Merger of and

I learnt the pronunciations chaawar (uncooked rice) and hardii (turmeric) instead of chaaval and haldii. How common is this merger of <l> and <r> in India? I have heard that Bhojpuri-speakers do this as well. Is it done in Awadhi? My family originally came from a village in the district of Allahabad, but this may have been something that was picked up from others after coming to Jamaica... 

 

You are right that chaawar and hardi are spoken by many in India. You are right about Bhojpuri for sure. I am not sure about Awadhi though.

It appears that even in Sindhi language it is spoken as chawar. See these pages on Sindhi cuisine mention the word "chawar" for "chaawal":

Sabu dal chawar ( yellow daal with rice) [Link] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sindhi_cuisine

Sabu dal chawar & Bugha Chawar http://www.indianetzone.com/53/sindhi_cuisine.htm

Also, there is a hotel Kailash Parbat in Singapore which has on its menu:

SEYAL CHAWAR (Rice flavoured with caramelized onion, tomatoes & fresh coriander) [Ref]

 

I checked Platts', and he lists hardii as a variant of haldii, as well as giving this etymology for haldii: [Prk. हलद्दी, or हलद्दा; S. हरिद्रा]. The original Sanskrit word had an <r>, which shifted to an <l> in Prakrit. Perhaps some Prakrit dialects retained the <r>, and that may explain the hardii (though it doesn't explain chaawar). IIRC, Gujarati, Sindhi, and Bhojpuri are descended from different Prakrits dialects than Khariboli is. I believe Bhojpuri is descended from the same Prakrit as Bengali.

I looked up the words in Bengali to see if they are similar.

হরিদ্রা (p. 1047) [ haridrā ] n turmeric. ̃বর্ণ n. & a. yellow. ˜ভ a. yellowish.
হলদি (p. 1047) [ haladi ] n (dial.) turmeric.

Bengali has both an <r>-version and an <l>-version, though the <r>-version seems to be the more standard one.

 

You are right that the root word for haldi or hardi is Haridra हरिद्रा from Sanskrit. All these languages are sister-languages coming out ultimately from Sanskrit and hence while their words carry a certain distinctions, those can be traced back to the original word.

हरिद्रा

हरिद्रा , की परिभाषा हरिद्रा , का अर्थ हरिद्रा - हरिद्रासंज्ञा स्त्री० [सं०] १. हलदी । २. एक नदी का नाम । ३. वन । जंगल ।—अनेकार्थ (शब्द०)। ४. मंगल ।—अनेकार्थ (शब्द०)। ५. सीसा धातु ।—अनेकार्थ (शब्द०)। ६. निशा । उ०—कहत हरिद्रा बनथली, निशा हरिद्रा होइ । बहुरि हरिद्रा मंगली, हरद हरिद्रा सोइ ।—अनेकार्थ०, पृ० १६१ । [Ref]

There are some related words coming out of the word Haridra:

हरिद्राभ ^१वि० [सं०] पीतवर्ण का । पीला ।

It is so since Haldi/Hardi/Haridra is yellow in color.

हरिद्रागणपतिसंज्ञा पुं० [सं०] गणपति या गणेश जी की एक मूर्ति जिनपर मंत्र पढ़कर हलदी चढ़ाई जाती है ।

There is another interesting fact: While हरिद्रा or Haldi/Hardi is yellow, हरि, which is Lord Vishnu's name, has also got the color associated with Him as yellow. Lord Vishnu is represented wearing yellow clothes. As this page says, "The color yellow is associated with earthly existence and the yellow clothes of the Lord signify that He incarnates Himself on this earth to uphold righteousness and destroy evil and unrighteousness." [Ref] And Hari is a name of Vishnu himself! Hari, as in Haridra! Or Hardi which came from it! It is so interesting to see how things are related to each other...

Another interesting quote. This one is from the immensely respected Guru Granth Sahib taken from here [Link]

ਕਬੀਰ ਹਰਦੀ ਪੀਰਤਨੁ ਹਰੈ ਚੂਨ ਚਿਹਨੁ ਨ ਰਹਾਇ ॥
कबीर हरदी पीरतनु हरै चून चिहनु न रहाइ ॥
Kabīr harḏī pīrṯan harai cẖūn cẖihan na rahā▫e.
Kabeer, turmeric has lost its yellow color, and no trace of lime's whiteness remains.

Here also, turmeric is called "hardi"...