Speaking American

Sarah Palin, who was John McCain's running mate in 2008 US Presidential election called on immigrants in the United States to speak "American.” Years ago, a gentleman in US told me we don't speak English, rather we speak American. I politely disagreed with him, saying "whatever you might call it, however Americanized it may be, the language is still English". I love English, the language I mostly read and write these days though I haven't lost touch with my mother tongue, roots and heritage.

English, though originated from England spread world wide as most British colonies, including America. Many adopted it either as their mother tongue, the official language of communication or both. No wonder Winston Churchill, desperate to drag America into World War II when Nazi Germany's blitzkrieg was juggernautung through Europe, flattered the then US President Roosevelt, "We are common set of people, separated by a common language".

English is a rich language. Like Urdu it does not have a script of its own and has a loosely knit Grammer. It uses Roman script, same as Spanish, French, German etc. The richness of English comes from its flexibility. It not shy and very liberal at accepting words and phrases from other languages to enrich itself. This has been the secret sauce of survival of the language. Another reason for the spread and survival of it is English being spoken by British and United States, the two major powers over centuries. Its adaptability made it the language of the masses while the Brahminical rigidity of Sanskrit restricted it as an ornamental language.

In India, English is often used as the language of elite and the passport to success. Most job oriented education and official transactions take place in English. A person having good command over English commands respect in society. In Odisha many in the state of excitement, anger or inebriation switch to English from their mother tongue Odia to drive their point or score over their rivals, even it is "PAKHALA KHIA" Onglish (the typical Odia accented English which comes out of mouth after consuming a stomach full of water soaked rice). Whenever I go to India to my home state of Odisha, I am respected more if I speak English over Odia, and much more so if I switch to American English, uttering Pepsi as "Phepsi", School as "Skchule", OK as "Okhay" and use a liberal dosage of "Awesome", "Cool", "Bro" and so on.

The ubiquitous Hindi word "Yaar" is already there in the Oxford English dictionary. It means friend in Hinglish (Hindi-English). We also have our share of Binglish (Bengali-English), Tanglish (Tamilian English) and so on, all denoting different versions and accents of Indian English. We all are aware about thousands of words of Indian origin seeping into English dictionary. Bandh (strikes or protests in India) and Gherao (surround) are few of them, not to mention the famous word of Odia origin "Juggernaut" - which took birth when the British ruling India saw Lord Jagannath's chariot in Puri rolling over, chugging along its path. The meaning of the word is self explanatory.

Culturally same words or phrases can have different meanings. In Southern part of the United States "Thanks you good Sir" is used as a token of appreciation. Once I told this someone in India to be immediately rebuffed - "Am I a bad someway" ? In the 1990s when I was new to the United States I continued my inertia retained from India by asking a coworker - "What's your good name ?". She smiled back politely - "I don't have a bad name".

In America they care a lot to pronounce your name correctly. Thankfully, my first name isn't too difficult to pronounce unlike Krottapalli or KondaUddaraju. No one cares in India if you mispronounce someone's name. Similarly the phrase "don't care" means I simply don't care because it's non of my business. Nonsense means something which doesn't make sense. In Odisha if you say "don't care", you will be branded as a selfish, heartless person having no concern for other and nonsense is considered as a rebuke

American English is no different as it is bit different from other forms of English. During my initial days in the United States I uttered the words Lakh (means 100,000) and Crore (10 million) to the bewilderment of my American friends and colleagues who only know in multiples of thousands, millions, billions and trillions. The words Bandobast, Juggad (both meaning making the necessary arrangements) used in Indian context have already found their way into the Websters dictionary.

The phrase "chewing English" or "English Chobeiba" is another example of Onglish (Oriya-English). Every year new additions are made to Oxford dictionaries, so who knows one day "Chewing English" could be one of them ! I have chewed enough about English for now, unable to digest it, burping out my PAKHALA KHIA English. Have a good day or good night, wherever you are located at - for the Sun might have set over the English Empire, but not over the English language.