One of the blogs I like to read is that of Susanna Wickes. Susanna is a Scot residing in Delhi and it is amusing as well as insightful to read her experiences as a foreigner in India.
Her latest blog on fusion of languages is hilarious but also made me think. I speak Tamil (after a fashion), English and Hindi. When I am stuck for a word, I like many others, just substitute a word from whichever language happens to be around. It is as natural as breathing. There are times when I have jumbled up Tamil, English, and Hindi.
I am much more comfortable in Hindi and English. Tamil is a much more remote language and as my vocabulary is very poor, I usually sprinkle Hindi and English. I never realized about this till it was one day brought forcibly to my notice.
We had just moved back to Chennai and I was applying for Grad School. I needed to get some documents xeroxed. I went to the shops but the xerox machine was not working so I came back home. The girl who lived on the ground floor flat asked me where I had gone.
"To get the documents xeroxed."
"Did you get it done?"
"No, the machine has become kharab."
The entire conversation took place in Tamil except for the italicized Hindi word. For a minute the girl was puzzled. So I obligingly repeated the whole sentence. She thought for some minutes and then light broke on her face.
"Oh you said it in Hindi."
That is when I realized that Kharab was a Hindi word.
As an aside: I still do not know the Tamil equivalent of Kharab.
What I really liked about Susanna's blog was the way her Hindi Teacher explained how this fusion creates new languages. After all Hindi itself is a fusion of Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian. So who knows tomorrow what language might take birth?
Her latest blog on fusion of languages is hilarious but also made me think. I speak Tamil (after a fashion), English and Hindi. When I am stuck for a word, I like many others, just substitute a word from whichever language happens to be around. It is as natural as breathing. There are times when I have jumbled up Tamil, English, and Hindi.
I am much more comfortable in Hindi and English. Tamil is a much more remote language and as my vocabulary is very poor, I usually sprinkle Hindi and English. I never realized about this till it was one day brought forcibly to my notice.
We had just moved back to Chennai and I was applying for Grad School. I needed to get some documents xeroxed. I went to the shops but the xerox machine was not working so I came back home. The girl who lived on the ground floor flat asked me where I had gone.
"To get the documents xeroxed."
"Did you get it done?"
"No, the machine has become kharab."
The entire conversation took place in Tamil except for the italicized Hindi word. For a minute the girl was puzzled. So I obligingly repeated the whole sentence. She thought for some minutes and then light broke on her face.
"Oh you said it in Hindi."
That is when I realized that Kharab was a Hindi word.
As an aside: I still do not know the Tamil equivalent of Kharab.
What I really liked about Susanna's blog was the way her Hindi Teacher explained how this fusion creates new languages. After all Hindi itself is a fusion of Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian. So who knows tomorrow what language might take birth?
1 comment:
I loooooove Susanna Wickes' blog! You have great taste! = )
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