Indian Languages #3: Assorted Features
English has prepositions, whereas most Indian languages have post-positions , writes Peggy Mohan in Wanderers, Kings and Merchants . In English we say “in Mumbai”, in Hindi it is “ मुंबई में ”, in Tamil it is “ மும்பையில் ”. Notice the contrast in the “position word” and the noun – in English it comes before (pre); in Indian languages it comes after (post). Unlike English, in many north Indian languages, verbs have a gender . In English, “eats” tells nothing about the gender of the eater whereas “ खाता ” tells it is a male eater (the same goes for Marathi). When you dig deeper, you realize the structure of the languages are very different. In English, you “are ill” while in Hindi “ तबियत ठीक नहीं ”. Mohan says “ तबियत ” is a noun – state of health. Which leads Mohan to wonder – are languages of the north “noun-friendly”? And if so, why? Is it because, she wonders, for the same reason that Kerala absorbed nouns from Sanskrit, but not verbs: “Do nouns travel better, or wit...