ਸੋਹਣਾ

What does sohna mean in Punjabi? Sohna (ਸੋਹਣਾ) is the everyday Punjabi word for beautiful or handsome, the compliment songs and everyday talk reach for first. It is used for a man or a masculine noun, its feminine form is sohni, and it also carries the warmer sense of dear or beloved.

What does sohna mean in Punjabi?

Wiktionary lists sohna's meanings as beautiful and handsome first, then nice, then dear and beloved, with a loose sense of courageous and, in poetry, beloved or esteemed. The Ling App guide to saying beautiful in Punjabi puts the pair the same way: handsome is ਸੋਹਣਾ, Sohana, and pretty is ਸੋਹਣੀ, Sohani. So sohna is never only about a face. A sohna suit, a sohna village and a sohna friend are all praised with the same word.

What is the difference between sohna and sohni?

Only the gender of the word changes. Sohna is the masculine form and sohni the feminine form, and Wiktionary's declension shows the pattern: masculine plural sohne (ਸੋਹਣੇ), feminine plural sohniyan (ਸੋਹਣੀਆਂ). The Ling App guide explains it for learners in one line: sohana is a popular word for beautiful to address males, while for females the word changes to sohani. The same guide notes that Soni Kudi, heard everywhere in songs, is simply Sohni Kudi with a different transcription.

Why is Sohni famous in Punjabi folklore?

Because the feminine form names the heroine of Sohni Mahiwal, one of Punjab's great tragic romances. The All Things Pakistan retelling explains the name directly: the potter Tulla, in a town on the river Chenab identified with the Gujrat area, had a daughter so beautiful they named her Sohni, meaning beautiful in Punjabi. The trader Izzat Baig from Bukhara fell in love with her, stayed on and took up grazing buffaloes, which is how he became known as Mahiwal.

How is sohna used as slang and in songs?

In modern Punjabi talk sohna works as praise, endearment and gentle teasing at once. The vocative form in the dictionary declension, sohneya (ਸੋਹਣਿਆ), is the form singers use to call out to the beloved, and a friend who walks in dressed up will hear tu bada sohna lag reha hai, you are looking very handsome, before anything else. Wiktionary also records its origin: inherited from Prakrit sohana, from Sanskrit shobhana, with Shahmukhi spelling سوہݨا.