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DICK & GARLICK
In a land where rainfall is scarce, the act of reading the skies and attempting to name the unattainable becomes unbearably poignant. Arati-Kumar Rao on the language of the Thar: The act of naming — chhinto for a drizzle of rain or ghuTyo for the asphyxiating stillness of un-raining clouds — is a way of paying homage, recognizing worth, according importance of these events that are vital DICK & GARLICK: भाखा बहता नीर: LANGUAGE IS LIKEFLOWING WATER
The pandit spouts Sanskrit and preens arrogantly: 'The man who would argue in bhasha is an ignorant fool!'. The pandit praises Sanskrit through the entire world. But in bhasha alone is firm faith, the verse of salvation. Sanskrit is water in a well, bhasha a running stream. Bhasha is one with the true guru, the true word simple and deep. DICK & GARLICK: MLA PESARATTU MLA Pesarattu. Pesarattu is a variant of the dosa made with moong dal, what a pretentious restaurant menu would call 'a green gram and rice crepe topped with onion and chillies, served with ginger chutney'. It is an Andhra speciality, typical of the home cooking of the region. During Chandrababu Naidu's time as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh DICK & GARLICK: POWERTONI The Russian writer Ekaterina Vilmont (Екатерина Вильмонт, stress on the final syllable of the surname) has died at 75; she was the daughter of two well-kno DICK & GARLICK: NYLON SEV Sev is the familiar crunch fried snack made from gram flour. It can be thick as noodles, or more commonly, thin as vermicelli. These days, with the use of modern sev extruders (yes, these things exist), manufacturers can churn out sev that is finer still. DICK & GARLICK: ALUR DOSH Alur Dosh is a colourful Bengali phrase that translates as 'the fault of the testicles'. (The literal meaning of alu is potato, but it is also a slang term for the testicle). If you've been thinking with your dick, or you've done something stupid because you were driven crazy bylust, shrug it
DICK & GARLICK: FORTY NAMES OF CLOUDS In a land where rainfall is scarce, the act of reading the skies and attempting to name the unattainable becomes unbearably poignant. Arati-Kumar Rao on the language of the Thar: The act of naming — chhinto for a drizzle of rain or ghuTyo for the asphyxiating stillness of un-raining clouds — is a way of paying homage, recognizing worth, according importance of these events that are vital DICK & GARLICK: SOMETHING BLACK IN THE LENTILS 'Something black in the lentils' is a facetiously literal translation of the Hindi idiom 'daal mein kuchh kaala hai', which is the Indian way of saying there's something fishy going on. DICK & GARLICK: THULP IT ALL I SAY! The ever excellent Double-Tongued Word Wrester examines thulp, a slang word that must be part of every IIT-M guy's vocabulary.I've heard it used most often to describe the act of consuming vast quantities of food: for some reason I always associate it with eating thair sadam with the hands.Need I add that this usage is almost exclusively SouthIndian?
DICK & GARLICK: 2004 Pesarattu is a variant of the dosa made with moong dal, what a pretentious restaurant menu would call 'a green gram and rice crepe topped with onion and chillies, served with ginger chutney'. It is an Andhra speciality, typical of the home cooking of the region. During Chandrababu Naidu's time as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, the State Tourism Department cooked up a scheme to project theDICK & GARLICK
In a land where rainfall is scarce, the act of reading the skies and attempting to name the unattainable becomes unbearably poignant. Arati-Kumar Rao on the language of the Thar: The act of naming — chhinto for a drizzle of rain or ghuTyo for the asphyxiating stillness of un-raining clouds — is a way of paying homage, recognizing worth, according importance of these events that are vital DICK & GARLICK: भाखा बहता नीर: LANGUAGE IS LIKEFLOWING WATER
The pandit spouts Sanskrit and preens arrogantly: 'The man who would argue in bhasha is an ignorant fool!'. The pandit praises Sanskrit through the entire world. But in bhasha alone is firm faith, the verse of salvation. Sanskrit is water in a well, bhasha a running stream. Bhasha is one with the true guru, the true word simple and deep. DICK & GARLICK: MLA PESARATTU MLA Pesarattu. Pesarattu is a variant of the dosa made with moong dal, what a pretentious restaurant menu would call 'a green gram and rice crepe topped with onion and chillies, served with ginger chutney'. It is an Andhra speciality, typical of the home cooking of the region. During Chandrababu Naidu's time as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh DICK & GARLICK: POWERTONI The Russian writer Ekaterina Vilmont (Екатерина Вильмонт, stress on the final syllable of the surname) has died at 75; she was the daughter of two well-kno DICK & GARLICK: NYLON SEV Sev is the familiar crunch fried snack made from gram flour. It can be thick as noodles, or more commonly, thin as vermicelli. These days, with the use of modern sev extruders (yes, these things exist), manufacturers can churn out sev that is finer still. DICK & GARLICK: ALUR DOSH Alur Dosh is a colourful Bengali phrase that translates as 'the fault of the testicles'. (The literal meaning of alu is potato, but it is also a slang term for the testicle). If you've been thinking with your dick, or you've done something stupid because you were driven crazy bylust, shrug it
DICK & GARLICK: FORTY NAMES OF CLOUDS In a land where rainfall is scarce, the act of reading the skies and attempting to name the unattainable becomes unbearably poignant. Arati-Kumar Rao on the language of the Thar: The act of naming — chhinto for a drizzle of rain or ghuTyo for the asphyxiating stillness of un-raining clouds — is a way of paying homage, recognizing worth, according importance of these events that are vital DICK & GARLICK: SOMETHING BLACK IN THE LENTILS 'Something black in the lentils' is a facetiously literal translation of the Hindi idiom 'daal mein kuchh kaala hai', which is the Indian way of saying there's something fishy going on. DICK & GARLICK: THULP IT ALL I SAY! The ever excellent Double-Tongued Word Wrester examines thulp, a slang word that must be part of every IIT-M guy's vocabulary.I've heard it used most often to describe the act of consuming vast quantities of food: for some reason I always associate it with eating thair sadam with the hands.Need I add that this usage is almost exclusively SouthIndian?
