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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.

Saturday 18 June 2011

C is for Confiscate

Although 'Confiscate' is an English word, some statistics may reveal that 87% of its usage (in all forms) is on Indian soil. This may be because more things are confiscated in India than in any other country in the world. Or it just may be that the word has found a permanent place in the Hinglish language.

The other 13% includes NRIs (12%), and British men and women born before 1921 (1%). Nobody else ever seems to have anything confiscated.

Now to find a truly Hinglish word, I give to you 'Confesticate' - used interchangeably with 'Confiscate', but not found in any non-Hinglish dictionary. It really is amazing how some words can be picked-up by thousands of people in a country, and used so frequently. Everyone is certain that spell-check must be wrong to suggest 'Domesticate' as an alternative word.


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