Assamese
names 11objects 8ISO 639-3 asm
Spoken in Assam, Upper Assam (Sibsagar).
vernacular 7 · folk 3 · borrowed 1
See the Assamese sky on the chart →
The sky in Assamese
| Name | Object | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| কুকুৰবাহী তৰা kukurabāhī tarā | 'Constellation' as a word | uncertain; 'the kukurabāhī stars' — most plausibly kukurā 'fowl' + bāhī 'nest, roost', i.e. a brood of stars, matching the second Assamese word for the same thing, থুপিতৰা 'clustered stars' The living Assamese word for a star-cluster, and the word the dictionary itself uses to define সপ্তৰ্ষি-মণ্ডল at p. 859 ('একলগে থকা এজাক কুকুৰ-বাহী তৰা', 'a flock of kukurabāhī stars together'). Its synonym থুপিতৰা thupi-tarā is at p. 483. | folk |
| নেজাল তৰা nejāl tarā | Comets | 'tailed star' — Bronson's Assamese gloss spells it out, নেজ লগা তৰা, 'a star with a tail attached' The 1867 attestation of the word the Candrakanta Abhidhana still carries in 1962 (p. 562), which makes it the best-dated vernacular star-word in this file. Bronson's neighbouring entries give the Assamese meteor vocabulary too: উল্কাপাত at p. 72 is glossed with পপিয়া তৰা, and ধুমকেতু at p. 308 is glossed as a meteor rather than a comet. | vernacular |
| নেজাল তৰা nejāla tarā | Comets | 'tailed star' Glossed by the tatsama ধূমকেতু. The same 'tail-star' formation is the ordinary Odia word (ଲଞ୍ଜା ତାରା lañjā tārā, ଲାଙ୍ଗୁଡ଼ା ତାରା lāṅguṛā tārā, in this file); Praharaj's synonym column prints a Bengali cognate against it as well. | vernacular |
| পপীয়া-তৰা papīẏā-tarā | Meteors and shooting stars | 'the sinful star' (পপীয়া < Skt. pāpa 'sin') The everyday Assamese word: the dictionary's own definition of উল্কা ulkā (p. 140) ends by equating it with পপীয়া তৰা. A meteor is bad luck made visible, and the name says so. | folk |
| কালপুৰুষ kālapuruṣa | Orion | 'the man of Kāla / of Death' Assamese has the same Orion-figure as Bengali and Odia. What is distinctively Assamese is the reckoning: the dictionary defines the figure as 'the group containing seven very bright stars' (সাতোটা অতি উজ্জ্বল নক্ষত্ৰ থকা ৰাশি), i.e. Orion counted as seven bright stars rather than by its parts. | vernacular |
| হাতীপটি hātīpaṭi | The Milky Way | 'elephant-track' — the beaten path elephants make through jungle The primary sense in the dictionary is the literal jungle elephant-track; the galaxy is sense 2. Exactly the same metaphor, with the same primary sense, is the recorded Odia name — ହାତିଦଣ୍ଡା hātidaṇḍā (Praharaj p. 4095, and Sambalpuri ହାଁଥିଧରସା p. 9036). This is the strongest vernacular isogloss in this file. | folk |
| মণ্ডল maṇḍala | The Pleiades | 'the circle, the ring' Sense 7 of the polysemous headword মণ্ডল: 'the seven stars clustered near the sign Taurus'. Using the bare word maṇḍala, with no qualifier, for the Pleiades is an Assamese usage; Bengali and Odia both require a compound (কৃত্তিকা / କାର୍ତ୍ତିକପୁଞ୍ଜ). | vernacular |
| অৰুন্ধতী arundhatī | Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) | the wife of the sage Vasiṣṭha Recorded here for its error, which is instructive. The Assamese definition is correct — Arundhatī is among the seven stars called the Saptarṣimaṇḍala, and Assamese brides are shown her at the wedding as the type of the faithful wife, and a person within six months of death cannot see her. The English gloss appended to it, 'the morning star; one of the pleiades', is wrong on both counts. | borrowed |
