Tariq Rahman, speculating about Akbar’s proficiency in Indian dialects in Language, Ideology and Power, notes that the great Mughal used a Hindustani obscenity on at least one occasion. On Abul Fazl’s testimony, when Akbar was about to kill Adham Khan he exclaimed ‘ay gandu!’ before punching the traitor in the face. (The relevant line from Abul Fazl reads Hazrat ba zaban Hindustani farmudand ke ai kandu, or in translation, ‘My sire said in the Hindustani tongue, O catamite!’)
Victor Mair’s Language Log post starts off with Japanese 奴隷 dorei ‘slave,’
of which Mair says “Coming at 奴隷 from the Sinitic side, my instinct is to
read 奴...
2 comments:
Thanks for this!
The first part of the post is here.
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