“He was trying to पटाओ me, yaar!”
‘‘मैं आज सोच रही थी, आधा semester खत्म हो गया; half the semester is gone!”
You must have heard many people around you speak this way. No, it is not a new language. It's Hinglish!! So what exactly is this Hinglish?
Hinglish = Hindi + English, wherein these two languages are used in differing measures, especially while speaking. Which language outweighs the other depends on many factors such as the social status enjoyed by the language, the comfort level and/or fluency of the speaker among others.
But do you know Hinglish isn't a modern phenomenon? It began with the colonisation of India. English came to be considered more important than Indian languages and things haven't changed much over time.
But hey! Hinglish is easy to understand, it conveys our emotions nearly perfectly and is ‘in’. So let's look at why we use Hinglish.
Sometimes we just need it. We often find it difficult to express / explain an idea or a concept from our culture in English. For instance, rituals and customs are often intranslatable and hence leave us with no choice but to use Hinglish. Hinglish is also often used to attract attention, especially in advertising. We all know how successful ad slogans like ‘Yeh Dil Maange More!’(Pepsi), ‘Hungry Kya?’(Domino's) or ‘Pal Banaye Magical!’ (Lay's) have been.
Moreover, Hindi, or any other Indian language, just doesn't have words which emerging technology has given birth to. For instance, with the boom of telecommunication we have become all too familiar with words like ‘recharge’, ‘pre-paid’, ‘top-up’, ‘missed call’, etc. Trying to find equivalents in Indian languages would surely be a सिरदर्द, wouldn't it?
Hinglish is also used to show Transgression. In other words, using a word from a language higher up the social ladder (in this case, English) to show that the speaker is not linguistically and socially backward! Things people do to sound upwardly mobile, you see!
So where and how can Hinglish be learnt? Are there any coaching classes, you may ask. No, there aren't. And that's because we don't need any.
Let's look at the characteristics of Hinglish. It doesn't follow any set rules of grammar or lexicon and can be used and understood easily. It is vivid, dynamic and an authentic representation of the youth of India, though used only in conversations, not in official communication and that too only with peers. However, it can't be used to produce literature.
So does that mean that those who use Hinglish do not know English?
No, that's not always true. Though experts believe that many bilinguals are not fluent in either of the languages, there are definitely exceptions.
However, one must use Hinglish judiciously, as it's constant use has it's disadvantages. It can result in the death of one of the two languages, mostly that of Hindi. Even if it is used, it could be far from pure. Most dangerous of all is that one can lose the ability to use one language fluently in speech or writing.
The popularity of Hinglish has given birth to other varieties like Tamlish, Bonglish, etc. and they are being used extensively. So let me answer the question I posed earlier. Yes, Hinglish is fast becoming the new language of the youth and is being used not just in day-to-day conversations but also in fields like advertising and media.
But a word of caution! While we enjoy expressing ourselves perhaps better using ‘Hinglish’, we must take care that in the process we don’t destroy either: Indian languages or English.
- Anagha Natekar
Visiting Faculty, ELTIS-SIFIL