| গোধিকা godhikā | Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) | 'the iguana / monitor lizard' (Assamese গুঁই guñi) A genuine Assamese sky-figure, and an old one: the dictionary supports it with a line from the Kīrttana (the Kīrttana-ghoṣā of Śaṅkaradeva, 16th c.) — 'গোধিকাৰ পুছ ভাগে দেখিয় অদ্যাপি', 'even today it is seen at the tail-end of the Godhikā'. | vernacular |
| ভোটাতৰা bhoṭātarā | Venus as morning star | 'the big star' — the Assamese gloss opens বৰ তৰা, 'great star' This fills the one gap the modern Assamese dictionary leaves: the Candrakanta Abhidhana has পুবঁতী তৰা for Venus as morning star but NO evening-star word at all. Bronson has both — the main entry gives the evening star, and the Addenda at the back of the volume add the morning star to the same headword. | vernacular |
| পুবঁতী-তৰা pubantī-tarā | Venus as morning star | 'the dawn star' (pubā 'to dawn, to break — of night') Given inside the entry for শুক্ৰ as the Assamese equivalent of the tatsama planet-name. This is the Assamese member of the eastern set of 'dawn-star' words for Venus — cf. Odia ପାହାନ୍ତି ତାରା pāhānti tārā and ପୁଆଁ ତରା puāñ tarā in this file. | vernacular |
Sources
- Candrakanta Abhidhana (Assamese-Assamese-English), 2nd ed., Guwahati: Guwahati Bisbabidyalaya for the Assam Sahitya Sabha, 1962 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. কুকুৰবাহী তৰা kukurabāhī tarā, p. 216 link
- M. Bronson, A Dictionary in Assamese and English, Sibsagor: American Baptist Mission Press, 1867, s.v. নেজাল তৰা, p. 327 link
- Candrakanta Abhidhana (Assamese-Assamese-English), 2nd ed., Guwahati: Guwahati Bisbabidyalaya for the Assam Sahitya Sabha, 1962 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. নেজাল তৰা nejāla tarā, p. 562 link
- Candrakanta Abhidhana (Assamese-Assamese-English), 2nd ed., Guwahati: Guwahati Bisbabidyalaya for the Assam Sahitya Sabha, 1962 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. পপীয়া papīẏā, sub-lemma পপীয়া-তৰা, p. 575 link
- Candrakanta Abhidhana (Assamese-Assamese-English), 2nd ed., Guwahati: Guwahati Bisbabidyalaya for the Assam Sahitya Sabha, 1962 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. কালপুৰুষ kālapuruṣa, p. 210 link
- Candrakanta Abhidhana (Assamese-Assamese-English), 2nd ed., Guwahati: Guwahati Bisbabidyalaya for the Assam Sahitya Sabha, 1962 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. হাতীপটি hātīpaṭi, p. 908 link
- Candrakanta Abhidhana (Assamese-Assamese-English), 2nd ed., Guwahati: Guwahati Bisbabidyalaya for the Assam Sahitya Sabha, 1962 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. মণ্ডল maṇḍala, sense 7, p. 735 link
- Candrakanta Abhidhana (Assamese-Assamese-English), 2nd ed., Guwahati: Guwahati Bisbabidyalaya for the Assam Sahitya Sabha, 1962 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. অৰুন্ধতী arundhatī, p. 48 link
- Candrakanta Abhidhana (Assamese-Assamese-English), 2nd ed., Guwahati: Guwahati Bisbabidyalaya for the Assam Sahitya Sabha, 1962 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. গোধিকা godhikā, p. 308 link
- M. Bronson, A Dictionary in Assamese and English, Sibsagor: American Baptist Mission Press, 1867, s.v. ভোটাতৰা, p. 439 (with Addenda, p. 608) link
- Candrakanta Abhidhana (Assamese-Assamese-English), 2nd ed., Guwahati: Guwahati Bisbabidyalaya for the Assam Sahitya Sabha, 1962 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. শুক্ৰ śukra, p. 843 link
