# Indic languages: I don't know/speak X, I only know/speak Y.



## albondiga

"*[bhaashaa X] nahiiN aatii hai, sirf [bhaashaa Y] aatii hai*"...

or alternately: "*[bhaashaa X] nahiiN boltaa huuN, sirf [bhaashaa Y] boltaa huuN"*...

What would be the best colloquial way to get across this point in the other Indic languages?

[please include both transliteration and original script, if possible... thanks!]


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## panjabigator

/bhaaShaa/ is feminine, so it would be /nahii.n aatii hai/.

I don't have the script available on this computer, so I'll repost later.

Hindi/Urdu
/mujhe hi.ndii nahii.n aatii hai, sirf urduu aatii hai/

Panjabi
/mainuu.n pa.njaabii nahii.n aau.ndii hai, sirf urduu aaundii hai/


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## albondiga

panjabigator said:


> /bhaaShaa/ is feminine, so it would be /nahii.n aatii hai/.


अच्छा, लगता है की लगभग एक साल पहले हमने इसके बारे में बात किया, है न?   Did that make sense?  Anyway, I'll edit my post...




panjabigator said:


> Panjabi
> /mainuu.n pa.njaabii nahii.n aau.ndii hai, sirf urduu aaundii hai/



Thanks!


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## macta123

both are equally good


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## linguist786

albondiga said:


> अच्छा, लगता है की लगभग एक साल पहले हमने इसके बारे में बात किया, है न?  Did that make sense? Anyway, I'll edit my post...


 
The bit in red should be changed to की थी, then perfect! 
Your Hindi has improved dramatically!

I think Panjabigator's "correction" is not a hard and fast rule. You will find people who, intuitively, will say "nahii aataa hai" (mujhe urdu ataa hai, etc). I, for one, would say "aataa", although maybe gramatically (strictly speaking) you may find that you should say "aatii".

Panjabigator's probably right because he's studied the grammar behind Hindi. But the fact that people do actually say "aataa" shouldn't be ignored.

edit, I forgot my language! (Gujarati):

મને ગુજરાતી નથી આવરતું, ફ઼કત ઉર્દુ આવરે છે
(mane gujarati nathii aavartu, fakat urdu aavre Che)
(I don't know Gujarati, just Urdu)


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## albondiga

linguist786 said:


> Your Hindi has improved dramatically!


शुक्रिया! (जानता हूँ ... लेकिन मुझे और सीखना चाहिए...)



linguist786 said:


> (Gujarati):
> 
> મને ગુજરાતી નથી આવરતું, ફ઼કત ઉર્દુ આવરે છે
> (mane gujarati nathii aavartu, fakat urdu aavre Che)
> (I don't know Gujarati, just Urdu)



I actually learned this line in Gujarati a long time ago from some Gujju acquaintances, except they said something like _kali _(don't know if the vowels were long or short) in place of your _fakat_... कोई फ़र्क़ है?


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## linguist786

albondiga said:


> शुक्रिया! (जानता हूँ ... लेकिन मुझे बिल्कुल और सीखना चाहिए...)


"bilkul" doesn't make sense here..





> I actually learned this line in Gujarati a long time ago from some Gujju acquaintances, except they said something like _kali _(don't know if the vowels were long or short) in place of your _fakat_... कोई फ़र्क़ है?


The word is "khaali", and is what I would say too. I used "fakat" because I thought maybe "khaali" isn't pure Gujarati and is Bharuchi, but after checking in an online dictionary, "khaali" is there.


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## albondiga

linguist786 said:


> "bilkul" doesn't make sense here..
> 
> 
> 
> The word is "khaali", and is what I would say too. I used "fakat" because I thought maybe "khaali" isn't pure Gujarati and is Bharuchi, but after checking in an online dictionary, "khaali" is there.



Thanks! (x2)


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## francois_auffret

Hello,

I was just wondering why nobody suggested:

Mujhay marâthi nahin aati, urdu *hi* aati hai...

I think that's equally correct...

or in Punjabi:... *main noon.... urdû î aawndî ai....*

Do you have this *hî / î* particle in Gujarati????


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## lcfatima

I think that the ppl who would say:

mujhe Punjabi nahin aata hai, sirf Urdu aata hai



would not be native speakers of Urdu but would be Pushto speakers or speakers of someother language (perhaps angrezi?) who aren't good with gender in Urdu/Hindi.


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## linguist786

francois_auffret said:


> Hello,
> 
> I was just wondering why nobody suggested:
> 
> Mujhay marâthi nahin aati, urdu *hi* aati hai...
> 
> I think that's equally correct...


Well I suppose that would have to be in Marathi then, wouldn't it?



> or in Punjabi:... *main noon.... urdû î aawndî ai*....


Panjabigator's already told us the Panjabi one.


> Do you have this *hî / î* particle in Gujarati????


Yes we do! It's "j". In Gujarati, it's written as just one letter (the letter for "j" - જ) But the vowel that comes from the previous word makes it pronouncable.

So an alternative translation could be "mane Gujarati nathii aavartu, urdu j aavre Che" (pronounced "urdooj aavre Che")


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## albondiga

lcfatima said:


> I think that the ppl who would say:
> 
> mujhe Punjabi nahin aata hai, sirf Urdu aata hai
> 
> 
> 
> would not be native speakers of Urdu but would be Pushto speakers or speakers of someother language (perhaps angrezi?) who aren't good with gender in Urdu/Hindi.



Well, leaving aside linguist's assertion above that he would say *aataa*, I'll note that (although I was in a widely mixed group of people - Sindhis, South Indians, etc. -  way back when I first learned this line as aataa, before I started actively studying this language), I _think _that the person who actually taught me this line with *aataa *was a native Rajasthani who lived in Gujarat (and no one else corrected him to teach me *aatii*)... for whatever that fact is worth.  

I guess the only point is that there are some people who would say it, whether it's technically right or wrong, as linguist wrote already above, but maybe it is better to say *aatii *so I will try to do that...  My thought is that it might be colored by the gender of the parallel words in other Indic languages that people might speak alongside Hindi/Urdu (whether Gujarati, Panjabi, Marathi, or whatever, in any case probably as their first native language)...


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## linguist786

I think you are right.

In Gujarati, we say "Hindi nathii aavartu" (NOT: aavartii), which would mean that Gujarati does not have agreement between gender and verb. So Gujarati speakers would tend to do the same thing for Hindi. But Hindi's grammar is slightly different in that it has to agree.

But it's important to note that you will hear imperfect Hindi spoken quite often from people whose native language is an Indic language where gender & verb don't have to agree (like me!). But it's also important that as a learner, you should obviously learn good grammatical Hindi.


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## panjabigator

francois_auffret said:


> Hello,
> 
> I was just wondering why nobody suggested:
> 
> Mujhay marâthi nahin aati, urdu *hi* aati hai...
> 
> I think that's equally correct...
> 
> or in Punjabi:... *main noon.... urdû î aawndî ai....*
> 
> Do you have this *hî / î* particle in Gujarati????



I don't know why I didn't think of this one.  It work's nicely.


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## panjabigator

How about in Marathi?


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## Illuminatus

Malaa X yet naahi, fakta Y yete.
OR, like the _j_ particle, we have the _ch_ (the softer, scraping version) particle.

Malaa X yet naahi, 'Y'ch yete.

I would prefer the first version.


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## panjabigator

Interesting that you use "fakta."  It's such an Urdu sounding word -"faqat."


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