“ INDLISH”
“I speak twelve languages.
English is the bestest.”
- Stephen Bergman
When the tiny England itself is having varied dialects of English, it is no wonder we have plenty of them, and justifiably so. I didn’t study in English medium schools which were very few in those days (1940s), and meant for those in high socio-economic echelons. Hence, I speak and write in “Indlish” (‘Indian English’) with all the howlers. I think I vaguely knew the meaning of the words “phonetics” and “phonetic alphabet” only after graduation. We used to go to school only after reaching the age of five to learn a,b,c,d, … while my granddaughter, Versha, was going for ‘phonetic training’ when she was in the first standard itself. When I feign forgetfulness, she used to jocularly say: “Thaathaa, you have ‘selective amnesia’ because of the greying of your little grey matter,” while she was in fourth standard ! That is the ‘double generation gap’. I can never pronounce words like “zoo”, “poor”, “guava”, “chutzpah” and “suite” correctly. Why should we pronounce “suite” as “sweet”, “poor” as “por” and “Zoo” as “szoo” ? Crazy language ! When I saw for the first time a sign board “RETIRING ROOMS” in a railway station, I thought that those rooms were for retired persons ! And when I saw the board “REST ROOMS” in an airport, I thought that they were meant for the passengers who want to take rest / sleep for a while ! I didn’t know that ‘a good few’ means ‘a fairly large number’ and that ‘have a few’ means ‘drink enough alcohol to be slightly drunk.’
The cartoon is only to kindle humour, not to point the bone at teachers. Thanks to the unknown (to me) cartoonist.
MODERN ENGLISH ‘AVATARS’
I take comfort in the thought that my pedestrian “ Indlish” is better than the "SMS English" and that I do not desecrate the language as much as the celebrities do on the Twitter! Mrs. Lakshmi coined the word “sms-lish”and laments that she cannot decipher all the“sms-lish” of her son ! An ignoramus like me cannot understand when someone like Avinash writes ‘osum’ for ‘awesome’, and ‘Hey dude wassup? Nm ya...itz borin’ for ‘Hello! What is up? Nothing much. Yes, it is boring’ !
While waiting to catch a flight, I happened to see a book with the title "INDLISH" in a bookstore at Coimbatore airport. This book is a funny and quirky one too which is highly readable (http://www.indlish.net/). Until I read this book, I didn't know that a person like Jyoti Sanyal, the author of the book, researched so much on "Indian English,"and that our English is so bad, though not at all not understandable. My 'scribblings' on this blog must be well comprehensible, notwithstanding my iffy grammar.
Brain has a tremendous capacity to understand even when presented with wrong spellings, grammatical mistakes, inappropriate sentence formations, etc. Read the following and wonder at the capacity of your brain to overlook mistakes:
“English, with all its nuances in pronunciation, silent letters, homonyms and intricacies in meaning, is a beautiful language. I believe it is a terrible crime to disfigure and ruin such a language -- a crime
for which no jury hands out a punishment. Yet, it is a crime,” wrote Akhila Pingali in a very humorous, yet analytical article (The Hindu, Feb. 26, 2012 - http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/are-we-making-mincemeat-of-english/article2932764.ece). I agree with you Akhila, we are making mincemeat of English. All the same, one must admit that the ‘sms-lish’, ‘twitterlish’ and ‘textspeak’ have been saving enormous quantities of time and money in the present fast world where time is money. “After all, the purpose of a language is to communicate lucidly, what if we use ‘CUlatr’, ‘gr8’,‘datsy’, etc.?,” argue the users.
ENGLISH VINGLISH
“ENGLISH – VINGLISH” is the title of a recently (2012) released Indian comedy-drama film which went global and won numerous awards. The film revolves around a housewife, who enrols in an ‘English-speaking course’ to stop her husband and daughter mocking at her bad communication in English language. She stuns everybody with her speech in English at a ceremony after the completion of the course. The ‘heroine/student’ (role played by the popular actress Sridevi who returned to films, through this movie, after a 15-year hiatus) in the film asks the English teacher: “Why should we not use ‘the’ as in “ I am from the India” while “ I am from the USA” is correct ?” The question remains unanswered in the movie.
