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The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

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Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#11

Post by gpmcadam »

rahoulb wrote: post #9

As someone who has grown up (and learnt to drive) in England - I had a moment of sudden realisation in India. For me, the horn is a warning sign - "get out of my way" or "watch out!" - only to be used in emergencies. In India, the horn means "I'm over here", to be used whenever you're near another vehicle. Which fits with the statements on the back of the lorries perfectly.

In the Highway Code, letting someone know that you're there is the only proposed use for both beeping the horn and flashing your lights at another driver.

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#12

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

“it doesn’t seem to make grammatical sense”

To people familiar with standard American and British English, perhaps, but it's written by Indian English speakers for an Indian audience. Perhaps it's not ungrammatical in that language variety?

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#13

Post by alex_smart »

rob74 wrote: post #2

> Trucks, in particular, are often not even equipped with side mirrors in the first place. Maybe mandating side mirrors (or rather enforcing this mandate - I can't quite believe that side mirrors are optional for roadworthiness, even in India) would be a better point to start with, rather than outlawing the phrase "Horn OK Please"?

Indian driving is like ant colony, but it's humans.

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#14

Post by marginalia_nu »

newsbinator wrote: post #8

This isn’t the only “ungrammatical” expression (relative to global standard English) you will encounter in India. Could it be that some person or some company simply put this expression on their trucks (thinking it’s grammatical), and because it seemed useful other trucks followed, until it became the standard? Edit: this isn’t to be proscriptive about what’s correct/incorrect in a given country. My definition of “gl…

Eh, sometimes you just gotta do the needful.

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#15

Post by solohan »

rahoulb wrote: post #9

As someone who has grown up (and learnt to drive) in England - I had a moment of sudden realisation in India. For me, the horn is a warning sign - "get out of my way" or "watch out!" - only to be used in emergencies. In India, the horn means "I'm over here", to be used whenever you're near another vehicle. Which fits with the statements on the back of the lorries perfectly.

This. I couldn't imagine driving in South East Asia without the horn.

Scary story: My cousin almost killed a cyclist once after moving back to Europe after living in Asia for years. She used the horn as a friendly message (or so she thought) before passing. The cyclist, not being used to ever hearing horns on the road, got scared, looked over their shoulder and swerved out in front of the car.

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#16

Post by masklinn »

alex_smart wrote: post #13
rob74 wrote: post #2

> Trucks, in particular, are often not even equipped with side mirrors in the first place. Maybe mandating side mirrors (or rather enforcing this mandate - I can't quite believe that side mirrors are optional for roadworthiness, even in India) would be a better point to start with, rather than outlawing the phrase "Horn OK Please"?

Indian driving is like ant colony, but it's humans.

Way my colleagues told me, circulation is such a mess there’s no way you can check all around you (plus what’s that going to change, defensive driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic means complete paralysis) so the only things you look at are in front, and the people following have to be ready.

Needless to say I opted out of driving, crossing roads is as far as I took the challenge of directly interacting with indian circulation.

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#17

Post by OJFord »

gattilorenz wrote: post #10

It's only three examples (but Google will provide way more: https://live.staticflickr.com/7392/16171222650_b5b5e0ffc6_b.... ) , but in two of those the font of "ok" and "horn please" is different, suggesting that "horn ok please" is not the correct/intended interpretation, and that the Indian designers that started this trend were not big fan of Gestalt rules.

Yeah, the article seems to painfully ignore it, but the common theme in all its theories (and the way it's painted in its photos) seems to be that 'OK' should be parsed separately, whatever its meaning.

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#18

Post by yardstick »

Anyone with local insight on how safe/unsafe the roads are and if things like side mirrors would help?

I once drove around Sicily for a few days and the main city area roads were constant traffic jams, many more car lanes than actual road lanes (faded or non-existent lane markings), and people switching lanes and turning without any notice/indicators. For all the chaos it kinda worked and people just went very slowly moving lanes, cutting across intersections, etc. Seemed like the lack of safety made everyone more cautious (although I haven’t bothered looking at road accident stats). Though I was glad to be done with it at the end of my trip!

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#19

Post by albert_e »

I am pretty sure "OK" is a separate phrase - not sure about origins, could be a Quality Check OK by manufacturer or a transport authority certifying it is fit for use maybe.

"Horn Please" / "Sound Horn" is the other phrase with a clear purpose and meaning.

They just got mixed in due to usage. I saw/see many examples where OK is painted in a distinct font from other words.

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#20

Post by somedude895 »

treeman79 wrote: post #5
rob74 wrote: post #2

> Trucks, in particular, are often not even equipped with side mirrors in the first place. Maybe mandating side mirrors (or rather enforcing this mandate - I can't quite believe that side mirrors are optional for roadworthiness, even in India) would be a better point to start with, rather than outlawing the phrase "Horn OK Please"?

In many places no cars have mirrors. They get smashed off by other cars promptly. Driving is more akin to number cars

I spent a month in Cuba in 2008 and though I didn't see any signs telling people to honk when overtaking, everyone was doing it on the highway.

A lot of cars in Cuba are in terrible shape, but it might also have to do with the fact that the Autopista 1 is in very bad condition. You really have to focus on avoiding the massive potholes, so you have less time to pay attention to your surroundings. Honking helps the driver in front to make sure to swerve away from you while you're overtaking on the next pothole.

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