DICK & GARLICK: 2004 Pesarattu is a variant of the dosa made with moong dal, what a pretentious restaurant menu would call 'a green gram and rice crepe topped with onion and chillies, served with ginger chutney'. It is an Andhra speciality, typical of the home cooking of the region. During Chandrababu Naidu's time as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, the State Tourism Department cooked up a scheme to project the DICK & GARLICK: DIPPING INTO FALLON Dipping into Fallon - 2. “I am glad, sir” said a lady to Dr. Johnson, “that you have omitted all improper words from your dictionary.” “I hope I have, madam,” answered the surly sage, “but I see you have been looking for them.”. One test of a dictionary's usefulness is the number of rude words it contains, itsstock of everyday
DICK & GARLICK: WITH FOLDED HANDS Jug Suraiya discusses the anatomical impossibility of this Indian English phrase: A couple of columns ago I used the typically Indian phrase 'with folded hands', a gesture implying, among many other things, entreaty or surrender. DICK & GARLICK: INDIAN ENGLISH: LANGUAGE & CULTURE Indian English: Language & Culture is a Lonely Planet guide to the quirks of English as spoken in India. Essential if you're a visitor mystified by travel agents who want to 'prepone' your ticket: I'm less certain that a phrasebook of this kind can help anyone decipher aconversation in
DICK & GARLICK: 2006 Mumbaiyya, the patois of Mumbai's streets is taking over the airwaves in Pakistan, reports Hasan Mansoor in Mid-Day ( 'Tapori India on Pak radio', Mid-Day, April 16, 2006). Pakistani linguists have joined their Indian counterparts in lamenting the way Bambaiyya has defiled spoken language. Panga lena (to invite trouble), phadda dalna (quarrel DICK & GARLICK: COMPLEXION COFFEE Spiderwankmonkey said. The paragraph ends really abruptly. but it seems that the writer has played with the idea of coffee being a western beverage, and complection (the fairer complection), which plays an important role in India. DICK & GARLICK: NOVEMBER 2004 Pesarattu is a variant of the dosa made with moong dal, what a pretentious restaurant menu would call 'a green gram and rice crepe topped with onion and chillies, served with ginger chutney'. It is an Andhra speciality, typical of the home cooking of the region. During Chandrababu Naidu's time as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, the State Tourism Department cooked up a scheme to project the DICK & GARLICK: AUGUST 2005 Voices is an ambitious BBC project that maps changes in regional accents and dialects in the UK. There's a wealth of material on the website, which includes over a thousand clips, links to many radio shows based on the BBC surveys, and a mini-site on the Asian Network, which deals with the languages of the Asian community.Here, you can contribute words to a Desi Dictionary or listen to DICK & GARLICK: THULP IT ALL I SAY! The ever excellent Double-Tongued Word Wrester examines thulp, a slang word that must be part of every IIT-M guy's vocabulary.I've heard it used most often to describe the act of consuming vast quantities of food: for some reason I always associate it with eating thair sadam with the hands.Need I add that this usage is almost exclusively SouthIndian?
DICK & GARLICK: AUTOMATIC HINGLISH ab_aditya said. I hope the support improves over time, and this is definietly a challenging task. One of the things I've noticed when doing cyclic translations (translate A->B->A->B.) is that there is a lot of distortion in the meaning even for small phrases, irrespectiveof the language.
DICK & GARLICK: JUNE 2006 Mumbaiyya, the patois of Mumbai's streets is taking over the airwaves in Pakistan, reports Hasan Mansoor in Mid-Day ('Tapori India on Pak radio', Mid-Day, April 16, 2006).Pakistani linguists have joined their Indian counterparts in lamenting the way Bambaiyya has defiled spokenlanguage.
skip to main | skip to sidebarDICK & GARLICK
Notes on Indian English, Hinglish, slang & pop cultureJUNE 23, 2019
PARDON MY FARSI
Himadri Roy
on 'Farsi', a lost gay argot used in Delhi: > Nouns like panthi, koti, niharan, dhurani, jogta, danga were used > with simplicity to mean the ‘man’ in a gay relationship, the > ‘woman’ in a gay relationship, the girl friend of the gay > partner, the gay partner who has a girlfriend, the ‘female’ in a > lesbian relationship, and the ‘man’ in a lesbian relationship, > respectively. The first two were used for gays, the third and foruth > were for bisexuals and the last two were for lesbian people. Even > the genitals also were talked about very openly in Farsi –like the > penis was termed as lickum, or the breasts were termed with fruits, > a huge breast would be termed as nariyal (coconut) and small-size > breasts were called as anardana (pomegranate seeds).More examples here
.