Even scholars may find it difficult to explain why the 'the'in the BBC headline: "Ed Miliband is elected leader of the Labour Party" (Headline at bbc.co.uk) was used; and why the 'the' in "the Punjab" ( Is it because Punjab means five rivers which is plural ?) is correct; and why the 'good name' (originating from 'shubh naam' in Hindi) in "What is your good name ?" is acceptable ! Generally, when the meanings of the words are plural ‘the’ is prefixed. In certain parts of India the word ‘headweight’ is used to describe someone who is proud, conceited and arrogant. Native people do not use this word for such a description. A student wondered how a murderer gets life instead of losing it for murdering, on reading the following headline of a news report in The New Indian Express (TNIE of Jan.19, 2013: “Differently abled Man Gets life for Murder”. English is a funny language !
NO RIGID RULES
Two lady professors of English language entered into semantic arguments while on the dais at an English language seminar.
During the lunch break, they happened to be seated side by side. To start a conversation one of them asked the other: “ Professor, after the seminar, where are you going to ?” The other one replied: “I don’t answer anyone who ends sentences with prepositions.” The opener of the conversation looked at the snobbish professor for a while and said: “ After the seminar, where are you going to, bitch ?”
Though some believe it to the contrary, there is no hard and fast rule that sentences should not end with prepositions like - to, on, after, for, etc. It is fine, as long as the sentence sounds natural.
What are you good at ?
What are you interested in ?
What are you up to?
What are you interested in ?
What are you up to?
These questions which end with prepositions are very acceptable.
English is an interesting and flexible language. But we have carried the flexibility to confusing levels through our “SMSlish” and “Twitterlish”.
AMUSING EXPRESSIONS
An example of the most incongruous bureaucratic expression is pointed out by Dr. K.Janakiraman. He quoted from the press an official statement regarding the clemency petition of the culprits connected with the assassination of the former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi which reads: “The President of India is pleased to reject the petitions and they might be hanged.” He wondered as to why they do not use common sense to write “regrets” instead of “is pleased” in the above statement. Archaic bureaucracy ! This may be that called ‘colonial hangover’. Perhaps, the ‘colonial relics’ have a symbolic value in the bureaucratic jurisdiction !
“KEEP NEAT OOTY”
And we have so many funny roadside display boards put up by public bodies/government, with jumbled or meaningless or badly misspelt English words. One example is a board displayed inside a bus shelter at Charing Cross in Ooty (Udhagamandalam – the changed official name which didn’t catch up despite the long official usage. What a confusion to the tourists and what a waste of ink and paper in writing 14 letters instead of the famous and catchy 4 letters ! We want to kick out ‘foreign’ names, but shamelessly adopt with a slavish and warped mindset names like Bollywood, Kollywood, Mollywood, Tollywood, Foddergate, IPLgate, Coalgate, etc.) The board reads “KEEP NEAT OOTY.” This is an insult to the reputed ‘Queen of Hill Stations’, Ooty, which is still referred to by many as mini England having internationally renowned public and ‘English oriented’ schools. The fragrance of withering standards has become all-pervasive.
Often, we think in our mother tongue and ‘transwrite’ in English. Many of us do not pronounce ‘suite’ as ‘sweet’ and do not know how to pronounce ‘pronounce’, ‘guava’ and ‘chutzpah’ correctly – of course, I am certainly one among them. According to a survey (2012) by ‘Aspiring Minds’, an employability measuring company, only 57 per cent of the engineers can write grammatically correct sentences in English and that around 50 per cent of the engineers possess grammar skills that are not better than those expected of a Class VII student ! This is what the survey says, but credit should be given that many Indians speak and write better English than many of the natives of the English-speaking countries.
