Hinglish goes global

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Mirror.co.uk

USE OF 'HINGLISH' TO GO GLOBAL

By Richard Smith


WE'VE had Bollywood, vindaloos and the Kumars at no 42 - now get ready for
Hinglish. The latest Indian cultural experience set to sweep Britain is
Hindi-English, leading language expert Professor David Crystal says.
Spoken as a second language by 350million Indians it's a mix of words from
the Raj, such as Pukka or Poppycock, and newly-coined terms like
nose-screw, for a nose stud. Eve teasing describes sexual harassment,
airdash travelling by plane and felicitating people on their special day
means Happy Birthday.

Hinglish sentences can also be a mixture of Indian and English words.
Professor David Crystal, a professor of linguistics at the University of
Wales, said the growing popularity of Indian culture, particularly
Bollywood, and the use of the internet meant Hinglish was going global.

The author of 50 books on English said: "Certain phrases are bound to
become global with so many Indians working in information technology. "As
more Indians talk in chat rooms and send emails, the phrases and words
they use to describe their lives will be picked up by others."

Several firms are using Hinglish including Ford which sells the Ikon car
as the Josh Car - Hindi for exciting. Others like time-pass, mean an
activity to kill time, jungli is uncouth, optical is glasses, stepney is
spare tyre, chaddis are undies and boot is dicky.

Even having your job outsourced to India is called being Bangalored.


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