Archive for the ‘Newer Englishes’ Category

‘The Queen’s Hinglish’ (Hindi English) book

Thursday, November 9th, 2006

There’s a new book out about the mixed English and Hindi (and other Indian languages) spoken by Indians in India and England.

The book is The Queen’s Hinglish by B. K. Mahal (ISBN 0007241127).

It’s mini-quiz time. Match the Hinglish terms with their Standard English equivalents:

1. airdash

2. badmash

3. chuddies

4. glassy

5. timepass

a. hooligan

b. thirsty

c. traveling by air

d. underpants

e. uninteresting diversion

Answers in BBC article and in Comments below

Those words don’t seem to fill any gaps in Standard English, but Hinglish’s prepone would be a welcome addition. We already have postpone, so why not?

Posted in Dialects, Foreign Languages, LANGUAGE, Language Media, Newer Englishes, Words / Dictionaries | 1 Comment »