Monday 28 March 2011

Mind Your Ps and Qs

Do  they speak  the  same  language  on
either  side   of  the Atlantic?
India  has  leaning  towards  the British-
the  colonial influence.
On  the other  hand  several Hindi
or  Hindustani  words have  found
a  place  in  the  English lexicon.
Jungle
Bungalow (bangla)
Mantra
Avatar
Karma
nirvana
curry
chutney
tandoor
guru
serpent (sarpam)
pyjamas
juggernaut
khaki
loot
pundit
veranda
There  are  many   more
and  still  being  added.

On the other  hand  India has
its  own   form of  Hinglish.
Look  at  the  sign above.(left  one)
I  find  it  hilarious.
Ashish and  Megan took this  photo
somewhere in NE  India.
Enjoy  while  I  run  along
powder  my  slappy  ham
grab a  packet  of   chips,
load up  my  rooty tooty point  and   shooty
and dash off
to  my Anguish , sorry English Class.
I  want  to  ask them
what  is  the  connection  between
blueberry  pancakes
and  clammy rogers

Which words from  your part  of  the  world
have  enhanced  the  English  language?

Do you  use words  of  Indian origin?

21 Fertilize my soul:

Jeanette said...

I love your humor, Amrita! Thanks for the smile!

Amrita said...

Thank you Janette, you are such a blessing an d joy to me. I treasure your friendship

Amrita said...

Hi Deano,

I 've got you on my reader. Your posts are always every enlightening and encouraging and provide a Christian perspective on things. Thank you for your visit.

Felisol said...

Dear Amrita,
We have too many English words in our everyday vocabulary, and teacher are trying to find good Norwegian replacements all the time.
I never knew that the Norwegian words like pyjamas and veranda were Indian. Guru, karri (curry) and nirvana are used all the time. (I once had nirvana mattresses (madrass in Norwegian).
We are closer related than we know.
From Felisol

John Cowart said...

Curry! I like curry. But you can't find it easily here in Jacksonville, Florida.

Speaking of Indian words, our state capital is called Tallahassee and my favorite place to swim is Ichetucknee Spring. And the river that runs through Jacksonville was once called the WeLattka--those are all Indian words... Oh, Excuse me, Amrita, these are all American Indian words; they have nothing to do with your great country.

I'll go back in the teapot now.

John

Diane said...

You must understand that I am from the southern United States; we don't speak English here....we speak southern! Words like y'all for you all, sump'n for something, over yonder for over there, the list could be endless; and when we do use the correct work, it is very drawn out by our drawl. So, I have no idea where my words came from; most likely from hearin 'em from my famly. ;-)

Many hugs............

Diane

Anonymous said...

In my country, the vocab mostly adopted from USA, not UK. But I myself am interested in both. As for me the more vocab I'm familiar with, the better ^.^

Amrita said...

Hi Felisol, I am sure some Sanskrit words are similar to the Norwegian language. Sanskrit is our classical language.

Oh John East or West - Indians are the same ! LOL.
Oh there are lots of Indians in I am sure you can find an Indian restourant over there.

Dear Diane, I love the Southern accent. Hear it in the movies - its so musical.My friend Elsie from SC had a bit of it. The preachers on Christian radio have it- the southern ones, its so good.

Amrita said...

Thank you for your comment newlifeislikethis. Welcome. I will come by and visit you

Amrita said...

Hi Evylia, I went over to your new blog and wanted to comment but th e comment section did not open.

Kathryn said...

Oh, we use a number of these Indian words, or i've read most of them. But then, i really love several of the books by M.M.Kaye. She grew up in English India and loved the country. She wrote widely about the English influence on the country, but had a heart for the native people there.

I can't off hand think of words that are in an English dictionary from the area where we live, tho i'm sure there are plenty of them.

Duane laughs at the word "croggled." Urban Dictionary That one at least does crop up. Duane hates my dad's word "smizzle" which kind of means snow/drizzle/cold/wet/uncomfortable. He hates the weather this refers to and won't let me use it when it is smizzling!

:) Enjoyed your post, Amrita.

Kathryn said...

(Second definition, BTW. The "crooked, poorly made" one.)

Anonymous said...

Hi, Amrita, thanks for letting me know about the comment box ^.^ , the problem has been fixed now. Can't wait to read your next posts.

Nadwrażliwiec said...

Yes, in Polish language there are Indian words - of course curry, guru...
And, what is more - Polish language is member of big language family - Indo-European. We have many word which were originally in Sanskrit (for example mother - in Polish "matka" - in Sanskrit: "maat.r").

Joseph Pulikotil said...

Hello Amrita,

Very interesting and hilarious post

The Englishmen when they reached America coined their own English words. We people in India don't know which is the correct English although we have been taught the British English.

Even while writing the blog there are so many confusions. If I want to write colour I write color leaving out the U.

The British English also uses a Tamil word Kattumaram as catamaran.

Excellent post and I enjoyed it.

Best wishes,
Joseph

Dick said...

We have many English words in our language, I don't know if they use some of our words. As far as I know there are no Indian words in our Dutch language but I guess there are some.

Olde Dame Penniwig said...

I love the Hindi words! And the writing is so incredibly beautiful! But I think it would be very hard to learn!

Annette said...

Love the sighn...it is funny, and it's interesting to see how English talk, some of it kind of strange, but they think mine is strange too, and I work with allot of Hindi people and love to hear them talk, love the sound of it and we all have one thing in common..We are all created from the same GOD and it's funny cause I do and say "Karma will come back around"


Love to you~

Crown of Beauty said...

This was such a delightful post, Amrita. I have always loved your subtle humor.

Very English.

Love
Lidj

Amrita said...

I really enjoyed reading all your comments friends. Just now I have posted a video about the spread of the English language. You might find it interesting.

Amrita said...

Hi Holly, I am sure you will learn Hindi very fast. Its not hard.