- Forum >
- Topic: Hindi >
- "संतरा एक फल होता है।"
32 Comments
218
संतरा comes from the name of the Portuguese town of Sintra. Greeks call oranges 'Πορτοκάλι' too. The Portuguese use the Arabic root (laranja). The Arabs brought the orange to Spain from the Far East: al-naranj > naranja > an orange. (16thC English called them noranges!) Interestingly the Sanskrit for Orange was narang (नारंग) too. The Germans simply call it 'Apfelsine' - Chinese Apple, although Orange is becoming more common. Does anyone else have any other interesting Orange stories?
Great info.
Another thing - orange is also called Naarangi(नारंगी) in Hindi. Sounds quite related to the Arab Naranj.
In Malayalam, the original name was "Naarangai". The English-derived "orange" is more frequent nowadays.
नारङ्ग (नाग the best + रङ्ग color) is a Sanskrit loanword in Arabic and other languages.
- 1927
I find this interesting, especially because I have been to Sintra. It is my favorite spot in Portugal.
How do you know for certain संतरा derives from Sintra, especially when the early Portuguese in India didn't use that word?
- 102
One assumes the single vowel sound difference was a big clue(!), but it is backed up by Wiktionary:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE
That, in turn, comes from the Turkish "portakal". The Turks invaded Romania a couple of times.
- 262
Quick correction, they didn't invade Romania. They wanted to, but couldn't initially. After some time the three Romanian territories became vassal states (paid tribute not to be invaded), but eventually managed to become fully independent of the Ottoman Empire.
Thanks! I thought the Romanian territories had become vassal states after having been invaded.
It is most probable for this word to come from Greek into Romanian. https://ro.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/portocal%C4%83
- 393
Does anyone else have any other interesting Orange stories?
There ain't no rhyme for oranges.
But seriously, I love the etymology stuff. That was worth 2 lingots. :-) Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
- 102
My interesting tidbit is actually debunking part of yours, I'm afraid!
It's a fun story that it was originally 'a norange' (and it really did happen for some other words, such as 'a nuncle' - not sure about 'aunt' though!) but oranges were always oranges, and came to us via French 'pomme d'orenge', which of course came from Spain and the rest of the root as ypu describe.
- 102
Modern French, yes. It, along with English 'orange' comes from the Old French 'pomme d'orenge'.
thanks for this tidbit :) a crucial bit of information i found -- the arabic 'naranj' was borrowed from the persian 'narang', which was borrowed from the sanskrit 'narangah', which ultimately comes from a dravidian language (possibly mayalayam, telugu, or tamil.) and as and if it couldn't get any better, arabic has another word for orange: 'al-burtuqaliu'. sound familiar? ;) the portuguese sure were proud of their fruit....
It is typically used when speaking in generalizations. Such as, "horses are big animals" - "घोड़े बड़े जानवर होते हैं"
In Persian both Portugal and orange are called "porteghal". Narengi is a different relative of orange family.
This lesson is ok but half way in lessons: Letters 3 and 4, it freezes and I cannot report. Please check and solve problem.
होता? Could somebody explain from where we take it? Is it not correct if I say संतरा एक फल है?
- 102
If you think about the grammar with other verbs, it should be clearer: 'the orange eats a fruit', for (nonsensical) example. It's sort of 'the orange bes [does be] a fruit'; not a construction we use in standard English.
It's similar to some dialectal English though, such as 'I be going now', 'orange be fruit'.
- 393
A statement where the verb is simply है, हैं, or हो talks about what is true right now without taking a stand on what is always true.
Prepending the auxiliary verb होता, होती, or होते to the है, हैं, or हो adds the "habitual" aspect to the statement, indicating that that's how things always are. You use this form to describe habits, which tend to not change, and to describe "immutable truths" which never change.
See the section headed with "होना - The Habitual Form" in the tips and notes for the "Animals" skill: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/28223405.
In the current example, an orange is a fruit by definition, and that will never change. So you use the habitual aspect to say so. In one of the other questions you'll see, संतरा लाल है, is a reference to a specific orange that happens to be red. But oranges are not always red, so you don't use होता/होती/होते in that statement.
- 102
It's hard to get the tense right in an English translation, some dialects do use it, rendering as 'I be hungry' or similar (grammatical standard English would be 'I am hungry'), or phrases like 'I be going now' etc.
By far the easiest way to get it is to compare with another verb, I think - 'vah khaata hai', 'he eats [/'does eat']'; 'vah hota hai', 'he 'bes' [/'does be']'.
कृप्या ! koee meree madad karo ! Why "होता है" ? and not just "संतरा एक फल है"।
Because it's something that is used for general statements. Generally oranges are fruits, whereas an orange may be small and others may be big (not generally).
Another example, "घोड़े बड़े जानवर होते हैं "
