DISTORTION

by Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar

The subject of today's discussion is distortion. The change that takes place in the flow of emanation is a natural change. In other words, everything in the flow of emanation is moving (calat or calama'n). In very ancient times the verbal root cal was a'tmanepadii. Later on it became parasmaepadii. During Panini's time the parasmaepadii form was used but in order to show respect for the ancient Vedic verb form he accepted both the a'tmanepadii and parasmaepadii forms of the verbal root cal and declared it ubhayapadii. So in this case both calat and calama'na are correct.

Everything in this cosmos is moving. Nothing stops, so whatever moves also has to undergo change. This is the law of providence [vidha'ta']. The name of the system by which the Supreme Consciousness carries out the various activities of the universe is known as vidha'ta'; that is, vidha'ta' is not a specific entity but rather a specific system. So vidha'ta' is required to follow its own rules of creation. It does not have the right to do anything in a haphazard way. Whatever action takes place in this world follows this rule; that is, it moves in accordance with the flow of change. When this natural change occurs in the case of language we call it utsa'ran'a or emanation. Everything comes out from the point of emanation and moves forward in the path of crest and trough. This movement is emanation. The initial undulatory impetus that is present at the beginning of emanation gradually wanes as it passes through shocks and counter-shocks.

Some people use the word stimita in Bengali for this lessening or waning. For example, diipashikha' stimita haye eseche [the flame of the lamp has waned], but it is worth keeping in mind that actually there is no such word as stimita in Sanskrit. Most probably the word stimita became commonly used for the waning of light by thinking of the decaying light of the astamita [setting] sun. Those who helped to make it commonly used thought that perhaps they had found a dignified Sanskrit word. In fact the word stimita is utterly incorrect. It is like the a'ka'shakusuma [sky-flower] which is non-existent from its initial a' to its final ma. Similarly, many people parade about the word anushiilana. They think that it is perhaps a Sanskrit word of august lineage created by adding the prefix anu and the suffix anat' to the verbal root shiil. Actually there is no such Sanskrit word as anushiilana. It is similar to ru'pakatha'. There is no such word as ru'pakatha' in Sanskrit. What is called "fiction" in English and also "novel" under specific circumstances, is called katha' in Sanskrit (for example, harikatha', satyana'ra'yan'er katha' -- maha'bha'rater katha' amrta sama'n/ka'shiira'm da'sha kahe shune pun'yava'n). If this katha' happens to be one of absorbing interest then it is called katha'nika' in Sanskrit. This became kaha'nia' in Pra'krta and from that kaha'nii in modern Hindi. This kaha'nii is called gappa in Maethili and under special circumstances galpa. From the same descent we also get the Bengali word galpa [story]. In Bengali we have taken the word kaha'nii, dressed it up with a nose ring and earrings and made the word ka'hinii. There is no firm ground below the feet of ka'hinii. It is standing on quicksand. A very short story or a story for little ones or an enjoyable but unreliable story is called upakatha' in Sanskrit. It is common rural error to substitute ra for a and a for ra. For example in Rarh-Murshidabad I have heard a'mba'bur ra'mba'ga'ne.* It has been said about the village opera party:

[* Instead of Ra'mba'bur [Mr. Ram's] a'mba'ga'ne [mango grove]. -- Trans.]

The queen says: a'ja', a'ja', toma'r buke ot'a' kiser da'g, aung na' akta [King, king, what is that spot on your chest? Is it dye or is it blood]?

The king says: a'ni, a'ni, cinta'r kona ka'ran' na'i, a'ni. Ot'a' akta nay, aung [Queen, queen, there is no reason to worry queen, it's dye, not blood].*

[* In this example the words for king [ra'ja'], queen [ra'ni], dye [raung] and blood [rakta] all have a substituted for ra. -- Trans.]

I have asked a person: "O brother, where do you live?" and received the answer "If you please sir, I live in Aungpur District [instead of Raungpur]".

In a village of Birbhum I have heard a'ma'r ricche kare a't dupure ode base pit'he kha'i/paket'e bha'i paysa' na'i [I have a desire to eat cakes at midnight sitting in the sun but unfortunately I have no money in my pocket].

