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Oxford Chacha`s mast chaap: The Times of India
London, Aug 22: `Chacha`s mast chaap made me very positive about desh as I gave my naam into the videshi nivas`. Cross my heart, that`s English as the modern linguistic `natak` goes, even though it may not be quite the language Shakespeare used and recognised.
London, Aug 22: 'Chacha's mast chaap made me very positive about desh as I gave my naam into the videshi nivas'. Cross my heart, that's English as the modern linguistic 'natak' goes, even though it may not be quite the language Shakespeare used and recognised.
The Oxford Dictionary of English's updated 353,000-word listing, published on Thursday incorporates a further 37 Indian imports and a huge number of West Indian pronounciation-blunders into the world's fastest-growing, most widely-spoken tongue.
From today, it's fine for Indians to not know the English equivalent of chit-fund, udyog, murgh, history-sheeter and chawal.
"Hell, why should they," laughs British Asian linguistics student Ramesh Panwal. "Don't find out what a chowki is called in English - it is English. Dhoti is English. So is vaid, tal, namak, palak and so on".
Linguistic purists are appalled that the dictionary has compounded its sins by including modern journalistic slang such as "bootylicious", a word thought almost to be invented to describe J-Lo's remarkable exterior. It has gone hi-tech with words such as "egosurf, data smog and cyber slacker". And it includes apparent flaws in regional pronounciation, such as "aks" or "ax", the West Indian take on "ask".
Oxford University Press (OUP) is unmoved by all the fury. The dictionary offers a true picture of "English as it is used around the world," OUP editor Angus Stevenson, who worked on the tome, told this paper. Stevenson explained that the 37 new Indian entries added to the "230 Indian uses already in the dictionary…but it's all a considered and well-judged process. After all, we look at hundreds of millions of words of text before deciding to include them in the dictionary".
The updated dictionary, proudly described by OUP editors as the "largest one-volume English dictionary" contains unlikely-sounding Hindi listings such as "shrimati", "sindoor", "nagar" apart from "bhadralok, bhasha, nai, maha, mahurat and roko".
Much of the rapid Hindi-isation of English is thought to be the result of British Asian interaction. "The phrase, 'Kiss my chuddies' was a British Asian invention and it brought the Hindi word for knickers into modern English conversation," points out Panwal.
So too, the word "papad", though British Indians prefer to call it "poppadom".
Confirmed Judy Pearsall, OUP publishing manager, "Our language is transforming".
Adds Stevenson in gentle reproof: "Aks' or Ax was actually the original standard pronounciation of the word 'ask' in the Middle Ages".
Perhaps OUP knows something about bhasha that we don't.
From today, it's fine for Indians to not know the English equivalent of chit-fund, udyog, murgh, history-sheeter and chawal.
"Hell, why should they," laughs British Asian linguistics student Ramesh Panwal. "Don't find out what a chowki is called in English - it is English. Dhoti is English. So is vaid, tal, namak, palak and so on".
Linguistic purists are appalled that the dictionary has compounded its sins by including modern journalistic slang such as "bootylicious", a word thought almost to be invented to describe J-Lo's remarkable exterior. It has gone hi-tech with words such as "egosurf, data smog and cyber slacker". And it includes apparent flaws in regional pronounciation, such as "aks" or "ax", the West Indian take on "ask".
Oxford University Press (OUP) is unmoved by all the fury. The dictionary offers a true picture of "English as it is used around the world," OUP editor Angus Stevenson, who worked on the tome, told this paper. Stevenson explained that the 37 new Indian entries added to the "230 Indian uses already in the dictionary…but it's all a considered and well-judged process. After all, we look at hundreds of millions of words of text before deciding to include them in the dictionary".
The updated dictionary, proudly described by OUP editors as the "largest one-volume English dictionary" contains unlikely-sounding Hindi listings such as "shrimati", "sindoor", "nagar" apart from "bhadralok, bhasha, nai, maha, mahurat and roko".
Much of the rapid Hindi-isation of English is thought to be the result of British Asian interaction. "The phrase, 'Kiss my chuddies' was a British Asian invention and it brought the Hindi word for knickers into modern English conversation," points out Panwal.
So too, the word "papad", though British Indians prefer to call it "poppadom".
Confirmed Judy Pearsall, OUP publishing manager, "Our language is transforming".
Adds Stevenson in gentle reproof: "Aks' or Ax was actually the original standard pronounciation of the word 'ask' in the Middle Ages".
Perhaps OUP knows something about bhasha that we don't.