# Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi: Adjective emphasis.



## Qureshpor

*In Punjabi, there is a somewhat strange way to emphasise colour adjectives. At least I am aware of a couple of examples. There might be more.

chiTTaa safaid/safaid chiTTaa = extremely white
kaalaa shaah*/shaah* kaalaa = jet black

chiTTaa/safaid both mean white

*shaah is the corrupted form of the Persian "siyaah".

Is there anything similar in Urdu/Punjabi or other subcontinent languages?

*


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## rahulbemba

IMO it depends on the style of the writer/speaker. For example, let us see this poem from the great poet Nagarjun: 

अमल धवल गिरि के शिखरों पर,
बादल को घिरते देखा है।
छोटे-छोटे मोती जैसे
उसके शीतल तुहिन कणों को,
मानसरोवर के उन स्वर्णिम
कमलों पर गिरते देखा है,
बादल को घिरते देखा है। [Ref] 

In the first line, the poet uses two adjectives for the mountain (giri), i.e. "amal dhawal". "Amal" means "pure" or  "without any impurity" and "dhawal" means "white". 

So like you said for Punjabi, you can say that even in this Hindi poem, the word "amal" is emphasizing the other color adjective "dhawal"...


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## Qureshpor

rahulbemba said:


> IMO it depends on the style of the writer/speaker. For example, let us see this poem from the great poet Nagarjun:
> 
> अमल धवल गिरि के शिखरों पर,
> बादल को घिरते देखा है।
> छोटे-छोटे मोती जैसे
> उसके शीतल तुहिन कणों को,
> मानसरोवर के उन स्वर्णिम
> कमलों पर गिरते देखा है,
> बादल को घिरते देखा है। [Ref]
> 
> In the first line, the poet uses two adjectives for the mountain (giri), i.e. "amal dhawal". "Amal" means "pure" or  "without any impurity" and "dhawal" means "white".
> 
> So like you said for Punjabi, you can say that even in this Hindi poem, the word "amal" is emphasizing the other color adjective "dhawal"...




Thank you. But in your example one has two adjectives with seperate meanings whereas in the example that I have provided we have adjectives with identical meaning but coming from different source languages and juxtaposed to provide emphasis to the meaning.


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## rahulbemba

In the poem above, "amal" and "dhawal" have complementary meanings; we can't say the meanings are very different... 

If I think for examples from Hindi in day-to-day use: we would have

नंग धडंग 
आडा तिरछा 
सुन्दर सलोना

The meanings of the two words are the same and yet both are used together.


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## Qureshpor

rahulbemba said:


> In the poem above, "amal" and "dhawal" have complementary meanings; we can't say the meanings are very different...
> 
> If I think for examples from Hindi in day-to-day use: we would have
> 
> नंग धडंग
> आडा तिरछा
> सुन्दर सलोना
> 
> The meanings of the two words are the same and yet both are used together.




yaa rab! vuh nah samjhe haiN nah samjheN ge mirii baat
de aur dil un ko jo nah de mujh ko zabaaN aur!


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## Faylasoof

QURESHPOR said:


> *
> In Punjabi, there is a somewhat strange way to emphasise colour adjectives. At least I am aware of a couple of examples. There might be more.
> 
> chiTTaa safaid/safaid chiTTaa = extremely white
> kaalaa shaah*/shaah* kaalaa = jet black
> 
> chiTTaa/safaid both mean white
> 
> *shaah is the corrupted form of the Persian "siyaah".
> 
> Is there anything similar in Urdu/Punjabi or other subcontinent languages?
> 
> *


 We use these for emphasis:

گورا چتا \چٹا   गोरा चित्ता  _goraa chittaa / chiTTaa_ = very white  
كالا كلوٹا काला कलूटा _kaalaa kaluuTaa_ = very black 

Generally used for people. The second (_kaalaa kaluuTaa_) is considered impolite in Urdu at least. As children we’d tease other using this and it was inevitably followed by the rhymed expression, _baiNgan luuTaa_!

We also use مشكین _miskiin_ / مشكی _mishkii_ to mean _jet black_ - usually for the inanimate and not for people. 