Similarly, the word enr'i [castor] has been formed from the Sanskrit word eran'd'a which is a'n'd'i in Hindi and en'd'i in Assamese. However in Bengali, with the passage of time, enr'i became rer'i -- ra has occupied the place of a. Rer'i is not only used in Bengali but also in the languages of Bihar. In Calcutta Bengali we call a snake charmer or an exorcist rojha' instead of ojha' and the white ant rui instead of ui. So by this process we have changed upakatha' into ru'pakatha'. Some of us while singing the Aviba'bu's [Rabindranath Tagore] songs fertilize the soil with "rammonia" fertilizer.

Those who import new words without knowing their meaning or polish up old words a bit to create new words in Bengali and think "it's a good thing we have found" would do better to be aware of the meaning. Idea is extremely vast but the capacity of language is very limited so if any idea is to be captured by language it should only be done after correctly understanding the meaning of the language used. In addition to this, one should also consider that language should not be lengthened without reason. If the opportunity presents itself a compound word may be found. I have heard that one poet had written a book by the name of anek pa'oya'r ma'jhe ma'jhe ekt'ukha'ni pa'oya', ta'te ja'ga'y dakhin ha'oya' [in between much getting is a little getting in which awakens the southern breeze]. Since the publisher did not agree to publish the book with such a long name a mutual agreement was finally reached between both parties. The name became anek pa'oya'. 1/4 dakhin ha'oya' [much getting 1/4 southern breeze].

A certain gentleman from Bankura District once told my aunt from Khandaghosa: "In your Burdwan District there is very little cultivation of potatoes." She replied: "Why don't you come and see for yourself. In our Burdwan District the cultivation of potatoes is apariyukta." Here auntie used literary language and made aparya'pta [abundant] into apariyukta. In this situation, someone may think that the word is pure Sanskrit and that it has come from a-pari-yuj + kta, but how could this be possible! Ta'leber Miina''s goat ate madam's greens. Because madam became very angry due to this, Ta'leber Miina' said, "Madam, don't do any more a'ndolacana' (andolana [agitation] = a'locana' [discussion]) over this." This is very high level Bengali indeed! It is similar to that.

Ha'ns a'r saja'ru, vya'karan ma'ni na'
Haye gela ha'nsja'ru kemane ta' ja'ni na'

[goose and porcupine, I don't care about grammar -
they become goosepine, I don't know how]

In this matter my contention is that in the case of language and literature this cooking up of accounts does not help anyone in any way. However it is not always so that this cooking of accounts is done knowingly. There are two common Sanskrit words for those who live by farming -- krs'ibala and kars'aka. Those who spelt kars'aka krs'aka committed the error without being aware of it, and the people who still write it krs'aka today do so without realizing their error. Does the mistake end here? Many people srjan kare instead of sarjan kare [create] and many people have srjanii pratibha' [creative faculty]. Although we have changed sarjan into srjan we have not changed utsarjan or visarjan into utsrjan or visrjan. This, it seems, suggests that some people still have sarjanii shakti [creative energy]. Does this erroneous invention stop here! From where do we get the odd word ga'bhii? The word is gavii and its spoken Bengali form is ga'i (female cow). The word ga'bhii is completely incorrect. Now all of you, I hope, no longer write words such as itipu'rve or itimadhye because the correct words are itahpu'rve and itahmadhye. However, if you like, the letter o can be used to replace the visarga (h) (that is, itopu'rve, itomadhye). But the visarga has to be retained in the spelling of spas't'atah [clearly] because tah is the fifth case-ending. However it is not good to retain the visarga when writing spas't'atai because it is not proper to place a vowel right next to a visarga. So spas't'atahi is incorrect; spas't'atai is correct. Jyotih ca'ridike ujjval kare tuleche [the light has illuminated all around] -- here jyotih will have a visarga but jyotihi a'ma'r dhyeya [light is my object of meditation] should not take a visarga.

