Hinglish is now an official language !

Hinglish – widely used in India and among Indian migrants in the US and UK is now an official language with it’s own dictionary

The Hinglish dictionary will contain terms like timepass, badmash, prepone and to Bangalore.

Growing up in Mumbai, I used Hinglish as my main language and was very surprised that my colleagues here in US didn’t know what TP was or had no clue about PJ jokes.

According to this article in the BBC (which btw, has a picture of my favorite Amul ads ”Brad Butter – Jolie good snack” ),

Language expert David Crystal has described India as having a “unique position in the English-speaking world”.

“[It's a] linguistic bridge between the major first-language dialects of the world, such as British and American English, and the major foreign-language varieties, such as those emerging in China and Japan.”

I am sure there are going to be a lot of purists who will moan over the death of “true English” but as for me, I’m just happy that what I have been speaking over the years has now finally been recognized as an “official” language…

And just wanted to remind the complainers and purists that English has always borrowed extensively

These borrowed words include “pundit”, originally meaning a learned man; “shampoo”, derived from a word for massage; “pyjamas”, meaning a leg garment and “dungarees”, originating from the Dungri district of Mumbai.

Even the suburban-sounding “caravan” and “bungalow” – and the funky “bandana” and “bangles” were all taken from Hindi words.

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