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Introduction to Indian English

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Re: Introduction to Indian English

#41

Post by ted_bunny »

simonh wrote: post #33
akkad33 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats a good one. Also as an Indian I didn't know Anaconda, Pariah, Mango, Mulligatawny, etc originated from Indian languages

Chintzy for rather twee flowery patterns. The British Army uses a bazillion Indian words. Khaki for pale tan. I think it means dust in Urdu? Basha for your shelter of a tarpaulin usually suspended from a bush by... Bungees - stretchy rubber ropes with hooks at the end. Pukka - proper, the real deal. (Although nowadays good kit is referred to as Gucci) Dumdums - bullets cut at the tip so they break up on impact. Named…

Khaki means brown in a few languages. Means poop in at least hebrew.

Dumdums: I thought it was more filing the tip down. Causes tumbling, which then causes breakup. Nitpick, maybe I'm mistaken.

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#42

Post by brainwad »

akkad33 wrote: post #31
devnull3 wrote: post #25

This does not talk about the numbering system. See [1] "Lakh" => 100K "Crore" => 100Lakhs [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_English#Numbering_syste...

As an Indian who moved abroad and comes back occasionally this is the hardest part. As an Indian I always think in multiples of 10: 100,1000,10000, 1 lakh etc, but abroad after a certain point people think in multiples of 1000. 1000, million, then multiples of 10..The Indian system to me is more logically consistent

The Indian system is clearly less consistent from an outsider PoV: You use a 3 digit gap for the first comma, then 2-digit gaps (1 crore is 1,00,00,000); the western system is consistently 3-digits (1 million is 1,000,000).

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#43

Post by [deleted] »

brainwad wrote: post #42
akkad33 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Indian who moved abroad and comes back occasionally this is the hardest part. As an Indian I always think in multiples of 10: 100,1000,10000, 1 lakh etc, but abroad after a certain point people think in multiples of 1000. 1000, million, then multiples of 10..The Indian system to me is more logically consistent

The Indian system is clearly less consistent from an outsider PoV: You use a 3 digit gap for the first comma, then 2-digit gaps (1 crore is 1,00,00,000); the western system is consistently 3-digits (1 million is 1,000,000).

[deleted]

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#44

Post by akkad33 »

simonh wrote: post #33
akkad33 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats a good one. Also as an Indian I didn't know Anaconda, Pariah, Mango, Mulligatawny, etc originated from Indian languages

Chintzy for rather twee flowery patterns. The British Army uses a bazillion Indian words. Khaki for pale tan. I think it means dust in Urdu? Basha for your shelter of a tarpaulin usually suspended from a bush by... Bungees - stretchy rubber ropes with hooks at the end. Pukka - proper, the real deal. (Although nowadays good kit is referred to as Gucci) Dumdums - bullets cut at the tip so they break up on impact. Named…

Khaki for me as an Indian is used to mean the color of police uniforms here. We call them Khakis. It's a dusky brown color. Except that and bungees, I'm not familiar with the other words

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#45

Post by akkad33 »

brainwad wrote: post #42
akkad33 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Indian who moved abroad and comes back occasionally this is the hardest part. As an Indian I always think in multiples of 10: 100,1000,10000, 1 lakh etc, but abroad after a certain point people think in multiples of 1000. 1000, million, then multiples of 10..The Indian system to me is more logically consistent

The Indian system is clearly less consistent from an outsider PoV: You use a 3 digit gap for the first comma, then 2-digit gaps (1 crore is 1,00,00,000); the western system is consistently 3-digits (1 million is 1,000,000).

I hadn't thought of it that way. It's rare we write 1 crore like that. You'd just write 1 crore

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#46

Post by JdeBP »

simonh wrote: post #33
akkad33 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats a good one. Also as an Indian I didn't know Anaconda, Pariah, Mango, Mulligatawny, etc originated from Indian languages

Chintzy for rather twee flowery patterns. The British Army uses a bazillion Indian words. Khaki for pale tan. I think it means dust in Urdu? Basha for your shelter of a tarpaulin usually suspended from a bush by... Bungees - stretchy rubber ropes with hooks at the end. Pukka - proper, the real deal. (Although nowadays good kit is referred to as Gucci) Dumdums - bullets cut at the tip so they break up on impact. Named…

Not even solely the army. pyjamas, dekko, dungarees, gymkhana, bangle, pundit, verandah. The list goes on and on. India has been a large source of loanwords over the centuries.

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#47

Post by RickJWagner »

susam wrote: post #18

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 w…

I worked in customer service and dealt often with people in other countries. I greatly enjoyed learning about customs and phrases, new cultural tidbits.

For Indian English, one of my favorites was “Do the needful”, meaning “Do what’s necessary”. Just thinking it reminds me of my friends and colleagues overseas.

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#48

Post by sevensor »

_yy01 wrote: post #16
yaseer wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What I’m learning from this thread is that there are at least as many ways of speaking English in India as there are in the UK. I’d noticed this with pronunciation (one colleague propels P and T sounds with explosive force, but none of the other Indians I work with do this), but I hadn’t picked up on grammar and vocabulary differences.

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#49

Post by jbhoot »

metalman wrote: post #34
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…

I have wondered if there are people in India who fit a description of certain europeans, in that they are said to speak 9 languages, none of them fluently. My father came from India originaly, but is of the type who is concerned with correctness in all things, but speaks fondly of the fun and games of multi lingual word play, and harder to master languages such as punjabi, and classical persian. I think that India is…

Almost every Indian I know (including me) mixes at least two languages in their daily conversations seamlessly, that too within a sentence. Westerners may find that Indians talking among themselves in their native language(s) drop English words out of nowhere. Again, I can't imagine this to be a uniquely Indian phenomenon. Multilingual people would be doing this.

Lingual purists may find it irritating, but I love such mix-ups!

Re: Introduction to Indian English

#50

Post by ben_w »

simonh wrote: post #33
akkad33 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats a good one. Also as an Indian I didn't know Anaconda, Pariah, Mango, Mulligatawny, etc originated from Indian languages

Chintzy for rather twee flowery patterns. The British Army uses a bazillion Indian words. Khaki for pale tan. I think it means dust in Urdu? Basha for your shelter of a tarpaulin usually suspended from a bush by... Bungees - stretchy rubber ropes with hooks at the end. Pukka - proper, the real deal. (Although nowadays good kit is referred to as Gucci) Dumdums - bullets cut at the tip so they break up on impact. Named…

Ah, that's where Pukka Pies gets the name from. To add to your list:

Bungalow - a house in the Bengal style.

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