The word abhijina has been created for "one who knows well" by adding the prefix abhi and the suffix d'a to the verbal root jina'. For "one who is not abhijina" the negation an is added to make anabhijina which means "one who does not know well" (an is added before a vowel and a before a consonant). I have noticed that even many educated people write abhijina in Hindi for "one who knows not" and bhijina for "one who knows". Bear in mind that there is no such word as bhijina, either in grammar or in usage. Hence it would be better if they eradicated this word from the world of their imagination because if the word bhijina is used for "one who knows" then abhijina will have to be used for "one who does not know" though it means "one who knows well". If this error is infecting any other language then it should be quarantined.

The Old Latin word karanta or quaranta means "sheep" and the old Latin adjective meaning "concerning sheep" is quarantine. In English also the adjective for the word "sheep" is "quarantine". At one time, when sheep's health was not given much attention, some of them used to occasionally suffer from infectious diseases and the nearby sheep used to die along with them. So the means that was adopted in those days to save the other sheep from infection was called "quarantine".

The English word "research" means to go even further into something than what we see at first glance, to go deeper still, gathering more and more, doing a new search, looking anew. Its Bengali or Sanskrit synonym cannot be anushiilana because the word anushiilana is an error. Nor can it be carca' because the English for the word carca' is "culture". In Hindi one says shodhaka'rya but shodhaka'rya also does not convey the proper meaning. Either vishad sandha'n [thorough search] or gaves'an'a' should be chosen for this.

In ancient times the sages used to live in forest areas outside the towns or villages. If one of their domesticated animals would get lost they used to give the responsibility of going out into the jungle in search of the animal to the most mischievous student. This poor fellow would go out and spend the entire day wandering about looking for the animal. In Sanskrit es'an'a' means "the desire to get". Hence "one who goes out and wanders around with the desire to get the cow" is go + es'an'a' = gaves'an'a'. So if the word gaves'an'a' is used for the word "research" it does indeed translate the essential or core meaning of the original idea, however, the practical meaning is not correct. If, for example, someone is doing medical research into a complex disease will we then say that they are "cow-searching" the medicine of that disease? So the pandits should sit together and decide whether vishad sandha'n should be used or another similar word.

Those who named the Octorloney Monument Shahid Minar did so without properly understanding the meaning of the word shahiid. Those brave warriors who take part in the Islamic religious wars (jeha'dd) are called muja'hid in Arabic. Those muja'hids who give up their life in battle are called shahiid. Those who are victorious in battle are called ga'jii (if they live, ga'jii; if they die, shahiid). Similarly, those who give up their life in the Christian religious wars (crusades) are called "martyrs". By what logic then do we call those brave progeny who give up their life for their country or for any other great cause shahiid? Instead, we can use the word dadhiici for them because Mahars'i Dadhiici sacrificed his life for the welfare of others. He did not lose his life in a jihad or crusade.

There is a rule in Latin and in many other European languages, including English, that if the singular is "um" then the plural is "a" and if the singular is "us" then the singular is "i". For example, "memorandum" becomes "memoranda", "stratum" becomes "strata", "cactus" becomes "cacti". "lotus" becomes "loti", etc. However in numerous instances nowadays we see "memorandums", "cactuses", "lotuses", "stratums". Why this disorder? The plural of "cash-memo" is "cash-mema" but all around us we see a crowd of "cash-memos". Is this on account of ignorance, a mistake committed unknowingly, or a mistake committed knowingly?

At any rate, the wavelength of everything moving in this universe changes. In accordance with this, a natural change occurs within every word. As a result of this change newer and newer words are created and newer and newer languages are created. The old language that was so real at one time becomes unreal -- it gets lost in the obscurity of the past. That which was so close at one time becomes distant and that which was yet to come in the bosom of the past becomes a reality at a later time.

In the case of words, this natural change is utsa'ran'a (ut - sr + n'ic anat' = utsa'ran'a) [emanation]. If it is not causative then it is utsaran'a. For example, in the sense of someone reading [studying] pat'h + anat' makes pat'hana but for reading to someone else [teaching] pat'h + n'ic anat' = pa't'hana. The verbal root sr means "to move". That where someone has come to move on is called saraka [road], not sar'aka. Similarly, the addition of the suffix ghain to sam - sr makes sam'sa'ra [world], that is, where everything moves, where nothing remains static. It is worth noticing that we call this natural change "emanation" instead of "distortion" because distortion refers to a special form of change or a corrupted form of change. In Sanskrit grammar it is called vivarttana.

