Wondered anyone, why you don’t have the privilege to read a word as it is written in English? Certain words have to be pronounced altogether in a different way, different from how these are spelt/ written.
The word education is to be read as ‘ejucation’ and not ‘edewcation’. Mirage is not ‘mi-rage’ or ‘miraage’ but ‘mirash’. Rendezvous is ron-day–voo. The word Director is to be enunciated as Director or ‘Diarector’? The dictionaries do often guide us on how a word is to be pronounced. Certain letters are silent whereas certain letters need to be emphasized. If a letter is to be silent while pronouncing, why at all it is inserted in the particular word in the first place? Foreign origin of the words may be one of the reasons for the unimaginable way of pronunciation. The British should acknowledge us Indians for contributing nearly or more than 700 words to their vocabulary!!! The words such as jungle, bungalow, catamaran, curry, ghee etc of Indian origin, have found a place in the Oxford dictionary. The Indian authors who write in English have equally contributed to this enchanting language. Think there still will be more additions to the dictionary, given our obsession with English.
We are obliged to the British for this beautiful, enamoring, universal language. Though officially Hindi is our national language, a major chunk of urban India communicates and connects through English. Speaking English is considered to be a matter of pride. If you are educated, you should definitely know English, irrespective of your knowledge on the subject of study or irrespective of the fact that you have studied in a regional language. Infact, if you happen to be a student or even parent of a student studying in a private school, you will learn to respect English by always speaking English. If you dare to talk in your mother tongue, you will be fined or punished. Dressing up to the occasion in a gathering is not enough to command reverence and to be considered as polished/ refined. You should utter only English or wherever possible, even if others fail to make anything out of what you speak. Such is the “colonial” influence. Speaking English is a symbol of education, dignity, prestige and superiority.
India has 28 states and 7 union territories. But more than 1500 languages exist in India, with 22 languages being classified as “official” languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India. One need not speak the regional language to make out his/her place of origin. The extensions added to the “English” words in the local slang or speaking the local version of English, can effectively identify the region where the person belongs to. Non-functional syllables may be mutated in local languages to evolve into myriad words which symbolize the same thing, thus enriching the English vocabulary. The word zero can take any form from ‘jeero’ to ‘seero’ depending on the region/ locality. It can be i-ron rod or an I(r)on rod, the letter ‘r’ being silent in the latter but correct version. In the Eastern parts of India, ‘O’ and ‘B’ are more predominant in places of ‘A’ and ‘V,’ respectively, while pronouncing words containing the latter group of letters. However, in southern parts, ‘O’ is opportunistically forgotten and replaced with the first and foremost ‘A’. The letters ‘ed’ often added to signify the past tense of a word, is pronounced separately to sound something like ‘learn-edu’ or ‘learn-idd’. For many, ‘the’ is ‘Da’/ ‘Dha’, ‘against’ is ‘aginist’…..so and so. These are not exaggerations. There are numerous such examples of mispronunciations (?) sometimes drawing chuckles if one carefully listens. No wonder, some of our abroad-educated ministers always land in a soup/ controversy for exhibiting their english skills., we the colonial Indians failing to grasp the ulterior meaning of such comments/ slangs.
The word education is to be read as ‘ejucation’ and not ‘edewcation’. Mirage is not ‘mi-rage’ or ‘miraage’ but ‘mirash’. Rendezvous is ron-day–voo. The word Director is to be enunciated as Director or ‘Diarector’? The dictionaries do often guide us on how a word is to be pronounced. Certain letters are silent whereas certain letters need to be emphasized. If a letter is to be silent while pronouncing, why at all it is inserted in the particular word in the first place? Foreign origin of the words may be one of the reasons for the unimaginable way of pronunciation. The British should acknowledge us Indians for contributing nearly or more than 700 words to their vocabulary!!! The words such as jungle, bungalow, catamaran, curry, ghee etc of Indian origin, have found a place in the Oxford dictionary. The Indian authors who write in English have equally contributed to this enchanting language. Think there still will be more additions to the dictionary, given our obsession with English.
We are obliged to the British for this beautiful, enamoring, universal language. Though officially Hindi is our national language, a major chunk of urban India communicates and connects through English. Speaking English is considered to be a matter of pride. If you are educated, you should definitely know English, irrespective of your knowledge on the subject of study or irrespective of the fact that you have studied in a regional language. Infact, if you happen to be a student or even parent of a student studying in a private school, you will learn to respect English by always speaking English. If you dare to talk in your mother tongue, you will be fined or punished. Dressing up to the occasion in a gathering is not enough to command reverence and to be considered as polished/ refined. You should utter only English or wherever possible, even if others fail to make anything out of what you speak. Such is the “colonial” influence. Speaking English is a symbol of education, dignity, prestige and superiority.
India has 28 states and 7 union territories. But more than 1500 languages exist in India, with 22 languages being classified as “official” languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India. One need not speak the regional language to make out his/her place of origin. The extensions added to the “English” words in the local slang or speaking the local version of English, can effectively identify the region where the person belongs to. Non-functional syllables may be mutated in local languages to evolve into myriad words which symbolize the same thing, thus enriching the English vocabulary. The word zero can take any form from ‘jeero’ to ‘seero’ depending on the region/ locality. It can be i-ron rod or an I(r)on rod, the letter ‘r’ being silent in the latter but correct version. In the Eastern parts of India, ‘O’ and ‘B’ are more predominant in places of ‘A’ and ‘V,’ respectively, while pronouncing words containing the latter group of letters. However, in southern parts, ‘O’ is opportunistically forgotten and replaced with the first and foremost ‘A’. The letters ‘ed’ often added to signify the past tense of a word, is pronounced separately to sound something like ‘learn-edu’ or ‘learn-idd’. For many, ‘the’ is ‘Da’/ ‘Dha’, ‘against’ is ‘aginist’…..so and so. These are not exaggerations. There are numerous such examples of mispronunciations (?) sometimes drawing chuckles if one carefully listens. No wonder, some of our abroad-educated ministers always land in a soup/ controversy for exhibiting their english skills., we the colonial Indians failing to grasp the ulterior meaning of such comments/ slangs.
We are Indians and can never be expected to speak the British English and show our still-persistent servility. After all, it is 62 years of independence from the British!! So we have our own version of English. It may be hinglish, binglish, benglish, gunglish, punglish, tamlish, manglish, kanglish etc. But it is a fact that we fare off well when compared to people from other non-English speaking countries of Asia.
With all such confusions, does any one of us speak the language the way it is to be spoken? After all, a language is meant for communication. Why bother of the jargons when it can serve its purpose of conveying messages and as long as we can understand only our own version of English. So let’s leave the pronunciations to the literary circuits or language experts and enjoy speaking English, the Indian way….
With all such confusions, does any one of us speak the language the way it is to be spoken? After all, a language is meant for communication. Why bother of the jargons when it can serve its purpose of conveying messages and as long as we can understand only our own version of English. So let’s leave the pronunciations to the literary circuits or language experts and enjoy speaking English, the Indian way….
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