Karan Thapar on Inglish

[Prashant Sachdeva]

A nice article in today's HT. The examples are hilarious.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Now-for-some-Inglish/Article1-752581.aspx

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Prashant

[Miheer Desai]

Check out the "English Whirled Wide" album 

E.g. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150315434384295&set=pu.83159994294&type=1&theater

Miheer Desai

Exchange Student at Fisher College of Business, OSU
Class of 2012, IIM Ahmedabad
Class of 2010, IIT Bombay

+1-614-266-8188

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[Antariksh Bothale]

I was planning to comment on the article, but then ditched it. Since we haven't had any discussion here since a long time, and now that you have posted it here, will write my comment anyhow--

The collection of humorous notices (not entirely uncommon--they are typical email forward material) is funny indeed. But the premise of his article in general is misleading. 

He starts with "First, are you aware English can be moulded to say significantly different things while using the same words on each occasion?", a feature hardly unique to English, and then proceeds to demonstrate this by giving sentences which the good professor has "invented" that can have multiple meanings simply by changing the location of the word "only". All English sentences using the word 'only' share that property, so do all Hindi sentences using सिर्फ. Sample this--

सिर्फ मैंने उसे कल आँख पर मारा
मैंने सिर्फ उसे कल आँख पर मारा
मैंने उसे सिर्फ कल आँख पर मारा
मैंने उसे कल सिर्फ आँख पर मारा
मैंने उसे कल आँख पर सिर्फ मारा

He claims that "These five sentences illustrate that your meaning doesn’t simply depend on the words you use but also where in the sentence you place them and, then, when you speak, how you stress the critical word." How is that fascinating? That Ajay killed Rajiv is different from Rajiv killed Ajay is something speakers of English already know very well. 

And then, moving on to the last 2-3 paragraphs, he descended to the same British English pandering that is the bane of our intelligentsia. He blames Americans for "giving familiar words altogether new meanings" and "needlessly devising awkward sounding phrases as substitutions for mellifluous words they longer wish to use." He takes objection to calling a problem an 'issue', and thinks saying 'I am good' is logically wrong. He could have as well licked the Queen's boots after that. 

This myth that British English is superior to other forms of English, that its words/constructions are more mellifluous and more elegant, logical and sensible is as widespread as our Shuddh Hindi trope. That both are patent nonsense is something I don't even need to say on this group.

Anyhow, the topic's up for discussion. Let's hear something on this group for a change!

2011/10/2 Miheer Desai <mihee...@gmail.com>

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Antariksh Bothale | 5th Year (Dual Degree) | Mechanical Engineering | IIT Bombay

[Mukund Madhav]

+1

[Antariksh Bothale]

btw Miheer, infi lol album!

2011/10/2 Mukund Madhav <mmv...@gmail.com>

[Antariksh Bothale]

This is in the same vein.

http://www.linguistrix.com/blog/?p=189

2011/10/2 Antariksh Bothale <antariks...@gmail.com>