Borrowed from Persian. Here is Firdausi (and further down, Ghalib):

بسر برفکند آتش و برفروخت
همه موی *مشکین* به آتش بسوخت

(فردوسی)

Apart from these we also have:

آبنوسي _aabnuusii_ (from Persian) = dark black / ebony black 

ادهم _adham_ (from Arabic) = dark coloured, esp. for black (jet black ).
(Not to be confused with the Sanskrit ادهم अधम _adham_ =  mean, vile, contemptible, very lowest; inferior, low, humble, wretched - also used in Urdu with this very meaning.)

In poetry we also use _aswad_: black (thing or person ).
A اسود _aswad_, adj. Black; blacker; blackest;—greater, and greatest, in respect of estimation, rank or dignity.


اخترِ سوختۂ قیس سے نسبت دیجے
خالِ *مشکینِ* رُخِ دل کشِ لیلیٰ کہیے
حجر* الاسود *ِ دیوارِ حرم کیجے فرض
نافہ آہوۓ بیابانِ خُتن کا کہیے

(غالبؔ)


بتاتی ابیض و اصغر کو ہے آدابِ دنیا کے
سکھاتی *اسود* و احمر کو ہے ارکان دیں مسجد

… and of course we use سیاہ _siyaah_ (=black), with either بالكل _bilkul _or گہرا गहरा _gahraa_ to give بالكل \ گہرا سیاہ _bilkul / gahraa __siyaah_ = deep black.


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## marrish

In Hindi there is लाल चटक laal chaTak, meaning bright red,


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## BP.

marrish said:


> In Hindi there is लाल चटक laal chaTak, meaning bright red,


There's be others, I can think of _safayd burraaq_ in Urdu.


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## littlepond

Hindi: Also "surkh laal" - deep/intense red. One also has "khoonii laal". From English, we also use "peacock blue" in Hindi. To beat someone "black and blue" though is "niilaa-piilaa" (blue-yellow). But in anger one becomes "laal-piilaa" (red-yellow). "chaTak rang" means "bright colour" (could be any; e.g. sentence "kyaa chaTak rang(oN) kii saRii pehni hai!") (interestingly, chaTak goes here in front, and but behind in "laal chaTak"). "chaTak-maTak" intensifies further the brightness and glitter, and glamour ("dekh, voh chhamak-chhallo kyaa chaTak-maTak lag rahii hai"). Not adjectives, but jaundice is called "piiliyaa" (from "piilaa," yellow) and there's a card game called "siyaah kaaT", in which one has to get the higher ranking cards of spades suit in tricks (and since spades are "siyaah", black, in colour ...).


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## Chhaatr

How about_ jaaNch parakh kar dekhnaa_?


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## marrish

Chhaatr said:


> How about_ jaaNch parakh kar dekhnaa_?


_jaaNchnaa-parakhnaa ---> jaaNch kar aur parakh kar dekhnaa ---> jaaNch parakh kar dekhnaa_. Can you spot any adjective?


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## littlepond

The classic doubling as well: like "narm-narm resham sii havaa". One "narm" intensifying the other "narm".


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## Chhaatr

marrish said:


> _jaaNchnaa-parakhnaa ---> jaaNch kar aur parakh kar dekhnaa ---> jaaNch parakh kar dekhnaa_. Can you spot any adjective?



Sorry, forgot about the adjective!


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## Gope

In Tamil we have these double words to intensify the colour they both refer to: sekkach chevel (செக்கச் செவேல் red red meaning deep red), pachaip pasel (பச்சைப் பசேல் green green meaning lively green, as when describing lush fields) and last but not least கன்னங் கரேல் kannang karel (black black meaning dark black, kaalaa kaluuTaa ). But only for these three colours.

I am sorry there was an omission above : வெள்ளை வெளேர் veLLai veLer for pure white is also used.


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## marrish

In Punjabi also with other adjectives, eg. chaNgaa p_halaa.


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## Gope

marrish said:


> In Punjabi also with other adjectives, eg. chaNgaa p_halaa.


Pronounced चंगा फला? What does the underscore in p_halaa signify?


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## Qureshpor

Gope said:


> Pronounced चंगा फला? What does the underscore in p_halaa signify?


achchhaa bhalaa. In Urdu bhalaa-chaNgaa also exists.


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## marrish

The underscore is meant to show the elision of h and a tone (here high tone, it can be possibly better if I write chaNgaa p_hálaa).


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