Concise

Gojri-English Dictionary

First ever 'Bilingual Gojri Dictionary' with over 11786 words

BY

Dr. M. R. Anjum Awan

JK Anjuman Taraqi Gojri Adab

2

All Rights Reserved

Concise Gojri-English Dictionary

Compilation & Compostion: Dr. MR Anjum Awan

Computational Editing: Shabir Ahmad, Soura Srinagar (2406036)

Price : Rs. 556/-

ISBN:

Printed at: JK Offset Printers New Delhi.

Publisher: Anjuman Traqi Gojri Adab (J&K)

Can be had from:

Kitab Ghar Canal road Jammu-180001

143- Gujjar Nagar Jammu.

44-Dreamland,College Road Rajouri.185131

3

Dedicated

To

Someone

Who doesn't need to read it.

4

J K Anjuman Taraqi Gojri Adab

HQ:'Dreamland' College Road, Rajouri-185131.Ph.No:01962-261786, 01912579490,

Mobile: 9419054203, 941918562

The Anjuman is purely a non-political non Governmental,literary organization, committed to preservation promotion anddevelopment of Gojri, language,literature and culture.

Aims and Objectives:1. Development of Gojri language and literature.

2. Prepare Gojri to face modern-day challenges by encouraging

research and publication in modern subjects on the pattern of Fort

William college.

3. Anjuman will act as a 'Standard Institute' for maintaining standard

of Gojri writings, research and publications.

4. Publishing of manuscripts, especially of writers who have passed

away

5. Preservation and recording of oral literature, folklore, vocabulary

and fast falling traditions.

6. Reproduction of manuscripts/ volumes of ancient Gojri literature.

7. Encouraging researchers in Gojri by awards and felicitations.

8. Organisation of Gojri meets, workshops and literary conferences.

9 Establishment of Gojri Libraries at central and regional levels, to

facilitate/encourage research in the subject.

10. Research and publication of syllabus books on Gojri for schools,

colleges and universities.

11. Translation of world literature into Gojri language and vice-versa.

12. Developement of a 'Gojri-website' for benefit of researchers.

13. Cooperation with other agencies/institutes interested and engaged

in welfare of Gojri, language.

14. Publication of Anjuman's newsletter/souvenir.

15. Establishment of a Gojri Academy / Institute.

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INTRODUCTION

Indian languages belonging to ancient Gojri is one of thecentral group of Indo-Aryan languages. It was well developed andrather official language in the 'Golden period of Indian History' i.e. 600-1400 A.D., spoken in whole of Norwest India. Howevervarious social and political factors forced migration of Gujjarsfrom their stronghold, Gujrat, to the Sub-Himalayan mountainousregions especially Jammu and Kashmir, thus forcing the Gojriinto oblivion for about three centuries. Gojri is now being revivedin J&K, with fresh zeal and significant advancements have beenmade in past 50 years. Though Gojri is still spoken in Gujrat,Rajasthan, Delhi, UP, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and parts ofPakistan besides J&K, its national character has been eroded,leaving it to be projected as a regional language. Now Gojri hasresurfaced on the linguistic map of India, as a rich and prominentlanguage, centralized in J&K, efforts are on to retrieve itsscattered literature and the present volume is one sincere step inthis direction. In the present scenario when research is on in thesubject and Gojri is being introduced at school and universitylevel, this volume will prove useful for teachers, scholars as wellas students.

No Indian language can claim that its total vocabulary isrecorded in a particular dictionary and that is true of Gojri as well. Dictionary making in tribal languages poses a compoundedproblem as there is very little literature available making it moreof an 'anthropological -linguistics' rather than lexicography. But Inoticed that walking along untrodden ways have a peculiarfeeling of achievement and satisfaction.

6I am no expert and don't claim to have any special

qualification for lexicography, however, surely, I don't lack the will,dedication and passion needed for such projects. Since no incereefforts have been made by any agency or institution forcompilation of any concise or bilingual dictionary in Gojri, Ithought it appropriate to do the job myself which was compiled inover fifteen years of patience and persistent hard work.

