Talk:सुभा

Alleged Arabic origin

@Kutchkutch: I cannot find any Arabic صوبة meaning a province or the like, hardly even in application to the Mughal Empire specifically; one probably uses a more generic word in Arabic instead of a xenism loaned from the Mughal languages. The Persian term is glossed to be specific to the Mughal Empire.

If it is from Arabic, then an artificial word after Arabic, but it does not make much sense. The English-language books since colonial times claim Arabic origin, hence Arabic Wikipedia, but one should attest it in Arabic first, independent from the Mughal Empire. (One reason Wikipedia is stupid, they can claim vague origins without even the origin terms being there, while Wiktionary as a secondary source needs the linguistic material more than what “reliable” sources chat without grounds.)

I suspect the term is borrowed from Chagatay. Courteille, Abel Pavet de (1870) “सुभा”, in Dictionnaire turk-oriental‎^[1] (in French), Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, pages 350–351 has سوبا (“spread out, extended”) which would be the extensions of their Empire, سوباشی (“police officer”) apparently called after his district. Kazakh собық (sobyq, “ear, cob, spadix”) as from where a plant extends? Maybe @Vtgnoq7238rmqco has a better idea of cognates. In Uyghur supa means “balcony, veranda; platform” according to Henry G. Schwarz. Fay Freak (talk) 10:29, 7 December 2021 (UTC)