# Hindi-Urdu: swallow



## amiramir

Hi,

In a recent thread we came across निगल लेना / nigal lena for swallow. The word I knew previously was गटकना /gatakna.

Do they differ semantically? Which one is more idiomatic? Is Gatakna mostly used as gatak lena?

i.e. Chew your food 33 times before swallowing = Nigal lene / gatakne / gatak lene ? se pehle, apna khaanaa 33 bar chabaanaa.

Thanks!


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## Qureshpor

From Urdu perspective:
I have not heard of "gaTaknaa" but "nigalnaa" is the verb used most frequently. In fact there is an idiom...

x ko aasmaan khaa gayaa yaa zamiin nigal ga'ii.

Was x gobbled up by the sky or swallowed by the earth.

The verb used here is "nigal jaanaa".


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## Alfaaz

Urdu: 

The pronunciation used is گُٹَکنا - _g*u*Taknaa _(with a _Dhammah/pesh_ on the _gaaf_): 


> نگل جانا نیر پینا ، گھونٹ بھرنا


Transliteration: _nigal jaanaa nez piinaa, ghuuNT bharnaa_



> H گٿکنا गुटकना _guṭaknā_ [_guṭ_, prob. onomat.+S. कृ], v.t. To swallow, gulp, bolt;—v.n. To coo (as a dove, &c.):—_guṭak-jānā_ (intens.) To gulp down, &c.


Example from an online article:


> ... بلکہ ایفڈز ایک میٹھا امرت نکالتے ہیں جسے یہ چیونٹیاں گٹک جاتی ہیں۔ ...
> 
> از کاشتکاری:صرف انسان کی نہیں اجارہ داری!


Transliteration: 
_
... balkeh aphids ek miiThaa amrit nikaalte haiN jise yeh chyuuNTiiyaaN guTak jaatii haiN- ...

az kaasht-kaarii: Sirf insaan kii nahiiN ijaarah-daarii
_
Others will also hopefully share their views and experiences, but it seems _guTaknaa _is often used to describe an action closer to _gulping, guzzling, glutting, etc. _(though this doesn't necessarily always have to be the case!).

_deglutition _- ابتلاع، ازدراد


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## aevynn

I mostly hear _gaTaknaa_ (with the schwa in the first syllable, rather than the u) in the context of downing liquids, as @Alfaaz suggests, and _nigalnaa_ mostly in the context of swallowing solids. As far as compounding goes, I think its quite common to compound both verbs with the auxiliaries _jaanaa_ and _lenaa_.

Here are some usages of _gaTaknaa_ and _nigalnaa_ in sentences by Premchand.

यह दवा भी बुरी ही थी, पर पिता जी न जाने क्यों इस दवा को खूब मज़ा ले-ले कर पीते थे। हम जो दवा पीते हैं, तो आँखें बंद करके एक ही घूँट में *गटक जाते हैं*।
_yeh dawaa bhii burii hii thii, par pitaa jii na jaane kyoN is dawaa ko khuub mazaa le-le kar piite the. ham jo dawaa piite haiN, to aaNkheN band karke ek hii ghuuNT meN *gaTak jaate haiN*. _
This medicine was also quite bad, but for some reason Father really enjoyed drinking it. When we drink it, we close our eyes and down it in one gulp.

उसका भविष्य एक अंधेरी खाई की तरह उसके सामने मुँह खोले खड़ा था, मानो उसे *निगल जाएगा*।
_uskaa bhavishya ek andherii khaaii kii tarah uske saamne muNh khole khaRaa thaa, maano use *nigal jaaegaa*._
His future stood before him, mouth yawning like that of a dark trench, as though it would swallow him whole.​Most examples I find online in Nagari seem to match my experiences, with _gaTaknaa_ being used with liquids (water, tea, scotch, ...), and _nigalnaa_ with solids, but there are at least a few examples of people using _gaTaknaa_ with solids (grapes, pills, ...). This usage of _gaTaknaa_ with solids is not something I'd use (or expect to hear) personally.


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## Qureshpor

^ Thank you. What's name of Premchand's book/s from which you have taken the sample sentences?


