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in reply to a message by Chrisell
Yes, I get your point. And true, the meanings aren't that different to each other. But as far as I can tell Indian names do add the ending -a to make a name feminin (see Amit - Amita, Amrit - Amrita, Anand - Ananda, Anil - Anila, ...)
Oh well, but thanks anyway. :)
Oh well, but thanks anyway. :)
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In Sanskrit, from which these names ultimately derive, there are three sibilant sounds: one is like the s in sound, another like the s in sugar, and the third is harder. The difference between the last two have disappeared in many modern Indian languages (though, in some contexts, it gets replaced by kh: think the relation between the two pronounciations of ch in different German dialects), and both are usually transliterated as sh.
In any case, the female name manisha (manISA, मनीषा) uses this hard sh, and is a very old word: it is the root man- meaning cognition (mne- is its cognate in the Latin language) with a suffix. The male name manish (manIsha, मनीश), on the other hand uses the softer sh, and is a modern concoction: the ending -a sound of Sanskrit having disappeared, one was free to add Isha (master, from a root meaning to possess) to get this word.
Of course, since the sound difference between -S- and -sh- has disapeared in many languages, I have seen manIshA (मनीशा) as a female name as well. I surmise that arose out of a variant spelling of manISA. Similarly, in many modern Indian languages the difference between the short -i- and long -I- has also disappeared, leading to further spelling variants.
In any case, the female name manisha (manISA, मनीषा) uses this hard sh, and is a very old word: it is the root man- meaning cognition (mne- is its cognate in the Latin language) with a suffix. The male name manish (manIsha, मनीश), on the other hand uses the softer sh, and is a modern concoction: the ending -a sound of Sanskrit having disappeared, one was free to add Isha (master, from a root meaning to possess) to get this word.
Of course, since the sound difference between -S- and -sh- has disapeared in many languages, I have seen manIshA (मनीशा) as a female name as well. I surmise that arose out of a variant spelling of manISA. Similarly, in many modern Indian languages the difference between the short -i- and long -I- has also disappeared, leading to further spelling variants.
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