FLEXIBLE LANGUAGE
It is a wonder that the native language of a tiny island named England has become the mostly used tool of communication all over the world. Even in that tiny country, the ‘Queen’s English’ is not followed by many and the spoken English varies from region to region which is a far cry from the impeccable English of the British monarch. The Scots, the Irish and the Welsh have their own accent. While a language out of 6,000 languages the world over, is dying every now and then, English, an accommodative language which was itself built from confluences of different world-stocks like Latin, French, German and Anglo-Saxon, has been enriching itself by imbibing from many other languages, even by regularising and absorbing incorrect usages in non-English countries ( http://m.indiatimes.com/culture/who-we-are/english-phrases-used-only-by-indians-which-the-world-knows-nothing-about-229329.html. ) ( M.INDIATIMES.COM ).
Indian words, such as ‘maharaja’, ‘biriyani’ and ‘bandh’ are now absorbed into English dictionaries. Some more Indian words, such as ‘kitty party’, ‘mixie’ and ‘jugaad’ are on the list to find a place in the Oxford dictionary (2014). We have a lot of common sense -- opposite of ‘postpone’ must be ‘prepone’. So we started using it instead of ‘advance’. And now ‘prepone’ is in the Oxford Dictionary of English as of Indian origin, in addition to the standard word ‘advance’.
And the unconventional expression “I am thinking it is going to rain” is being used instead of the correct usage, “I think it’s going to rain” --- this will one day be accepted as Standard English, according to David Crystal, a world authority on this subject. And what about “mother-in-laws” which sounds more meaningful than “mothers-in-law” ? And why “thieves” when we have “chiefs” ?
" ... From endearing words like ‘Abba’ and ’Anna’ to Indian delicacies like ‘gulab jamun’ and ‘vada’ can now be found in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
As per the latest list of inclusions, 70 new Indian words from Telugu, Urdu, Tamil, Hindi and Gujarati languages have been added to the dictionary.
Several most-commonly used words in India like ‘jugaad’, ’dadagiri’, ‘achcha’, ‘bapu’ and ‘surya namaskar’ are now part of the Oxford dictionary, the OED said in a statement.
Many of the words describe food and relationships, such as ‘anna’ (elder brother), ‘abba’ (father), ‘gulab jamun’, ’mirch masala’, ‘keema’, ‘funda’ and ‘chamcha’
Oftenly used terms like ‘timepass’, ‘natak’ and ‘chup’ also have their meanings in the dictionary now.
The September 2017 update adds to the 900 items already covered by the dictionary and “identified as distinctive to Indian English“.
“Indian speech etiquette features a complex system of kinship terms and terms of address, in which age, gender, status, and family relationships are marked by a highly specific vocabulary with no direct equivalents in English,” said Danica Salazar, OED World English Editor.
The words were added to the dictionary as Indians have “a highly specific vocabulary with no direct equivalents in English,” the OED said.
The four centuries that the English were present in India have left an indelible mark on the language, Salazar said.
It is clear that the shared history between Britain and India has left behind a legacy of loanwords and other lexical innovations that have greatly enriched the English word stock, she said.
The seventy words newly added to the OED reflect not only the history of the country, but also the many and diverse cultural and linguistic influences which have shaped and changed the English language in India, she said.
The OED publishes four updates a year in March, June, September and December respectively...."
More than 60 countries use English as their official language. Some different versions of English are in vogue in some countries. British usage of “mobile phone, petrol and colour” corresponds to “cell phone, gas and color” of American usage, respectively, for example. To see a list of some of the different versions of the words and spellings of the two major countries go to http://www.funzug.com/index.php/informative-zone/british-english-vs-american-english.html.
Even the ‘Quotable Quotes’ are ‘flexible’. Many popular quotations are misquotations, misattributions and edited versions of sayings. Read “The Quote verifier: Who Said What, Where and When” by Ralph Keyes who is an intrepid quote-detective and who separated the wheat of authentic quotes from the chaff of spurious and misattributed aphorisms. The quote “Be the change you wish to see in the world” which is attributed to Mahatma Gandhi is not found in the published works of Gandhiji. Recently (February 2016), in connection with the US elections, Republican Presidential front runner Donald Trump posted on Instagram the following quote: “First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win -- Mahatma Gandhi.” Obviously he is drawing a parallel to his own plight. Fighting is going on now. We have to wait and see as to whether winning also would happen. American media said there is no evidence that Mahatma Gandhi had ever used these words. But they are present among the quotes on the Net. Another shocker. It is said that Sherlock Holmes never uttered as such the famous words “Elementary, my dear Watson.”
