Mental Excursions

Yet another one more time When I published my post the week before last, I thought I had shared all the interesting English words which were invented in India and which I knew. Yet within a few hours, some more started to play in my mind, and I for one, could not resist sharing them with you, thus this part II.   Co-brother: It started when Mr. Rakesh Misra pointed out the invention of the word co-brother and I am thankful to him for this. Co-brother is what the relation between the husbands of two sisters ( Saandhu ) is called in our country. However, when it comes to parents in law ( samdhi ) addressing each other, Wiktionary says they can be ‘co-parents in law’. Mugging: Cambridge dictionary says ‘ mugging is an act of attacking someone and stealing their money’ , but do not be surprised to hear the word being used for rote learning in our country. We also say ‘mug it up for the exams’. I do not know if the etymology has the Hindi magga as the origin o...

Desi tadka to English     The British were in India for nearly 200 years. That is time enough to leave a mark, and a very dark one at that, on our manners and mannerisms, way of dressing, food and language etc. Only about 10% of Indians speak reasonable English. If, however, you listen carefully, almost everybody in our country speaks some words of English without realising it. With the help, a lot of it in fact, of prime English dictionaries I have tried to list out some words transliterated from regional languages, which are a part of our everyday language and do not seem out of place or incorrect but of course they are not correct.   https://youtu.be/nz60FAJXO_A God Promise: This applies to ‘mother promise’ too. Like me haven’t you too seen somebody pinch the skin on his/her throat and in all seriousness utter God promise or mother promise to swear on either, to stress that whatever he/she is saying is true . All my time searching the dictionaries ...

This is Indian English No, I am not talking of the words Indian languages have contributed to English or the ones accepted in the English dictionaries like guru, cot, juggernaut, chutney, pyjama . I am not talking of khichdi - using English words while speaking regional Indian languages. I am not talking of Indianising English words like narbhasana i.e. being nervous or roadulu (road in Telugu). I am not talking of Indian pronunciations iskool, sakul ( for school), sult, sirrt (both for shirt) not am I mentioning the mistakes in tense or grammar. I am not talking of English translation of words from our regional languages which we confidently pepper our English with, causing furrows on the foreheads of ‘native’ English speakers. I am not talking of spelling or grammatical errors, often causing much mirth to the reader.   I am talking of our creativity, the English words we have coined and which are assimilated in our English so well that we...