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Hinglish (n): A combination of Hindi (and other Indian languages) and English generally spoken by people who live in urban India. Interestingly, although there are very few self-proclaimed Hinglish speakers, it is a language that is evolving faster than more widely recognized dialects. Observers of this evolution are frequently amused, irritated or upset by the resultant expressions. We, part of a fast-dwindling minority of Indian, first-language English speakers, share our reflections here.

Friday, 18 February 2011

L is also for Life

...in its various stages.

In Hinglish, Life does not just start at birth and end at death. A pregnant mother 'is expecting'. Expecting what? ...a boy? ...a girl? ...a child? ...Led Zeppelin to reunite? None of these. She is just expecting. This is not a shortened form of the fact that the mother (and not both parents) 'is expecting a child' (as it is supposed to mean when used in English). It is an expression to indicate 'the state of being pregnant'. This paints a picture of a woman just sitting around, waiting.

When she has finished waiting, she 'delivers.' Again, this is more like delivering someone from evil than actually giving birth to a child - at least in spoken Hinglish. What really happens, is that she has 'an issue' (pronounced e-shoe... more like a sneeze than computer footwear). This is a term that is derived from 13th century English, and died with 13th century English, but lives in modern Hinglish. This gets confusing when you meet someone for the first time, and one of their first questions they ask you is, "Do you have any issues?", or, "How many issues do you have?"

Hinglish stays with a person till after he dies. He may 'expire' (like a box of bad prunes), or he may 'pass' - not 'pass-on' or 'pass-away.'

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