Besides thorough study of scarce and poorly availableGojri literature, the mainstay of word collection was extensive andintensive field work particularly among rural masses residing indifferent areas with obvious dialectical variations, eg: Jammu- 7years, Kashmir-5 years, and Rajouri-7 years in addition to thenativity of Pooch, the central province of Gojri language asstudied by language experts. It took me long time as the projectwas managed single handedly involving no surveyors at anystage.

Substantial help has been taken in retrieving originalGojri words from various Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu dictionariesbesides the sole monolingual 'Gojri Dictionary' published by J&K,Cultural Academy. Various English dictionaries including the'Oxford', 'Chambers', Advanced learners, Reverse Dictionary, andthe Great Dictionary of English language by 'Reader's Digest'have been consulted in addition to the soft version of EncartaDictionary, for appropriate meanings and additional usefulinformation-technical and scientific of a particular entry word.Arrangement and computation of the vocabulary was handledpersonally and after one year of hard work and industrious laborthe project was completed in June 2003, but before it could bepreserved as a hard copy, the file 'Hamzaad' was mysteriouslyinfected with a computer-virus and inadvertently reformatted by aclose friend, unfortunately enough, bringing me back to squareone. Encouraged by some friends and family members, with aheavy heart, I restarted the computation afresh and scratching

7my memory, could retrieve upto 80% of the original dictionary,which is being presented in this volume.

Though e f fo r ts have been m ade to fo l low thesuggestions and recommendations of various scholars oflexicography, it may be too much to claim that this dictionary isperfect. However it will continue to be the first ever-sincere effortin the direction of 'Bilingual Gojri Dictionary' making.

Suggestions for improvement, from readers and patronsare welcome and will be duly incorporated in the subsequentedition.

Dr. Anjum

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Salient Features of Dictionary

Scheme of presentation 1. Entry word in local script. 2. Transliteration in Roman English.3. Origion tag, wherever applicable, eg:E.P.S.Pb etc. The

words without a tag are original 'Gojri' or common tomany languages.

4. Part of speech tag eg.n.v.adj.etc.5. Sub-class tag.eg. nf.nm. etc.6. Speciallised scientific terms of fauna, flora and medicine

etc. are given in italics.7. Meanings have been arranged in order of their popularity

of use and not historically.8. Examples and citations from literary texts and folklore.9. Descriptions are usually brief (in single line), as a concise

dictionary can't afford to handle all the information, whichan Encyclopedia contains or should contain, but at thesame time efforts have been made not to miss theimportant relevant information peculiar to an entry word,especially cultural correlations of certain words, whichdon't exist in other languages.

10. Idioms & compounds have been included as sub-wordswith, of course some exceptions where it was imperativeto include a particular compound as main-word.

11. Alphabetization: Since all the available literature in Gojriis in Persio-Arab ic sc r ipt , fo r the purpose ofalphabetization, the pattern Of General orthography hasbeen adopted (i.e. the spelling system as in English orUrdu) and not according to phonetic transcriptions as inHindi or the lone monolingual Gojri Dictionary, whichseem inconvenient to common user of Gojri.

12. Transcription:a) Like Punjabi language 'Gojri' has the problem ofstressed and unstressed words as 'dili and dilli'andretroflex voiced and unvoiced as well as low-tones which

9have been represented by special symbols and signs.b) Some modifications in pronunciation symbols havebeen adopted to make the volume more user friendlyand in the process some deviation from phonetic-scriptwas inevitable.c) Due to lack of a consensus on standardization ofscript, 'Gojri 'Continues to face the problem in phonetictranscription. Thus efforts have been made to strike abalance between the available options leaving the morescientific job for future researchers.d) Wherever differences exist in morphemes, both the forms have been included with a symbol, (=), indicatingalso written as.

13. Inc lusion of few foreign words is inevitable inlexicography of any language and that is true of Gojri aswell, but extreme care has been taken in selection, andentries are in accordance with the reshaped phonologicalstructure of the receiving language.

