Hinglish involves a hybrid mixing of Hindi and English within conversations, individual sentences and even words. This unique synthesis has taken not just years or decades, but centuries of effort, including 200 years of colonisation. Now the result is here. So many Indians who are aglicised wogs switch from Hindi to English, interspersing each with words from the other. Hinglish is a way of life.
Khushwant Singh, a late Indian author, talked about this phenomenon in his writings. In one instance, he describes how the Indian mind, which thinks in Hindi and translates it to English, can cause serious confusions.
The teacher of a primary school in Punjab advised his class in the best traditions of Punjabi English: 'When you are empty meet me behind the class.' On another occasion he told them if they had any question to ask: 'Stand your hand.' Once when he had some problem with his eyes, he sent an application to the principal asking for leave: 'Sir, I cannot come to school because my eyes have come. I will report for duty when they go.'
The above passage will make absolutely no sense if you haven’t had the taste of Hindi. But this is still English, not Hinglish. When we come to the latter, it gets more difficult for a non-Indian to understand. Consider the following Hinglish sentences that people often use.
My mood is kharab. Please interfere na karo. I am not nicling from here. Bijlee is coming and going today.
Notice how in the above sentences, the structure is pretty much that of the English language. There is only one word from Hindi and that makes it indecipherable.
The opposite happens too, when people insert one or two English words in a Hindi sentence. Truth be told, this is far more common and almost Hindi speaker does this almost all the time. Take a few examples.
Tumhe kya problem hai? Main bore ho raha hu yaar. Health pe dhyaan do. Aapke interests kya hain?
A study suggests that around 10% of Indians speak English. But the majority of the other 90% speak something similar to the described above, where a regional language does not hesitate to flirt with English.
A lot of it might have to do with Bollywood as well as the mass media. Take this Bollywood song, for instance, which contains Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and English words in a single sentence: Ishq di gali vich No Entry! Another one goes: You are my soniya.
Boundaries are anyway blurry in a country where one person worships a cow and the other eats it — and so it goes with the language. You won’t find too many purists in India. Instead, what you find is, a spicy scent of all the elements that once touched this land.
Kalampedia 