Do you Speak Hinglish?

       by Arif Khan

"Don't stand in front of my back." That was one of the jokes Amitabh Bachchan cut while hosting the popular Indian quiz show KBC. He was showing how English is spoken by many people in India.The standard of education in India is generally considered better than Pakistan and in both the countries English is the official language of the government as well as the commerce and industry. 

Many people specially those educated in bad institutions, experience handicaps in finding suitable words that express their real intents and thoughts find it difficult to express their thoughts in their mother tongue and their problem aggravates when they try to express themselves in English. It appears that subconsciously they first think in words of their native language and then translate it in English. For instance a Pakistani youth phoned up his American girl friend; "My heart was wanting kay I talk with you." Here kay was used as Urdu word meaning that.

There is growing trend for anglicizing Urdu in Pakistan and a new colloquial language is emerging. Pakistani actresses and models sound so funny when they try to speak English just to show off. 

One Pakistani actress took a tutor to teach her English. 
She hosted her birthday party. When the guests started 
arriving she welcomed them in English uttering such phrases
as "How honorable of you to come." Welcome, thank you for coming. And when they wished her "Happy Birthday" she was nodding graciously saying, "Thank you. Same to you!". "Same to you".

Here is how one Federal Minister issues instruction to his secretary. "Governor Sindh kay sectretary ko phone karo I want two mobiles for my security on my arrival to Karachi. Aur PIA waloon ko bolo kay 9 PM flight to Karachi ko 10 PM per departure rakahin. Mera aaj Karahi Jana MUST hai."

Here is one example how our bankers talk, "For issuing new cheque book  we charge RS. 75/-. Yeh amount aap kay account mien debit kar dee gai thee"

Since the last few years Pakistan Television has adopted a 
policy of injecting English phrases and words Instead of 
Arabic and Persian words in scripts of anchor persons and 
plays and the manner in which the pronunciation is brutalized is really odious. In some talk shows a queer mixture of English and Urdu sounds so odious. 

While the educated are Urdulizing the English language our
common folks are anglicizing Urdu. Here are few jokes.

An irate customer walks in a shop & shouts, "Where's my free 
gift with this oil tin?"

Shopkeeper: "Iske Saath koi gift nahin hai bhai saab" (There is no gift for this item)

Cusotmer: "Oye ispe likha hai CHOLESTROL FREE "

Professor David Crystal, author of more than 50 books on English, says 350 million Indians speak Hinglish as a second language, exceeding the number of native English speakers in Britain and the US.

Prof Crystal predicts that the growing popularity of Indian culture around the world, including Bollywood movies, means that Hinglish will soon become more widely spoken outside the continent. 'The word Hinglish' has been coined to refer to  a mixture of Hindi and English widely spoken in India. 

Some of the Hinglish words in vogue include airdash (travel by air), chaddis (underpants), chai (Indian tea), crore (10 million), dacoit (thief), desi (local), dicky (boot), gora (white person), jungli (uncouth), lakh (100,000), lumpen (thug), optical (spectacles), prepone (bring forward), stepney (spare tyre) and would-be (fiancé or fiancée).

Indian expertise in writing computer software also means that Hinglish will spread via the internet, says Prof Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Wales.

Grammar, idiom and usage in Indian English
Grammar tweaks

Advertising Agencies, copywriters and journalists in India are injecting many Hindi and Urdu words in Indian English, which may not be understood in the Western countries.  Turn on any Indian television station these days and you're  likely to hear things like "Thanda mani Coke", "Hungry kya?" and "What your bahana is?" Or one of your friends might ask you to "pre-pone" your dinner plans or accuse you of "Eve-teasing."

Pepsi in India has given its global "Ask for more" campaign a local Hinglish flavor: "Yeh Dil Maange More"  (the heart wants more). Not to be outdone, Coke has its own Hinglish slogan: "Life ho to aisi" (Life should be like this).

"In Bombay, everybody knows the word 'tension,' " says Shaziya Khan, a young advertising whiz in Bombay. "My maid one day told me, 'Aajkul humko bahut tension hain.'"  (Translation: These days, I feel a lot of tension.) "She understands, and I understand. It really works."

Since the last few years Pakistan Television has adopted a policy of injecting English phrases and words Instead of Arabic and Persian words in scripts of anchor persons and 
plays and the manner in which the pronunciation is brutalized is really odious. In some talk shows a queer mixture of English and Urdu sounds so odious. 

For those aware of the grammar of Indian tongues like Bengali, Punjabi, Hindi and Tamil, the logic behind quirks of Indian English is quite transparent and readily explicable. However, observation by the perspicacious, in spite of ignorance of Indian languages, will reveal much that is characterisable in 'rules' and 'tendencies.' John Lawler 
of the University of Michigan observes the following anomalies in the grammar of Indian English:

The progressive tense in stative verbs: I am understanding it. She is knowing the answer. 

Variations in noun number and determiners: He performed many charities. She loves to pull your legs. 

Prepositions:
pay attention on, 
discuss about, 
convey him my greetings 

Tag questions: You're going, isn't it? He's here, no? 

Word order: Who you have come for? They're late always. 
My all friends are waiting. 

Yes and no agreeing to the form of a question, not just its content -- 
A: You didn't come on the bus? 
B: Yes, I didn't." 
Continued on next page
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Indian and Pakistan restaurants in Europe and North America
are injecting such words as masala, biryani, pulao, tikka in English