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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)

#81

Post by School-Cotton »

WeekSpeller wrote: post #78
emteycz wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

English is one of only two recognized official languages (in addition to Hindi) of the Republic of India [the federation]. It is widely used when native languages can't bridge the gap between two Indians. edit: s/Indian state/Republic of India

By Indian state you mean the federal govt. States have their own official languages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_with_official_status...

They meant “state” in the general sense, not the particular sense of the federated entities of India, USA, Australia etc.

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

#82

Post by hnlmorg »

OJFord wrote: post #47
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 England ...] For me, the horn is a warning sign - "get out of my way" or "watch out!" - only to be used in emergencies. That is not the correct use in England, especially not 'get out of my way' (emergency services' vehicles aside) - and it needn't be an emergency (uh, again!). It's only supposed to be used to alert other drivers to your (non-stationary) presence, when it appears they haven't seen you or may no…

As someone who lives in the countryside and have multiple roads like you describe, I can comfortably say nobody honks the horn on blind corners nor narrow roads. Maybe it is like this on other English counties but I've not seen that to be the case when travelling either.

Official or correct usages aside, the more typical usage for horns in England are:

+ impatience. eg a car going to slow and the driver behind is a dick. Though more often you'll see drivers flash their full beams instead.

+ as a way of alerting another driver in an emergency. eg your pulling into a lane where another car exists because you didn't see that other car. This is basically what the GP was saying,

+ or a sign of unhappiness. eg if you cut someone up on the road, you'll likely get honked at. It's basically used as a gesture, like swearing at the other driver.

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

#83

Post by mattbee »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #12

“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?

Indian English is definitely a language with its own grammar and word forms. My favourite phrase from Indian customers confirming they wanted something done - "please do the needful".

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

#84

Post by thrwyoilarticle »

Etheryte wrote: post #32
iso1631 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Indian drivers rarely use their side mirrors" Doesn't matter if the mirrors are there or not if culturally people don't use them.

I experienced confusion about this when I travelled to Indonesia some years ago, but a local taxi driver made it easy to understand: "What's in front of you is your responsibility." It's an unwritten local driving rule and once you know it, the local traffic is considerably easier to grok. No one looks behind them because everyone's agreed that they only worry about things in front of them. If you want to pass a car…

Grokked or not, there are more road fatalities.

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

#85

Post by sdfjkl »

Different cultures have different unwritten behaviours on roads.

In the mountains of Italy, drivers give a short honk before entering a turn on a serpentine road, which usually can't be seen around. If there is no responding honk, they will take the full width of the road (making the very tight turn easier and faster). Tourist drivers have to pick up on this :)

In much of Europe oncoming cars flash their lights to warn others about dangers and (especially) speed traps or police checks, so they can slow down in time.

Here in Lithuania, flashing your warning lights (the four orange ones on the corners of the car) means thanks, for example if you let someone merge from one of the very short onramps. I've never seen this in Germany, where onramps are however much longer.

And amongst truck drivers it's pretty wide-spread to blink right to tell a following car you think it's safe for them to overtake you and blink left when you think it no longer is. At least on long roads where there are no obvious right turns. I flash them a grateful hand sign when passing their mirror.

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

#86

Post by School-Cotton »

emteycz wrote: post #61
hungryforcodes wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A reminder that pretty much no lorry driver in india knows English. They live in India -- why would they need to know English exactly?

English is one of only two recognized official languages (in addition to Hindi) of the Republic of India [the federation]. It is widely used when native languages can't bridge the gap between two Indians. edit: s/Indian state/Republic of India

Also there are some Indians with English as one of their native languages. Not sure how common that is, but enough that I know multiple of them despite not being from India myself.

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

#87

Post by selimthegrim »

ramraj07 wrote: post #27

A reminder that pretty much no lorry driver in india knows English. Vehicles here have inane phrases like this and it’s for the most part almost protocol to paint them when you get a vehicle of that class. The guy who paints Lorry backs with the company name probably asks “you want the horn ok please phrase right” and the drivers probably like yeah whatever. Not like the drivers here expect courtesy from anyone aroun…

Apparently West Bengal state transport company paints “Safe Drive, Save Life” on its buses, except for one year where they decided “Save Drive, Safe Life” was the optimal way to express the sentiment. Maybe CO2 or pollution was high on the agenda that year.

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

#88

Post by junoper »

rodelrod wrote: post #72
junoper wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree and people are exeggerating the usage of horns more than it actually is. > there's absolutely no need But one use of horn that I found useful in India was to overtake on 2-lane hilly road. Now theoretically you should be able to see, may be hundred metres, ahead of you before you start the overtake or if you are not too keen to reach your destination, not overtake at all till you reach straight road with long…

> Is there a better way of doing this? Yes, you don't overtake if you don't have visibility because of a hill or a bend. That is enforced by traffic regulation and road markings in Europe and most of the places I've driven. And yes, that means that sometimes you get stuck behind trucks for a long time but it also means that nobody gets killed.

If you read my comment carefully, I understand that and I know how it happens around the world. But I personally would prefer to sometimes hear a horn rather than having to drive behind a slowest moving truck for hours because the hilly road has road marking catering for the worst case.

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

#89

Post by skhr0680 »

jkhdigital wrote: post #44
gpmcadam wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, it’s a bit ironic that the only reasonable use of a horn is often the least likely justification for honking by Western (or at least American) drivers. As an aside, Japanese drivers flash their lights (both headlights and taillights) as acknowledgement for letting them merge or pass—like the dual behavior of honking a horn as an expletive.

Beware that flashing your highs in Japan can mean “GTFO out of my lane”, and some drivers get really mad about it

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

#90

Post by amalcon »

technothrasher wrote: post #71
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.

> For me, the horn is a warning sign Here in Massachusetts, it seems the horn has only three functions. The first, a quick "beep beep" signals that you recognize another driver or pedestrian and are saying hello. The second, a one to three second beep means that the traffic light has switched to green and car in front of you has not begun moving within 20ms. And the third, a five to sixty second "beeeeeeeeep" means t…

Worth noting that a "mistake" in Massachusetts includes not just things that are dangerous, but also such grave misconduct as stopping for a yellow light, going at only the speed limit, or riding a bicycle.
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