14. Though ef fo r ts have been m ade to fo l low thesuggestions and recommendations made by variousscholars in, Lexicography in India' compiled byB.G.Misra, and those suggested by Dr.J.C.Sharma in'Gojri Phonetic Reader' and 'Gojri Grammar' and ofDr.Lalita Handoo in' Students Urdu-Hindi Dictionary' itmay be too much to claim that this dictionary is perfect.However it will continue to be the first ever sincere effortin the direction of 'Bilingual Gojri Dictionary' making. Suggestions for improvement, from readers and andpatrons are welcome, and will be duly incorporated insubsequent edition.

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Pronunciation & TransliterationSymbols

Vowels: a aj kal aa aadam

i is jis ee geet

u us oo oori toot

e tel (oil) ai(medial)

ey (final)

pair (foot)

itey(here)

n/~ eg: aa~ siru~ Naau~ (9)

a ,i, e (never initial) o bori

Consonants: b baap p-h(initial) p-haaji

p paatar ph phos

t tof

totaa

th path

T aaTo Th kaaTh

j jaaN ch-h(initial) ch-hag

haj haL kh khudaa

d diL t-h(initial) t-haar

D Dabo T-h(initial) T-haaro

r Rab rh paarho

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z zubaaN qarz zaaLam

s sir (head) sh shor

a aadat (initial) gh ghareeb)

f fasaL q quraaN

k kaN kh khaato

g gaaro k-h(initial) k-hee

L Laaro l

N Nak n kaanu~

w wataN a (never initial)

(initial) y yaar

Notes:1. The letters marked '' give low tone only in initial placements;

In medial or final positions they are pronounced as usual, i.e.

bh, jh,Dh, kh etc.eg: (gabh) (kujh) (kaDh) (baghal)

2.The retroflex sounds represented by (rh),(l) and(n) are

never initial in pronunciation.eg: (aarh), (gaal) (paani).

3.Being Arabic in origion; (hamza) and (aiN) sound like (a).

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Abbreviations

A

adj.

adv.

cf

conj.

D

E

G

H

intj.

ipp

K

pref.

Arabic

Adjective

Adverb

Antonym

conjunction

Dogri

English

Greek

Hindi

interjection

idiom,phrase,

proverb

Kashmiri

prefix

=

prep.

pron.

prov

n

nf

nm

P

Pb.

S

T

suffix

U

v.

also spelled as

preposition

pronoun

proverb

noun

n. feminine

n. masculine

Persion

Punjabi

Sanskrit

Turkish

suffix

Urdu

Verb.

13

Acknowledgements

The compiler is indebted to every book he ever read and

every person he ever knew. From these latter he would like to

select for particular acknowledgement, M.Y.Taing, Director

General Culture (Retd.) Mr.Masud Chaudhry, Director GDCT,

Faiz Kassana, Station Director AIR, Gawalior, G.H.Zia, Station

Director, Radio Kashmir, Srinagar, Dr.J.C.Sharma, Dy.Director,

CIIL Mysore, Mr. Ron Albrecht Jr., Iqbal Azeem choudhary,

Naseem Poonchi, Shahbaaz Rajourvi, Javed Rahi,AK

Sohrab,Naresh Gupta, Dr. Nisar choudhary, Dr . Abdul

Salaam,Shabir Rather,M K Waqar, Hassan Parwaz,,Mumtaz

Choudhry, A.R Choudhry,Mohammad Akram,Hanief Kalas,

Manzoor Sabri, Manzoor Gulshan, Amin Qamar, Mansha Khaki

and Ab.Rahim Khaki. It is with great reverence that I take the

opportunity to express my gratitude to my teacher Prof.M.Y.Kohli

for inspiring and constant guidance, constructive criticism and

suggestions in carrying out this project.

I can't but express my deep gratitude to my family

members as none else has sacrificed more for this project than

my own wife and children. Thus special thanks must go to my

spouse, whose patience over the protracted years, paragons

description and excels the quirks of blazoning pens.