Linguistic vivarttana or distortion happens primarily due to three reasons. First, it occurs when a certain number of people cannot pronounce a word correctly. In such cases the linguistic distortion does not take the path of emanation. For example, the corrupted pronunciation of the word cikitsa' has become cikiccha'. The pronunciation of mahotsava became mocchava. In such cases the impetus of the word after it gets corrupted is checked. It does not undergo further distortion. In other words, when the pronunciation of the word cikitsa' becomes corrupted and changes to cikiccha' then its movement stops. I have heard many rural people call bhisa' bhica', mesh mec and "selection" "cheleccion". This is distortion, that is, afterwards there is no further vivarttana.

Another word of this sort is da'pana [mirror]. The word da'pana comes from the Sanskrit word darpan'a -- Sanskrit darpan'a > Pra'krta dappana > old Bengali da'pana. It has not undergone any further distortion in the past thirteen hundred years. Although we use the Sanskrit-borrowed word darpan'a in modern times, we do not use the Sanskrit-derived word da'pana because it has been created through faulty pronunciation. These are examples of distortion or vivarttana.

Often distortion of a word takes place through abbreviation. For example, we say ya'ccheta'i [as one pleases]. Ya'ccheta'i is not a real word. Actually, the word is ya'-icche-ta'i. Similarly, "artificiality" is called bana'ot'i in Hindi-Urdu but actually the word is bana' + vat' + ii = bana'vat'ii. It is pronounced bana'ot'i. Likewise, dekhala' + vat' + ii = dekhlavat'ii but it is pronounced dekhla'ot'i. I have seen some people, especially in Marathi, spell words that end in ktin (for example prakrti, a'krti) with long ii (for example, prakrtii, a'krtii). However, words that end in ktin should be spelled with short i (prakrti, a'krti). Otherwise it will be mistaken for the corresponding kta-ending word (in this case prakrta) with the suffix iip added.

In Bengali we add the suffixes i, mi, pana', etc. to form abstract nouns.* In Hindi also, pan, pana', etc are added. For example, lar'ka' + pan = lar'ka'pan but through abbreviation it becomes lar'akpan. Bacca' + pana' = bacpana'. In this case it is clear that the a' of lar'ka' and bacca' has been omitted for the sake of abbreviation. "One who wants to learn" is called ta'lib-e-ilm in Farsi. In spoken Urdu we abbreviate it and say ta'lbelim, that is, we no longer pronounce the i of ilm. In Calcutta Bengali we say a'dekhlepana' for a'-dekhila'-pana'. In these cases distortion is effected through abbreviation.

[* Chelema'nus'i, bha'lama'nus'i: In the course of abbreviation the u gets dropped in the spoken language giving us chelema'nsi, bha'lma'nsi, dus't'umi, nas't'a'mi, bea'kkilepana', a'dekhlepana', and so forth.]

The distortion that occurs in this way sometimes has the opportunity for emanation and sometimes not. For example, the word da'pan did not have that opportunity. The question arises as to why it does not always have this kind of chance. The reason is that in regard to emanation the movement of distortion is obstructed when the distortion is unnatural. In other cases, where the distortion happens in a natural way, the distortion proceeds forward, for example, prastara > patthara > pa'thar -- not pa'tha'r. Pa'tha'r means "vast field".

