HINGLISH is a linguistic fusion of Hindi and English that is exerting more influence on the evolution of the English language, The Times of India reported recently.
Badmash (crook, bad guy), chuddie (underwear) and desi (authentic) are just a few of the Indian-origin words to enter the English language.
“This is the second wave of words from Indian languages to hit English,” said B K Mahal, the Britain-based Asian author and advisor to the Collins dictionary compilers.
“From the time when British and Indian cultures first collided in the 17th century, Indian languages have contributed to English vocabulary,” Mahal said.
Many English words in use daily are of Indian origin. These include shampoo, bangle, bungalow, jungle, mantra, pundit and cot. They have figured in all major English-language dictionaries for many years now.
However, the latest edition of the Collins English Dictionary goes a step further by officially acknowledging the role of Hinglish in the evolution of English.
The edition is full of unusual and unexpected Indian words. This is because of popular Asian culture rather than the colonial collision. Many words have a distinct Punjabi (from the Punjab regions of India and Pakistan) flavour.
Hinglish words appearing in the dictionary this year include freshie (a new immigrant), gora (a White), kutta (dog) and kutti (bitch), haramzada and haramzadi (bastards or obnoxious/despicable people) and yaar (friend). The list goes on.
Thanks to the British-Asian media, the word chuddie (underwear) is now widely known in Britain,” said Mahal. She referred to the phrase “kiss my chuddies” made famous by the Asian TV comedy show “Goodness Gracious Me”.
“Desi (authentic) and filmi (dramatic) are also used to some extent outside Indian communities,” she said.
Other TV shows like “The Kumars at Number 42” and “Silver Street” are enjoying unprecedented success among mainstream audiences. And, the official inclusion of Hinglish words in the Collins dictionary “marks an exciting development and a new phase of borrowing by English”, the compilers said.
“The beauty of English is that from early times it has been able to incorporate and adapt words from other languages,” said the editor-in-chief, Jeremy Butterfield.
“Already, we probably can’t get through the day without using several words derived from Indian languages. In the long run, we can expect Hinglish to influence English in many fields, in the same way that Latin and French have over several centuries.”
