زبان

زبان • (zabán)

1. tongue
2. language

• زوان (zawán)

• زفان (zofân, zafân), زوان (zovân, zavân), زوون (zoun, zowun), زبون (zabun) (in Iran)

From Middle Persian [script needed] (ŠNA) / [script needed] (ʾwzwʾn' /⁠uzwān⁠/) (Middle Persian 𐫙𐫉𐫇𐫀𐫗 (ʿzwʾn /⁠izwān⁠/)), from Proto-Iranian *hižwáH (compare Northern Kurdish ziman, Pashto ژبه (žəba), Avestan 𐬵𐬍𐬰𐬎𐬎𐬁 (hīzuuā)), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ȷ́iȷ́ʰwáH (compare Sanskrit जिह्वा (jihvā), Urdu جِیبھ (jībh) / Hindi जीभ (jībh)), from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s (compare Old Prussian insuwis, Russian язы́к (jazýk), French langue, English tongue).

• (Hamadan) IPA^(key): [zeˈbɒːn]

• Audio (Iran)

  (file)

زبان • (zabân, zobân) (plural زبان‌ها (zabân-hâ))

1. tongue (body part)
   • c. 1260s, Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, translated by Reynold A. Nicholson, مثنوی معنوی [Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi], volume II, verse 269:

     بَر زَبَان نَامِ حَقّ و دَر جَانِ او گَنْدهَا اَز فِکْرِ بی‌اِیمَانِ او

     bar zabān nām-i haqq u dar jān-i ō gand-hā az fikr-i bē-īmān-i ō

     On his tongue the name of God, and in his soul stenches from his infidel thought.

2. language

   در زبان اردو، این کلمه به معنی « بزرگ » است.

   dar zabân-e ordu, in kalame be ma'ni-ye "bozorg" ast.

   In the Urdu language, this word means "big".

   • c. 1260s, Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, translated by Reynold A. Nicholson, مثنوی معنوی [Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi], volume I, verse 1206:

     اَی بَسَا هِنْدُو و تُرْکِ هَم زَبَان اَی بَسَا دُو تُرْک چون بیگَانَگَان

     ay basā hindū u turk-i ham zabān ay basā dū turk čōn bēgānagān

     Oh, many are the Indians and Turks that speak the same tongue; oh, many the pair of Turks that are as strangers [to each other].

   • c. 1650, Čandra Bhān, دیوان برهمن [The Brahman's divan]:

     بَرَهْمَن اَز لَبِ هِنْدِی نَژَادَان نُکْتَه می‌سَنْجَد زَبَانِ پَارْسِی و تُرْکِی و تَازِی نَمی‌دَانَد.

     barahman az lab-i hindī nažādān nukta mē-sanjad zabān-i pārsī u turkī u tāzī namē-dānad.

     [This] brahman weighs his subtle wits with lips of Hindi lineage; he knows not the Persian nor the Turkish nor the Arabic tongues.

     (Mughal Persian)

   • c. 1655, دبستان مذاهب [Dabistān-i Mazāhib]:

     وَ یَزْدَان بَهْرِ آبَاد نَامِه‌ای فِرِسْتَاد دَسَاتیرِ نَام کِه دَر او هَر دَانِش و هَمِه زَبَان بود.

     va yazdân bahr-e âbâd nâme-i ferestâd dasâtir-e nâm ke dar u har dâneš o hame zabân bud.

     And God sent for Ābād's sake a book, Dasātir by name, within which there is all knowledge and every language.

• MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “uzwān”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 85

Borrowed from Classical Persian زبان (zabān, zubān).

• IPA^(key): [zʊbɑnə]

زُبانَ • (zubāna) f (Devanagari ज़ुबान)

1. (anatomy) tongue
2. language

• Khānu, Balocu (1960-1988) “زُبانَ”, in Jāmiʻ Sindhī lughāta (in Sindhi), Ḥaidarābād, Sindhu: Sindhī Adabī Borḍ

First attested in c. 1603 as Middle Hindi زبان (/⁠zbān⁠/), borrowed from Classical Persian زبان (zabān, zubān), ultimately from Proto-Iranian *hižwáH, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ȷ́iȷ́ʰwáH.. Doublet of جِیبھ (jībh).

• (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /zə.bɑːn/, /zʊ.bɑːn/

• Audio (PK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːn
• Hyphenation: ز‧بان

زَبان or زُبان • (zabān or zubān) f (Hindi spelling ज़बान or ज़ुबान)

1. (anatomy) tongue

   Synonyms: جیبھ (jībh), لسان (lisān)

2. language, vernacular

   Synonyms: لسان (lisān), بھاشا (bhāśā), بولی (bolī)

3. speech, word
4. the tip (of a pen; flame of a candle etc.)

Although zabān and zubān are both considered correct, some Urdu scholars are of the opinion that zabān merely refers to the body part, ie. tongue, whereas zubān refers to a language or speech, and sometimes vice versa, although there is no consensus for this. Shakespear, Platts, Fallon all attest both variants. Shams-ur-Rahman Farooqi, in his dictionary luġāt roz marra (pages 205-206), notes that the term زبان (/⁠zbān⁠/) is pronounced as zubān in Delhi and many of the Eastern [Indian Urdu] dialects, and in other parts zabān.

• → Phalura: zabaán

• “زبان”, in اُردُو لُغَت (urdū luġat) (in Urdu), Ministry of Education: Government of Pakistan, 2017.
• “زبان”, in ریخْتَہ لُغَت (rexta luġat) - Rekhta Dictionary [Urdu dictionary with meanings in Hindi & English], Noida, India: Rekhta Foundation, 2024.
• Qureshi, Bashir Ahmad (1971) “زبان”, in Kitabistan's 20th Century Standard Dictionary‎, Lahore: Kitabistan Pub. Co.
• Platts, John T. (1884) “زبان”, in A dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English, London: W. H. Allen & Co.
• S. W. Fallon (1879) “زبان”, in A New Hindustani-English Dictionary, Banaras, London: Trubner and Co.
• John Shakespear (1834) “زبان”, in A dictionary, Hindustani and English: with a copious index, fitting the work to serve, also, as a dictionary of English and Hindustani, 3^rd edition, London: J.L. Cox and Son, →OCLC

Cognate to Egyptian Arabic زَمُكَّة (zamukka), زَلَمُكَّة (zalamukka, “fundament of a fowl”), Moroccan Arabic زك (zukk, “arse”), Ge'ez ዘባን (zäban, “back”), Tigre and Tigrinya ዝባን (zəban, “back”).

زَبَان (zabān)

1. bum, fundament, abdomen
2. loins, hips

• Landberg, Carlo, editor (1942), Glossaire daṯînois‎ (in French), Leiden: Brill, page 1821
• Piamenta, Moshe (1991) Dictionary of Post-Classical Yemeni Arabic, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 196b