Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Introduction to Indian English

oed.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 60 posts

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#11

Post by signal11 »

ksynwa wrote: post #8
signal11 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to be a direct translation of the word करणीय (karaniya, that which needs to be done) in many Indic languages. A more idiomatic translation might be “please get this done”; the “needful” phrase might also be a signal that the writer isn’t that familiar with idioms used in other English-speaking countries. Hobson-Jobson[1] had a great early compilation of some phrases that arose in the subcontinent— many are s…

Saying this as someone whose first language is Hindi, I have never used this word nor heard anyone else use it. I think whatever similarities there are might be coincidental. Can't say about other Indian languages.

It comes from Sanskrit[1] and is fairly common in languages which use Sanskrit derived terms in large numbers eg some dialects of Bengali, but more importantly “sarkari” (government) Hindi which is way more Sanskitized vs regular Hindi. Regular Hindi even in the Gangetic plains is way more “hybrid”, and this is way before you come to eg Mumbai Hindi.

Here’s the term in gov.in: https://www.google.com/search?q=%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A3%...

Of course the Indian government loves “do the needful” as well: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22do+the+needful%22+site%3A...

But there’s evidence that “do the needful” might be an old English legal term as well. I’ve updated the parent comment. Further research is definitely required.

[1] https://sanskritabhyas.in/%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%...

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#12

Post by jbhoot »

In my experience, at least some aspects of the Indian English exists because we Indians often mentally translate what we want to say from our native language (which are plentiful) to English before it comes out of our mouth.

I don't imagine this is a uniquely Indian phenomenon – other non-native English speakers would be doing the same.

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#13

Post by esperent »

jbhoot wrote: post #12

In my experience, at least some aspects of the Indian English exists because we Indians often mentally translate what we want to say from our native language (which are plentiful) to English before it comes out of our mouth. I don't imagine this is a uniquely Indian phenomenon – other non-native English speakers would be doing the same.

Even Irish people whose main language since birth is English do this. There's a verb in Gaeilge which does exist in English but is translated as "does be". Examples:

- He does be eating his breakfast

- She does be out walking the dog

It's the continuous/habitual form of to be, so the implication is that she does be walking the dog everyday, or regularly. He does be eating his breakfast everyday.

The interesting thing is that you'll meet Irish people who were never fluent in Irish - learned it in school, sure, but never spoke it daily - who still use this conjugation when speaking English.

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#15

Post by rockyj »

rob74 wrote: post #2

One typical expression that stuck with me is "[please] do the needful" (often used when assigning Jira tickets to someone else).

As an Indian, I do not like this. Big banks like Hdfc also send emails with subject like - "Intimation to update account" or things like I had already sent an "intimation" email. Just makes no sense, you are a billion dollar bank, get it right.

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#16

Post by _yy01 »

yaseer wrote: post #3
rob74 wrote: post #2

One typical expression that stuck with me is "[please] do the needful" (often used when assigning Jira tickets to someone else).

In a similar vein, there's also "I'll revert back" as a more formal "I'll get back to you".

I am Indian and I was confused when I first saw that phrase in a corporate setting. Only revert I knew was git revert.

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#17

Post by sidchilling »

gulabjamuns wrote: post #4

Another common Indian word is prepone , the opposite of postpone. I have never come across the "where" example. The article misses out on many common usages, and cites some rather unremarkable ones.

I agree. The articles misses some really good ones, - prepone, max-to-max (ज़्यादा से ज़्यादा), scanner (for payment QR-codes)

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#18

Post by susam »

I think the most confusing one is the usage of "I'll revert back" to mean "I'll get back to you". At least once in my life, I've seen an actual confusion caused by this. Here's how it went:

Let's call the two people involved Bob and Raj. Bob was working in the US and Raj was based in India. Bob emailed the team, addressing Raj, and said one of the attachments in a service needed to be deleted (I don't even remember why anymore).

Raj replied something along the lines of: "Yes, fine with me! Please delete and revert back."

Bob immediately replied, "Once the attachment is deleted, it's gone! It can't be reverted. Please confirm if you really want me to delete it."

It took a bit of back-and-forth before everyone was on the same page. What Raj had actually meant was simply, "Please delete it and get back to me."

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#19

Post by devnull3 »

gulabjamuns wrote: post #4

Another common Indian word is prepone , the opposite of postpone. I have never come across the "where" example. The article misses out on many common usages, and cites some rather unremarkable ones.

Prepone is now a word in Cambridge dictionary [1]. It acknowledges the origin to India.

[1] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/prepone

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#20

Post by signal11 »

jbhoot wrote: post #10

Not exactly Indian English, but my favourite English word with an Indian origin is Juggernaut. Its a morphed version of the name of an Indian deity – Jagannath. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggernaut : > A juggernaut, in current English usage, is a literal or metaphorical force regarded as merciless, destructive, and unstoppable. > This English usage originates in the mid-nineteenth century. Juggernaut is the…

Juggernaut is definitely one of my favourites. Also, bandicoot from Telegu’s pandikokku, literally “pig rat”.
Post reply on HN