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Etymological Mystery in 'Gun Island'
- 1. Etymological Mystery in ‘GunIsland’ Prepared by Latta Baraiya (sem 4) Department of English, MKBU
- 2. Prepared by: LattaBaraiya Semester : 04 Batch : 2020-22 Paper : Contemporary Literatures in English Topic : Etymological Mystery in 'Gun Island’ Enrollment no. : 3069206420200003 Email id : [email protected] Submitted to : Department of English, MKBU
- 3. Table of Content ●Novel’s Introduction ● Author's Introduction ● What is Etymology ? ● Etymological words in the Novel ● Citation ● Conclusion
- 4. About Amitav Ghosh ●Amitav Ghosh born in Calcutta and grew up in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. ● He studied in Delhi, Oxford and Alexandria ● Notable Works : The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, In An Antique Land, Dancing in Cambodia, The Calcutta Chromosome, The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, The Great Derangement; Climate Change and the Unthinkable, Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire. (Amitav Ghosh official website)
- 5. Gun Island Title :Gun Island Author : Amitav Ghosh Published : 2019 Literary Period : Contemporary Genre : Historical Fiction Point of View : First person Narration Protagonist : Dinanath Datta
- 6. What is Etymology? ● According to Oxford Dictionary, “The study of the origin and history of words and their meanings. The origin and history of a particular word.” (Oxford Dictionary) ● According Merriam Websiter, “The history of a linguistic form (such as a word) shown by tracing its development since its earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is found, by tracing its transmission from one language to another, by analyzing it into its component parts, by identifying its cognates in other languages, or by tracing it and its cognates to a common ancestral form in an ancestral language.” (Merriam Websiter)
- 7. Etymological Mystery in‘Gun Island’ ● The novel engages with Ghosh’s fascination for etymology and how words in different languages inform our sensibility and understanding of the world. ● As Soumya Bhattacharya said “At the heart of the story of Gun Island, there lies an etymological mystery, a derivation that points to the deep and inextricable intermeshing of cultures and civilisations over the ages. This is why etymology fascinates me: like sailors, words, too, are travellers, and tracing their journeys is like describing voyages of adventures.” (Bhattacharya, Soumya)
- 8. Etymological Words in'Gun Island’ Land of Palm Sugar Candy Land of Chains Land of Kerchieves Gun Island 1 2 3 4 5 Bhut - Ghost 6 Possession
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- 10. Gun Island ● AsSomak Ghoshal observed, The novel opens with a subject that he describes as one of his “obsessions": etymology. In the beginning is a word and that word is “bundook". Used to mean “gun" in many languages. (Ghoshal, Somak) ● Title of the novel, no direct reference of Gun ● There is 'Island within Island ● There is one foundry where armaments, including bullets, were cast. And the word used for foundry in Venetian dialect is "getto". And the world "ghetto" is derived from "getto" and it is connected with Jews. ● The other vocabulary for Venice is linked to three apparently unrelated things - hazelnuts, bullets and guns ! The shape of hazelnuts is similar to that of bullets which are, in turn, indispensable for guns !
- 11. ● Venice inArabic language is "Banadiq" - the ancestor of the German and Swedish "Venedig". In Arabic "Banadiq" became "al- Bunduqeyya". So this gun is referred to as Venice, not gun ! ● So the ultimate meaning of the title is - a merchant who visited Venice and who found ghetto-foundry.
- 12. Land of PalmSugar Candy 02
- 13. Land of PalmSugar Candy ● The Bengali word for Land of Palm Sugar Candy is "taal-misrir- desh". ● Desh = country, taal= kind of palm tree that produces a sugar syrup, Bengali word for sugar candy is misri. ● Cinta said that Arabic word "Misr" means “Egyptian” perhaps crystallized sugar is known as misri because the process had come to Bengal by way of Egypt. ● So this word Land of Palm Sugar Candy is used for Egypt. So this place is referred to Egypt.
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- 15. Land of Kerchieves ●Cinta asked for the Bengali translation of this word. Deen told her it was called Rumaali-desh. ● In Bengali Rumaal is a handkerchief. ● Chinta said it is about Rumelia, and this Rumeli-Hisari is located in Turkey. ● Rumeli comes from “Rum” “Rome” - which is how Constantinople, the Byzantine “Rome” was known in Arabic and Persian. ● It means Gun Merchant and captain Ilyas would have gone from Egypt to Turkey.
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- 17. Land of Chains ●The Bengali word for this is "shikol-dwip". ● The merchant was captured by pirates and Manasa Devi save him, like this the migrants are headed to a ship and all are meeting at a Sicily. ● This is a reference to Sikelia and it is now Sicily. ● So the Island of Chains is used for Sicily.
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- 19. Ghost - Bhuta ●In chapter named Brooklyn, there is a conversation between Dinanath Datta and Tipu through email. ● Tipu asked Deen, ``What is the meaning of "Bhuta" ? Does it mean "ghost" or something else ? ● Deen explains that in Bangla “bhoot/bhuta” comes from a basic but very complicated Sanskrit root "bhu" means "to be" or "to manifest". ● So "bhuta" simply means "a being" or "an existing presence". ● This word "bhuta" also refers to the past, in the sense of "a past state of being". Like we use "bhuta-kala" or "times past". ● So this "bhuta" is not "ghost" but it is "memory". So it can be with you in the form of memory.
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- 21. Possession ● There isreference to the word possession in the novel. ● When Cinta and Deen talk about possession, Deen said he has symptoms like possession. ● Possession is when someone is taken over by a demon. And the demon is nothing but it's just a metaphor for greed, an imaginary thing. ● So possession is not like someone's soul comes into our body and all things ! It's our greed that we have taken over that greed. ● Cinta explained that possession became when a person loses "will" and "freedom". Further she said it is a kind of awakening, you are waking up to things that you had never imagined or sensed before. ● In other words possession is consciousness of things.
- 22. Conclusion ● Hard tounderstand the word because you have to go deep and in origin of the word. ● By using these words he makes novel complex. ● Ghosh gives importance to Bengali Language. ● Interesting way to discribe the story.
- 23. Resources ● “Amitav Ghosh.”2011, Amitav Ghosh - Official Website, https://www.amitavghosh.com/. ● Bhattacharya, Soumya. “Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh: A Gripping Parable for Our Times.” Hindustan Times, 8 June 2019, https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/gun-island-by-amitav-ghosh- a-gripping-parable-for-our-times/story- Zygav4yLecQZb9xCO1KW1N.html. ● Ghoshal, Somak. “Amitav Ghosh on Myth, Magic and His New Novel, 'Gun Island'.” Mint, 15 June 2019, https://www.livemint.com/mint- lounge/features/amitav-ghosh-and-the-sea-of-stories- 1560505247731.html.
- 24. Resources ● Merriam Webster.“Etymology Definition & Meaning .” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/etymology. ● Oxford Dictionaries. “Etymology Noun - Definition, Pictures and Pronunciation and Usage Notes .” OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com, Oxford University Press , https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/etymology#:~: text=%E2%80%8B%5Buncountable%5D%20the%20study%20ofTopics%20Hist oryc2%2C%20Languagec2. Thank You !