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## aevynn

Both are from short stories, the first from _chorii_, the second from _kaayar_.


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## Aryaved

Alfaaz ji, I have never heard the gutakna, but only gatakna. Maybe this is a Hindi-Urdu difference?


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## desi4life

^ गटकना is more common than गुटकना in Hindi, but Oxford Hindi dictionary has both: gaṭaknā, guṭaknā


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## Alfaaz

Aryaved said:
			
		

> Alfaaz ji, I have never heard the gutakna, but only gatakna. Maybe this is a Hindi-Urdu difference?


 That is interesting. I unfortunately cannot say much since I haven't heard the word quite commonly either (especially in comparison to _nigalnaa_) in both languages as other forum members have also suggested.


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## littlepond

In Hindi, गटकना is used in my experience, though maybe some also pronounce it as गुटकना.

Now, as to the meaning: the nuance differs a lot (in my mind, there is not that much of a solid vs. liquid thing, as the very action itself). nigalnaa is the generic "swallowing": could be anything and for whatever reason in whatever way. Now, for "gaTaknaa", let's imagine a baby. The baby is playing with things, and suddenly he or she finds a small diamond crystal nearby. Playing with it, the baby swallows it! Usually, here, you would cry out, on discovering this, "are, jaldi aa'o, bachchhe ne heera gaTak liyaa!" You could of course still use "nigalnaa" - it's the generic - but many Hindi speakers would prefer "gaTaknaa" here. "gaTaknaa" is a kind of very rapid, or sudden, or unexpected swallowing, in short. Since liquids get swallowed "faster" (in perception, at least), often "gaTaknaa" is associated with them.

Meanwhile, in Hindi, both "gaTaknaa" and "nigalnaa" are heavily used.


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## Fk313

amiramir said:


> Hi,
> 
> In a recent thread we came across निगल लेना / nigal lena for swallow. The word I knew previously was गटकना /gatakna.
> 
> Do they differ semantically? Which one is more idiomatic? Is Gatakna mostly used as gatak lena?
> 
> i.e. Chew your food 33 times before swallowing = Nigal lene / gatakne / gatak lene ? se pehle, apna khaanaa 33 bar chabaanaa.
> 
> Thanks!


One thing I would like to add.
Gatakna is very informal. We use gatakna in casual conversations.
Nigalna or Nigalena is a much better option.
They both mean the same.


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## littlepond

Fk313 said:


> Gatakna is very informal. We use gatakna in casual conversations.



Apart from some greetings, Hindi does not have any informal vs. formal or written vs. spoken divisions or cleavages when it comes to word usage (I am not talking here of "tuu"/"tum" vs. "aap", etc.). This is unlike Urdu and many European languages.
In other words, one can very well use "gaTaknaa" in a job interview, if the occasion were to permit it.


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## desi4life

littlepond said:


> Apart from some greetings, Hindi does not have any informal vs. formal or written vs. spoken divisions or cleavages when it comes to word usage (I am not talking here of "tuu"/"tum" vs. "aap", etc.).



There certainly is an informal vs. formal distinction. For example, _aurat _is more common in informal usage, and _strii _in more formal usage.


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## littlepond

desi4life said:


> There certainly is an informal vs. formal distinction. For example, _aurat _is more common in informal usage, and _strii _in more formal usage.



"strii" is simply a rarely used word: and, in fact, in my experience, much more common, as far as it is used, in colloquial speech of certain regions! In other words, yet again, anyone could say "aurat" or "mahilaa" in a job interview (or "strii"), and no one would even think of formality or informality.


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## Fk313

desi4life said:


> There certainly is an informal vs. formal distinction. For example, _aurat _is more common in informal usage, and _strii _in more formal usage.


I agree with @desi4life 

@littlepond Hindi and Urdu both have formal vs informal distinction. And both the languages do have spoken and written distinctions.
There are many words which we don't use in formal conversations.


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## littlepond

^ Probably, both of yours' meanings of formal and informal are different from mine, or maybe both of you confuse formal/informal with different registers of a language: vulgar, colloquial, popular, standardised, literary, etc. In any case, let's not take this thread off topic further.


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