Roots
English and the
cocktail shaker
Deepti
English
crossed another landmark last year: it greeted its one-millionth
new word with the usual open arms. The ease with which this
language accommodates new words is due, in part, to a phenomenon
called ‘code switching’. At some time or the other, all
users of more than one language become ‘code switchers’. ‘Code’
refers to the language because certain signs are used to
communicate meaning.
In code switching,
speakers keep switching from one language to the other or
another, if more than two languages are involved. North Indians
are generally proficient code switchers as they switch from
Punjabi to Hindi to English, even adding a smattering of Urdu at
times. Code switching on a regular basis leads to code mixing,
which takes place when a speaker uses small components from one
language while speaking in another.
When code mixing
takes place, speakers create blends that are words that use
elements from both languages and can be easily understood by
speakers of both languages. For instance, the hybrid Spanglish
has created words like nerdio (meaning nerd), la
laptopa (a laptop) and emailiar (to email).
Word number one
million, which entered the lexicon of this 1500-year-old
language last year, belongs to a group of words from ‘Chinglish’
that is a hybrid of Chinese and English. There are other hybrids
like Japlish and Hinglish too, that keep adding new words.
Across the globe,
when people use some sort of English or the other, things are
bound to get exciting for English. It is this ‘excitement’
that has kept the language in the pink of health and given it
the honour of being global. Once upon a time, the standard form
of English as spoken by an ‘Englishman’ was something to die
for but today, the globe prefers a more global variety of
English. The language has conjured up a version that is being
termed ‘Globish’; a word coined by Jean-Paul Nerriere, a
vice-president of IBM in America.
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