Heritage: A Sindhi lesson -- kuti, its variations and poetry

[Gul Agha <agha@CS.UIUC.EDU>]

A linguistic note:

-- kuti (short vowels, soft t) is an insect smaller than a mosquito
   that swarms in large numbers and is quite ferocious in biting.
   As I recall, the bites hurt more but do not get infected
   like mosquito bites.

-- kutii (short u, long i, soft t) is a female dog (bitch).

-- kutti (short vowels, hard t) is to beat up  (as in the saying
   'kutti mulaan jii tthori' -- beat the Mullah on the head, i.e.,
   knock some sense into the Mullah).

-- kuttii (short u, hard t, long i) is a sweet your grandmother likely
   made (also used in puujaa).  Not to be confused with khuttii (the
   action causing, or the state of being, bankrupt, as in 'khuttii-a
   khanyo' -- bad fortune caused him to..).  The h in kh is for
   aspiration.

Did I miss some variations?

Incidentally, there is no phonologically significant aspiration in
English.  Sindhii has many  phonologically significant aspirated sounds,
 p and ph
 t and th
 tt and tth
 b and bh
 k and kh
 g and gh
 ...

Roughly speaking, two phonetically close sounds are phonologically
significant if there exists a pair of words differing in only that
sound which changes the meaning of the word completely.

The great number of phonetically related but phonologically distinct
sounds create uniquely richer possibilities of alliteration in Sindhi
than perhaps in any other known language -- e.g., b, bb (implose b),
bh; j, jh, jj; t, tt, th, tth; etc.  The presence of so many distinct
consonants in the language also allows a very large number of short
words.

While virtually all Sindhi poets employ it, Shah Latif is the
undisputed master of alliteration.  Besides rhyme and rythm, virtually
every verse in his very large body of poetry is alliterative, often
doubly so (for the second half of longer words); this gives a unique
musical sound effect in Sindhi recitative and sung poetry which has a
most enchanting effect on our auditory perception.

sadaaiin ggaddu,

Gul Agha