LIST OF ENGLISH WORDS FROM SANSKRIT
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Sanskrit_origin
LIST OF ENGLISH WORDS FROM SANSKRIT
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Sanskrit_origin
IS GRAMMAR EVERYTHING ?
Is grammar everything ? It is said that grammar rules are dry bones of a language and that it is not the be-all and end-all, and that it provides only a platform to build the edifice of a language on. Even Shakespeare and Alfred Tennyson, deliberately, didn’t stick strictly to grammar rules. The point is that communication should be for the pleasure of hearing and reading rather than absolute grammatical correctness, just as an absolutely infallible formal behaviour of a person may not be appealing and pleasing to a social contact. So, let us be practical and shed excessive formality, and let us not be unduly pedantic and pedagogic about grammar (http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/is-grammar-everything/article5104719.ece ). But don’t go to the extreme of saying “I are fine” when faced with the question “How are you ?”
PRONOUNCIATION
The same is the case with pronunciation also. It varies fom country to country and dictionary to dictionary. Even the word “pronounce” is pronounced differently. Why "pronounce" is pronounced as "pronunce / pru'nawn(t)s / pre'nauns ?" Crazy language ! Even a simple ‘straightforward’ word like ‘zoo’ has an unnecessarily complicated phonetic rule -- ‘zu’ (British) and ‘tshzu’ (American). So also, the simple ‘poor’ is to be pronounced as ‘pour’. Guava is to be pronounced as ‘gwaa-vu’ or ‘gwa:.ve’. Suite as ‘sweet’ or ‘swi:t’. It is a fashion to eat ‘pizza’. But how many pronounce it as ‘peet-sah’ / ‘peet-su’ / ‘pi:t.se’ ? It is an Italian pie, and in Italian and German, the ‘z’ is pronounced as ‘tz’. And they say that we have to say ‘di’zurt’ for dessert. And, ‘xhuts-pu / huts-pu /huts-paa / chutzpah for ‘chutzpa’ ! And, ‘dengue fever’ as ‘deng-gee’ / ‘deng,gey’ / ‘dengi’. Many, including doctors, pronounce it as ‘dengu’. Oh, what a confusion and embarrassment caused when we speak hard-to-pronounce words ? Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ? What is the rationale behind all this ? Why turn declamatory when one is not in consonance with phonetic appropriateness ? Why not we pronounce words just as they are written, as far as possible ? Why not simply say ‘zoo’, ‘poor’ and ‘pizza’ instead of twisting and rolling the tongue and lips awkwardly to deliver complex sounds ? Just as we call a spade a spade.
UNDERSTANDABLE ENGLISH
UNDERSTANDABLE ENGLISH
Some Indians who know the ‘correct’ pronunciation may prefer to use the local variants so that they may be intelligible to the common man here. If they order for ‘peet-sah’ / ‘peet-su’ / ‘pi:t.se’ with Italian accent, the pizza restaurant man here may say he doesn’t have that stuff. If poor is pronounced as ‘pour’ with American accent, our ‘poooor’ man (poor in English) may not understand. When Americans have their own variant called “American English”, why not we have, um, our own ‘Indlish’, um, ‘Kerlish’, ‘Kashmirlish’, ‘Tamilish’, ‘Biharlish’ and so on ! ‘Kofi’ (coffee) to ‘Kheshree’ (Kesari – Safron) ! Anyway, while linguistic fanatics have balkanised the country, the common thread of ‘Indlish’ runs through all the fragments.
Most of us, including English-speaking natives of foreign countries, do not speak and write “correct” English according to dictionaries and textbooks on English language and phonetics. What I write here and what I speak everyday may be full of errors. But you can understand. The purpose of language is communication. We need not dissect semantics and etymology and enter into polemics. It doesn’t mean that the answer “I are fine” to the question “How are you?” is permissible !