14I wish to thank all my little patients and their parents who,

belonging to different geographical areas acted as natural

surveyors for original Gojri vocabulary over the years. It is a

pleasurable duty for me to thank, Master Saquib and Raashad

for valuable, selfless help during compilation and computation.

Lastly and most importantly ' Thanks God, I have done it!

Dr. Anjum

15

Forword

M Y Taing

Language constitutes the core of ethnic identity. It alsoforms the authentic gene-pool of its particularism. Gojri languagethough emasculated and enfeebled through the passage oftorturous times is still the only hope of their recovery as a distinctnationality and restoration of their cultural personality. Centuriesin a row, have been rather cruel to them and have inflicteddiscrimination, marginalisation and even defacement on thisbrave and once vibrant ethnic group. Their cultural territory hasremained at the receiving end of cruel incursions; as a sequel totheir political subjugation. But one of the saving graces has been,the very survival of Gojri language. This, on one hand providesthe plasma for their resurgence and also provides a bulwarkagainst their sinking into the precipice. I consider this adistinguishing feature of Jammu and Kashmir state that its pinesand pastures still work as a preserving shield for Gojri language.Once upon a time; Gojri had free run right up to the VindhyaMountains the demarcating line between north and south parts ofIndian subcontinent.This language not only gave names to citiesand taluqas; but even regions in this vast territory. It also became a fertil izing agent of forming the sweet and sublime Urdulanguage. Today, this line has receded back to the boundaries ofJ&K state, where Gojri is spoken and thus announcing theirpristine presence. In the lands beyond, Gujjar blood groups, their peculiar and bold facial features, and even Gotras(subcastes)may also exist, but they are bereft of the defining mantra of their

16language. Results have been on the expected lines; they havelost their ethinc moorings and more dominating life styles, dresscodes, modes of food and drink, marriage rituals and a host ofattending peculiarities have swept them off their feet. Theonward march of time has inflicted the ultimate punishment- theloss of theiir engaging face and ethnic demarcations.

It is a remarkable phenomenon that in their historicaljourney, Jammu and Kashmir has managed to remain as theirsurvival park. Although they changed the track of religion, theydid not allow their language to get inundated. I consider this to bea silver line of sorts in, otherwise a dark and bleak horizon. In myhumble opinion, this source of light, however limited, can beutilized for making Gujjars shine and flourish and make themassert their substantive personality again. They are in the midstof surging torrents of uniformity and facelessness. They havelargely been uprooted from their pasture-highlands and areconsigned to face their much stronger fellow countrymen inuneven playing fields.

Jammu and Kashmir, by a quirk of 'h istory andgeography' stands as their bastion. In this state they have thegood fortune of having their life-boat around. This is theirlanguage. It may not be at its potent best, but it retains theinvigorating elements of authenticity and originality. The strains ofancient Gojri rom high altitude meadows of Drass, to the dwarfShivalik hills in Jammu and then to low lying plains of Kathua,weave a silken thread of the unity of J&K state itself. Gujjars liveand toil in the length and breadth of J&K, from Paddar to Poonchand from Machel to Madhupur........they are constantly on themove-whether spring or autumn, from times immemorial. In theprocess they absorb and pollinate the sights and sounds, aromasand echoes of various dialects- Kashmiri, Dogri, Balti, Shina etc.

17and help construct bridges of invisible but powerful 'harmony'.This also forms an earthy arguement for the unity of a state-which is under strain from the forces of regionalism etc. One ofthe consequences of this interaction has resulted in theenrichment and enlargement of Gojri language. I have foundallusions and idioms in it which describe the real character ofSultan Sikandar (1389-1412.A.D.) of Kashmir as well as the goodgovernance of Raja Ranjit Dev(18th century) in Jammu. All thesediscourses need wider elucidations and illustrations, which thepresent format doesn't provide. But one thing must be said withutmost conviction-J&K is the most appropriate launching padfrom which the vehicle of Gujjar identity can take off and the fuelfor its flight will come from the Gojri language, which is intact onlyin this state. It was perhaps the latent pressure of this primordialforce which made the first ever Gojri Dictionary to happen hereabout a quarter of a century ago.

