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"Hinglish" a New Avataar of English Language


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1 Department of Communication Management & Technology, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Hisar, India
     

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The Iingo of the urban youth m India is all set to get a voice in the form of a unique language- Hinglish. Hinglish, a portmanteau of the words Hindi and English, is the arbitrary usage of Hindi and English, combining both, m one sentence. This is more commonly seen m urban and semi-urban centres of population, but is slowly spreading its ischolar_main in to rural and remote areas via media and word of mouth, slowly achieving vemacular status. Many speakers do not realize that they are incorporating English words into Hindi sentences or Hindi words into Enghsh sentences. Hinglish speakers, for whom either Hindi or English is their first language, dip m and out of these two foreign' languages with perfect ease and fluency. For the young are Iinguistic magpies, borrowing form any language,accent or dialect that seems fashionable, it is becoming panache for the young minds to mix and remix everything, why to leave language alone. In urban India, it is very common to see young people code-mixing and code-switching between various languages. It is not easy to separate the use of English in lndia from the general multillingual flux. In addition to code-mixing and code-switching, other languages are constantly drawn into English discourse and English into the discourse of other languages, especially Hindi. This highly popular mixing of both the languages m most parts of northern and central India has grown from the fact that English is a popular language of choice amongst the urbane youth who finds itself comfortable m its lexicon. It is already the medium for imparting education m many schools across the nation. The advent of cable television and its pervasive growth has seen the masses exposed to a wide variety of programming from across the world. As local words creep into English, some fear that communication between India and the rest of the world could suffer What kind of English should Indians be learning? Purists argue that language skills must meet international standards, but experience tells us that local languages will add flavour to the mix. The result may be fine for the street, but when it comes to the workplace, it is just not good enough. India speaks a lot of English, but she is also known for a dozen more languages spoken across the country - including Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati - plus zillions of dialects. These pop up m spoken English now and then, giving clues about the speaker's origms. Hmmm... was that apiece of south Rajasthan, across the sand dune, but close to the camel market slang that I heard there? You get the picture. So how does English survive - and thrive - m this cauldron of languages? Well, it just gives space to the odd words and phrases understood m India but probably nowhere else. If we didn't add the tadka(seasoning) of our own hnguistic mix, the cuny wouldn't be spicy enough. English plays an important role m the domains of education, admmistration, business and pohtical relations, judiciary, industry, etc. and is therefore a passport to social mobility, higher education, and better job opportunities. What started as a mere tool of babu communication has grown into a major part of the Indian consciousness. But now we have given up the pretence of sounding like English and no longer want to speak the Queen's English. And Hindi cannot help but borrow certain words from English. Moreover, Hmglish has become the language of the urban youth and campuses across the country. Language is like a river, it flows and depends on currents, it is not static, and it can't be held that's the beauty of it, that's the beauty of communication. Whoever uses it mould sand bendsitabittohishking and use.Soisthecase with English or Hindi that has become Hmghsh for the sake of hkmg or to say convemence of its usage. As the new trend shows, and as they say "the lack of English becomes the lack of progress and development". English will always be the language of opportunity, Hindi will always be the language of pride, dignity and Indianess but Hinghsh is the language of amity,concord and friendship. Thus today, we may say that though English has almost lost its pre-colonial beauty of literariness, but it has acquired a very colourM communicative mode. Just like the fast-moving consumer goods, English language is transforming its multi-dimensional communicative structure day by day, and m the process has enhanced its utility quotient, in India.

Keywords

Hinglish, English Language.
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  • "Hinglish" a New Avataar of English Language

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Authors

Keerty Goyal
Department of Communication Management & Technology, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Hisar, India
Anuradha Vashisth
Department of Communication Management & Technology, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Hisar, India

Abstract


The Iingo of the urban youth m India is all set to get a voice in the form of a unique language- Hinglish. Hinglish, a portmanteau of the words Hindi and English, is the arbitrary usage of Hindi and English, combining both, m one sentence. This is more commonly seen m urban and semi-urban centres of population, but is slowly spreading its ischolar_main in to rural and remote areas via media and word of mouth, slowly achieving vemacular status. Many speakers do not realize that they are incorporating English words into Hindi sentences or Hindi words into Enghsh sentences. Hinglish speakers, for whom either Hindi or English is their first language, dip m and out of these two foreign' languages with perfect ease and fluency. For the young are Iinguistic magpies, borrowing form any language,accent or dialect that seems fashionable, it is becoming panache for the young minds to mix and remix everything, why to leave language alone. In urban India, it is very common to see young people code-mixing and code-switching between various languages. It is not easy to separate the use of English in lndia from the general multillingual flux. In addition to code-mixing and code-switching, other languages are constantly drawn into English discourse and English into the discourse of other languages, especially Hindi. This highly popular mixing of both the languages m most parts of northern and central India has grown from the fact that English is a popular language of choice amongst the urbane youth who finds itself comfortable m its lexicon. It is already the medium for imparting education m many schools across the nation. The advent of cable television and its pervasive growth has seen the masses exposed to a wide variety of programming from across the world. As local words creep into English, some fear that communication between India and the rest of the world could suffer What kind of English should Indians be learning? Purists argue that language skills must meet international standards, but experience tells us that local languages will add flavour to the mix. The result may be fine for the street, but when it comes to the workplace, it is just not good enough. India speaks a lot of English, but she is also known for a dozen more languages spoken across the country - including Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati - plus zillions of dialects. These pop up m spoken English now and then, giving clues about the speaker's origms. Hmmm... was that apiece of south Rajasthan, across the sand dune, but close to the camel market slang that I heard there? You get the picture. So how does English survive - and thrive - m this cauldron of languages? Well, it just gives space to the odd words and phrases understood m India but probably nowhere else. If we didn't add the tadka(seasoning) of our own hnguistic mix, the cuny wouldn't be spicy enough. English plays an important role m the domains of education, admmistration, business and pohtical relations, judiciary, industry, etc. and is therefore a passport to social mobility, higher education, and better job opportunities. What started as a mere tool of babu communication has grown into a major part of the Indian consciousness. But now we have given up the pretence of sounding like English and no longer want to speak the Queen's English. And Hindi cannot help but borrow certain words from English. Moreover, Hmglish has become the language of the urban youth and campuses across the country. Language is like a river, it flows and depends on currents, it is not static, and it can't be held that's the beauty of it, that's the beauty of communication. Whoever uses it mould sand bendsitabittohishking and use.Soisthecase with English or Hindi that has become Hmghsh for the sake of hkmg or to say convemence of its usage. As the new trend shows, and as they say "the lack of English becomes the lack of progress and development". English will always be the language of opportunity, Hindi will always be the language of pride, dignity and Indianess but Hinghsh is the language of amity,concord and friendship. Thus today, we may say that though English has almost lost its pre-colonial beauty of literariness, but it has acquired a very colourM communicative mode. Just like the fast-moving consumer goods, English language is transforming its multi-dimensional communicative structure day by day, and m the process has enhanced its utility quotient, in India.

Keywords


Hinglish, English Language.