All the same, we should respect the fundamentals of grammar and speak a reasonably acceptable standard of language. While we need not go back to the days of meandering grace of Victorian and pre-Victorian prose, we should not short circuit grammar too much as is in vogue in the present day SMS and tweet. And, don’t say “I are fine” when enquired about your wellness ! Lynne Truss, in her bestseller Eats, Shoots and Leaves, bemoans the state of punctuation in the English of the US and UK. See how just a comma makes such a difference -- “If a panda eats shoots and leaves it is considered perfectly normal but if it eats, shoots and leaves, certainly not.” And all because of the comma !” (http://www.newindianexpress.com/opinion/Tweet-Text-Press-Enter-Exit-Comma/2014/03/19/article2116824.ece#.UyyRVvmSxxM ) . A hyphen in 'Test-tube baby' is correct, though many write it as 'Test tube baby'. This may not make much difference, while the 'comma' above 'shoots' !
Despite the difference the grammar of many Indians is better than many living in English-speaking countries. And one thing. Our ‘English-poor’ Indians think that what the West says is the best. The gospel truth. Moulded by colonial imperialism ! Britishers pumped in their whims and fancies, and Americans splashed their own ‘color’. And we bow to their ‘wisdom’ of making things complex. I am reminded of the following quote:
Despite the difference the grammar of many Indians is better than many living in English-speaking countries. And one thing. Our ‘English-poor’ Indians think that what the West says is the best. The gospel truth. Moulded by colonial imperialism ! Britishers pumped in their whims and fancies, and Americans splashed their own ‘color’. And we bow to their ‘wisdom’ of making things complex. I am reminded of the following quote:
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex,
and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of
courage to move in the opposite direction."
-- E. F. SCHUMACHER
The cartoon is only to kindle humour, not to point the bone at teachers.
PLAIN and SIMPLE ENGLISH
Short sentences using simple and common words make more sense for routine communication – written or spoken. It improves understanding. And mistakes would be much less. Plain English emphasizes clarity, brevity and avoidance of technical and bombastic expressions. Plain speaking or writing is devoid of ambiguity and leaves no room for misinterpretation or miscommunication. Comprehension would be much better. For understanding, only a few thousand words are required while there are more than a million words in the English language. Of course, mastery over the English language and proficiency in expression are to be appreciated. Flowery language and figurative usage may be reserved for special effects, writing pleasure and reading pleasure. It may be said plainly that “The sun is rising in the east.” In flowery language the same meaning may be conveyed by “The golden disc of the sun cut off by the eastern mountains seemed to be emerging from behind the mountains like a fiery ball shot from nowhere.” Appropriateness of the usage depends on the context and purpose. But people, these days, don’t seem to have an attention span of more than 160 characters ! During the recent (Dec 2015) interaction between the Google CEO Sundar Pichai and the students of the SRCC College in Delhi University the legendary Chief used simple language and short answers to the questions though he could have spouted long declamatory platitudes and rhetoric with bombastic expressions. For more on this topic go to http://www.newindianexpress.com/education/edex/Keeping-it-Plain-and-Simple/2015/10/19/article3082702.ece .
GOINGAAA ? COMINGAAA ?
Will our usages like “You are goingaaa ? ... Tomorrow comingaaa ? ... Ram, you saw the car keyaaa ? ...” be also taken into the fold of Standard English !! While a lot is being discussed about phonics and phonetics, we find a veritable variety of ‘spoken English’ across India such as ‘Bomblish’ (Bombay English),‘Kerlish’, Andhrlish’, ‘Tamilish’... and so on with regional dialect, intonation and stylistics having a sway over English !
WHY THIS ‘KOLAVERI’ OVER ENGLISH ?