It is a matter of great pleasure that Gujjar scholars havenow realized the significance of carrying this good work forward.The thrust from within can release the hidden energies of thisancient language. We- Kashmiris are also busy in witnessing theblaze of colours which our language is exhibiting on a closerscrutiny by us, its own writers and speakers.

Dr. Rafiq Anjum represents the higher echelon of themodern Gojri scholarship. He is a multifaceted literateur- both atcreative and analytical levels. He knows many languages andhas even command on a few. He is well versed in modernmethodology of research and philosophy. He is, with all hisliterary assets, capable to delve deep into the sublimities ofGojri. As an insider, he is the first to try a Gojri glossary withEnglish translation and equivalents.No such attempt could be allinclusive, as the language is a flowing river and not a stagnant

18pool. It grows by the day and sheds by the night and one has notto impose any subjective standards on it. It really is gratifying thata scholar of Dr. Anjum's capacities, has chosen this wide openvista for his endeavour. I hope that this work will trigger off amovement in Gojri which may put the Gujjar language and theirethnic particularity in its proper perspective. The good news isthat Gojri circles are already concious of this responsibility andhave been busy at fostering proper channels to take care ofthese ventures. I may, most humbly claim some credit forlightening up a match-stick in this direction-Allham-du-Lillah(Allpraise be for the Almighty Allah).

M. Y. Taing Ex. Director General

J & K Academy of Art Culture & LanguagesApril 21st,(Iqbal Day)2004

Wazarat Road Jammu.

19

Foreword

Prof. Dr. J. C. Sharma

It has given me utmost gratif ication that efforts ofDr.Anjum have yielded results, helping Gojri to develop. I made ahumble beginning to write Gojri Phonetic Reader and GojriGrammar which got publ ished and my efforts to publ ishGoj ri-Urdu-Hindi-Engl ish Dic tionary failed due to my incompetency to handle Persio-Arabic script proposed for thelanguage and my transfer from CIIL Mysore to Delhi on anadministrative responsibility in 1984. The manuscript on GojriDictionary prepared by me got misplaced in my absence, whichcould not be redone. Since then it has been my wish to see agood Gojri Dictionary useful for Gojri as well as non-Gojrispeakers. I conducted my fieldwork on Gojri mostly in Poonchdistrict more than 30 years ago but my memories of Gujjars aslovable persons and places I visited are very fresh. Thiscommunity who live close to nature and are simple-hearted withlove for their country personally impresses me. Their humanequalities are superb... I am indebted to the people for the lovethey gave me and I feel it the same feeling that has prompted Dr.Anjum to ask me to write a foreword for his monumental work. Ifeel honored to do this job and feel that by this act of Dr. Anjumone of my own incomplete tasks has been completed. Thisbilingual dictionary will open path for non-Gujjars interested in thelanguage and people. It will help to produce and translatel iterature in Gojri from other languages, which wil l helpdeveloping Gojri. Besides it wil l serve as a resource forresearchers in Linguistics and Anthropology.

Usually in a dictionary due to the lack of time andlimitation of compiler one dialect or variety is preferred in the

20name of a standard variety, which actually means death for otherdialects or varieties. Dr. Anjum was aware of this fact and hastried to cover Gojri in totality, spoken in Poonch, Rajouri, Jammu,and Kashmir valley. By doing so it has helped enrichinglanguage.

The present work of Dr. Anjum who is a pediatrician, i.e.belonging to medical profession shows his passion and interest inhis language which inspired him to grasp nuances of Linguisticsand Lexicography. He has grasped the intricacies of producing agood dictionary on scientific lines as reflected in this volume. Hehas done such a gigantic work single handedly that he deservesall appreciation. He showed through his work his awareness oforthographical, word boundary word classification problems.More work of this kind will help standardizing orthography andspelling. Being a native speaker of the language as well as aLittérateur with insight in the language he has taken a holisticview of language by taking lexical items of other languages,which have been absorbed in the language, so he has shown hiswisdom by looking at it as a growing and living language asopposed to puritans.