Kira Hall 's work and otheracademic studies
indicate that 'Farsi' is not limited to Delhi but is a more widely used argot evolved by the hijra community. Posted by R Devraj at 10:00 amNo comments:
NOVEMBER 27, 2018
WHO'S AFRAID OF URDISH? Posted by R Devraj at 12:22 pmNo comments:
JULY 09, 2017
LIFE HAS BECOME LADIES' FINGER In 'Word of the Day', a daily column that ran in the Bangalore Mirror through the latter half of 2015, writer Sriram Aravamudan, who describes himself as a 'gardener, baker, comedian and all-round Bengalurean', compiles many entertaining examples of the city's street lingo. Some of these may be familiar from other online glossaries of Kannada slang (_bombat_,
_pigar_
,
_one thara_
),
but I found a great deal of evidence that Aravamudan is a diligent eavesdropper with an ear for everything from college jargon to Anglo-Indian speech. Yes, the infamous _bad word curry _ is here, served with some _devil's chutney_
on the side.
> BAD WORD CURRY: An Anglo-Indian dinnertime favourite. It's a cheeky > euphemism for balls curry, usually made with minced mutton or > chicken meatballs in a spicy gravy. They are perfect accompaniments > to appam, sannas or even parathas.>
> Example: "'Waiter, waiter.." "Yes madam.">
> "What's bad word curry?" "It's mutton kheema in a gravy madam.">
> "Yes, but why is it called bad word curry?">
> "Err.. I'll call the manager to explain, madam." Since the site's archive is not easy to navigate, I'm going to compile a few more entries here. Aravamudan notes many hybrid Kanglish (Kannada + English) phrases (_don't worry madkobedi_,
_galabarskofy
_)
along with some constructed by applying the rules of Kannada usage toEnglish:
> COMMEY COMMU (Kam-mey kam-moo): Commey commu (Kam-mey kam-moo): A > Kanglicization of the Kannada phrase 'bandhe barthare', meaning > 'will definitely come'. The phrase is used to stress the coming, > indicating definite arrival of the parties concerned. Example: > "Don't take your bridal gown off yet ma putta. The groom will commey > commu." Or, "Hello contractor-avarey! Where is the sand load > delivery? From morning you are telling it will commey commu, but > nothing has commu. I think driver has taken my money and is putting > rummu somewhere." > SIMP-SIMPLY: A direct translation of the Kannada phrase 'sum-sumne' > meaning, for no reason at all. It's used mostly to complain about > unjust actions, or bad behaviour: Example: "Sir I am the innocent. > Simp-simply nurse Manjula is putting allegations on me." Or: "Aye > boss, simp-simply don't go on irritating me okay. Sud-suddenly I > will get angry and give you nice beatings." There are a few phrases that seem suspect to me. I'm not sure if they're common in the city of boiled beans; it does look like Aravamudan is indulging himself with joke translations of Kannada idiom. I don't really care, as long I'm allowed to use these fine phrases and sigh on occasion that my 'life has become ladies' finger'
or pitiably like a 'baduku bus stand'.
Posted by R Devraj at 5:06 pmNo comments:
JULY 06, 2017
FORTY NAMES OF CLOUDS In a land where rainfall is scarce, the act of reading the skies and attempting to name the unattainable becomes unbearably poignant. Arati-Kumar Rao on the language of the Thar:
> The act of naming — _chhinto_ for a drizzle of rain or _ghuTyo_ > for the asphyxiating stillness of un-raining clouds — is a way of > paying homage, recognizing worth, according importance of these > events that are vital to their survival.>
> These ambling geographers, these _mojri_-and-_saafa_ clad > ecologists, read the land and know how to “divine” water. They > can tell _ubreLyo_ (spent clouds) from _dhundh _(clouds heavier than > the light cottony _paans_); follow the _baaval_ (petrichor) towards > as yet unseen _kaLaan_ (heavy rain clouds); recognize over eighty > different desert species of plants from _aak_ to _zillon_, and know > the behaviors of sandgrouse and spiny-tailed lizard, chinkara and> bustard.
>
> It is a lived, intensely local knowledge. They find words for what > they see and experience, they pass on these words, and individual > knowledge grows into collective knowledge. They are the archivists> of the desert.
Elsewhere, Rao presents a landscape glossarythat compiles all
the words of the Thar that are being lost: evocative dialect names for clouds like cotton blankets and clouds patterned like partridge wings. > _kanThi_: cumulus clouds on the horizon > _oomb_: low white blanket of clouds, early in the morning > _paNi-haari_: clouds that resemble women carrying water pots on> their heads
> _teetar pankhi_: cirro cumulus clouds, resembling the pattern on a > partridge’s wings > _paans_: consolidated teetar pankhi clouds forming a light uneven> blanket
> _seekote_: light winter clouds on the horizon, resembling dunes > _ubrelyuo_: passing clouds, probably spent > _chhoyo_: clouds that are just beginning to rain > _miLuvDa_: cool gathered clouds alternating light & shade > _chhanvLiya_: diffused light from clouds > _ghor_: dense thunder clouds rumbling in fury > _dhaarolyou_: a small veil of rain bridging cloud and earth > _lukho_: a lone tuft of cloud > _parlaavon_: clouds reflecting far away lightning. Posted by R Devraj at 3:48 am1 comment:
JULY 04, 2017
PERIYA EMDEN
On
the night of 22nd September 1914, a lone German cruiser slipped unnoticed into the waters off Chennai. Once the ship was in range, its commander Karl von Müller gave his crew the order to attack the city. The powerful beam of a lighthouse revealed a potential target: three fuel tanks belonging to the Burma Oil Company. For half an hour, the German gunners bombarded over 130 shells at the city, first setting the tanks ablaze and then firing at the High Court, the Port Trust and other prominent city buildings. A merchant ship went down in the harbour, killing five sailors. By the time the British guns retaliated, the SMS Emden had sailed away. It left behind a fearful, devastated city. Thousands tried to flee, fearing another raid; prices of commodities shot up, and trade was paralysed. The damage to the economy was estimated at a million pounds, notesSrabani Basu.
