Indian English  

31 October, 2008

It was during the last week I got to know that there is no word such as “Prepone”.
The opposite of postpone is “Advance”.
I didn’t accept this fact initially, but then I googled and hit upon someone else’s blog where the person had explained about this. From there I browsed through a couple of links and landed upon this wiki page on “Indian English”.


Quite funny are the things that are mentioned. Lets have a look.
Grammar tweaks:
Anglicisation of Indian words especially in
Chennai by adding "ify" to a local Tamil word.
Eg: Did u oothify ink to your pen ?
I will pazhivaangify him
!
My god, I have used these words so often in school days . lol.

Tag questions: The use of "isn't it?" "no?" “na” “uh” as general
question tags,
You are going isn’t it ?
Hey coming no ?
Too cold na ?? - Use this and you will considered a person who knows good English :)
Ready uh?

People from South Indian state mainly Karnataka have the habbit of adding "U" to all english words when speaking Kannada.

Eg.LeftU for left , BusU for Bus.
I thought people from Andhra use it !!

Use of yaar, machaa, abey, arey in an English conversation between Indians.


Use of the plural ladies for a single lady or a woman of respect,
In Saroja movie, when Premji comes with the heroine , Shiva asks
“hey yaaruda intha ladies” :P
I thought it was for us to laugh, but now I got to know it is for respect :P


Use of "current went" and "current came" (also, "light went" and "light came") for "The power went out" and "The power came back"
“Current went” is more preferable and easy to use . isn’t it ? ahh.. Typical Indian I am.

Use of "y'all" for "you all" or "all of you", as used in
Southern American English, especially by Anglo-Indians.
I thought this was a style statement when you write mails J

Overuse of the words "Generally"/"Actually"/"Obviously"/"Basically" in the beginning of a sentence.
Actually what I am trying to tell you is that generally Indians use these words.
Basically it is not their problem. Obviously everyone knows that.

Use of the word "gift" as a verb : You are gifting me a new cell phone?
So how do I say when someone gifts me something ;-)


In South India, phrases such as "that and all", or "this and all" are used roughly to convey the meaning "all of that (stuff)" or "regarding that".
A: "Are they really going around?"
B: "That and all I don't know. I just got the news."


Use of "chumma chumma" (Tamil:it means simply) at the beginning of a sentence.
Chumma don’t give me a reason .

Unnecessary repetition of a word to stress on the general idea. Used mostly with words like Yes No Right Ok etc.,
She has attitude. Yes No. Right . OK. Fine . See you.

Casual references:
"Hill Station" means mountain resort.
"Hotel" means "restaurant
My goodness ! they are casual references ??!!

Some words I leant after coming to Bangalore:
Use of the word "chal" to mean the interjection "Ok",
Eg: "Chal, I gotta go now" at the end of a phone call
“Chalo .See you tomorrow. Bye”

Use of T-K in place of O.K. when answering a question
Eg: "Would you like to come to the movie?" – "T-K, I'll meet you there


Words unique to or originating in Indian English (in formal usage)
to prepone (to advance, literally the opposite of 'postpone') – And I came to the point now :)
mugging or mugging up (studying hard or memorising, - This is one good term I learnt in School though I never practised.
pass-out to graduate from college – I am a 2007 passout.
would-be (fiancé/fiancée)
co-brother indicates relationship between two men who married sisters.
'bla bla bla' to denote etc. or meaningless trivial conversation -

Colloquial and slang words used in Indian English
buck (
Rupee.) - I thought this was American :)
Fundashort for fundamental
fundu or fundoo - great. Someone who has good fundas is fundu.

enthu, a short form for 'enthusiasm' or 'enthusiastic'.
despo, a short form for 'desperate'.
senti, a short form for 'sentimental'.
"Deadly", "hi-fi", "sexy"
"Gone for a toss", to mean something got ruined.
freaking out - used (loosely) in place of "..having a good time

All these college slangs are unique Indian English.
So no harm in using them :)
TK . Chal. Meet you in next blog. Chumma don’t read and go off.
Leave comment ok .
Actually, I type adichified with great difficulty. :)



Design by Blogger Buster | Distributed by Blogging Tips