European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 3, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 18 columns the stars and stripes monday August 3,1987 today s crossword English As she is spoke in India by Steven r. We1sman looking for a wife the classified advertising Sec Tion of the is or Delhi offers match with a Beautiful homely girl from a Good fam ily. Set a time to meet but if you re especially eager you can always prep one the visit. Although they have been speaking English on the Indi an subcontinent for 300 years longer than Many of you says an Indian Friend there Are those who think the indians Haven quite Gal it right. Indian English could perhaps Best be defined Ai a language written or spoken by Indian in the belief that it is English . Sharada Prasad prime minister Rajiv Gandhi s press spokesman wrote recently. The spelling is English. The tone and spot May not be. In fact Indian English has Many Virtues among them certain logic and succinctness. It makes More sense after to. For a Good homemaker to be considered homely than somebody with b Plain face. And if you can postponed meeting Why a Houmel you be Able to prep one English is spoken by perhaps 2 or 3 percent of the billion or so people who live in the Vasi territory once embraced by the British Empire but in time it has evolved in South Asia into a distinctive language with its own logic idiosyncrasies and culture. The official language of India is hindi and in Pakistan it is urdu but neither is spoken by a majority of the , most people speak various regional languages with the educated raises using English As a link and a ticket to advancement. For a foreigner eng ish usage in India can sen As kind of Road map to certain subtleties of culture and politics since Many peculiarities derive from the Gram mar and modes of thought in South Asia. Often i have found myself interviewing a Law enforce ment official about politically or ethnically inspired Kaffl Ines Only to be assured that the violence was earned out by bad characters and other anti social but these Are not the Bland cliches they seem. Rather they express the preference of the police and much of the Public to treat those who Munfor in the name of a cause As common criminals people whose demands can be ignored. Every one of the myriad ethnic disputes in so thasia reflects this dilemma and there it is summed up in the language example of succinctness is the practice of squashing a noun and verb log Ellier to create a new noun Vert. In a crisis politicians never Fly to Tal they air dish. Policemen wielding steel Tippe truncheons known As blah have their own verb forms As do Street protesters. For some reason processions Are never held but always taken slogans Are always raised not shouted before the prot Sleis Are fast charged by the police. Economy of expression is also the hallmark of this sort of Exchange found among ethnic tamils in South India How Are you i Hope of incisive Ness also has its hazards. I have Learned to be wary when a bureaucrat promises to do the needful lest he anticipate his own needs instead of mine people who die meet with w untimely demise an their families Are condoned by friends just As they have been Felicitated on happier occasions. The Indian government establishes countless commissions and the gets into debates about their modalities Only to discover lacunae in inter semis of of my favorite is the word tis Riparius As in Fiss Parous tendencies a common expression i India sri Lanka and Pakistan where ethnic conflict always poses a threat to National Unity. The word comes nol from sanskrit or persian the roots of North Ern Indian languages but from urn for splitting apart which has also Given us fissure and nuclear fiv2on."rssiparownesjkis global probe Fol but1 have never heard of this Good word being used in the Middle East say or any other part of the the most revealing idiosyncrasy is the Perva Sive use verb tense. You must be knowing him a Friend win say of a Mutual Codea Jue another might a. He b not knowing what tone it beaux he not having any or the hard boiled infuriating approach of the lowly government Tai who tens you what Corr you Are wanting i am not i admit we run the risk of . By it b tempting to conclude along with Many in Cutic fcb Olan thai the practice is consist Cal with a Vatu Enen and lawlessness inducting the notion of dead and rebirth at the Core of find other parallels for such Thanes even in the a Rev worn by women and Dhoti or Loincloth Hymen. Scholars not that these a Jenl articles of Doto in re distinguished by the fact that they contain not m stitch thread and Are wrapped from a Lon continuous Boh of doth that oui Hie the Ganges River thai gives life to India. From such concepts ones View of Indian time and tense. to has never been i sin in of these examples b connected with the phenom Enon of Many of our useful English words w the West being of Indian origin veranda Bungalow pundit Khaki and Mango for example. Such words began creeping int English during elizabethan times and Are compiled m the famous dictionary Hobson Jobson a wonderfully thick volume of Anglo Indian phrases first published in 1886. There you can find such surprising anomalies As the me that two words associated with India caste and cobra Are actually of portuguese origin imported to the subcontinent by Early Trade Sand ancient limes each of India native tongues a developed a cadence of its own Wahidi Aho brings vitality to Indian English. In Indian languages Many words Are repealed twice for emphasis. You ask someone to please speak slowly slowly so you can understand or to give Youon Lya Linle it tic Khushwant Singh the historian essayist and novelist has recorded How some Anglo Indian writers have experimented with literal translations of Indian words often with lyrical results As in this evocation by Ramarao hot hot Lea. Long Long hair. With these very eyes with these very eyes Tiave seen the ghosts of More than a Hundred Young men and women All killed by magic by magic Indian l Lis nol sit ii English thus yields poetry and Power when u my doing the needful. Isth a h. Weij Tok Lech old 1-. A Vert to Emu Uruu ind mow Tom non Gnu Jum stiff mob c1ot across 1 boys spare who Elf quarrel 11 French tvs is ending for tact Durt 39 rigid41 old orgy cry42 some Are delicious 48 group of nine4 Railroad freight Carrier 2 Kitty s 14 Star contented u mesh sound me Dow Peter Domain 4 outcome 17 Burt Nuur Guthri Eib set Birds us age Cor one Mso til sum 51 biblical u ignited Chunfa maybe u walk Bunker Cendt place hoi Ioe 90 if Aiji taut Lon ,7 entree far hem one "s?".1" Mumrow as3 10 wings Lanui 54 tru Hort Ori s7 recipe us Teapot 41-Anmn, Down m sheer Loose fcb Rte so Tatami . Canal it thebe Reehle Filiau for two a Cutty 34 Standee Slack u front Bachoo Ower St soft Wyten Smuke touching onto 47 set or the Taj mahal 48arthm 8-3 the far Side Tough Luck Rusty. _ seven Yaar twid uck
