The quirks of Indian English

Given that you obviously already speak "standard" English, who in particular are you upset with? Whose language use do you want to change?

This might not be the best place for a discussion about the defence of the Queen's English (as my grandmother always called it).

My sincere apologies if I come across as upset with someone, that is not how I feel, peace and love to all. We are all free to adapt and use any language we wish as it is a FREE world, inspite of the actions of certain states, but this is not a political discussion. My only concern is that we all understand each other and to facilitate this would it not be a good idea to have a uniform language ? I have no predisposition towards 'The Queens English' or any other, just that we take care not to alienate each other by the use of language that makes it more difficult to foster global unity and understanding, or am I harbouring an unrealisable dream ?

One could have an interesting interesting philosophical discussion about the likelihood, or usefulness, or possible acceptance of, a world-wide uniform language. But I can't see a uniform language happening in the next millennium or two.

I agree that understanding and unity are worthwhile goals. The best way to understand others, in my opinion, is to learn as much about them as possible. I think my study of Hindi and reading about the history and culture of India have helped me to have a much greater understanding of India and her people. But I don't know that that understanding would be any greater if either I started speaking Indian English, or if a billion Indians started speaking Australian English, or we all started speaking Mandarin. There would still be things about India that I would never be able to get my head around. But then, if India were just like Australia, there wouldn't be any reason to visit.

You're right of course, the differences and nuances of culture, and therefore language, is what makes travel rewarding and ultimately what drives us to venture forth and discover the unknown, and what a delight it is discover a civilisation that is new to our experiences, and ultimately to become immersed in said culture in order to have some, albeit incomplete, understanding of that culture. I'm thinking that regional languages should be maintained, whether that be by way of an adaptation of 'English', queens or otherwise, or an indigenous language, whilst at the same time ensuring that at some level there is a way in which each region (country, state or other) can effectively communicate throughout the global marketplace, and such communication not being limited to the literati. I have always tried to learn the language of the area where I live, even if I'm there for a short time, to the extent that I often become become confused and speak Italian to a Russian or German to a Thai ! I think individualism is important, but not at the expense of global communication.

recently i went on a weekend trip with one of my old friend from India and his american GF.....she was very amused by the following expressions which my friend and we were using quite often

i) whatever ( meaning i don't really care)
ii)i didn't knew that ( meaning i never knew that)

That, unfortunately, is the problem.

The words lowest common denominator come to mind. You can see what that has done to British English by looking at the BBC's News website!

MD of one of the biggest ad agencies in india - in meeting a new recruit in his chambers.

" There are two things that i want you to remember.
Do not call me 'sir' - as i have never been knighted.
Do not call me *'dada' - as i am not a member of your family.
Address me as Mr DasGupta. "




i tell ya, they dont make 'em like them anymore
:brishti

* 'dada' literally means 'elder brother' in bengali - its a common way of addressing men in the state.

Good one, brishti.
I guess I qualify as one of those made before the cutoff of 'making them like they used to'!
I hope so, at least.

i guess you do, sir



but i tell ya, AFH, that bengali-tongue-in-cheek-sarcastic humour... i do miss it.
kabaary has smatterings of it
:brishti

Can't help you there, I'm afraid.
Whatever humor, that's not ill, is a mixture of American, British and American humor.

kee ? what ? maane ? meaning ? about this US / UK ?

about humour - i totally agree AFH - it can be caustic and sarcastic - without being offensive.
the 'rolling-of-the-eyes' emoticon is one, i personally, do not find fhanee.



:brishti

In Bihar, where the accent is very clear (for one brought up in London), compared with more Southern accents, and the spoken English is generally very good, I got confused by the use of "Too much" as well as by the over reliance one the present continuous tense: as in "How do you like the hotel?" "Oh! I am liking it too much" .By this, he means "I like it a lot". Also, I had to get used to incomplete statements that were intended to be questions; such as "You are coming from?" by which he means "Where do you come from?" The present perfect tense seems to be very unpopular and is often replaced by the present continuous with the addition of a final 'already', for example "I am having my diner already," meaning "I have had my diner." This, I assume follows the structure of local languages such as Hindi and Punjabi. (We use similar construction in Thai English) These usages took a while to get use to. With journalistic English, I love those lovely, dated expressions, as though taken from the pages of an old novel, such as, "The trusty police gave hot pursuit and succeeded in apprehending the miscreant.” I haven’t come across ‘dastardly deed’ yet, but I suspect that it is out there somewhere. I am never sure if this sort of thing is done for comic effect or not.

You'd like our newspapers: the police nab people here --- apart, of course, for the ones that are absconding!

Anyway, today Chennai Corporation announced that there would be a new Foot Overbridge



Brishti... If I knew anything about Bengali, I'd probably be laughing. Just goes to show how one can think one knows India, but so often it is only one's own tiny corner. Frankly, of course, I've only just started on that, even

I'm often seeing this phrase on a TV ad for a toilet-cleaning product:

'kills all germs dead'. I thought if you killed all germs, they would be dead anyway!

Redundancy, in it's extreme, is always very funny!