Qudsia Lone May 13, 2011:

Thank you Thank you, both, for your gracious comments :)

abufaraz May 13, 2011:

I second Sam Berner I hereby endorse the compliments given by Sam Berner for Qudsiaji. In fact, I had an intention to do so since long but hesitated. She has been blessed, by nature, with an aptitude of true lexicographic research and possesses a rare quality of sharing her findings with all. We are proud to have such a member in our community.

(P.S. - I have hidden my answer because I feel it does not fit in this context. Moreover, I had adopted an easy procedure - 'Google Translate" !)

Qudsia Lone May 13, 2011:

Glad to see the mystery solved :) My colleague replied that he's on some interpretation assignment without access to his dictionaries. He also said it was probably a spelling mistake.

Since there is a "pearl" type of basmati rice, which you can look up when searching for the English term "Pearl Basmati" I think this probably translates to "Premium Pearl" or "Premium Pearl Basmati" and it is most likely a type of white rice (and not brown). If they don't mention "white" elsewhere then translating "Premium White Basmati" would be more useful, otherwise using "Premium Pearl" would be good for keeping with the actual term I think.

Sam Berner (asker) May 13, 2011:

You are amazing! And you should be a forensic detective :-D
مكافأة in Arabic means "premium" as in a bonus on top of a salary. If the rice company was using Google coupled with the Pakistani use of the term as spelled in Urdu مکافۃ , then it is highly possible that what is meant is that the rice is of "premium white" quality.
I will wait for your friend. Meanwhile, thank you for your hard work.

Qudsia Lone May 13, 2011:

Pearl Basmati Rice I looked up the English term "Pearl Basmati Rice" and there seems to be a kind of rice called "Pearl Basmati" and "White Pearl Basmati"...مکافۃ is still a mystery. Here is the search engine result:
http://www.google.com/search?q=چاول موتی&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&a...

Qudsia Lone May 13, 2011:

Asked for help Hi...I've emailed a colleague for help. He's from Pakistan and also knows Arabic, so perhaps he might be able to come up with a solution. When I tried looking this term up online, I didn't see an answer in the Arabic dictionaries I searched, but Google's Arabic translation software gave this result:
http://translate.google.com/?hl=en#ar|en|%D9%85%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%A9

An Urdu blog also mentioned the word in another context. Complaining about jobs in Saudi Arabia they said the contract mentions "salary plus مکافہ".

When I hear back from my translator colleague I'll post the response here...or he might enter it himself as he's also a member here.

Sam Berner (asker) May 12, 2011:

English Text Hi Qudsia and Aburiaz. Thanks for trying to help me out.
The only English text I have on the sack says:
"Pak Basmati Rice
Long Grain, non-stick, silky polish sortex clean"
So "pearl" could refer to the "silky polish" (pure guessing here now), but we are still stuck with "makafa". There is no Urdu on the sack. There is, though, a logo of a white tiger.
Hope that helps a little in solving the mystery.

Qudsia Lone May 12, 2011:

Type of rice, perhaps? From the translation suggested by aburiaz sahib, it seems that this may be the translation of a particular type of rice and لؤلؤ/pearl may suggest the color used for the description e.g. "pearl white", "pearlish white", "pearl-like". This may be a made up word, i.e the translator may have come up with it to describe something for which s/he didn't know the standard translation. If there's any other writing in English/Urdu that's there, it might help decode this word.

abufaraz May 12, 2011:

Google Translate As Qudsia has said, this is an Arabic term. I think it might give the meanings of 'Competing of fighting with pearls'

Please check at 'Google translate', if you believe in it.

Sam Berner (asker) May 12, 2011:

Hi Qudsia, and thank you. I am an Arabic <> English translator. The term "lu'lu'a" means pearl, but the first term has no meaning in Arabic either. Since there are many borrowings from Arabic in Urdu, I thought to check with native speakers first.

Qudsia Lone May 12, 2011:

Arabic phrase, not Urdu The phrase you're asking about does not seem to be in Urdu. It looks like Arabic to me. You'll probably get your answer faster if you pose the question to Arabic translators.