Deśi words, also known as Deśya words (
Sanskrit: देश्य), represent the vocabulary in
Indo-Aryan languages which are of non-
Indo-European origin, mostly borrowed from
Dravidian languages and
Munda languages, the languages which are currently native to
South India and
East India respectively.
They are also known as words (
Hindi: देशज), and considered one of the three etymological classes defined by native grammarians of
Middle Indo-Aryan languages
The Middle Indo-Aryan languages (or Middle Indic languages, sometimes conflated with the Prakrits, which are a stage of Middle Indic) are a historical group of languages of the Indo-Aryan family. They are the descendants of Old Indo-Aryan (OIA; ...
, alongside
tatsama and
tadbhava words.
[ at pp. 67-69.] The word "''
desi''" in this context means "''local''" (or "''of the countryside''"),
referring that these
loanwords
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
are from the native languages of the
Indian subcontinent that existed before the
Indo-Aryan migrations.
See also
*
Substratum in Vedic Sanskrit
References
{{reflist
Linguistic history of India
Etymology
Sanskrit words and phrases