#80789
09/14/2002 1:32 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I never knew this before, a name often in news lately. From Brewer:
Punjab [five rivers]. They are the Jelum, Chenab, Ravee, Beas, and Sutlej; called by the Greeks pente-potamia.
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#80790
09/14/2002 7:53 PM
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Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742 |
>Punjab [five rivers]. They are the Jelum, Chenab, Ravee, Beas, and Sutlej
Something I knew before I was five, courtesy of the many recitations of the list made by my father. My father used to count to ten for me in Urdu, and when I learned to do the same in Punjabi, it turned out there was almost no difference, apar from a couple of minor vowel shifts.
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#80791
09/14/2002 8:18 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear sjm: I am suffering painful frustration. Please take pity on me and tell me:
Does "pun-" mean five,, and "jab" mean river?
Edit: dear sjm: After difficult search, I found a site that said "panch-" meant five
and "-abi" was Arabic for "water". Oh joy. Penta,pump-, fünf,five.
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#80792
09/15/2002 12:24 AM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,136 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,136 Likes: 2 |
Punjab [five rivers]...called by the Greeks pente-potamia.
Then is messo- (as in Messopotamia) "halfway between", as in meso- or mezzo-, thus giving "between rivers," maybe the Tigris and the Euphrates?
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#80793
09/15/2002 12:36 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Mesopotamia
Gr mesopotamia (chbra), lit., (land) between rivers < mesos, MID1 + potamos, river, orig., rapids < IE base *pet3, to fall, rush at > FEATHER6 ancient country in SW Asia, between the upper Tigris & Euphrates rivers: a part of modern Iraq
adj., n.
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#80794
09/15/2002 1:45 AM
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Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742 |
>After difficult search, I found a site that said "panch-" meant five
Yes. That was one of those vowel shifts I mentioned. When my Dad spelled "five" in Urdu, he transliterated it "panch". My Punjabi friends transliterated the word as "punj". I gave up my efforts to learn Punjabi when I learned that it has two alphabets, one of which even many native speakers have trouble mastering the use of. Given that Urdu uses the Arabic alphabet, I really should learn that instead - at least it is a more friendly language for the sinistral to write.
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