Some places have splendid greenery. To praise it we call it "Greenwich". Its pronunciation has been shortened to griinic. Splendid greenery refers to a place that is easily reached by the sun's rays. Such places are good for conducting research on heavenly bodies. They also have special importance for the measurement of latitude and longitude. Anyhow, although this place in Britain is spelled "Greenwich" it is pronounced griinic. Due to this kind of abbreviation "sandwich" has become sa'ndic. "Northwest wind" has become "nor'wester". For this reason Bengal's ka'lvaesha'khii is called "nor'wester" in English. The wind is named according to the direction in which it moves, not the direction from where it arises. However this is not a hard and fast rule because in the Calcutta area the wind that comes from the Bay of Bengal, that is, from the south, we call the "south wind" [daks'in'a' va'yu]. The wind that comes from the Himalayas we call the "north wind". The wind which arises in the Bay of Bengal and moves in a northwesterly direction is called the "northwest wind", "nor'wester" for short. Incidentally it bears mentioning that the word ha'oya' [wind] is a Turkish word. I have seen the words turk-ha'oa-vallarii written on a Turkish plane.

Abbreviation is quite common in English. It is sometimes accomplished by making the word shorter and sometimes by taking the initial letters of words. For example, "general purpose car" was abbreviated to "G. P. car". Subsequently it was further abbreviated to "G. P." Later on it was abbreviated even more to giip and in a later stage the spelling changed to "jeep".

This distortion is commonly brought within the scope of an aphorism. A', i, u -- their pronunciation is lost and ao changes into o. For example, aos'adh became os'udh. In spoken Maethilii and Angika one says okhadh. According to the Yajurvedic style of pronunciation s'a is pronounced kha so aos'adh became okhadh.

In many languages of north India i is written but it is no longer pronounced. One writes lar'ika' but it is pronounced lar'ka'. One writes a'ju but pronounces it a'j. The dropping of the interior a' in lar'ka'pan to make lar'akpan has already been discussed.

At one time in America a fierce war was raging. Many of the soldiers were Spanish-speaking and were not able to understand English, much less speak it. In order to send information about how someone was doing they were told to simply write "all correct", which meant that everything was going fine. I have just said that the soldiers did not know English. Hence they used to write "ol korect" for "all correct". After this "Ol Korect" had been in use for some time they abbreviated it to "O. K." thinking what was the need of using such a long word. It had the same meaning, that is, that everything was going fine. Now this "O.K." is used practically everywhere in the world with this same meaning. The spelling has been kept as "okay" or "okey". On this basis sayings have been made such as "He has already okayed it."

There is a word adhik in Bengali. By adding the suffix s'n'ya to it we get a'dhikya [increase, excess]. A'dhikya is an abstract noun so there is no need to add the suffix ta' [ness], which makes it an abstract noun twice over. However the word a'dhikyata' has been created in Bengali and through corrupted pronunciation the word a'dikhyeta' [fussing] has been created. If the suffix ta' is added to the word adhika in Bengali to form the word adhikata' then it is correct but no one feels any attraction for the word adhikata'. Although the word a'dikhyeta' is incorrect it is more attractive. The word is full of feeling and is used quite a bit in gossip. It is like a potato chop with puffed rice on a rainy season evening.

There is a system of making new words by using the first letter of very long words; it exists in all of the world's languages. Many Sanskrit aphorisms have been made in this way, for example, a'gama. In one shloka it is said:

A'gatam' shivavaktrebhyah gatam' ca girija'shrutao
Matam' ca va'sudevasya tasma't a'gama ucyate

[That which has come from Shiva's mouth, which has gone to Pa'rvati's ears, and which has been approved by Va'sudeva Krs'n'a, is called a'-ga-ma -- a'gama.]

In other words, the word a'gama has been formed by taking the a' from a'gatam', the ga from gatam' and the ma from matam'. Twelve hundred years ago in Bengal, when the Buddhist era was in progress, there was a Buddhist poet by the name of Bhu-su-ku. The name Bhu-su-ku was created by taking the first letter from several different words -- from the word bhojana [food] bhu, from the word shayana [lying down] su and from the word karma [action] ku. With these three letters the word Bhu-su-ku was created. In other words, he who is absorbed in his ideology while sleeping, eating or doing work is Bhu-su-ku. There is an old Bengali song written by Bhu-su-ku about twelve hundred years ago.

Bhu-su-ku a'ju tu baungalii bhaelii
Nia gharan'ii can'd'a'lii lelii

[Bhu-su-ku, today you became an ideal Bengali;
you accepted a can'd'a'lii to keep your house.]

