Re: blog post about motivation
I made a new blog post that might be of interest to some.
http://sohnikaur.tumblr.com/post/68343812190/the-lesson
I sure hope I got it all right now.
ਬਣਨਾ, ਬਣਾਉਣਾ, ਅਤੇ ਬਣਵਾਉਣਾ : The ਕੇਲਾ Lesson
One night I was having a stimulating conversation about Punjabi verbs and learned that they have a fascinating trait that I have never seen to this extent in any other language I’ve learned (mostly English, some romance languages, and a bit of German). Or at least, some of the verbs do. This lesson was SO mind-blowing that it stuck immediately and I refer to it as the banana lesson because the verb that was used to demonstrate it to me looks to me a bit like the English word banana. I know it’s not pronounced exactly like that, but it’s close enough that that stuck, and so this is the Banana lesson.
So what happens here? Essentially, many Punjabi verbs, as I understand it, have a kind of “root” form. In this case, it is ਬਣਨਾ. This verb is roughly translated as “to make” or “to become” depending on the context. Essentially, this is kind of a verb that will indicate the action happening to the subject of the sentence…so it is become in this case. Make it of yourself, if you will. If I want to say I will become a police officer, you would use this verb. If you want to say *he* is at school and will become a police officer (make one of himself), you would also use this verb. In this case, the subject and the object of the sentence are essentially the same.
Next scenario: ਬਣਾਉਣਾ. This verb essentially squeezes ਣਾਉ (minus the nna sound which I can’t seem to erase right now, stupid computer, so sorry for that!) in between the rest of the characters, and in this case, substitutes the nna sound, ਣ, for the other na sound, ਨ, found in the root of this type of verb. This is an actual rule you can use with many Punjabi verbs. And this type of verb, then is used to indicate making something. Essentially, you would use ਬਣਾਉਣਾ to indicate that you are making a ship, a house, or a pair of shoes most likely. In this case, the subject does something to the object of the sentence.
The last type of verb, the 3rd, is ਬਣਵਾਉਣਾ. In this case, there is a ਵ inserted again in the middle of the word. This type of verb would more demonstrate something being done by someone else. If you want to say you are having a dress made (at the dressmaker’s shop down the street) and not by your friend in the room that you are talking to, i.e. not asking said friend to please help you make the dress…you would likely use this verb. In this case, the subject has something done to the object by using the help of yet another object.
This type of rule in Punjabi verbs transfers over to many verbs, but essentially not quite all of them.
ਮਰਨਾ, ਮਾਰਨਾ, & ਮਰਵਾਉਣਾ (these three don’t seem to have the O sound in the middle of the 2nd like in the first example)…these would essentially be to die, to kill, and to have assasinated. ;-) The first would be I die or he dies, or you will all die…however you conjugate it. The 2nd would be if I kill my neighbour, or something and the 3rd would be like I get my neighbour to kill my dog. Morbid, maybe, but it was another prime example which makes sense and helps drive this lesson home.
ਸਿੱਖਣਾ , ਸਿਖਾਉਣਾ , ਸਿਖਵਾਉਣਾ : to learn, to teach, and to be taught.
ਲਿਖਣਾ, ਲਿਖਾਉਣਾ, ਲਿਖਵਾਉਣਾ : to write (to yourself/himself), to be written to, and I guess to get something written (potentially professionally)…?
ਬੋਲਣਾ, ਬੁਲਾਉਣਾ, ਬੁਲਵਾਉਣਾ : to speak, to be spoken to, to get a speach done?
ਟਾਈਪ ਕਰਨਾ, ਟਾਈਪ ਕਰਾਉਣਾ, ਟਾਈਪ ਕਰਵਾਉਣਾ : In this case, you’re essentially using a modern-day English word, “type” and then the verb “to do”, (krna) which you add afterwards to say to type (in the first case). The 2nd and third, I gather, essentially mean the same in this case: to get something typed up.
Anyhow, I’ve been thinking of this post for quite a while. I originally encountered this verb as ਸਿੱਖਣਾ vs ਸਿਖਾਉਣਾ when I asked a friend how to say “teach” like “you teach me Punjabi” and when he told me I said “isn’t that learn? Like I learn Punjabi?” and he said there was an extra added O sound to mean teach. At that point in time, I found that very confusing (this would be…probably may of this year, 2013) and said how would you remember that and tell them apart! But later, another friend explained it much much better, with all these examples and probably more, and ever since, this Banana lesson has stuck. I may not remember what a specific verb means, in some cases, but I can now identify to a certain extent how it is being acted out in the sentence…by the subject? Or not? :kaurkhalsaflagblue:
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