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Budanishar
मंगल हो / Mangal ho

Glossary entry

Hindi term or phrase:

Talab

English translation:

Lake or Pond

Added to glossary by Mariel Varjão Azoubel
Jul 4, 2013 04:31
10 yrs ago
1 viewer *
Hindi term

Talab

Hindi to English Other Geography Maps localization
Hi All,

I'd just like to start off saying that I have virtually no working knowledge of the Hindi language or Indian culture, but I happen to be translating toponyms from English into Brazilian Portuguese for a maps localization project.

Within it I have come across names of Indian geographical entities (more precisely, bodies of water) which I haven't been able to find any solid references for. The thing is, the generics seem to be mixed up with the lake name, but I really don't have enough knowledge of it to determine if that's the case.

Here's a detailed description of each instance that's got me scratching my head, any help would be greatly appreciated.

(a)
Bara Bandh Rasikpur
Research shows that Rasikpur is the name of a village and Bara Bandh the name of the entity, but I'm not entirely sure of that.

(b)
Vizianagaram Pedda Cheruvu
Ditto the above - Is Vizianagaram the city where Pedda Cheruvu's located?

(c)
Poly Kheda Talab
Bandhwa Para Talab
Shiv Talab
All of these end with 'Talab'. Is this a generic that should be translated?

(d)
Sahid Colony Pukur
Eet Kholar Pukur pond
Ditto the above - Is 'Pukur' a generic that ought to be translated?
Proposed translations (English)
4 +7 Lake or Pond
5 +5 Pond or Tank
5 pond/pool

Discussion

Mariel Varjão Azoubel (asker) Jul 11, 2013:
Separate discussion entries Hi Shera,

Yes, you're right. In fact, there was only a central issue pertaining to all of these words - the presence of translatable generics in American English toponyms of Hindi localities. The words are quite diverse, as this discussion has shown, but as I was not aware of it when posting the actual "talab" question, so this kind of wound up all in one place? Do you by any chance know if I'll be able to split this question into 2 or tag it somehow to identify differences... Or do I have to post brand new ones?
Balasubramaniam L. Jul 5, 2013:
@ललित इस लिंक के लिए धन्यवाद। जब मैं सीईई में था, हम एक पत्रिका निकालते थे, सीईई-एनएफएस, जो हिंदी में भी छपती थी। मैं उसमें उपसंपादक के रूप में काम करता था। इस पत्रिका की सलाहकार समिति में कुछ वर्ष अनुपम जी भी रहे थे, और मुझे उनसे मिलने का अवसर भी प्राप्त हुआ है। उनकी तालाब वाली पुस्तक से मैं परिचित हूँ और उसे मैंने पढ़ा है। अब आपके द्वारा दी गई लिंक से मैंने उसे डाउनलोड भी कर लिया है। अनुपम जी उन विरल व्यक्तियों में से एक हैं जिन्होंने हिंदी में मौलिक विज्ञान-साहित्य रचने का सफल प्रयास किया है।
Lalit Sati Jul 5, 2013:
"तालाबों के नामकरण की बड़ी दिलचस्प प्रक्रिया है" tank तड़ाग, कासार, जलाशय, ताल, पोखरा, तालाब, टैंक
pool ताल, पूल, पोखर, डाबर, डबरा, तलइया, गड़ही, खात
pond सरोवर, तड़ाग, जलाशय, ताल, तलैया, पोखरा, तालाब
- डा. हरदेव बाहरी

अनुपम मिश्र का एक लेख इस संबंध में पठनीय है - "तालाबों के नामकरण की बड़ी दिलचस्प प्रक्रिया है"
श्री अनुपम मिश्र (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anupam_Mishra) की इस संबंध में विशेषज्ञता न केवल जगजाहिर है, बल्कि उनकी पुस्तक "आज भी खरे हैं तालाब" (http://hindi.indiawaterportal.org/node/11701) हिंदी में उपलब्ध ज्ञान-विज्ञान व पारंपरिक ज्ञान संबंधी साहित्य में सबसे अधिक पढ़ी जाने वाली पुस्तकों में से एक है।
Balasubramaniam L. Jul 5, 2013:
@Lalit Many of the terms mentioned in your comment - dabra, liwar, talaxi and garhiya are unfamiliar to me. They are perhaps dialectic terms not used in standard Hindi. Of course, place names can be in local dialects, but I am not convinced that these terms are consciously used for naming tanks. These place names just get accepted by local usage, and no logical, well-thought out effort can be attributed to the naming of these water-bodies.
Balasubramaniam L. Jul 5, 2013:
@Piyush Ojha I missed your point about pukur being possibly a Bengali word. Yes, that is possible. And thanks for explaining the origin of Pokhar, so my guess about Pushkar was right.
Lalit Sati Jul 5, 2013:
"he tanks of India are named according to their size. The ahar of the N.W. Provinces is a small pond ; johar, a large pond ; other tanks are called pokhar and talao, the last being of masonry ; others are dabra, liwar, talaxi, and garhiya. Sagar is a lake tank of the largest size."
(http://gluedideas.com/content-collection/cyclopedia-of-india...
Piyush Ojha Jul 4, 2013:
According to Hindi Shabda Sagar, 'pokhar' ( पोखर) is related to Sanskrit 'pushkar' (पुष्कर) and Prakrit 'pukkhar' and 'pokkhar' (पुक्खर, पोक्खर).
Balasubramaniam L. Jul 4, 2013:
Pokhar is also a Hindi word I am not sure of the etymology of the word pokhar, but I have come across this word in Hindi too, in the sense of a small water hole or pond. Possibly this word occurs in other languages too in the same meaning. Does it derive from any Sanskrit word? Pushkar lake in Ajmer comes to mind. Pushkar is also a deep lake. Does pokhar have its origin in Pushkar?
Piyush Ojha Jul 4, 2013:
@Balasubramaniam I suspect 'pukur' may be Bengali for 'pokhar'.
Shera Lyn Parpia Jul 4, 2013:
Mariel If all of these questions are relevant to the word Talab then you havce done the right thing, But it looks to me like there are more questions. You need to submit a separate proz for each question.

