# Arabic, Persian, Urdu: characters welcome



## Alfaaz

*Background:* inspired by this thread in the English forum

For character, we seem to have: سیرت , کردار , شخصیات (shakhsiyaat, kirdaar, seerat). In Urdu, at least, شخصیات seems to be mostly used for "personalities", کردار for character (as in "characters in a novel" and "a person of good character") and سیرت (in religious contexts as سیرت النبی and also often with صورت و سیرت in literature and everyday life) carrying the meaning of character and biography, etc.

For welcome, we seem to have: اہلاً و سہلاً ، مرحبا ، خوش آمدید، خیر مقدم، استقبال ... وغیرہ وغیرہ However, none of these seem to fit in this sense of "welcome", as all are usually used as nouns and interjections.  

*Question:* What would be the best way to translate "characters welcome" into Arabic, Persian, and Urdu? What would be the shortest/most concise way?


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## searcher123

My suggestion in Modern Persian:
همگي خوش‌ آمديد


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## Qureshpor

Urdu: airaa Ghairaa natthuu xairaa xush-aamaded!

Urdu: siidhe-niraale xush-aamaded


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## ahmedcowon

I don't know exactly what this phrase means, but from what I understood...

 Arabic translation could be: الترحيب بالشخصيات


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## Qureshpor

Alfaaz SaaHib, what did you have in mind for this thread? What do you think the best Urdu translation is?


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## Alfaaz

Thanks to searcher123, QURESHPOR, and ahmedcowon for answering! 


			
				searcher123 said:
			
		

> My suggestion in Modern Persian:همگي خوش‌ آمديد


What does همگي mean...character? Do you not use کردار in MP...or did you just not find it suitable in this particular translation?


			
				QURESHPOR said:
			
		

> Alfaaz SaaHib, what did you have in mind for this thread?


I was basically interested in the usage of "welcome" in the phrase, which could probably be interpreted as: "(various) characters (are) welcome" , kind of like the English thread suggests. So how would we translate this into Urdu (and the other languages)...?

The use of خوش‌ آمديد by searcher123 and you was a bit surprising, as mentioned in the OP that it seems to always function as an interjection/exclamation: Welcome! xush amadeed!
Another sentence with a similar usage of "welcome" could be: "You're welcome to stay at the place as long as you don't find another abode" 

Doubt it could be translated as: آپ خوش آمدید ہیں جگہ میں رہنے کے جب تک کہ کوئی اور ٹھکانا/آشیانہ نہیں مل جاتا



			
				QURESHPOR said:
			
		

> What do you think the best Urdu translation is?


Not sure, but perhaps کردار/ عجوبے قبول ہیں , but this still doesn't seem to convey the meaning of the English phrase!


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## Alfaaz

> Alfaaz SaaHib, what did you have in mind for this thread?


Also, "characters" could have more than one meaning (considering the context being a channel): 

letters of the alphabet: حروف 
characters of a story: کردار
unique personalities: عجوبہ , ( مزاجاً ) منفرد و مختلف شخصیات 
So is there such as word in any of the mentioned languages (that carries multiple meanings)? Maybe, the above is just an example of thinking/going too deep into a phrase or idea...


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## Qureshpor

To be frank, I did n't really understand what "characters welcome" implied. Now you are saying that you were mainly interested in the "welcome" part. With your illustrative example, it is easy to translate the meaning..

jab tak aap ko'ii duusrii rihaa'ish nahiiN DhuuND paate, aap *baRii xushii se* yahaaN rah sakte haiN!


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## marrish

QURESHPOR said:


> To be frank, I did n't really understand what "characters welcome" implied. Now you are saying that you were mainly interested in the "welcome" part. With your illustrative example, it is easy to translate the meaning..
> 
> jab tak aap ko'ii duusrii rihaa'ish nahiiN DhuuND paate, aap *baRii xushii se* yahaaN rah sakte haiN!


QP SaaHib, it might be interesting to note that the precise form of this word is _rahaa'ish_.


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## Qureshpor

marrish said:


> QP SaaHib, it might be interesting to note that the precise form of this word is _rahaa'ish_.



You are right marrish SaaHib but I do think the usual Urdu pronunciation is as I spelt it. But I would like to add that Josh Maleehabadi would not entertain anyone using this word because, according to him, this word is formed in a false manner. He is of course right about this but the word has become so entrenched in the language, I do not see any point in not using it, simply because of its wrong formation! (Josh is implying that the -ish nouns are formed from Persian verbs and for this reason, this being fromed from rahnaa is an anomaly.)


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## Alfaaz

QURESHPOR said:
			
		

> With your illustrative example, it is easy to translate the meaning..
> jab tak aap ko'ii duusrii rihaa'ish nahiiN DhuuND paate, aap *baRii xushii se* yahaaN rah sakte haiN!