The memory of the Emden raid has survived in the city's folklore, and in its vocabulary as well. In colloquial Tamil, an _emden_ or _amdan_ is a person who acts with audacious daring - unafraid to take on anyone, whatever the odds. A quick search on the Internet shows that _emden_ is defined variously as 'a daring and capable person', 'a particularly cunning person' or 'manipulative and crafty'. Parallel Tamil terms are cited - _jithan_, _eththan_, _killadi_ (which I presume is slang derived from the Hindi _khiladi_). The word collocates frequently with _periya_ (big) in phrases used to disparage smart alecks and blowhards: > In chennai if someone behaves arrogantly we ask them do you think > you are emden or what? (Nee enna periya emden aa?) (Indian Defence> )
> Emden was a famous ship during the war time.... there is still a > cliche in TN wen someone does something big unexpected or is kinda > adamant, they say 'periya emden thaan ivan'!! (Balaji's Thots> )
> In the thirties and forties the word ‘Emden’ was a metaphor (in > Madras) for someone thought to be super-clever and go-getter. > “Avan periya Emden-da” (is he the Big Emden?) was the expression > heard in Madras lot of times. (The Intuitive Traveller> )
This appears to be the more common usage of the word. Here and there, _emden_ has been defined as someone who is tough, strong and unbendable. A _Hindu_ article on Tamil slang derived from colonial-era expressions provides the meaning 'strict, authoritative' and adds this note: > This is usually used to describe someone very strict by nature; boys > call the strict elder of the village ‘Emden’ and describe his > arrival to a place as ‘Emden vanduttan’. Emden is actually the > name of a German ship that bombarded Madras in 1914 and created a > lot of panic. One of actor Bharath’s films was originally titled > _Emden Magan_ (later changed to _Em Magan_) to denote a strict> father.
Chennai city historian S Muthiah, who is also an amateur lexicographer includes _emden_ in his guide to Words in Indian English,
where it is defined flatly as 'a brave man'. The word is also found inSinhala and in
Malayalam, where a variant, _yemandan_, is an adjective meaning 'unusually huge and/or powerful' according to this articleon
Malayalam slang.
> Even today people in North Kerala call dark stout guys > ‘Yumunden’ without knowing that the origin of the name was the > hulking WW1 German frigate SMS Emden. (Maddy's Ramblings> )
Curiously enough, the Tamil usage of 'periya Emden' is echoed in an Australian catchphrase. After a round of daring exploits in the Indian Ocean, the Emden was finally brought down by the Australian cruiser _Sydney_ at Cocos Islands in 1914. The victory was much celebrated in Australian films of the time and gave birth to this expression about colossal conceit, noted by Eric Partridge in his Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English:
> DIDN'T YOU SINK THE 'EMDEN'? An Aus. army c.p.(1915-18) contemptuous > of arrogance or too good a 'press'. Posted by R Devraj at 10:35 amNo
comments:
JUNE 18, 2017
THE WAR ON MISGUIDED YOUTH Aditya Sinha's amusing New York Times piece on the Indian bureaucracy's love of euphemism: > If the “War on Terror” had been undertaken by the government of > India, it probably would have been called the “War on Misguided > Youth.” That’s because in the 1980s and ’90s, when New Delhi > was trying to suppress separatist movements in Punjab, Kashmir and > Assam, each official speech and classified document used the > euphemism “misguided youth” to refer to young men who had > rejected the idea of India and had taken to arms.>
> Such a tame euphemism conjures images of sulky teenagers falling > into bad company at the school playground, rather than the reality > of politically active young people challenging the existing order. > Undoubtedly, by understating the movement’s potency, the euphemism > also served to undermine it. As India’s government did not send in > a battery of guidance counselors to settle grievances but instead > sent in the Indian Army to subdue the “boys,” India’s war on > terror might even have been called “Befitting Reply to Misguided > Youth.” The army likes to talk in terms of giving fitting and > befitting replies; it not only gives a sense of the other guy having > started it, but it also sounds gentlemanly, as if war were cricket > and it was now the home side’s turn at bat.>
> The Indian Army isn’t much different from the Pentagon in using > euphemisms that seek to give a clinical gloss to the essential job > of militaries, which is killing. The only difference is that where > the Pentagon is Orwellian in its language, the Indian Army is > Wodehousian. Thus the government never tires of declaring to its > citizenry: “Our armed forces are prepared for any misadventure,” > as it did in its response to the fourth war with Pakistan in 1999 in > Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir. A lethal battle on the disputed border > is routinely described as a skirmish. Perhaps, then, the war on > terror would correctly be called, in Indian officialese, > “Befitting Reply to Misguided Youth’s Misadventures”. Posted by R Devraj at 3:32 pmNo comments:
SLANG SIGHTING: 2×2 TALKIES Via the city guide Mumbai Boss,
now defunct:
> Gaysi, the chaps behind LGBT open mic night Dirty Talk, return this > Sunday, April 6 with 2×2 Talkies, a series of film screenings that > borrows its name from the street lingo that denotes a place where > gay men meet covertly. Posted by R Devraj at 3:22 pmNo comments:
SLANG SIGHTING: DOWNTWO This was described to me as a slang term for testicles, used at St Andrew's School in Bandra, Mumbai. 'Bugger, I'll kick you in your downtwo, you'll go crying for your mama'. Posted by R Devraj at 3:10 pmNo comments:
भाखा बहता नीर: LANGUAGE IS LIKE FLOWING WATER I'm not too sure where I came first across this line of Kabir's, which describes his views on language in a pithy epigrammatic style, contrasting the dead Sanskrit of ancient religious texts with _bhakha_ or _bhasha _ (literally 'language'), the colloquial living language of his time which he used in his own verse.'संस्करित है कूप जल, भाखा बहता नीर' it reads: Sanskrit is like stagnant water in a well, but _bhakha_, the true language of the people, changes constantly and cannot be bound by rules, like flowing water. That's a lot to convey in just six words, and I'm curious what the second line of the couplet could be. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find it online. If any reader can provide it, I'll be most grateful. UPDATE: MMcM, a reader at Languagehat, has posted a
link
to the book _Gujarat and its Literature_
by KM Munshi, which quotes the entire couplet along with someadditional verses.
