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Sunday, July 24, 2011

My common bloopers 6

This could feature under Common Pronunciation errors too. There are two words - one is jabran (जबरन) and the other is zabardastii (ज़बरदस्ती). Both mean the same thing i.e., forcibly. Now the issue lies in the fact that the word zabardastii is used more often than the other one. And that has created the mirage that jabran is also a form of the same word (since they anyway mean the same thing) and hence I ended up pronouncing it as zabran (ज़बरन). However the correct forms are

jabran which comes from the Arabic root jabr (remember the Sahir song zindagi zulm sahii, jabr sahii gham hee sahee from the film Shagun). jabr means oppression and its derivative jabran means forcibly. 

zabardastii comes from the Persian root zabar (which is also a diacritic mark). zabar means above (hence the diacritic mark is also placed above) and dast means hands hence zabardast literally means having the upper hand. It's derivative zabardastii means forcibly or violently. 

In summary, it is ज़बरदस्ती and जबरन (zabardastii and jabran). And both mean the same thing. 

I don't make this mistake anymore. Hopefully after this post, neither will you. 

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