I Speak Pajamas

About two months ago, I wandered through the Facebook world and stumbled upon a page on the history of Tajikistan. Sadly, I can no longer find that page, but there was something that caught my attention. The page had somewhat compressed  history of Tajikistan, mainly from the post-Soviet era; and there was also a list of English words which supposedly "came" from Tajik language. None of the words surprised me more than the word "pajamas," so I looked it up. It appears, after a little bit of Googling, the creators of the Facebook page were half right. 

The English word "pyjamas" comes from Persian language, but Persians did not "give" the word to the English, rather it were the Indians from whom the British borrowed the word. Sometimes in early 1800s, those native people of British India who were acquainted with the Persian language, called that piece of garment which they wore at night a poijoma (пойҷома), that is to say "leg clothing" from poi (leg) and joma (top coat, long jacket). This discovery surprised me a lot, especially because growing up in Tajikistan and speaking a mix of Tajik and Russian, I always called pajamas by its Russian name, пижама (pee-zha-ma). Never did I think that the Russians would borrow a word from Tajiks. Well, actually, chances are they didn't.

The word poijoma of the Persian speaking Indians traveled from the subcontinent of India to Europe. Once in Europe, both the word and the practice of wearing night garments, it was borrowed by Russians, whence pyjama became pizhama. The garment became popular during the Soviet Union as one of those odd symbols of modernity; you know, because sleeping naked is a barbarian thing to do. As the Soviets brought modernity to the people of their empire, which included Tajiks and Mongols, the people called the garment by the Russian word. So, the word traveled half the world from India to Tajikistan, not across the mountains of Hindu Kush but along the maritime trade routes from Indian Sea to Atlantic Ocean then through the Black Sea with a final delivery aboard a steam locomotive (a.k.a. a choo-choo train). So, like I said, the creators of Facebook page on history of Tajikistan were half right.

It is interesting to note that with the Russian pajamas, Tajiks acquired another item of modernity, that is to say a chemodan (чемодан or suitcase). A suitcase is basically a rectangular box for carrying clothes, perhaps while riding a choo-choo train. What is most interesting is that the Russian word for suitcase comes from Persian words joma (see above) and -don (container).  

Tajik language has many words with suffix -don, such as ғалладон (gha-la-don, drawer), яхдон (yakh-don, refrigerator), гулдон (gul-don, vase),  зиндон (zin-don, dungeon), but what it doesn't have is a word for a car (мошин, moshin), bus (автобус, avtobus), trolley bus (троллейбус, trolebus), railway car (вагон, vagon), phone (телефон, telefon), and so on. All the languages I speak have many words which are borrowed from one or another foreign language. This is why in addition to the study of history, I dabble in linguistics.

I find it fascinating that such diverse languages as English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Tajik (Persian), Urdu, Hindu, and so on, have so many common words, while spoken in such distant locations between Europe and India. For example, when first time I heard the word soap in Spanish (jabon), I though that it strangely sounds similar to Tajik sobun (собун); or how about German Tochter and Tajik духтар (dukhtar) both of which mean daughter; or Spanish naranja and Persian narang, which are oranges.

Interesting thing about the word "orange" in Tajik language; we call them афлесун (af-le-sun). This word in Tajik comes from Russian (Soviet) апельсин (a-pel-sin), which is clearly German Apfelsine meaning "Apple of Chin" or "Chinese Apple." The English word derives ultimately from Sanskrit to which Persian is a distant cousin, and just like pajamas, the orange seems to have traveled a similar path and came to Tajik people by the modernizing Russians, yet corrupted and unrecognizable; if I were to write "orange" in Tajik, as the Persians pronounce it, I'd call it наранг (na-rang). Although Tajik word ранг means "color," no one from my generation, that is those who were born in Soviet Tajikistan and with whom I am well acquainted, will actually realize that наранг means orange.

I could make a long list of English words which have their roots in foreign languages, including that cousin of Tajik language, Persian. Instead, I'll end this post with two more words which exist in Tajik language, which are of foreign origin.

Tajik word for pencil is qalam and it comes from Greek word for "reed" (κάλαμος, kalamos).

In colloquial Tajik, a bed is called каравот (karavot); this word comes once again from Russian, кровать is pronounced kro-vat'.