> संस्कृतहि पंडित कहै, बहुत > करै अभिमान > भाषा जानि तरक करै, ते नर > मूढ़ अजान > संस्करित संसार में, पंडित > करै बखान > भाषा भक्ति दृढावही, > न्यारा पद निरबान > संस्करित है कूप जल, भाषा > बहता नीर > भाषा सतगुरु सहित है, सतमत > गहिर गंभीर Here's my loose translation, based on Munshi's prose rendition. In the last line I've used an alternative version I found, which has सरल instead of गहिर: > The pandit spouts Sanskrit and preens arrogantly: > 'The man who would argue in _bhasha_ is an ignorant fool!' > The pandit praises Sanskrit through the entire world > But in _bhasha_ alone is firm faith, the verse of salvation > Sanskrit is water in a well, _bhasha_ a running stream > _Bhasha_ is one with the true guru, the true word simple and deep It's interesting to read the entire couplet and see how the meaning of the line I quoted has changed. It's about language, yes, but it is also about the search for truth. A paradox is introduced: Sanskrit may be the repository of classical knowledge, a well from which many have drunk, but its still waters do not run as deep as the flowing stream of _bhasha_, in which one may stand and look all the way through tothe profound truth.
Posted by R Devraj at 2:44 pm2 comments:
APRIL 16, 2017
PREPONING 'PREPONE'
For those who haven't come across the word, _prepone_ means to move something to an earlier date or time: quite simply, it is the opposite of _postpone_. _Prepone_ is widely regarded as an Indian English expression and is often cited as an example of Indian bureaucratese, a clunky babuism like 'do the needful'. Nevertheless, a lot of people find the word reasonably useful and it is gradually being adopted outside India as well. But is it an Indian coinage in the first place? Shashi Tharoor, politician, writer and frequent Upperclass Twit of the Year seems to think so: in fact, he believes he may have made up theword
himself.
Yes, and Al Gore invented the Internet. Does Tharoor's claim stand up to scrutiny? If you look up the OED, you'll find that _prepone_ goes back to the 16th century. However, at that point, the word meant 'to place in front of'; the OED quotes Robert Crowley, who wrote “I do prepone and set the Lord alwaye before myne eyes” in 1549. It only seems to have been in the twentieth century that the word was used inits current sense:
> To the editor of the New York Times: For the benefit mainly of the > legal profession in this age of hurry and bustle may I be permitted > to coin the word ‘PREPONE’ as a needed rival of that much > revered and oft-invoked standby, ‘postpone.’ John J. D. Trenor, > New York, Dec. 5, 1913— ‘New York Times,’ 7 December Since Trenor is clearly proposing a neologism, one can argue that this nonce use of _prepone_ does not prove Tharoor is making an empty boast. Barring a few stray examples, most of the citations I've found online are from the '80s onwards and almost all from India. Wiktionaryhas this
line from a 1984 New York Times piece on Indian English: > ''It is better to make the booking for Tuesday rather than Wednesday > so that later you would not have to prepone it,'' the reservations > clerk said with what seemed unassailable linguistic logic. All this indicates that _prepone_ had entered common usage here by the '80s, and was seen as a typically Indian expression. Since Tharoor was working as a journalist in the previous decade (his Wikipedia page notes that he won an award for the Best Indian Journalist under 30 in 1976), his claim regarding _prepone_ isn't entirely implausible, and the only way to disprove it would be to find a citation that predates the bulk of his work. This amusing exchange from a 1972 Lok Sabha Debate does the job, I think; it is quite unlikely that the august members of the House were tossing around a word coined by an obscure college journalist. > SHRI B. V. NAIK : May we know whether there is any possibility of > further ‘preponing' the date of commissioning of the Vijaynagar > and Visakhapatnam plants ?>
> SHRI S. MOHAN KUMARAMANGALAM : I am not quite sure about the meaning > of that English word ‘preponing'. but I presume that it means that > he wants to bring it forward. So far as ‘preponing’ is > concerned, every effort is always being made to 'prepone’.>
> MR. SPEAKER : ‘Poning’ is the common thing between the two.>
> SHRI S. A. SHAMIM : I hope that this is not unparliamentary. I hope > you will find that out. Posted by R Devraj at 1:02 pmNo comments:
APRIL 12, 2017
DIPPING INTO FALLON - 2 > _“I am glad, sir” said a lady to Dr. Johnson, “that you have > omitted all improper words from your dictionary.” “I hope I > have, madam,” answered the surly sage, “but I see you have been > looking for them.”_ One test of a dictionary's usefulness is the number of rude words it contains, its stock of everyday slang and coarse language. The lexicographer's approach to these words matters a great deal too. Does he or she coyly switch to sterile Latin when defining these words? Are they dissected clinically, or described with relish in salty language? As I've mentioned in an earlier post,
Fallon’s _Hindustani-English Dictionary_ gets it just right with its forays into the earthy and the bawdy. Here's the entry for _khaya_, a word of Farsi origin I encountered in William Dalrymple's Return of aKing