This would (or at least could) back translate to: _you can stay here with great happiness!_


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## marrish

QURESHPOR said:


> You are right marrish SaaHib but I do think the usual Urdu pronunciation is as I spelt it. But I would like to add that Josh Maleehabadi would not entertain anyone using this word because, according to him, this word is formed in a false manner. He is of course right about this but the word has become so entrenched in the language, I do not see any point in not using it, simply because of its wrong formation! (Josh is implying that the -ish nouns are formed from Persian verbs and for this reason, this being fromed from rahnaa is an anomaly.)


Thank you for the acknowledgement and the additional information. I have read the opinion of Josh Maleehabadi before and I understand his reasoning, which is right from the puristic perspective, however I share the view you presented and would not abstain from using this word. My understanding is that this word is nothing new in Urdu (Platts has it) and the restriction on morphological creativity which unites different elements on the soil of Urdu might be well justifiable for poetry, but can do more harm to the vitality of the (spoken) language. You would concede that this is a very original Urdu word. As to the pronunciation, it is usually how you spelt it, however I have heard people pronounce it as it should be, i.e. _rahaa'ish, _not only from people of Punjabi background. My preference goes unanimously toward rahaa'ish.

Josh's argument would have been stronger had he taken the ''precise'' form of the word under consideration and said that there does exist a word already in Persian, which is constructed from the adjectival participle coming from the Persian verb 'rastan', as follows, 


*رهایش* _rahāyish, Freedom, escape, liberation,
_
so that the word _rahaa'ish_ being an identical word could cause confusion.

You are of course aware that the common pronunciation of the base of this word, _رہا rahaa_, is _rihaa_ in Urdu. Now, the change of vowel in _rahaa'ish_ from _rahnaa _meaning ''abode'' is caused by confusing _rahaa _(from Prakrit) for Persian _rahaa_--->_rihaa_.


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## Qureshpor

marrish said:


> You are of course aware that the common pronunciation of the base of this word, _رہا rahaa_, is _rihaa_ in Urdu. Now, the change of vowel in _rahaa'ish_ from _rahnaa _meaning ''abode'' is caused by confusing _rahaa _(from Prakrit) for Persian _rahaa_--->_rihaa_.



I will have to concede ignorance! I have always thought the verb was "rihaadan" and hense "rihaa". How wrong I have been!! Thank you for bringing this to my notice.


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## Alfaaz

Do other members (perhaps who might have greater familiarity with the phrase) have any ideas or suggestions?


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## Faylasoof

Alfaaz said:


> .....
> *Question:* What would be the best way to translate "characters welcome" into Arabic, Persian, and Urdu? What would be the shortest/most concise way?


 As you know, we don’t have any one word which could be called an exact equivalent to the way ‘character’ is being used in English. So, _apart from all the above_, but including at least one of your suggestions we can also have:

سیدھے سادے ، عجیب و غریب \ انوكھے  انمول، عجوبہ لوگوں \ اشخاص  سب ( ہی) كو ( رہنے كی) دعوت ہے
_siidhe saade, 3ajiib o Ghariib / anokhe anmol / 3ajuubah logon / ashxaaS sab (hii) ko (rahne kii) da3wat hai_


This is of course assuming that I’ve understood your original idea correctly!
You may chop and change as you wish to get to your final, short(er) combination from everything that has been presented thus far.


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## Alfaaz

Faylasoof said:
			
		

> _ko (rahne kii) da3wat hai_


Thanks, but doesn't that seem more like characters are invited...? For the English sentence _"You're welcome to stay at our house"_...in Urdu, we usually hear expressions like _"humara ghar aap ke (rehne ke) liye Haazir hai"_ or _"humare ghar ke darwaaze aap ke liye khhule haiN"_ or _"aap chaaheN to humare ghar qiyaam kar sakte haiN"_ etc. ... but nothing seems to be (exactly similar to/a good translation of) _welcome_.


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## Faylasoof

Alfaaz said:


> Originally Posted by *Faylasoof* _ko (rahne kii) da3wat hai_
> 
> .
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks, but doesn't that seem more like characters are invited...?
> .
Click to expand...

 Only if you take it literally, otherwise one can use this expression to mean ‘welcome’.


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## Sheikh_14

Well it all boils down to how you would translate the following "you surely are a character" or "he/she is a real character."
Har shox au rangiile ko dilii xush aamadiid/marhabaa!
Har shox au raang aa rang ko ....

Alfaaz saaHib as the intial poster where do you now stand on this matter and it's particulars? How would you refer to an individual that is a "character" as opposed to a man of character which would simply be baa kirdaar. A "character" in my humble opinion could be a shox shaks, rangilaa, shauqiin mizaaj, a'jiib au a'juubah (strange and a wonder), rangiin etc. The suggestions made by Qp would befit a context more derisory than the one you have offered of high praises for namoonapan pr fankaarii. Haha how about Az dil funkaaroN xush amaadiid/ az dil khulii da'wat hai ayy funkaaroN (from the heart we blurt out an open invitation to all you characters). Not quite sure on how ayy would be transliterated what I mean to say is the word quite often trnalditerated as aye which I feel is done erroneously and would translate to Oh I.e. Ayy xudaa (oh dear God)


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