Hindi-Urdu: MaiN + chaahe instead of chaahuN

[amiramir]

I was surprised to note the following sentence was not remarked on further:

ye merii zindagii hai. maiN jo chahe karuuN!This is my life. I'll do what I want!

I would have thought it would have to be ' maiN jo chaahuN' -- but I googled it and maiN jo chaahe turns up everywhere and seems to be quite accepted.

Is one more idiomatic than the other? Do they connote different things? Or equally acceptable alternatives?

Thank you

 

[littlepond]

Both are used heavily, with no difference in meaning. Both are grammatically fine, as the elided things would explain:

"maiN jo (maiN chaahuN, koii kuchh bhii) chaahe, (voh) karuuN"
"maiN jo (maiN) chaahuN, (voh) karuuN"

 

[Qureshpor]

I was surprised to note the following sentence was not remarked on further:

I would have thought it would have to be ' maiN jo chaahuN' -- but I googled it and maiN jo chaahe turns up everywhere and seems to be quite accepted.

Is one more idiomatic than the other? Do they connote different things? Or equally acceptable alternatives?

Thank you

aevynn probably meant , " ye merii zindagii hai. meraa jo jii chahe karuuN! This is my life. I'll do what I want!"

 

[littlepond]

" ye merii zindagii hai. meraa jo jii chahe karuuN! This is my life. I'll do what I want!"

Qureshpor jii, the sentence you write of course exists and is used a lot as well, but so does "maiN jo chaahe karuuN".

 

[Qureshpor]

Qureshpor jii, the sentence you write of course exists and is used a lot as well, but so does "maiN jo chaahe karuuN".

Fair enough if it exists in Hindi but I can't quite follow the logic behind your explanation in #2, I am afraid. I can understand it if the sentence is understood as "maiN, jo (meraa man/jii/dil) chaahe, karuuN".

 

[aevynn]

Good observation

I agree with @littlepond that this is fairly common, and it seems to me that @Qureshpor's suggestion with an elided man/jii/dil/etc explains the agreement very efficiently. FWIW, I sort of doubt that there's any divergence between Hindi and Urdu here. Briefly searching for jo chaahe on Rekhta yielded the following (using greens to mark plural subjects and matrix verbs, and purple to mark the un-nasalized jo chaahe):


اپنی زبان سے مجھے جو چاہے کہ لیں آپ
بڑھ بڑھ کے بولنا نہیں اچھا رقیب کا
—لالہ مادھو رام جوہر

apnii zubaan se mujhe jo chaahe kah leN aap
baRh baRh ke bolnaa nahiiN achchhaa raqiib kaa
—laalaa maadhav raam jauhar


لوگ تو لوگ ہیں جو چاہے وہ کہ سکتے ہیں
تو تو میرا ہے مرے دل کو دکھا نہ آنا
—مبارک صدیقی

log to log haiN jo chaahe wo kah sakte haiN
tuu to miraa hai dil ko dukhaa na aanaa
—mubaarak siddiiqii


کہانی میں تو کرداروں کو جو چاہے بنا دیجے
حقیقت بھی کہانی کار ہو ایسا نہیں ہوتا
—ندا فاضلی

kahaanii meN to kirdaaroN ko jo chaahe banaa diije
haqiiqat bhii kahaanii kaar ho aisaa nahiiN hotaa
—nidaa faazlii

 

[littlepond]

I can understand it if the sentence is understood as "maiN, jo (meraa man/jii/dil) chaahe, karuuN".

I think this is a much more neat way, thanks!

 

[Qureshpor]

Good observation

I agree with @littlepond that this is fairly common, and it seems to me that @Qureshpor's suggestion with an elided man/jii/dil/etc explains the agreement very efficiently. FWIW, I sort of doubt that there's any divergence between Hindi and Urdu here. Briefly searching for jo chaahe on Rekhta yielded the following (using greens to mark plural subjects and matrix verbs, and purple to mark the un-nasalized jo chaahe):


اپنی زبان سے مجھے جو چاہے کہ لیں آپ
بڑھ بڑھ کے بولنا نہیں اچھا رقیب کا
—لالہ مادھو رام جوہر

apnii zubaan se mujhe jo chaahe kah leN aap
baRh baRh ke bolnaa nahiiN achchhaa raqiib kaa
—laalaa maadhav raam jauhar


لوگ تو لوگ ہیں جو چاہے وہ کہ سکتے ہیں
تو تو میرا ہے مرے دل کو دکھا نہ آنا
—مبارک صدیقی

log to log haiN jo chaahe wo kah sakte haiN
tuu to miraa hai dil ko dukhaa na aanaa
—mubaarak siddiiqii


کہانی میں تو کرداروں کو جو چاہے بنا دیجے
حقیقت بھی کہانی کار ہو ایسا نہیں ہوتا
—ندا فاضلی

kahaanii meN to kirdaaroN ko jo chaahe banaa diije
haqiiqat bhii kahaanii kaar ho aisaa nahiiN hotaa
—nidaa faazlii

Thank you @aevynn for the examples from urdu poetry. I had not come across this before and I don't know how old this usage is in Urdu. In any event, these examples follow the same pattern as your sentence and therefore the same elision with man/jii/dil.