,
where a variety of grape called _khaya-e-ghulaman_ is described as the finest in Afghanistan. Dalrymple translates the phrase as 'young man's testicles', exactly the kind of weirdness I am unable to resistinvestigating:
> P خايه /_khā'yā_, n. m. 1. _Membrum virile_.>
> _Ūṅchā makān jiskā hai pach-khanā so āyā, > Ūpar kā khan ṭapak-kar jab pānī nīche āyā, > Us ne to apne ghar meṅ hai shor o gul machāyā, > Muflis pukārte haiṅ jāne hamārā khāyā!_ Nazīr.>
> 2. Testicles. _Sir se khāyā bhārī_. Prov. His testicles are > heavier than his head. (A big hat on a small head.) > _khāyā bāshad_ h., _(Slang)_. v. n. To go to pot. > _khāyā-bardār_, _(Slang)_. n. m. A lickspittle; a cringing, > obsequious fellow. > _khāyā bardārī_, _khāyā sahlānā_, _(Slang)_ v. a. To cringe > or fawn; to beslaver. _Bardari_ refers to the act of carrying or bearing something, so a _khaya-bardar_ is someone employed to bear another's testicles, a sycophant. John Shakespear's _A Dictionary Hindustani and English_
spins more variations on _khaya_, providing _khaya chumaana_ ('not to submit to obedience') and _khāya-kashīda_ ('an eunuch'). Fallon also has this satirical verse for the Arabic-origin synonym _fatq_ or_fitaq_:
> _Qasd Baṅgāle kā kar dījiye faskh, aë sāhib!_ > _Farz kardam ki wahāṅ jā-ke arākīn hue,_ > _Toṅbe do nikleṅge, ek halq se, ek fitaq se,_ > _Phir to, sāhab, na rahe āp, goyā bīn hue!_>
> All thought of going to Bengal forego! > Grant you're a minister of state raised to, > Two gourds upon your throat and scrotum grown, > You're not yourself but a sitār outblown. Posted by R Devraj at 4:05 amNo comments:
HI-HELLO FRIEND
HI-HELLO FRIEND Colloquial term for a casual acquaintance, fairly common in online forums. Most of the examples I've found seem to confirm my hunch this is primarily an Indian English expression (apart from the odd example from Africa). > Once I happened to meet a guy who was just a HI HELLO friend at that > time, we used to come in same shifts, chit chat and just say BYE. > (Tech Mahindra Confessions> )
>
> Now, we are not talking about a hi-hello friend, Vaks and I were > like the best of the best friends. (Dil on the Rocks> )
>
> Not just a "hi, hello" friend. I want a friend that I can talk about > deep things with as well as joke with. (SFWED Remember It Hurts> Community
> )
>
>
> Swedish girls are Racist! most Racist in the world and skin color > and origin is a big factor for them even to be a hi-hello friend!> (Yahoo Answers
> )
>
> kasturi:'the company taken over by non other than your hi hello > friend..' teejay:'what!!!!! Shocked ..is it robbie??? (India Forums> )
Posted by R Devraj at 2:14 amNo
comments:
APRIL 02, 2017
DIPPING INTO FALLON'S DICTIONARY S W Fallon’s _A New Hindustani-English Dictionary_ (1879) is regarded as one of the most remarkable works of Indian lexicography. With its illustrations from folklore, proverbs, songs, and literature, it is a lot more than a mere dictionary: like that other great glossary of the colonial era, Hobson-Jobson, it carves up an
entire culture and serves it up in tasty, chewable bits. Fallon took up the language of north India in the late 19th century as his field of study, the common colloquial speech which was then being thrust out of sight in official use as well as literature by an artificial written language of 'stiff pompous words, strange Arabic sounds which have no meaning for the people, and the dull cold clay of Sanskrit forms'. As Ambarish Satwik writes in his column, to open Fallon is to 'see the invisible stream that flows all around us, full of things we have left unsaid': > On its pages is found the sap and wit of the north Indian > vernacular: the common stock of allusions that once played in the > minds and memories of its speakers and disseminators. Language that > is both ordinary and heightened, rank and sweet, and lingers in the > mind. To borrow from Kenneth Burke, language that brings out the > thisness of that or the thatness of this. In an article in Dawn, Rauf Parekh writes that Fallon knew the value of field research in lexicography. With the help of his native informants, he recorded the words and idioms used by women, and interviewed ordinary people to understand usage and pronunciation. In an aside, Parekh notes that this led Fallon to use lewd or taboo words 'and he sort of developed a taste for such expressions'. Fallon's lack of prudery and his emphasis on descriptive rather than prescriptive lexicography is what sets him apart from most Hindi/Urdu lexicographers. It also makes his dictionary a great read. Satwik recommends a weekly dip into its pages, which I think is a most excellent idea. So here's a first _dubki_
into Fallon's ocean of words - this uncommon word is one of the many oddities he's collected: _Ardor urinae, _I discovered, is an obsolete medical term for a scalding sensation during urination. The Hindi word, however, is as colloquial as they come, and is used here in an earthy metaphor about the dangers of yielding to temptation. (I suspect the word is related to चिनगारी , _chingari, _which is a spark or flying ember rising from a flame). More Fallon next week: meanwhile, if you want to join the trawl, you can search the dictionary hereor download it here
.
