When I first got the word Mlechchha in my etymology requests folder, I honestly thought I was being spammed or something. That doesn't look like a word! The double ch just looks absurd to me as an English speaker, but turns out that it is a legitimate name for a dynasty in the Kamarupa region of India that ruled from 650 to 900 CE. More commonly spelled Mleccha and occasionally also taking the form of Maleccha, the middle sound is just kind of a guttural k. Now, etymologizing this word is very tricky. No Vedic texts give any hint as to its origin, and the earliest citation we have of it is in a context pointing out what a weird word it is. In any form, however, it seems pretty clear that Mleccha comes from Sanskrit, meaning "barbarian" for a while, and some think it's so hard to find because it's regionally rooted. Another theory is that the apellation comes from Sanskrit mili, meaning "speech", and that would be from the (non-IE) Dravidian family. Just some possibilities. Interesting word; my thanks to whoever suggested it!
3 Comments
Wilo
9/8/2018 12:11:12 am
There are lots of ways to spell this word, depending on how you romanize the Sanskrit (in the native devānāgari script, it looks like this म्लेच्छः), but none of them are "mlechchha". In IAST (widely used by scholars) it would be "mlecchaḥ" -- in ISO15919 it needs a macron over the 'e', "mlēcchaḥ" (note this is the nominitive singular form commonly found in Sanskrit dictionaries).
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9/8/2018 12:25:28 am
"Mlechchha" does appear to be correct. Thank you for the clarifications on pronunciation and spelling, however. I avoid writing in IAST and IPA (see my Clarifications page) to make the writing easier to understand for laymen. I will fix the pronunciation.
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Siva
10/2/2020 06:15:57 pm
Mleccha is likely related to the word given to the Indus valley civilisation, its people and their language by outsiders. It is present in Sumerian as Melukkha. The Sanskrit form Mleccha is from the Prakrit forms Milakkha/Melakkha. When the Arya conquered India they referred to the Dravidian speaking population as Mlecchas, and their language as Mleccha language.
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AUTHORHello! I'm Adam Aleksic. This year, I graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Government and Linguistics. There, I co-founded the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society and wrote a thesis on Serbo-Croatian language policy, magna cum laude. In addition to etymology, I also really enjoy trivia, politics, vexillology, geography, board games, conlanging, art history, and law.
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