Proposed translations

+7
2 mins
Selected

Lake or Pond

The word Talab (actually it should be spelt as talaab) means lake or pond and should be translated.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 14 mins (2013-07-04 04:45:46 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Your other questions:

(a)
Bara Bandh Rasikpur
Research shows that Rasikpur is the name of a village and Bara Bandh the name of the entity, but I'm not entirely sure of that.

Yes that is correct. Bara could mean one of two things - Large or Twelve. Most probably it is the former. Bandh means a dam, could also be a small check dam. Rasikpur is the village/place name. So this would become Large Dam at Rasikpur. You could even leave it as Bada Bandh, Rasikh. If we take the meaning of Large, then Bada is the correct spelling, not Bara.

(b)
Vizianagaram Pedda Cheruvu
Ditto the above - Is Vizianagaram the city where Pedda Cheruvu's located?
Vizianagaram is the name of the two. The other two words Pedda and Cheruvu are Telugu words not Hindi words. Pedda means "narrow", and Cheruvu means a "tank" that is, a man-made waterbody.
(c)
Poly Kheda Talab
Bandhwa Para Talab
Shiv Talab
All of these end with 'Talab'. Is this a generic that should be translated?
In all these places Talab means pond or Lake, in my opinion it would be ok to leave these terms untranslated, but you might want to explain the meaning of the word talab somewhere.

Some of the words here also have meaning. Para

(d)
Sahid Colony Pukur
Eet Kholar Pukur pond
Ditto the above - Is 'Pukur' a generic that ought to be translated?

Pukur (actually it should be pokar) is a natural hollow in the ground that gets filled with water. So you can take it to be a small pond. So placing pond after pokar would be redundant and wrong. You either retain pokar or translate it into pond.
Peer comment(s):
agree Pundora
9 mins
Thank you.
agree Shera Lyn Parpia
12 mins
Thank you.
agree Lalit Sati
30 mins
Thank you.
agree rtpushpa : Pedda term in Telugu is generally used for large or big and as such Pedda Cheruvu is a big tank.
58 mins
Thank you.
agree Ashutosh Mitra
4 hrs
Thank you.
agree Rajan Chopra
1 day 22 hrs
agree acetran
260 days
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you very much, Balasubramaniam. Your explanation was very clear and helpful - it seems like the client's original translation from Hindi into English was very inconsistently done, as populated places' names have been sometimes incorporated into the translated toponyms and sometimes not (like with the "Vizianagaram" case), without any apparent criteria. Although I understand that toponyms sometimes present nuances which do not allow for a clear-cut massified localization (as with "talab" and "pukur", for instance), consistency is still a goal, right?"
+5
48 mins

Pond or Tank

Pond is equivalent of Talab, it is water storage for local needs of irrigation or drinking water for animals.
It is smaller than Lake.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 22 hrs (2013-07-05 03:04:08 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

There may be more than one Talab or ponds in a village or locality, and to identify particular pond, local names are given to each by local community.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 22 hrs (2013-07-05 03:04:35 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

पोखर is smaller unit than तालाब
Example sentence:

Talab (Ponds) are essential part of village life in India.

Peer comment(s):
agree Ashutosh Mitra
3 hrs
धन्यवाद भाई
agree nkaur : Pond is absolutely correct, Lake is called Jheel
12 hrs
Thanks Ms. Kaur!
agree Lalit Sati
20 hrs
धन्वाद।
agree Rajan Chopra
1 day 22 hrs
agree acetran
260 days
Something went wrong...
2 days 3 hrs

pond/pool

Pond/Pool, I think these are appropriate words for Talab. Most of the time pond is used.
Example sentence:

http://shabdkosh.com/hi/translate?e=%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AC&l=hi

Something went wrong...
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