Wednesday 23 May 2012

'Re-learning' English

CALL IT A SORT OF COMPLEX or call it a crisis or call it an awakening. Whatever. I am unlearning English. I am no longer the confident speaker or writer that I used to be. Today I know that confidence can spring out of ignorance or knowledge.

Unlearning English? Yes. It is looking at your English again to find out what is standard, what is not standard, and what is Indian.

I was surprised to know that major dictionaries did not list the word decoction. In South India decoction is black coffee.

A medico in Delhi is a medical shop, and I smiled at the way the word has been used to communicate with the people of the city. I thought that a medico was a medical student, which indeed is correct, but there was another surprise in store; a medical practitioner can also be a medico.

My mother is an employee. He is an employee. I realized that this is an awkward way of talking about someone’s profession. The word employee is used in a general sense meaning people who work in an organization or a company. Here is an example from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English:

The company also offers substantial bonuses to senior employees.  
Common words that we take for granted can cause problems. For instance, the word take in the sentence 

What do you take in the morning? I take coffee.
The right word is have and not take.

What do you have in the morning for breakfast?
Do you have coffee?
I have coffee in the mornings.

How many more such words, expressions, phrases or idioms that have escaped our attention?

What kind of English do we use? And with whom do we use English? Surely a great deal of things have got to be considered before we begin to use English suitable to contexts.

Tuesday 8 May 2012

RHYMING SLANG


Reddy, pull an I declare to the Charlie Horner there, and keep your heart and lung under control lest the dime a pop should barge in, and  take you  to ginger ale for creating nuisance.  And, if you don’t stop, I will switch and bone the dime a pop myself!

I am sure that you would have had difficulty making sense of what you have read, and unless you are familiar with what is called Rhyming Slang, you would not understand certain expressions used in the passage above.

Rhyming slang used by people of East London, is  today, used in America, Australia and Britain. It is not common in educated speech, and therefore, be careful when you use them in your everyday speech in a hurried enthusiasm.

In the passage above, I declare is a chair, Charlie Horner, corner. Heart and lung is your tongue, and dime a pop is cop. Ginger ale stands for jail while switch and bone is telephone as verb.

What is uncles and aunts then? It is your pants. To amuse you here are some expression from rhyming slang:
Bacons and eggs: legs
Bonny fair: hair
Brothers and sisters: whiskers
Fine and dandy: brandy
Pot of jelly: belly
Kiss the cross: boss
Nancy prance: dance
Johnnie Rump: pump
Leg rope: hope
Ruby rose: nose
Three or four: door
Smear and smudge: judge