Grammar-wallah

व्याकरण-वाला  Grammar-wallah

You've probably seen usage of the suffix "-wallah" such as the title of this post.  It's used in English to mean "a person employed in a particular occupation or activity:"  a taxi-wallah drives a cab; the shop-wallah runs the local grocery.  You might even be aware that "-wallah" is of Indian origin.  The suffix is an English borrowing from Hindi of the extremely useful suffix -वाला, which is rendered as "-wallah" in English.  In this post I will use the more rigorous transliteration "-vaalaa". 

In Hindi, -vaalaa does just what its borrowed cousin does in English, but it also does a lot more.  There is no English equivalent, borrowed or otherwise, with the breadth of this fascinating little morpheme.  So in this post, I will introduce you to some of the many and varied uses of -vaalaa.

First, adding -vaalaa to a noun carries the means:  a person employed in an (understood) activity relating to the noun.   In Hindi, the रिक्शे-वाला rikshe-vaalaa drives the rickshaw; the चाय-वाला chaay-vaalaa serves the tea (chai), the साड़ी-वाला saa.Dii-vaalaa sells sarees.  That's the usage that has found its way into English.

-vaalaa can also be added to adjectives, to give a slightly emphatic or particularizing force, or to serve the purpose that the pronoun "one" serves in English:
क्या आप पीली-वाली साड़ी चाहती हैं? kyaa aap piilii-vaalii saa.Dii chaahatii hai.n?   Do you want the yellow sari?  (-vaalii is the feminine form of -vaalaa; Hindi has grammatical gender.)
नहीं, लाल-वाली । nahii.n,  laal-vaalii.  No, the red one.

In fact, -vaalaa can be added to pretty much any noun (including verbal nouns), adverb, or noun phrase, to give it adjectival (or even nominal) properties.

दोपहर dopahar, afternoon
-----> दोपहर-वाली गाड़ी dopahar-vaalii gaa.Dii, the afternoon train

पीले फूल piile phuul, yellow flowers
------> पीले फूल-वाली साड़ी - piile phuul-vaalii saa.Dii, the sari with the yellow flowers

हिंदी बोलना hi.ndii bolanaa, to speak Hindi
---->  हिंदी बोलने-वाले hi.ndii bolane-vaale - Hindi speakers (-vaale is the masculine plural form of -vaalaa)

उपर upar, above; upstairs
-----> उपर-वाला कमरा upar-vaalaa kamaraa, the room upstairs, the upstairs room

------> उपर-वाला upar-vaalaa, the guy upstairs; i.e., God

Now things really start to get interesting.  When used with an infinitive verb, -vaalaa turns the infinite into an adjective meaning "being about to" carry out the verb. 

जाना jaanaa, to go

जाने-वाला jaane-vaalaa, about to go

-----> दिल्ली-वाली गाड़ी जाने-वाली है | dillii-vaalii gaa.Dii jaane-vaalii hai, the Delhi-bound train is about to leave.

होना honaa, to be, to become, to happen

होने-वाला hone-vaalaa, about to be, about to become, about to happen

-----> माँ होने-वाली maa.N hone-vaalii, about to become a mother; i.e., pregnant

-----> बारिश होने-वाली है । baarish hone-vaalii hai, rain is about to happen; i.e. it is about to rain

Finally, constructions with -vaalaa can be used in place of relative clauses like "the woman who works here."  Hindi has a separate structure for creating relative clauses, but sometimes use of -vaalaa is simpler and more direct.

यहाँ काम करना yahaa.N kaam karanaa, to work here

यहाँ काम करने-वाली औरत मेरी बहन है । yahaa.N kaam karane-vaalii aurat merii bahan hai, the woman who works here is my sister.

Those are some common uses of -vaalaa, a very handy and versatile little morpheme - one of my favorite features of Hindi.

Comments

[John]

I don't suppose you know why some film titles have a nonstandard word order? For instance फिर भी दिल है हिंदुस्तानी and हम है लाजवाब, where the verb is not at the end of the clause.

[carla]

Hi John! The answer to your question, I think, is that film titles are rather like poetry, and in Hindi-Urdu poetry, just as in English poetry, word order is a bit more flexible than it is in prose. So if it is perceived to be more euphonious, or to scan better in the title song, to rearrange the words, they may very well be rearranged. That's why, for example, हम आपके हैं कौन…! (hum aapke hain kaun) is called what it is called, instead of हम आपके कौन हैं as it would be written in an introductory text. In the case of फिर भी दिल है हिंदुस्तानी phir bhii dil hai hindustaani, which you mentioned, the title of that film is lifted (as titles often are) from a line in a classic song, "Mera joota hai japaani" from *Shree 420* - lifted, in other words, from poetry.

[John]

Thank you!

I for one would be interested in what you had to say about the Hindi subjunctive!