Sunday, September 11, 2011

Hinglish - a blending of Hindi and English words

Hinglish, a blending of the words “Hindi” and “English”, means to combine both languages in one sentence. This is more commonly seen in urban and semi-urban centers of the Hindi-speaking states of India, but is slowly spreading into rural and remote areas of these states via television, mobile phones and word of mouth, slowly achieving vernacular status. Many speakers do not realize that they are incorporating English words into Hindi sentences or Hindi words into English sentences. David Crystal, a British linguist at the University of Wales, projected in 2004 that at about 350 million, the world’s Hinglish speakers may soon outnumber native English speakers.
Columnist Devyani Chaubal was the first author to use Hinglish in her work. Author Shobhaa De then began to use Hinglish elements in her books and columns in the Indian magazine Stardust. Other authors that have used Hinglish extensively in their novels are Salman Rushdie and Upamanyu Chatterjee.
Over the years, Hinglish has been effectively used in Indian advertising in advertising slogans, like Pepsi’s Yeh Dil Maange More! (1998), Yehi hai right choice, Baby (This is the Right Choice, Baby), Yeh Hai Youngistaan.

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