>
Posted by R Devraj at 12:42 pmNo comments:
MARCH 26, 2017
THE LIBTARD'S INDIAN COUSINS Anyone who's observed or participated in a political discussion in recent times is probably familiar with the word _libtard_, a derogatory term for anyone with liberal or left-wing political views. It's a portmanteau word, formed by grafting 'liberal' and 'retard' together, which should tell you that this is a fairly offensive slur. I can't find anything online that establishes definitively who coined the word, or where it was used first. On Quora, there's some
speculation that it was created by Rush Limbaugh or one of his speechwriters; one commenter notes that the blogger Madison Slade aka Moxie claimed to have invented it. It's dated early 21st century in most places - a quick Google search uncovered an example from 2004, though of course, it's always possible that the word was in use informally in the nineties, as some people have claimed on YahooAnswers
.
_ _
_Libtard _is such a Twitter word, I thought of checking when it was first used there. To my surprise, it didn't come into circulation on Twitter till 2008, when the twitter handle @FAKEJOHNMCCAIN began using it as a hashtag along with other right-wing Twitterers (Is that a word? I refuse to use 'Tweeple'). Unsurprisingly, most of the Indian variants of the word appear to have been coined and flung around quite liberally in the heated run-up to the 2014 general elections, which brought out armies of trolls who supported the Gujarati politician Narendra Modi's rise to the national political scene. Here's a brief genealogy of _libtard_'s Indian relatives, along with the earliest tweet I could find which used the neologism in question. Statutory warning: all these words are offensive and absolutely not to be used in politeconversation.
NAMTARD, NAMOTARD
A supporter of Narendra Modi. Portmanteau word using the politician's Hindi initials (Na. Mo. न. मो.) Modi's critics tend to pun on his initials to deride his followers as sheep, since they form the Sanskrit word _namo_ नमो, which means 'I bow'.AAPTARD
A supporter of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which opposes Narendra Modi's Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). > LOL Did i just see an AAPtard justify his party using BJP as > example ;) RT @JhaGaurishankar > :@_LazyGal Was he like "Narhari > Amin" :-) — Mayank (@maypan18) December 15, 2012>
FEKUTARD
A supporter of Narendra Modi. From the Hindi slang word 'feku', one who spins lies or makes tall claims - the root word is _phenkna_, to throw out. A frequent accusation against Narendra Modi in the 2014 elections was that he made promises he couldn't possibly keep. > Fekutard diary funny though, must read http://t.co/pkeB0xvkk3 — > MAK360 MuSanghi (@MAkhan360) June 18, 2013>
PAPPUTARD
A supporter of Rahul Gandhi, a Congress (I) leader who BJP supporters call _Pappu _- a dismissive nickname for a young boy.BHAKTARD
From _bhakt, _a devotee. A derogatory word for an unquestioning follower of right-wing ideologies, or a fan of Narendra Modi. A religious bent is implied. Indian Twitter users tend to coin portmanteau words like these all the time. The practice is not limited to politics: loyal fans of the actor Salman Khan (nicknamed _bhai_, or brother) are sometimes derogatorily called _bhaitards_. Posted by R Devraj at 12:00 pmNo comments:
MARCH 19, 2017
SHROFFAGE
The South China Morning Post runs a language column titled LanguageMatters
by Lisa Lim, which occasionally picks up Indian words that have been adopted in Hong Kong English. Many of these words are the legacy of a shared colonial past, borrowed by the English in India and taken by them to the other colonies they ruled in Asia. A recent column deals with one such word, which is now rarely used in its colonial form in Indian English. As Lim points out, the word _shroff_, which is related to the Gujarati _saraf_, has fallen out of use elsewhere, but survives in Hong Kong English. It entered the language via Portuguese, which was the lingua franca of Asian ports before the English came tothese shores.
> As far back as the early 1600s, the word “shroff” – including > the forms “shrofe”, “sheroffe” and “sheraff” – has > been used in the English language. It was documented in colonial > writings on India, referring to local Asian bankers or money > changers in the British East Indies. The word entered English via > the Anglo-Indian English “sharaf”, but its origins lie in the > Arabic _sarrāf_ (“money-changer”), entering Persian as > _sarrāf_ , and Gujarati as _šaraf_ in the period of Perso-Arabic > influence over the language during the mid-13th to mid-19th > centuries of Persian Muslim rule – the Delhi sultanate and the > Mughal empire – in the Indian subcontinent.It entered Portuguese > as _xaraffo_ during the European coloniser’s long occupation in > India from the mid-16th century – referring to customs officers > and money-changers, and also providing us with _xarafaggio_ > (“shroffage”, the _xaraffo_’s commission), as noted in a 1585 > colonial report from Goa.Hobson-Jobson
defines _shroff_ as an expert employed by banks and mercantile firms 'to check the quality of the dollars that pass into the houses'. Over the years _shroff_ has meant many different things – money changer, silver expert, customs officer, court money collector, cashier’s office – but is now used narrowly in Hong Kong to refer to a cashier, cashier’s office or payment booth, in government offices, hospitals and car parks. Meanwhile in India, the word is more commonly encountered as a Gujarati surname and any mention of _shroffage_ would probably bring this tomind.
