6 ms·

PS : It's pronounced like 'Taze' but with a soft T. It means 'quick' :)

tacomonstrous 9y ago
FYI, 'soft T' doesn't mean anything to western English speakers. They have a 'T' and a 'Th', the latter of which is actually a fricative, and not really a 'T' sound in the strict sense. I guess an Indian 'soft T' is better described as a more Italian sounding 'T', articulated mainly against the teeth.
- Myrmornis 9y ago
  Is a soft T like the way some Americans say "water", i.e. with a "D" like sound, as compared to the hard "T" in water traditional in British English?
  - kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago
    No. It's a soft T the way Spanish or Italian speakers say their Ts.
    - njsubedi 9y ago
      Imagine saying "both age" without the "bo"
  - tacomonstrous 9y ago
    That's actually closer to the voiced retroflex sound which Indians often use as their 'hard D', articulated further back in the palate, with the tongue rolled back a bit.
smnrchrds 9y ago
I was wondering about that. Tez means quick in Azerbaijani Turkish as well. It's interesting that it has the same meaning in a language spoken so far away.
- jogjayr 9y ago
  I'm fairly certain the word is of either Persian or Arabic origin. It probably came to the subcontinent during one of the numerous invasions by Arabic or Turco-Persian conquerors in the Middle Ages [1]. You'd be surprised how many words Hindi/Urdu and Turkish (or Farsi) have in common. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdu#Origin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdu#Origin
  - smnrchrds 9y ago
    Interesting. I was aware of Persian influence on Urdu. As a Persian speaker, I can understand the entirety of the national anthem of Pakistan without even a dictionary. But Azeri and Hindi is a not a combination I have encountered before.
    - jogjayr 9y ago
      Hindi and Urdu are mutually intelligible [1][2]. They use a different script and slightly different vocabularies [3]. But because of exposure via Bollywood and other media (my personal experience) most people who speak one can understand the other. Bollywood song lyrics and especially dialogue from movies from the 70s, 80s and 90s are very heavily Urdu-influenced (and in fact the movies even had credits in English, Hindi, and Urdu). Urdu itself is also spoken widely in India. As someone who learned Hindi in school (i.e. didn't grow up speaking it at home) I'm able to understand Urdu reasonably well, but probably would do a poor job speaking it. I'd have to stop constantly and think of the Urdu equivalent for a certain word before using it. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_intelligibility#Dialects_or_registers_of_one_language_sometimes_considered_separate_languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_intelligibility#Dialect... 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi#Comparison_with_Modern_Standard_Urdu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi#Comparison_with_Modern_S...

FYI, 'soft T' doesn't mean anything to western English speakers. They have a 'T' and a 'Th', the latter of which is actually a fricative, and not really a 'T' sound in the strict sense. I guess an Indian 'soft T' is better described as a more Italian sounding 'T', articulated mainly against the teeth.

Myrmornis 9y ago
Is a soft T like the way some Americans say "water", i.e. with a "D" like sound, as compared to the hard "T" in water traditional in British English?
- kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago
  No. It's a soft T the way Spanish or Italian speakers say their Ts.
  - njsubedi 9y ago
    Imagine saying "both age" without the "bo"
- tacomonstrous 9y ago
  That's actually closer to the voiced retroflex sound which Indians often use as their 'hard D', articulated further back in the palate, with the tongue rolled back a bit.

smnrchrds 9y ago

I was wondering about that. Tez means quick in Azerbaijani Turkish as well. It's interesting that it has the same meaning in a language spoken so far away.

jogjayr 9y ago
I'm fairly certain the word is of either Persian or Arabic origin. It probably came to the subcontinent during one of the numerous invasions by Arabic or Turco-Persian conquerors in the Middle Ages [1]. You'd be surprised how many words Hindi/Urdu and Turkish (or Farsi) have in common. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdu#Origin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdu#Origin
- smnrchrds 9y ago
  Interesting. I was aware of Persian influence on Urdu. As a Persian speaker, I can understand the entirety of the national anthem of Pakistan without even a dictionary. But Azeri and Hindi is a not a combination I have encountered before.
  - jogjayr 9y ago
    Hindi and Urdu are mutually intelligible [1][2]. They use a different script and slightly different vocabularies [3]. But because of exposure via Bollywood and other media (my personal experience) most people who speak one can understand the other. Bollywood song lyrics and especially dialogue from movies from the 70s, 80s and 90s are very heavily Urdu-influenced (and in fact the movies even had credits in English, Hindi, and Urdu). Urdu itself is also spoken widely in India. As someone who learned Hindi in school (i.e. didn't grow up speaking it at home) I'm able to understand Urdu reasonably well, but probably would do a poor job speaking it. I'd have to stop constantly and think of the Urdu equivalent for a certain word before using it. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_intelligibility#Dialects_or_registers_of_one_language_sometimes_considered_separate_languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_intelligibility#Dialect... 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi#Comparison_with_Modern_Standard_Urdu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi#Comparison_with_Modern_S...