Many people believe that the word "Baunga'l" ["Bengal"] has been formed by adding the Farsi suffix a'l to the root "Vaunga". This is not the fact. We come across the word "Baunga'l" in twelve hundred year old poetry. If the word is not old, then where did the word baunga'lii come from? In terms of its name, this land is quite old. One can infer that the civilization and culture of that place had at one time spread far and wide. Otherwise how could it have had a name in most of the world's languages? The word "Banjala" has been used since ancient times in the languages of China for the land of Bengal and in Latin it was "Banjal". In Latin the adjective becomes banjalitis, which means "produced in Bengal" or "concerning Bengal". The large variety of ca'npa' flower which we call jahurii ca'npa' in Bengali (in Sanskrit we call it hiirakacampaka) is called magnolia pamela banjalitis in Latin.* In Turkey Bengal used to be called "Bangala" (the word "Bangala" can still be found in ancient documents). In Farsi and Urdu it is called "Bangal". In English it is called "Bengal". Many people mistakenly pronounce it beungal. In Bengali it is called "Baungla'desh" (Bangladesh is not only Dhaka and Chittagong; it is also Burdwan and Midnapore). In Sanskrit it is called "Baungadesha" or "Gaor'adesha".

[* It can be seen in the author's Madhuma'lainca garden.]

New words are also created through abbreviation in Bengali. For example, the word khit'kel in Bengali comes from khit'a' ka'ul. The Sanskrit word kalaunkaka'rii became keleunka'rii. Another such word is ka'labos. This word comes from ka'li-ba'us, that is, the fish that likes to remain in blackish waters or in areas near black soil is ka'li ba'us. The expenditure expended on wages for casting ornaments, that is, the cost of making them, used to be called ba'na'i expense. This ba'na'i has become abbreviated nowadays to ba'ni. In former times some people used to take a ba'ni as the assets and liabilities of the wedding and some did not.

If we analyse the word "distortion" we get three parts -- dis + tort + ion. "Dis" is the prefix, "tort" is the verbal root and "ion" is the suffix. "Dis" is a Latin prefix. The result of handling something in a confused, disorderly or undesirable way is "distortion".

In the field of language this process of distortion is not very pervasive. After following its course for a long time it finally becomes widespread and then it is given acceptance, for example, a'dikhyeta' in Bengali, bhu'ta'ha' in Hindi ("haunted house" in English), and "knife" in English. Actually "knife" is a French word. The original word was knif, but through faulty pronunciation in English it became distorted and knif became "knife". Although the pronunciation of the original word's "k" was lost, the silent letter "k" has been retained even today in the English spelling.

In Bengali pronunciation distortion follows the rule of minimum increase. For example, if two opposite entities are present in any incident, then in that case the compound word embodying that contrast that is formed -- whether it be noun, modifier or verb -- will have an a' at the end of the first word (or in special cases an o) and an i at the end of the second word. For example, the two components are made with la't'hi. The compound word is la't'ha'la't'hi. Similar is the case with ma'ra'ma'ri, ka'r'a'ka'r'i, dhvasta'dhvasti. Two women have grabbed a fistful of one another's hair -- that is cula'culi (culoculi). Other examples are dekha'dekhi, sara'sari, ha'sa'ha'si, ta'r'a'ta'r'i. Ta'r'a' comes from the Sanskrit word tvara' and from ta'r'a' comes the compound word ta'r'a'ta'r'i. Indeed we say ata ta'r'a' kiiser [What's the hurry]?* Then there is t'hesa't'hesi and so many more. This kind of compound word has greatly increased the vitality of the Bengali language. An effort can also be made to create this kind of compound word in other languages. Every language would be benefited thereby.

[* Formerly in the Birbhum-Burdwan area there was a type of autumnal paddy that used to mature before the other autumnal paddies; it was called tara' a'ush.]

In conclusion we can say: let there be an even more pervasive study of the science of language and through this let the learned and talented have more correspondence [lekha'lekhi] instead of scuffling [ha'ta'ha'ti] and fighting [ha'na'ha'ni].