THE Euro-American expressions used in Japanese newspapers are sometimes referred to as ‘Japlish’. Singaporean English is nicknamed ‘Singlish’. The Indian edition of English is labelled, because of the influence of Hindi, as ‘Hinglish’. Taking a cue, can we call the Pakistani version ‘Pinglish’?

English has been as a second language and even official language in this part of the world for quite a long time and, therefore, the standard of English can be expected to be fairly high here. But, for some strange reason, it is not so. The English of subcontinent is scornfully termed as ‘butler English’ and ‘babu English’.

The regional varieties of the English language round the world have, of course, some peculiarities. 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’.

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 don’t ‘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 one’s home town). Grammatical liberties are quite interesting and pronunciation poles apart from what is known as RP (received pronunciation).

This scribe is very much part of the mundane majority of Pakistanis that uses desi ungrezi and no exception, or eminence for that matter, is claimed. Pointing one’s finger towards one’s own fault does not necessarily qualify one for pardon and it is not so intended either. However, knowing thyself is not a sin and in this case it is perhaps amusing, too:

 

Vocabulary
* Affectee: in desi English this means ‘someone affected’, but it is not to be found in the dictionary (English dictionary, that is).

* Flying coach: local coinage meaning ‘very fast coach’.

* Hotel: it refers to an eatery as well as to any place meant for boarding and lodging.

* Broad-minded: in standard English, it refers to behaviour regarding sex, but in ‘Pinglish’ it means ‘somebody who is willing to accept different norms and is adaptable’.

* Cheater: used in colloquial Urdu (and local ‘English’, too) instead of ‘cheat’.

* Driver: the use of ‘driver’ instead of chauffeur is fairly common.

* Bearer: a waiter.

* Boot: a shoe.

* Cent percent: used instead of ‘a hundred per cent’ (‘per’ and ‘cent’ are put together).

* Conveyance: transportation

* Moot: used by some local newspapers instead of ‘meeting’.

* Nook and corner: instead of ‘nook and cranny’.

* Opticals: used in place of ‘eye glasses’.

* Tubelight: fluorescent tube.

* Thrice: not considered obsolete and is still used to say ‘three times’.

* Nullah: ravine; usually buses fall into ‘nullahs’ and ‘khuds’.

* Urad: lentil.

* Moong: ditto; read market intelligence published in local English newspaper to find (more) such words.

* Dacoit: a robber, perhaps from Urdu dakait.

* Cutpiece: a small, leftover piece of cloth; a local coinage.

* Jack: influence. * Source: ditto.

* Eveninger: an evening newspaper.

* On seat: instead of ‘in seat’, implying ‘not in the office’, perhaps a literal translation of Urdu’s seat pur nahin hay.

* Diggy: the trunk of a car.

* Mudguard: the fender of a car or motorbike.

* Gherao: In ‘Engdu’, it means ‘a sort of demonstration where protesters surround some person or building. Some newspapers use its ‘past tense’ even, that is, interestingly, ‘gheraoed’.

* Black money: refers to money amassed through unfair means; another local usage, perhaps a literal translation of kala dhan.

* Colony: forget colonialism and imperialism; in ‘Pinglish’ this refers to a large area comprising of residential blocks, for instance: Jinnah Colony, People’s Colony, Shah Faisal Colony, etc.

* Goonda: hooligan.

* Airdash: officials never travel by air nor do they rush to a place, they always ‘airdash’; and they don’t care if this word exists in the English dictionary or not.

* Ticket: also used to say ‘stamp’.

* Healthy: means ‘fat’ (not a healthy idea, of course).

* Toast: a slice of bread whether toasted or not.

* Lathi-charge: in ‘Urdish’, this refers to the use of batons by police, usually to disperse a disorderly crowd. Lathi is, of course, a desi word meaning ‘a heavy stick’ and the ‘charge’ is English. The past tense is ‘lathi-charged’.

* Kutcha: made of mud or clay, for example, a kutcha road, a kutcha house. Antonym is pucca.

* Demise: death; (not considered formal or pompous).

* Felicitate: to congratulate; (ditto).

* 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’.

* Allottee: a person allotted something, specially property.

* Lakh/lac: a hundred thousand.

* Crore: a hundred lakh; ten million.

* Godown: a warehouse.

* Eve-teasing: sexual harassment.

* Double-roti: bun or bread; and don’t mind if it is ‘single’.

* Miscreant: in ‘Pinglish’, not considered dated.

* Challan: ticket for a traffic offence.

 

Idioms
* Keep fast: instead of ‘fast’; literal translation from Urdu.

* Give exam: instead of ‘take exam’; ditto.

* Ten, ten times: literal translation of dus dus baar.

* New, new things: literal translation from Urdu involving repetition of adjectives, such as ‘big, big cars’.

 

Grammar
* There is a general tendency towards using the Present Progressive instead of the Present Simple: ‘I am not knowing’ instead of ‘I don’t know’; ‘I am thinking’ instead of ‘I think’ and ‘We should not be doing this’ instead of ‘we should not do this’.

* Another trend or deviation is to use the Present Progressive instead of the Present Perfect Progressive: ‘I am waiting since morning’, instead of ‘I have been...’

 

Other deviations:
* ‘I think so that...’ instead of ‘I think...’.

* ‘What is your good name’? this may sound strange to the native ears since this is literal translation of Ism-i-sharif in Urdu.

* Similarly ‘How is your good self?’ has a ring of Urdu. Perhaps mizaj sharif translated.

Much can be added to the list. But this terrain has its own ‘nullahs’ and ‘khuds’ and I think (read ‘I think so that’) I have been (rather, ‘I am’) driving on this kutcha road for too long now. Therefore, I would rather be saying Khuda Hafiz.