Volker Schuermann’s Bollywood Dictionary is something of a hidden Internet gem for foreign students of Hindi and Urdu and aficionados of the Indian cinema. It is to be found here.
This meticulously transliterated glossary of over 3500 terms uses an eclectic mixture of lexicographical techniques to present the selected Hindi and Urdu terms in a (convenient) romanised form and in an alphabetical order which is much more user-friendly than conventional Hindi-English or Urdu-English dictionaries which offer romanised glosses of the Hindi or Urdu terms.
This version of Schuermann’s glossary was compiled and printed in Germany in April 2001 and converted into this PDF format in March 2003. The presentation is brief and modest:
Volker Schuermann’s Bollywood Dictionary
“It is definitly not a Hindi dictionary! One might call it a Hindustani dictionary, though. The vocabulary consists of words from quite a few different origins: Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Sanskrit, Greek and English. All those languages have been mixed together to form a new language – Hindustani. A language the majority of Indian cinema-goers can understand.
“In order to help Bollywood fans living in the western parts of the world to understand the dialogues in the movies as well, I have created this dictionary. The sort-order of the vocabulary is based on latin script to make it easier to look up words. Also, the Hindustani words are not printed in Devanagari or even Urdu script but in latin letters. ITRANS is used as a transliteration scheme except for a few occasions where Urdu/Arabic words needed special transliteration treatment.”
Schuermann expresses his acknowledgement of work of the ITRANS team led by Avinash Chopde and concludes:.
“Enjoy your Bollywood movies ….
… and from now on, enjoy understanding the dialogues as well.”
Volker Schuermann, April 2001… [An email address is given there.]
Fans and students are highly indebted to Dr Schuermann (or perhaps Schürmann) for this well-researched and presented Glossary.
The following sample gives an idea of the scope and the amount of research undertaken. (The symbols are explained on pages 2 and 3.)
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“baad: later
baad me.n: afterwards, later
baadah (n.m.) [P]: wine, spirits
baadal (n.m.) [H]: cloud(s)
baadiyah (n.m.) [A]: wilderness, desert
baadiyah (n.m.) [P]: goblet, cup
baadshaah (n.m.) [P]: emperor, king
baagh (n.m.) [P]: garden, orchard, grove
baagh (m.): tiger
baahar: outside
baaiis: twenty-two, 22
baal (m.): child
baal (m.): hair
baal baa.Nka na honaa: to escape unhurt
baal-bachche (m.): children, family
baalaTii (f.): bucket
baalak (m.): child
baalam (n.m.) [S]: a lover, sweet-heart, husband
baam (n.m.) [P]: upper storey, terrace, balcony
baan (suff.) [P]: signifying keeper or guardian
baanave: ninety-two, 92
baano (n.f.) [P]: lady, gentlewoman
baap (m.): father
baaqee (adj.) [A]: remaining, lasting
baaqee (n.f.) [A]: residue, remainder, arrears
baaqii (f.): remaining, left over, remainder
baar (n.m.) [H]: time, turn, chance, opportunity, delay, obstacle
baar (n.m.) [P]: burden, load, permission, grief, court
baarah (n.m.) [P]: time, turn, about, in regard of
baarah: twelve, 12
baareek (adj.) [P]: fine, slender, delicate, difficult, subtle
baarish (n.m.) [P]: rain
baarish honaa: to rain, rain to fall
baasaTh: sixty-two, 62
baat (n.f.) [H]: word, saying, speech, tale, news, question, business, proposal,
point, gossip, substance
baat: thing, matter, idea, thing said
baat karanaa se: to talk, converse
baate.n honaa: a conversation to take place
baavan: fifty-two, 52
baayaa.N: left (direction)
baaz (adv.) [P]: again, back, refusing
baaz (n.m.) [P]: falcon
baaz (suff.) [P]: denotes doer, agent
baazaar (n.m.) [P]: market, bazaar
baazaar garam honaa: to be doing brisk business
baazaaree (adj.) [P]: common, low, vulgar, relating to the market
baazii (n.f.) [P]: sport, game, wager, turn (in a game)
baazichah (n.m.) [P]: toy, fun, sport
baazoo (n.m.) [P]: arm, fold of a door, flank of an army
bachaanaa: to save, rescue
bachanaa: to be saved, escape, survive
bachapan (m.): childhood
bachchaa (m.): child
bad (adj.) [P]: bad, wicked, evil
bad akhtar (adj.): unfortunate
bad anjaam (adj.): having a bad end
bad chalan (adj.): of bad conduct, ill-mannered, immoral
bad du’aa (n.f.): curse, malediction
bad khvaab (n.m., f.): nightmare
bad m’aash (adj.): roguish
bad naam (adj.): disreputable, notorious, ignominous
bad naseeb (adj.): unfortunate, unlucky”
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And there are 60 more pages!
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