With so many Hindi words joining the English dictionary, it would appear that (the) English is once again on a conquest. However, the fact is that Hindi has not been too far in picking English words to suit its purposes.
The first time I noticed this was when someone used the word ‘Colgate’ while speaking in Hindi. He was describing in Hindi how he injured himself while he was doing ‘Colgate’ in the morning. He was using the name of a brand in a generic way to describe morning ablutions.
That’s what got me tuned into this subterranean world of English words.
Bus drivers are called ‘Pilots’ more to give them respect than to describe the speed at which they ply on Indian roads, while bus conductors shout ‘right right’ not because they want him to turn in a certain direction but to egg him on. The word almost sounds like ‘ray’.
Whenever cell phones percolate down to the tiniest village English has not been far behind. The strength of the signal indicated by bars on the screen are described as ‘tower’ well it does look like a mini tower. So if there is no signal one says ‘there is no tower’ (in Hindi off course).
Indians have not only Indianised Chinese but have also improvised on the spellings. ‘Chainese’ is the most seen spelling around, while to cater to the Indian palate a dish called ‘Gobi Manchurian’ (pronounced Manchuri) has been concocted.
Small eateries in small towns serve a cuisine of their own. The places are small, smoky and dingy, people sit packed into benches sweating reasons being lack of ventilation and the liberal amount of chillies added. Ordering an egg here can be a problem – if you want a fried egg you ask for a ‘half boiled’. Strangely enough in one of the places in the south I heard ‘bulls-eye’ being ordered and it did not end with a bovine becoming blind.
‘Congress’ has less to do with a political party or a gathering of people, in certain areas of the south it indicates free munchies in shady bars. This is usually puffed rice with the odd salted peanut thrown in to add colour, it is served on a piece of paper. Munching these things provide entertainment between sips because one has to protect it from the blast of the fan that blows away the smoke from those smoking. While when you order a ‘cutting’ do not expect someone to snip your hair but to serve you half a glass of tea.
‘Adjust’ is a word that is frequently used, infact it describes an Indian’s mentality. If there is an accident the guilty party pleadingly uses the word ‘adjust’ to beg for a little mercy. While on a train bursting at its seams a passenger will stand next to a sitting person and request him to ‘adjust’ which means that the sitting person sidle up to provide a little place.
One does not have to seek any particular environment to hear/see such things. These things can accost you on the road - if some asks you to ‘hold it’ and gives you nothing, it does not mean s/he is an inmate of an asylum – it’s just a request for you to stop.
If language transcends boundaries, Indians have shown that words transcend meanings.
6 comments:
a bit of angst now and then makes the kiss so much more delicious :-)
Goodf Hinglish is going places
Who are these people ? - the samirs of the world and his-friend-who-posts-comments - who observe what is being done to a language-that-is-not-their-mother-tongue by their-fellow-country-men-who-they-cant-fully-relate-to and then actually ruminate about it on a space such as this which is so far removed from the gobimanjuri-thelawala's reality ? They go ahead and give their own spins to it - "words transcend meaning!!!". Who are the samirs and the avinashs ? What the hell are they looking for ?
Yawn! Not sure this comment is worth a response but I see a hint of snooty nativeness between the lines avinash has written.
Potatoes are not endemic to India but now the south uses it in masala dosas and the north eats it with puri. Like English, potato was bought by some colonialist (Portuguese here) and the blog is about how imaginative Indians are, this time with a language.
So lets see what has our variety of mother tongues done to India. The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 divided India on linguistic lines. Our so called mother tongues (The 1991 census recognized "1576 rationalized mother tongues") have given birth to riots and have also been an excuse to kill, news from Assam usually states that separatists killed ‘Hindi speakers’. So besides what some proudly call diversity in religion, caste, economic status we have language that provides another wall of divide.
To call English a foreign language after 400 years is akin to an ostrich putting its head in the sand.
So if all this angst is because English was a colonial language then lets use the bullock cart, wear dhotis and fly in VIMANAS.
If English is used and understood in all parts of the country without the threat of death or the person being stereotyped then I would rather use.
What does 'they cant fully relate to' actually mean. Does it mean that i speak fluent english and they cant, that i earn more than them, the rent i pay is more than what they earn in a month.
As to the final question, Avinash don’t club me in with your search.
samir sir, glad my native snootiness without being worth a comment has actually elicited a comment from you - and an instruction on what the blog was "really about" as opposed to my whatever perception of it.
Neither has english been called a foreign language nor has the inventiveness of indians denied. Only said English is not (atleast my) mother-tongue.
Talk to a gobimanjuri guy in english and tell him you have blogged about him on your own blog space. I am guessing he wont understand (and I may be wrong of course). Of course 'they cant fully relate to' actually does mean that you and i speak fluent english and they cant, that you and i earn more than them (well right now i am not earning), the rent you and i pay is more than what they earn in a month - what else do you expect it to mean?
And do i see you making the argument that English unites a nation divided on various other lines ? I am not too convinced sir - i think English is just one more of our languages. And it has all the uniting or dividing powers of any other language.
I will speak English wearing a dhoti riding on a bullock cart. I dont have access to VIMANAS.
And as for the final question - i am not clubbing you in any of my searches. Our searches may be different but we both speak English and blog.
An interesting glance into how languages develop,could be the beginnings of a Hinglish dictionary or a sociology study(social anthropology)into the relationship between human experience language and its use for communicating in a multi-lingual environment?
I read this morning of a 95 year old Spanish lady, an author who has recently entered blogosphere(does such a word exist or a new invention?) and gained fame for her adventurous spirit inspite of age. I'm not nearly close so far as age and far from anywhere close to fame. Why this introduction? because at my age a lot of language in use - pure english (if such an animal exists), Hinglish as she is spoke - differently in differnt parts of India and in different social milieus, is often unknown to me. In addition with the passing years I've seen or will 'heard' be more accurate, language change, words introduced from one language to another with gradual change in the orginal meaning, spelling and even possibly in its/their pronunciation, why, even loss of knowledge of the origin. Personal experience tells me this is an ongoing process, even more so when there is population mobility, multiplicity of languages and changing social mores and mileus. Hence my wonder at the interesting round of sparring between avinash and Samir. I suppose some of it is angst as thandamrit says, some of it 'hurt' being unable to find a more suitable word, as is evident from avinash's comments, and defensiveness from Samir. Now that we know the name of the response( or would someone like to enlighten me further) lets know the reasons. The round was interesting. In boxing parlance - fight on! .
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