Althouse: "I know such English that I will leave the British behind. You see sir, I can talk English, I can walk English, I can laugh English, I can run English, because English is such a funny language."

January 15, 2015

"I know such English that I will leave the British behind. You see sir, I can talk English, I can walk English, I can laugh English, I can run English, because English is such a funny language."

"English Phrases Used Only By Indians Which The World Knows Nothing About."

24 comments:

Tripp Hall said...: These are really good. Another one I liked hearing was "have you had your meal(s)" which took me a long time (too long?) to realize was a pleasantry -- no one actually wanted an accounting of what I'd eaten so far that day.; 1/15/15, 8:11 AM
Xmas said...: "Do the needful" is a fun one. I've used that one a few times with Indian contractors.; 1/15/15, 8:12 AM
Bob Ellison said...: From the movie Short Circuit:

Duke: Will he kill me if I stop?

Ben Jabituya: Who is to say?

Duke: Will he kill me if I don't stop?

Ben Jabituya: Again I am shrugging.; 1/15/15, 8:33 AM
dbp said...: The only one from this list that I've heard spoken by my Indian relatives is "Prepone".

They have a lot of odd phrasing that is not on the list: They like to put "my" in front of expressions for bathing; so, "I took my shower" instead of the usual "I took a shower". They use the word "too" where "very" might normally be used; "Are you too hungry"? Some phrasings are cultural: Here, we say a food is vegetarian if is lacks meat. They assume a dish is vegetarian unless otherwise noted and ask if a dish is non-veg.; 1/15/15, 8:34 AM
Jane the Actuary said...: I've heard "do the needful" multiple times in my dealings with the Indians who handle financial and billing work for the company. And I miss those days when companies tried to train their Indian employees to use American idiomatic English.; 1/15/15, 8:42 AM
Paco Wové said...: "Do the needful" has started to creep into more general use at my Big Global Megacorp. It started with the India staff using it, but now I see Anglo stateside mid-level managers using it in conversations entirely with other Anglo staff. I think they're being semi-ironic.; 1/15/15, 8:58 AM
augustrrr said...: I once expained to an Indian call center employee that while we may print or write 24/7, we actually say 24 7. I still don't know if he believed me.; 1/15/15, 9:01 AM
tim in vermont said...: I got a kick out of "Creation, deletion, and "updation" of records" back in my working days.

It should be a word.; 1/15/15, 9:08 AM
pm317 said...: Oh, that brings back memories. Tell them 'prepone' does not exist, no one will believe you.; 1/15/15, 9:13 AM
Quaestor said...: 11 Extremely Stupid Things Indians Do Without Thinking

Boring. Tell us the dumb stuff they do after considerable thought.; 1/15/15, 9:27 AM
Quaestor said...: Considerable thought. There's a circular idiom for you, a thoughtful quantity of thought. English is such a funny language.; 1/15/15, 9:32 AM
Magson said...: I work in the IT sector and have heard "do the needful" since 2002 when working with my Indian counterparts. 1st time I asked "what do you mean?" and he very politely explained that it to me.

That was also the job where I learned that "Dikshit"is a perfectly acceptable Indian surname.; 1/15/15, 9:52 AM
Hagar said...: 60+ years in this country, and I still react to "How are you?" as if you actually wanted to know.; 1/15/15, 10:00 AM
mikee said...: When I worked in India (ITT in Bangalore) I taught my coworkers how to address a Texan: Howdy! Howdy! Howdy!, and encouraged them always to greet Texans that way.

They in turn took me to wonderful restaurants and tried to kill me with wonderful food, every bit of which I loved, even the burning spicy kind that they always laughingly gobbled up while I carefully nibbled.

It is the differences in our cultures that make us love one another, not the similarities.; 1/15/15, 10:08 AM
buwaya said...: Some may be ex-British.
Like "out of station".
British garrisons, distinctly separate from the native town, were often called stations.
" do the need full" may also be an old Britishism.
Got to read all the Kipling. He often made fun of the "babu's" English.
There is also Filipino English BTW.
But Filipinos tend to be very good at fitting in linguistically so this stuff doesn't last long.; 1/15/15, 10:12 AM
Anonymous said...: Eve chaser; 1/15/15, 10:19 AM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne aka Doug Emhoff's Pimp Hand said...: We've got "yesterday morning" and "tomorrow morning", why not "today morning".

Used to hear that a lot from the Indian IT contractors I've worked with over the years.; 1/15/15, 10:47 AM
Crimso said...: As I started down the list I thought of the time one of my fellow graduate students (Indian) let me know that our coming exam had been "preponed." I looked at him in astonishment and asserted there was no such word. He patiently explained the logic (which I could not refute). And then, it's on the list! I've been using the term the last 25+ years, never suspecting Indians used it commonly. I thought he had come by it on his own.; 1/15/15, 12:46 PM
Christy said...: I am totes charmed by such idiosyncrasies.; 1/15/15, 12:57 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "We've got "yesterday morning" and "tomorrow morning", why not "today morning,""

Interesting.

Made me wonder why we have "tonight" and "today" and not "tomorning." My answer was because "morrow" means morning and we have "tomorrow." The question becomes why we have "tomorrow morning," which is like "tomorrowmorrow."; 1/15/15, 1:10 PM
Clyde said...: The illustration of the tiger under #8 made me laugh.; 1/15/15, 1:41 PM
Kirk Parker said...: NorthOf,

Re "today morning" -- one delightful phrase I heard in South Sudan (but as far as recollect not in Kenya) was "Next Tomorrow". This was a direct translation of the term for day-after-tomorrow in numerous local languages...; 1/15/15, 5:24 PM
DavidD said...: "Revert" used in the sense of "get back to me" rather than "put back the way it was"; "my native" for "my hometown"; and "fresher" for "newbie".; 1/15/15, 8:42 PM
DavidD said...: Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida has several signs written in Indian English, by the way; the tiger sign referenced above reminded me.; 1/15/15, 8:45 PM