The funny ‘broken English’ and ‘Tanglish’ (Tamilian English) of a quirky rendering made the Tamil song “Why This Kolaveri Di ?” in a Tamil psychological thriller film (“Film 1”) hit headlines in the press (November 2011) and went viral on web, with 1.5 million hits on the official page and countless on social networks, indicating the sheer enormity and the ubiquitous omnipresence, making people laugh letting their hair down. Actor Dhanush, the creator of this national sensation, confessed that it is a silly, small song which made a big hit because everything had fallen in place. Though the Tamil word ‘kolaveri’ means ‘urge to kill’, it has come to be used as a fun tease word. ‘Why this kolaver di’ means ‘why frenzy for killing / why doing such a bad thing’. ‘Why kolaveri over English’ means ‘why killing English language’. I heard one graduate with the qualification ‘B.A. (English)’ saying: “Dhanush has become very notorious by virtue of ‘Why this kolaveri di’.” Perhaps, he thinks that notorious and popular are synonyms !
The YIVO Institute of Jewish Research made a ‘kolaveri’ over the spelling of the word “knaidel” which was spelled correctly according to the Webster’s Third New International Dictionary by the 13-year old ‘Indo-American’ school boy, Arvind Mahankali in US who won the America’s Scripps National Spelling Bee prize ($ 30,000) recently (May 2013). According to YIVO, the correct spelling is “kneydl”. If nothing else, this war on words should be considered as a window into the cultural stews that languages evolve as people migrate, modify and mimic. Why this ‘kolaveri’ to butcher a language ?
STRINE
My granddaughter, Sanju, aged a little over 4 years, born and being brought up in Singapore, speaks “Singlish”(Singapore English) very fluently! Often, we find it difficult to follow the accent of English spoken by natives in various countries. Even the President of US, Obama, admitted, during a visit to Australia, that he was struggling to master “strine” – a colloquial term for Australia’s broad accent (TNIE, Nov.17, 2011).
The adage “every cloud has a silver lining” seems to be true ! Despite the faulty usage by the general public in India, the Australian Editor-in Chief of the famous Wikileaks,Mr. Julian Assange mentioned as a closing remark at an interview with the Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, Mr. N. Ram: “There is one thing I would like to say to The Hindu and to Indian people in general. Which is, as an Australian, thank you for speaking English better than the English” (L.K. Advani’s Blog Posts – 17 Apr. 2011). We may take heart from this. Lest Indians feel complacent, the standard of many of our own graduates in English subject may not be praiseworthy.
English is One Strange Language...
English is the easiest language to learn, mostly because it doesn't make use of male/female for everything, like other languages do. But even as an 'easy language', it doesn't mean it's easy to master, or that it doesn't have some pretty weird features that have made their way into the language with time. Enjoy these 3 examples of why English is a crazy language! Things that make no sense! Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England nor French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads (which aren't sweet) are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither a Guinea nor is it a pig... And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why don't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ? Words with double meanings: 1) The bandage was wound around the wound. 2) The farm was used to produce produce. 3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. 4) We must polish the Polish furniture. 5) He could lead if he would get the lead out. 6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert. 7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present. 8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. 9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. 10) I did not object to the object. 11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid. 12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row. 13) They were too close to the door to close it. 14) The buck does funny things when the does are present. 15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. 16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow. 17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail. 18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.. 19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. 20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend? The following also may be interesting to you: UP is a very strange word! There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.' It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special. A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for a while, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP! And now it's UP to you what to do with this knowledge! |
SMALL SMALL THINGS
We are accustomed to use ‘reduplication’ wrongly in our English such as ‘I bought small small things’, ‘give them one one piece of cake’, etc. This is because we use in Indian languages ‘reduplication’ such as ‘odi odi va’ (Tamil), ‘pitchi pitchiga maatlaadaku’ (Telugu), ‘chhoti chhoti baaten’ (Hindi). ‘Replication’ (not ‘reduplication’) is permitted in English such as ‘hickory dickory dock’, ‘a piggy wiggy stood’, etc. Then is it right to say ‘twinkle twinkle little star’, ‘baa baa black sheep’, etc. ? Let me stop, somebody is saying “Why this kolaveri?” !!
