Pinglish, Urdish or Engdu?
Adil Najam
A couple of people have emailed to remind me
that we have not had a post on Pinglish for a
while. Maybe I got scared
by sabizaks reminder (here) that I should be
more careful in my determination of what is
or is not Pinglish. Must confess that I am still
not sure what it is, even thought I offered a
provisional definition of Pinglish (here); of
course, this is very closely related to Hinglish.
(More Pinglish posts here).
So, off I went in search of a better understanding of this thing I was calling Pinglish.
What I found hidden deep inside the crevasses of the Internet was a delightful post
on a forum called CyberMurid by someone going by the name bandali under the title
Pinglish, Urdish or Engdu. (Addition: Although I had originally found this material at
the said website, we have since been informed that much of this material was part of an
articel by Dr. Rauf Parikh in Dawn magazine, March 10, 2002.)
Here are the techical essentials:
A prominent feature of Pinglish in the use of obsolete (in some cases even archaic)
words and expressions. Local coinage is quite common. In some cases, this local
coinage, though it may occasionally sound legitimate, would be incomprehensible or
even hilarious to native ears. Sometimes, the local variety of the language sounds
bookish (they felicitate, they dont congratulate), too formal (do the needful, for
instance) or even Un-English. Many terms and phrases used in this part of the world
are not part of the English language but have rather been concocted and packed in a
phrase-like expression. For example: pin-drop silence, cousin-brother, cutpiece and out
of station (away from ones home town). Grammatical liberties are quite interesting and
pronunciation poles apart from what is known as RP (received pronunciation).
The writer goes on to give a hilarious list of examples. many of these are not wrong,
they are things that you will hear in Pakistan but those outside of our region may not
understand them the way we do. Let me just share a few:
What is your good name?
This may sound strange to the native ears since this
is literal translation of Ism-i-sharif in Urdu.
How is your good self?
This also has a ring of Urdu. Perhaps mizaj
sharif translated.
Hotel:
It refers to an eatery as well as to any place meant
for boarding and lodging. [ATP: Many of us still
say 'hotal meiN khana khana' when we really mean restaurant].
Colony:
Forget colonialism and imperialism; in Pinglish this refers to a large area comprising
of residential blocks, for instance: Jinnah Colony, Peoples Colony, Shah Faisal Colony,
etc.
Cheater:
Used in colloquial Urdu (and local English,
too) instead of cheat.
Bearer:
A waiter.
Affectee:
In desi English this means someone affected, but it is not to be found in the dictionary
(English dictionary, that is).
Cent percent:
Used instead of a hundred per cent (per and cent are put together).
Moot:
Used by some local newspapers instead of meeting.
Optical:
Used (especially by shops) in place of eye glasses.
Nullah:
Ravine; usually buses fall into nullahs and khuds.
Dacoit:
A robber, perhaps from Urdu dakait.
Cutpiece:
A small, leftover piece of cloth; a local coinage. [ATP: See our ganderi
discussion here and here].
Diggy:
The trunk of a car.
Black money:
Refers to money amassed through unfair means; another local usage, perhaps a literal
translation of kala dhan
Toast:
A slice of bread whether toasted or not.
Kutcha:
Made of mud or clay, for example, a kutcha road, a kutcha house. Antonym is pucca.
Peon:
The dictionary says peon means a day-labourer; in India it meant a foot-soldier. But
now, in Pakistan and India, it means a messenger or office boy.
Eve-teasing:
Sexual harassment.
Keep fast:
Instead of fast (for roza); literal translation from
Urdu.
Give exam:
Instead of take exam; literal translation from
Urdu.
New, new things:
Literal translation from Urdu involving repetition of adjectives, such as big, big cars.
All of the original post if very well written and, importantly, is not trying to poke fingers
at anyone:
This scribe is very much part of the mundane majority of Pakistanis that uses desi
At a more substantive level, bandali offers this useful and informative analysis:
Some linguists believe that a kind of indigenization does occur when the speakers of
other languages use a particular language and, according to them, when a language is
used as a foreign language some deviation may take place (because of the local milieu)
and this deviation should not be termed as a mistake. Rather, linguists like to refer to
such versions as regional variety.
I do agree with this point of view, but in the case of desi English, they are not
deviations or even mistakes; sometimes these are downright atrocities. I feel
that if somebody wants to take revenge on the British for what they did to us
during the British Raj, they should think of some other and better ways
for instance, exporting some of our politicians to the UK for good (it will,
in turn, benefit our country as well).
Some linguists, Dr Tariq Rehman, for instance, are of the view that Pakistani English
is the new regional variety of the language and, therefore, should be viewed as
such; i.e., something like South-Asian English or African English. This may be true,
but in some instances, the Urduization of English reaches such lengths that
it sounds something like Urdish or Engdu.
P.S. I have been unable to locate bandali and this writeup was originally posted
on CyberMurid in March 2002; If someone knows who bandali is please convey to
him (I assume it is him from the name) that he has fans at ATP.
P.P.S. The photographs are from Jamsh; look at them carefully and enjoy. His photo
collection is at Flickr.com and who blogs here. More Pinglish posts here.
P.P.P.S. Since having posted this, we have been informed that much of the material we
had found on the CyberMurid website (now no longer functional) was part of an article
by Dr. Rauf Parih in Dawn magazine (March 10, 2002).
