Wallah

Wallah may refer to:

• Wallah (Arabic)
• -walla (or -wala, wali fem.), derived from Marathi and Hindustani 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 hail from or what they wear (Topiwala),^[2][3] for example:
  • Dabbawala, lunch box deliverer
  • Auto-walla, driver of an auto rickshaw
  • Chaiwala, a boy or young man who serves tea
  • Attar-walla, seller of perfumes and extracts
  • Kulfi-walla, maker of Kulfi (Ice-cream)
  • Kaan-saaf walla, ear cleaner
  • Bottley-walla, recycler of printed material, bottles, and these days, electronic gadgets such as TVs
  • Dudh-Walla, this is a caste, an accent and applies to milkmen
  • Punkawallah, the servant who keeps the punkah or fan going on hot nights
  • Dhobi walla, laundry worker.

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]

See also

• Wala (disambiguation)

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. "Reflections of a language-wala". The Hindu. February 5, 2006. Retrieved 2014-05-17.