Calluna V. (callunav) wrote in linguaphiles,
Calluna V.
callunav
linguaphiles

Overheard in Hindi movies.

I've been watching a lot of subtitled Hindi films recently (yes, all Bollywood, yes, I'm somewhat embarrassed, no, I'm not letting that stop me), so I'm starting to separate out some words that get used often, especially ones that get used with emphasis and at least sometimes by themselves. I'm getting some subject and possessive pronouns, and conjugations of 'to be'. The word for 'love' comes up with educational regularity.

There's a word which I have heard used often. At first I thought it must be quite rude, because I only caught it when it was being spoken harshly, all by itself, and generally on such occasions everyone in the scene was shocked to a standstill by it. More recently I've been able to catch it (or think I'm catching it) on the ends of phrases and sentences in a much more unexceptional way. I would tentatively transliterate it as 'bas' 'bAs' 'bhas' or 'bhAs' - I don't trust my ear for some of those distinctions yet, especially of the aspirated vs. non-aspirated consonants. Also, to my ear, it's an 'aa' sound, not the 'uh' sound of an unmodified consonant (e.g., बं), so I'd be expecting something more like बंास.

It gets translated as "enough," "that's enough" "stop," and "shut up," when it's used by itself. Now that I'm hearing it (if that is it) in longer sentences, I am inclining more toward a "enough" meaning. But I can't find it in the dictionaries I'm using. If anyone can tell me what I should be looking for - clearly I'm missing something - and/or provide any better information about it, I'd be glad.

EDIT: Found! It occurred to me to try 'sufficient' and I got बस - bhas. Thank you for, er...yeah. Still, can anyone tell me how rude this is when its used in isolation? I mean, is it as abrupt/rude as it sounds in the movies?

(Also, another word that comes up often is something that gets translated as 'just', 'only,' or 'except.' To me, it sounds like 'self,' with an 'l' in there. In the dictionary, I find सिर्फ - 'sirph(a)'. Is that likely to be what I've been (mis)hearing?)

Thanks again for anything anyone can offer. Oh, and I've been combing the net for good Hindi and/or Devanagarin script tutorials. Is anyone here interested in my posting links to the most useful ones I find? There are a few really good ones out there.
Tags: hindi
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