Posted by R Devraj at 9:50 am3
comments:
MARCH 12, 2017
CATTY CHRISTS IN KOLKATA Since I haven’t posted here in a while, I have a backlog of links to share. For starters, here’s a Caravan essay by Chitralekha Basu on how English turns Bengali in Kolkata. The passage I’m quoting here provides some some examples ofHobson-Jobsonism
from the 19th century Bengali satire _Hutom Pyanchar Naksha_: > Plenty of instances of tweaking and twisting English may be found in > _Hootum Pyanchar Naksha_, a series of vignettes published in the > form of stand-alone chapbooks over 1861 and 1862, which lampooned > the social mores of nineteenth-century Kolkata. In this first work > of modern Bengali prose, written by Kaliprasanna Sinha under the pen > name “Hootum”—screech owl, in Bengali—“subpoena” is > tenderised to “sawfen,” and “phaeton” is recast as > “pheting,” almost as if to resonate with the sound of its > juddering journey down Kolkata’s potholed roads (which haven’t > changed all that much in a century and a half). The last consonant > of “warrant” is dropped to turn it into “warrin,” almost as > a throwback to _David Copperfield_. Chemistry is fondly shortened to> “chemia.”
> In his sketches on Kolkata’s social life, Sinha reinvented > “catechist” as “Catty-Christ.” “Jackson” was rendered > “Jakh Sen,” which could pass as a Bengali name. “Tartar > emetic” was compressed to “Tartametic”—suggesting that this > vomit-inducing medicine, often administered to patients suffering > from the deadly kala-azar, was both quick and efficient—and the > words “grand jury” were transliterated to something sounding > very close to “grandeur.” Basu has previously translated Kaliprasanna Sinha’s work into English under the title _Sketches by Hootum the Owl_: _A Satirist’s View of Colonial Calcutta. _The foreword is by the novelist Amit Chaudhuri, whose observations on Sinha’s racy _chalit_ style (‘all imagery and language, in a way that at once looks forward to the world of modernism, especially to the great novels about cities—_Ulysses_ comes to mind—which increasingly abandon the notions of character, description, and subject-matter, and become predominantly an efflorescence of language’) can be found here.
Posted by R Devraj at 9:44 amNo comments:
MARCH 02, 2017
'A NOSE LIKE A PONTIAC' _Parsi Bol 2_ is an updated edition of Sooni Taraporevala and Meher Marfatia's very entertaining book on Parsi insults, endearments and other Parsi Gujarati phrases (see below). This one adds over 300 idioms, illustrations and a CD of phrases voiced by theatre actors Dolly and Bomi Dotiwala, as well as film actor Boman Irani. A selection of colourful, eccentric phrases from reviews of the bookin Quint
,
Daily Pao
and the Indian Express: > _Dhoila moora jhevo pacho ayo_ (literally 'returned looking like a > washed out radish', figuratively, 'returned without achieving> anything')
>
> _Edya nee juherkhubur jhevoo mohnoo_ (literally, ‘face like an > advertisement for castor oil’, figuratively,‘dour-faced’),>
> _Fuskaila darum jhevoo dachoo_ (literally ‘face like a cracked > pomegranate’; figuratively ‘grinning widely’)>
> _Leedoo apee neh eedo leedho_ (literally ‘give a goat’s turd and > ask for an egg’, figuratively ‘give nothing and take much’)> _
> _ _Nahi agasee nahi otlo_ (literally, ‘neither a balcony nor a > verandah’, figuratively, ‘a woman with neither boobs nor bum’)>
> _Nuseeb ma doodhee_ (literally, 'cheap pumpkin in your destiny', > figuratively, 'to achieve nothing in life')>
> _Suhrah chhuh noh kato _(literally, ‘hands of the clock at > 6.30’, figuratively, ‘impotent’) As in the earlier version of the book, the most vivid metaphors involve fruits, vegetables and sundry dishes, reflecting the Parsi community's love of food. The Parsi penchant for cracking an egg on everything from okra to goatmeat is satirised in the fine phrase _aafat par eedu_ - the word _aafat _would translate here as 'problem' or 'calamity', so that's a fiasco with a fried egg on top, a fuck-up with a culinary flourish. Posted by R Devraj at 10:27 am1 comment:
JANUARY 16, 2014
BAWALOGY
_Parsi Bol_, a Gujarati-English phrasebook which catalogues the caustic insults and salty lingo of the Parsi community. From Time Out:
> Photographer-filmmaker Sooni Taraporevala and writer Meher Marfatia > have come up with a book called _Parsi Bol: Insults, Endearments > and other Parsi Gujarati Phrases_. The book is a collection of 730 > phrases, which the writers believe are as much a part of the > community’s heritage as exquisitely embroidered garas and > lagan-nu-achaar. “Like everything about our community, our > language – Parsi Gujarati – is completely our own and nowhere is > this more evident than in the phrases we use: unique, inventive, > lively, often combining wildly opposing things,” states the > introduction to this compilation. “We want to archive the gems we > grew up hearing, before the generation that knows them dies> out.”
_Mumbai Boss _ has some more examples of eccentric Parsi creativity from the book: > It takes some imagination to come up with a line like “Oont nee > gaan ma jeera no vughar”, which literally means “a sprinkling of > jeera in the bum of the camel”, a phrase uttered when someone with > a large appetite is offered little food. Not surprisingly the bum is > frequently (we couldn’t resist the pun) the butt of the joke. If > you want to insult a fence sitter, call him a “gaan vugur no > loto”, a vessel without a bum. You can say of someone who’s > ignorant that “gaan neh soodhlo nathi”, meaning his arse is > clueless. And our favourite, for sheer silliness, is “motai na > musa”, meaning haemorrhoids of greatness, to be used to carp about > someone who has delusions of grandeur. My favourite phrases are the ones that evoke surreal images: > CHUMNA JEVA PUG (Feet like pomfrets) - Large feet > MAI MOORO BAP GAJAR (Father a radish, mother a carrot) - Mixed fare > GHUDEEYAL CHAI PEEYECH (The clock is out drinking tea) - Time is> passing slowly
Posted by R Devraj at 10:18 amNo
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