# Urdu: Are snacks called short eats in Pakistan?



## teaboy

Snacks are often called short eats in India.  Is that term used in Pakistan, or in Urdu?


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## Cilquiestsuens

teaboy said:


> Snacks are often called short eats in India. Is that term used in Pakistan, or in Urdu?


 
What ? Never heard the term. I don' t think it is called so in PK, let's wait for more opinions.


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## panjabigator

Never hear "short eats" in India.  Several questions:
1) Where in India did you hear this?
2) What kind of snacks?  Pakoras?  Chaat?

Ok, time to have me some "big eats".


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## lcfatima

Teaboy: In which context or speech community in India did you hear people calling snacks 'short eats'? 

What would be the best or most concise term for 'snacks' in Urdu any how? I can think of some idiomatic expressions but no one term.


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## panjabigator

lcfatima said:


> Teaboy: In which context or speech community in India did you hear people calling snacks 'short eats'?
> 
> What would be the best or most concise term for 'snacks' in Urdu any how? I can think of some idiomatic expressions but no one term.



Which idiomatic expressions?


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## lcfatima

Just like "kuch halka phulka," or  "kuch chai ke saath".


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## Cilquiestsuens

Well, we use sometimes the term *lawaazimaat* (= necessary things) for the snacks you serve to your guests, but this is a formal and very general term which doesn't convey the same meaning as 'snacks'....

It is just another term that gives away the outstanding *mehmaan nawaazii* of _Subcontinentals_, Go live in European cities and see how people *paanii bhii nahii.n puuchhte*.

Didn't we discuss the term lawaazimaat already (in which thread? )


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## lcfatima

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1594558&highlight=lawaazimaat

Yes I asked about lawaazimaat before in the context of ingredients necessary for a recipe.


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## Koozagar

I think "kuch halka phulka" is the closest to snacks. Never heard "short eats". Curious to know how it is used in a sentence. 

"snacks" is also used among the middle, upper-middle and upper-middle class people who incorporate English vocabulary in their day-to-day speech more than the lower-class or the section of the population that is educated in Urdu medium.


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## Cilquiestsuens

Well, I concur that *kuchh halkaa phulkaa* is the closest hit. Punjabi / Urdu / Hindi have many different ways of expressions as compared to English... I guess that the meaning of snacks could be conveyed thus too in colloquial :

*pakoRe-shakoRe*
*biskaT-shiskaT*
*nimko-shimko...*

etc...

(here I guess that using a *sh* as the first consonant of the 'echo-word' maybe due to Punjabi influence, but it is the way people speak Urdu in Lahore, you barely hear the so-called standard '*w*' as in *biskaT-wiskaT*)


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## Koozagar

That is very true. First consonant is very often "sh' instead of the standard 'w'.


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## teaboy

Perhaps "short eats" sticks in my head from trips to India.  I have seen it on menus. I may have only heard it spoken in Indian English sentences, but so often one is not sorting out the language, one is just communicating, and there is so much English ("Inglish") in aam bolchaal.


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## panjabigator

Koozagar said:


> I think "kuch halka phulka" is the closest to snacks. Never heard "short eats". Curious to know how it is used in a sentence.
> 
> "snacks" is also used among the middle, upper-middle and upper-middle class people who incorporate English vocabulary in their day-to-day speech more than the lower-class or the section of the population that is educated in Urdu medium.



Right - While in Punjab last summer, I distinctly remember hearing "snacks" in Punjabi.



Cilquiestsuens said:


> Well, I concur that *kuchh halkaa phulkaa* is the closest hit. Punjabi / Urdu / Hindi have many different ways of expressions as compared to English... I guess that the meaning of snacks could be conveyed thus too in colloquial :
> 
> *pakoRe-shakoRe*
> *biskaT-shiskaT*
> *nimko-shimko...*
> 
> etc...
> 
> (here I guess that using a *sh* as the first consonant of the 'echo-word' maybe due to Punjabi influence, but it is the way people speak Urdu in Lahore, you barely hear the so-called standard '*w*' as in *biskaT-wiskaT*)



Right.  These echo words are great.  Do you hear "chai wai" or "chah chuu"?


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## linguist786

panjabigator said:


> Right. These echo words are great. Do you hear "chai wai" or "chah chuu"?


In Gujji, we say "chai bai"  At-least _we_ do! ("chai bai pisho?")

I've never heard 'short eats'.


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## lcfatima

I asked my husband and he said something like _alaa balla_ means snacks. He said _lawaazimaat_ is like the small crunchies and nuts (Cilqui mentions nimco) that people set out for guests, but not specifically snacks.

Yes, I concur, 'snaiks' is widely used.

Teaboy, can you tell us where in India you were? I have occasionally heard English expressions that are very specific to one locale, for example, someone informed me that in the part of Maharashtra where he comes from, people call a baked savory stuffed puff-pastry _'baked samosa'_ where in my experience in India and Pakistan this is more widely known as '_pattice_'. Or, in some places a plastic shopping bag is known as a '_shaappar_' (shopper) while in others it is '_paaliT.hiin_' (polythene). So I just wanted to know in what region you heard this 'short eats.'


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## Koozagar

linguist786 said:


> In Gujji, we say "chai bai"  At-least _we_ do! ("chai bai pisho?")
> 
> I've never heard 'short eats'.



"Chai bai pisho" sounds beautiful. I love the sound of Gujrati. In Punjabi other than 'cha chu' there is also ' cha sha'


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## lcfatima

I happened to catch an episode of No Reservations with Tony Bourdain in Sri Lanka and saw that street foods/ snack foods are called "short eats" in Sri Lankan South Asian Variety English. Googling led to the the information that "short eats" is also used in South India, especially Tamil speaking areas. 

Teaboy, is it possible that you may have remembered "short eats" as small eats? 

Here are some links to peruse, but don't look if you are hungry 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisine_of_Sri_Lanka#Short_eats

http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/short_eats/


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## Faylasoof

Well the links do clearly mention _short eats _but is this English term used as it is in speech and also _transliterated_ into South Indian languages? Wouldn't be surprising if it was since so many English terms have crept into South Asian languages in general.


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## lcfatima

I can only imagine it would be.


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