( “Brilliantly humorous, you have a unique way of expressing facts in a jovial way! You are really a versatile writer! Very interesting ! We enjoyed reading your article.” --- This is the comment made by Prof. G. Krishnaveni, Bangalore on one of my articles titled “Kolaveri over English.” -- T. Rama Prasad )
POLYGLOT NATION
The root cause for our “Indlish” lies in the fact that we are a polyglot nation having one of the plethora of Indian languages as the mother tongue, varying from region to region, and English as the common language for higher learning. The problems in expression naturally arise because different languages have different sensibilities, idioms, intonation, cadence, pitch, silences, nuances, value systems, registers, semantic signals, rhythms, pauses, and what not. Such differences develop in us dual personalities of expression with different sensibilities.
NEOLOGISMS
Neologisms are newly coined words coming into common use like ‘textspeak’, ‘retweet’, ‘woot’, ‘jeggings’, ‘mankini’, ‘cyberbullying’, ‘denialistic’, ‘Gen Y’ and abbreviations like ‘OMG’(Oh My God), ‘LOL’(Laugh Out Loud), ‘FYI’(For Your Information), etc. are in use. Some of them gained entry into official lexicon. The ‘American English’ has made its own contribution to the world’s lexicon: software, Rock ‘n’roll, spoony, blatherskite, callithump, jag, piker, borax, etc. – some found in dictionaries and some not -- some with a meaning not well understood outside USA – “What a borax of a table!” referring to a cheap rickety table for sale. We may now say “I e-metmany on this subject” – meaning that I had initial electronic correspondence with many on this subject. This word “e-meet” may be found in the online Urban Dictionary (www.urbandictionary.com). More words would enter with more extensive use of mobiles, tweeting, blogs, chat-rooms, Internet, etc. Purists of the English language may view this change as a disastrously deteriorating trend.
Nevertheless, getting into vogue a thousand new awkward words or abbreviations is not going to make much change to a language with over a million words. In a way, this is not an entirely new phenomenon. Even in the18th century, particularly in the Victorian era,expressions like ‘Swalk’ (Sealed with a loving kiss), RLF (Real Life Friend), Rolf (Rolling on the floor laughing), etc. were used when ‘mobiles’ were not even in dreams. “It is a myth. ‘Txt mssgng’ does not foretell the demise of English language,” said David Crystal, Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales.
He developed a range of linguistic profiling techniques for diagnosis and treatment. It may be interesting to know that the word ‘neologism’ is used in psychiatry to describe a thought disorder where the patient uses words which have a meaning only to the patient, independent of their common meaning.
The following is a reprint from my 'Timeline' of the Facebook:
The following is a reprint from my 'Timeline' of the Facebook:
PALINDROMES -- school loops
" The date of it read the same forwards and backwards – February 22, 2022, or 22-02-2022 – a boomerang number that loops right back where it begins. Such numbers are very rare, coming as they do every once in a long while. The next such number is going to be February 03, 2030.
Such numbers are palindromes, a word derived from the Greek ‘to run back’. Bunny doesn’t believe in numerology, or lucky numbers, but she was still pleased as punch at receiving a palindrome as a surprise birthday present, a reminder that time is a two-way street of before and after, with memory being the flyover connecting the two.
Palindromes are fun, whether they’re numeric or verbal. The most common palindrome in India is perhaps Malayalam.
Eve's Weekly had a male-authored column called ‘Madam, I’m Adam’. Read the heading from left to right, I read it from right to left, and it remained the same, a perfect mirror image of itself. Wow.
One of the best-known palindromes is associated with Napoleon: ‘Able was I ere I saw Elba’, which was coined in 1848 by an anonymous wordsmith, as was ‘A man, a plan, a canal – Panama’, coined a century later.
The popularity of palindromes has stood the test of time. Those who devise include litterateurs – like James Joyce who in his novel, Ulysses, coined the ‘tattarrattat’ which means a knock on the door and imitates the sound of doing this – and computer scientists like Peter Norvig, who is credited with having compiled the world’s longest palindromic sentence, comprising 17,826 words.
You don’t have to be a celebrated author or a computer whizz to create your own palindromes to share with friends, and invite them to share theirs with you, in an exchange which might be called ‘Pals lap’, which is a palindrome. As is the heading of this column."
