Wallah

Wallah, or -wala or -vala (wali fem.), derived from Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi or Hindustani ওয়ালা वाला والا -vālā (suffix forming an adjectival compound with a noun or an agentive sense with a verb),[1] an Indian surname or suffix indicating a person involved in some kind of activity, where they come from or what they wear (Topiwala),[2][3] for example:

• Dabbawala, lunch box deliverer
• Chaiwala, a boy or young man who serves tea
• Rickshawala, a rickshaw driver
• Punkawallah, the servant who keeps the punkah or fan going on hot nights
• Lep wallah, a cotton carder

Wala or Vala was also used in Parsi and Bohra surnames, suggesting the profession or a place-name. For example:

• Amroliwala
• Daruwalla, seller of daru or Persian for wine
• Mithaiwala, sweetseller [4]

Wala is also used to indicate a specific object or thing among several.

• chota wala, the small one
• dusra wala, the second one
• agla wala, the next one

See also

• -wal, a related suffix

References

1. R. S. McGregor, ed. (1997). The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. p. 915. ISBN 978-0-19-864339-5.
2. Clements, J. Clancy (1996). The Genesis of a Language: The formation and development of Korlai Portuguese. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 139–. ISBN 978-90-272-7618-6.
3. Barz, Richard Keith; Siegel, Jeff (1988). Language Transplanted: The Development of Overseas Hindi. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 165–. ISBN 978-3-447-02872-1.
4. Anand (February 5, 2006). "Reflections of a language-wala". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 2007-07-01. Retrieved 2014-05-17.