always the source. This is exactly how the chapter describes Hindavi itself: Indian grammar and vocabulary, “where words from Persian and Arabic were also integrated”.
Check it yourself: pick five words from your own list and ask an elder whether they think each one is “a Hindi word” or “a foreign word”. Almost everyone will call darwāza and kāġaz perfectly Indian — which is the surprise the chapter is promising. A loan word that has been used for six hundred years has stopped being on loan.