'COVFEFE'
Wondering what this word means ? Never heard ? I too didn't, until the US president Donald Trump invented it just after the midnight of May 30, 2017. He tweeted an incomplete sentence: "Despite the constant negative press covfefe". Until the next morning, the whole literary and media world didn't sleep while Trump was blissfully sleeping ! They all were searching for the meaning of the word and posting a flood of humour and ridicule on the president's faux pas or the slightly Dadaist humour (he deleted the tweet next morning and added another tweet: "Who can figure out the true meaning of 'covfefe' ??? Enjoy !"
Perhaps, in a sleepy mood Trump typed 'covfefe' instead of 'coverage', and by mistake clicked on 'Send' before completing the sentence and went to sleep, keeping the internet sleepless until his tweet next morning !
'Covfefe' has thus become the newest and most used neologism (new word) in the world overnight. It is the most tweeted cryptic word of the day on social media, and was immediately sought for registration as a 'trademark' by a Swedish entrepreneur for 3,600 Swedish kronor ! In the US, some claimed the funny 'covfefe' coined by the funny president for 'personalised license plates' for their cars !
Wonder word, dear readers ! You may think of including it in your passwords. If you are a doctor think of "COVFEFE CLINIC' !!!
If you want to know more about neologisms (new words) and the like, look into my blog -- click on the heading "INDLISH" --
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX
In this context, it may also be of interest to read my letter which was mailed to the editor of The Hindu (Aug.10, 2011). A copy of the letter is attached below:
“The Hinduis taken for granted for its superiority for the standard of English, over other English language newspapers, since1878. “Think out of the box to save forests resources” is the headline of a news report in today's Hindu (Aug. 9, 2011) - Region, Coimbatore). According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, “Thinking outside the box” is sometimes erroneously used as “thinking out of the box” or “thinking outside the square.” The expression is related to the “Nine dots square puzzle.” But, according to the Free Dictionary by Farlex, “Thinking out of the box” usage is also correct to convey the same meaning. I don’t know what David Crystal said about this. Which is accepted as a standard usage ?”
PRECOCIOUS TALENT
In our days , teaching methods were primitive and exposure to information was little. It was quite natural that no bourgeois afflictions like learning tools, libraries and literature would have a place in our homes. We didn’t have electronic equipments – not even TV. We didn’t have pre-KG, LKG and UKG. Only when we were five years old, we were sent to a school – any nearby school, no struggle for admission, no exorbitant fees, no ‘indirect’ capitation fees and no serious thought about education. “ Five years! Colossal waste of time!,” researchers at the University of Liverpool would be wondering now (2011). Their recent studies done at the University’s Child Language Study Centre have shown that children, aged two, have an understanding of complex grammar even before they learned to speak in full sentences. They could match picture images with spoken sentences containing made-up verbs, such as ‘the rabbit is glorping the duck’.
My granddaughter, Versha (1st Standard) corrects me when I say ‘paliandrome’. She says: “It is ‘palindrome’ thaathaa, not ‘paliandrome’! You ask her, she blurts out two examples of palindrome – ‘tot’ and ‘madam’ without any sign of showing off. Now and then I tell her: “Let’s learn a new word today” and then make her learn a new word. Once, I asked her: “What is the meaning of ‘neologism’?” “New word ?,” she asked. People around thought that she said “New word” as the correct answer, and she was admired for her knowledge ! As luck would have it, it ended well for her. She was passed off as a humble perspicacious child prodigy though I branded her as an impudent upstart in the making.
ENGLISH or MOTHER TONGUE
MY LIMERICK
I didn’t read many books -- general or medical. I am not very knowledgeable. I am not good at English (much worse at mother tongue), but I appreciate to some extent the delectable nuances of the language. Here’s my poetic musing, a limerick-like poem for the not-so-literate reader:
Given the lead by the news reporter
I trod the path of a letter writer
Squirting a little ink at the most
Like a dog at every lamp post
And earned the status of a scribbler !
-- T. Rama Prasad
I trod the path of a letter writer
Squirting a little ink at the most
Like a dog at every lamp post
And earned the status of a scribbler !
-- T. Rama Prasad
THIS IS AN ABRIDGED TEXT OF MY ARTICLE. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL ARTICLE. -- T. Rama Prasad |
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