It is not the end but a beginning for good dictionary andfurther studies in the language. It is the process of languagedevelopment to give way for future works. This can complementa thesaurus covering the greatest possible variety of semanticfields. There could be encyclopedia in the language.

It will help produce more literature in the language. Tomake use of the work Gujjar community need to be literate sothat they can enjoy their literature. The day is not for when theholy 'Quran' may be translated in Gojri, which would beunderstandable, by common Gujjars following Islamic faith. Iwelcome this piece of knowledge and congratulate the author forall the pains he has taken to serve the mother language.

J. C Sharma Prof. & Dy. Director

Central Institute of Indian Languages Mysore

Mysore, 1st of May 2004

21

Preface

Shahbaaz Rajourvivi

Edward Sapar and Whorf like people have been deeply

involved in simpl ifying the complex analysis of language

formation. They have studied and expressed the deep effect of

language in environ, universe, thought and perception. They

even assert that 'word' is a concept in the context of semantics. It

is a systematic placement of 'phonemes and then morphemes'.

Then the combinations come into being and these varying

combinations help the communication of ideas. Efforts are even

made in finding out the relation between culture and language.

Anthropologists believe that the universe is an objective entity

and it is beyond the manifest approach of language. It is the

realm of thought which interprets these objective aspects into a

sequential 'word and sign' system, making it understandable to

human society. It can be inferred, in the view of such scholars

that it is 'language' which makes the universe intelligible, or the

concept of universe is relative. It is a reality that societal and

environmental change effects languages and the languages also

change accordingly. Language doesn't limit or demarcate the

ideas, but ideas help for expression in newer and non-traditional

structural formations of language. It is said that English has about

one-lac morphemes and through combinations these form one

million words.

These few words formed an introductory step to the reat'

22academic' work of "Gojri-English Dictionary" compiled by a great

pen-man, versatile l ittérateur, poet and writer in Gojri, i.e.

Dr.Rafiq Anjum.'Gojri' is an important language in our state. It has

a rich tradition of mystic thoughts rendered into various genres. It

has an appealing melodious resonance when sung. Dr. Anjum

has done a yeoman's service by compiling this voluminous work,

which is bound to enhance the communicative value and

strength of the language beyond the present regional limits. It will

also prove to be a milestone towards introduction of the language

at university level. It can be a treasure for common Gojri

speakers, students and teachers and a 'must have' volume for

writers and scholars. The able compiler has very successfully

evolved the phonetic alternates of Gojri, which facilitate the

readers, even beginners. Since various languages of this state

have im bibed m uch vocabul ary of Urdu/Arabic , som e

elucidations are still needed, for example, for multiple Gojri letters

represented by English alphabetic signs. 'z' and 't', but that of

course is the job of linguistic experts and beyond the scope of

this volume.

The compiler has very painstakingly collected original

Gojri vocabulary and has enriched the language by strong and

unyielding commitment to the language. It was a novel haanu'

experience to come across words like' (tiLfoo~) for pine

seeds. for seem, appear, and The realm of art and literature

will unndoubtedly welcome and appreciate the efforts of Dr.

Anjum, who has provided the first ever Gojri-English Dictionary,

in the earnest service of the language and literature, without any

conceived political mileage and glamour. He has presented a

vast treasure of idioms, phrases, proverbs and rest of the

23ornamentation of literary worth. I appreciate and congratulate

Dr.Anjum for his efforts in this behalf.

The poetry of Dr. Rafiq Anjum is an entity of sweet,lyrical and deeply thought provoking impression. Hisimagination touches the highest contemporary poeticsublimation, but this monumental work has added anotherfeather in his cap and has further raised his stature.

Academic and literary works are always subject to

debates, re-assessment and re-evaluation in time perspectives.

This too is not an exception, but none can ignore or deny the

value of this sincere and basic effort of Dr. Anjum in the

evolutionary stage of the Gojri language and literature. I wish,

him all the might of pen.

24k