Muhammad
Muhsin Ibrahim
This article first appeared on Prof. Farooq Kperogi's column (his famous blog and the Daily Trust newspaper on Saturday) on 31st May, 2015. You may want to see it there: Guest column: Incredible Indian English
In both India and Nigeria , English is used as a
second language. I couldn’t however resist being driven to write on Indian
English— called Indianism or, more informally, “Hinglish”, which is a blend of
Hindi and English—since my early days in the country some two years ago. Like
in other nations where English is spoken as a non-native language, English
usage in both India and Nigeria differ
from British or American varieties in terms of phonetics, phonology, lexis,
structure, etc. The distinctiveness of Indian English, though, is as incredible
as the country itself.
I am not here to
disparage theirs and extol ours. I don’t subscribe to linguistic
imperialism. But polishing our English to the level of intelligibility among
other speakers is pertinent, if not obligatory. I will highlight that
uniqueness of, and differences in, Indian English with a few examples of some
words and expressions that I have personally observed.
Faculty and Professor
By way of
introduction, I am a faculty in Bayero
University , Kano , Nigeria .
Oh, wait. What are you? Faculty, you read me right. The word “faculty” is
barely used in Nigerian institutions to refer to a, or an entire, teaching
staff. It’s mostly used only for a division (comprising several departments
dealing with a particular subject and headed by a senior academic called Dean).
This is not the case in India .
It’s used both ways. You are a faculty working in the faculty of, say, Arts,
Medicine or Engineering.
The title of
professor is used for every university teacher. I was first dazed when a very
young-looking lecturer introduced himself to us as Professor Singh (not a real
name). When my classmates found out that I also teach in a university, they
began to call me professor. It took me minutes to explain to them (and to
others) that I am just a graduate assistant, and have a very long way to go to
attain professorship.
Ragging
I will report you
for ragging (i.e. bullying, hazing) the way we speak English, Muhsin, my Indian
friend could possibly say. “Ragging” is uniquely used in Indian educational
institutions. It’s said to also be in use in other countries in the Indian
subcontinent, though. There’s even an anti-ragging law in Indian schools’ rules
and regulations. In Nigeria ,
however, we use “bullying”, or more colloquially, “seniority” to mean the act
of intimidating and forcing the junior students to do something for the senior
ones.
Cousin Brother/Sister
Culture and
tradition often shape the way we use language, especially a foreign one. So, in
India ,
the neuter word cousin is mostly followed by a redundant description of sister
or brother. Cousins are largely considered biological brothers or sisters as
there is no marriage among them. People therefore often feel compelled to
differentiate between the real brothers or sisters and the cousins.
What’s your good name?
Indians would
hardly simply ask your name without adding “good” in the question: what’s your
good name? This apparently sounds clumsy to many non-Indians. But you will get
used to it if you stay in India
for more than a week. I have made several efforts to unearth the real reason
behind this often-asked question, but I have yet no get a definite explanation.
I used to be
bewildered by the question; who told you I got a good and a bad name, I would
ask sometimes obliquely and at other times pointedly. I later realized that
monikers are ubiquitously used among Indians, and maybe that made the question
relevant. For instance, the name Vicky is very, very popular in Punjab , the state where I live. For the two years I have
been here, I have not seen a single person whose real name is Vicky.
Another
observation is how my Indian friends (who are many) use various handles on Facebook,
Twitter, etc totally different from their real names.
I am “having” money
The auxiliary
verb “have” is categorized as a state/stative type of verb that indicates
state. Examples: “I have a car”, “I have the book”, etc. signify possession.
For this reason, it’s mostly used without the suffix “-ing” except in a few
instance like: “I am having headache” where it indicates temporality as
headache usually is. But in India ,
coming across a sentence like the above is very common. In fact, only fluent
English speakers (who are many, especially in the metros) would escape that
misuse.
Don’t take tension
Yes, “don’t take
tension” (i.e. don’t worry or get tense) if you think you cannot understand
them. You can. There is intelligibility between our English and theirs in most
instances. Indians tell you don’t take tension whenever you seem worried or
tensed. This is also a direct translation of Hindi, ‘tension muth le’. But
tension is not an object to be taken or dropped.
You can collect it now “only”
You might have
enjoyed reading this article only. Yes, only if you have read the above, else
you might not have, or you will have difficulty to. The word “only” occupies an
elevated position in Indian English. Every so often, it is used in many places
in phrases and sentences, a lot unnecessarily as exemplified above.
Different different/ little little
This is a direct
translation from Hindi (though I know only a little of the language). When
saying things are different, they say “alag, alag”, repeating the word. Ditto
little, they say: “Thōṛā, Thōṛā”. These repetitive expressions cross over to
Indian English.
Telephone vs. Telephonic
In India , a simple
telephone conversation is called telephonic. For instance, “I had a telephonic
conversation with her yesterday”.
Differently abled
The word
“handicapped” is often considered offensive or disapproving. It’s therefore
avoided as much as possible in the world Englishes. In Nigeria and
elsewhere, I believe, they are called physically challenged, whereas Indians
call them differently abled. It’s striking to me and to many others, for the
word abled* is nonexistent in the world’s major English dictionaries and
dictions. It’s another Indian neologism.
“W” vs. “V”
The
pronunciation of “W” and “V” is often interchangeable in Indian English. For
instance, the Sikhs (Sikhism is a minority religion in India with
millions of followers around the world) say “Waheguru”, meaning God is great.
The “W” is normally often replaced by “V” as “Vaheguru” and both are pronounced
the same way.
In other
instances, they say something like “vorld” for world, “vord” for word, etc. One
has to frequently ask for spelling of a particular word when your teacher is
dictating in the class.
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