Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Mother tongue: ___________

You know - I feel like posting but I really can't say what I'm feeling which makes posting seem irrelevant! So decided this post would be about language - specifically words which we use or make up in our daily lives which so completely do not make sense. The latest in this long line is 'Gamous' - B & I were talking about people who are monogamous/polygamous and she decided I should not talk since I need to get 'gamous' first!! Now put in context, you get the connotation - however I forgot the context and told friend whilst talking about a boy that I wanted to get gamous with him - Friend is like what!!!??? so explained what I meant and she got it [I think]! A word she uses is coolio - which according to her means extremely cool - to me it is a used to be rapper!! Firm where I work has boy who calls all females chicklit - to me & C, that's literature written by a female for a female!! My mother tells me to 'shut my face' all the time - I mean did I skip the window pane part of anatomy?? I actually had a whole list of stuff that we do or say that really means nothing - classic example - take a chill pill or my personal bugbear - chillax - I mean really what does That mean?? no matter how many times people explain to me it's a combination of chill and relax - I just don't get the coolness quotient in that verb!! While I was typing this, I was simultaneously doing a quiz on facebook [I'm kinda figuring it out slowly] and the question was which hip hop word was added to the Merriam Webster dictionary - my choices (a) fo'wizzle (b) hyphy (c) crunk (d) don't remember.....the answer Crunk - what could that mean?? really please let me know if you know!! Beyonce got the word "bootylicious" added to the dictionary as well but that one is easy to understand.....unlike the latest rapper on the block T-Pain who will buy you a 'drank' - now is this called that (a) because he drank it (b) he pays for it after you drank it (c) is it 2/3/x numbers of drinks put together so that you drank and then you become a skank!! It's quite a nice song though tho the video is really at a different pace than the song in my opinion and I swear in some places he looks like he is doing the bhangra!! I think another way we develop words is either we anglicise hindi or we indianise english - Maro'ing' line!! oh! since I'm asking for explanations - please tell me how did the word 'batting' come to mean flirting wit/hitting on ppl - I'm still not clear as to the exact meaning also!! If I continue in this vein, I will be asking for reasons till kingdom come so I'm just going to take my sleepy pills and say good night!!
I also read this random piece of information that english has a neuter gender since for some 300 odd years French was the official language of England so it was kept alive by the common people who just decided to do away with complicated tenses and genders! coolio!!

5 comments:

rushedgalaxy said...

Yo Baby!!!

good one!!
like lots.. i fail to get the coolness quotient in the chillax bit too... hehe..

CurlyGirlie said...

@ rushed galaxy: this is why we get along...similar understand of language!!

Arun Nair said...

I dn Kn whc is wurs. da incrsng inflnc f sms lngg in r dly usge is sick.
2 me, its da wurst thng 2 hapn

CurlyGirlie said...

@ arun nair: if u see those in my posts, its just coz my typing sucks!!

bowen arrow said...

i agree coolio is very much a rapper...
firm where you work man could be saying 'chicklet' which could mean a chewing gum or the 'let' part being suffixed meaning 'young' or 'small' in an endearing fashion..i.e. piglet, pizzalet etc. shut your face...yes...never got that window pane thing either---well said!
crunk is actually slang for 'crazy drunk'- term that originated in atlanta- crunk- the kind of music is typefied by a very heavy beat (makes sense if your car needs to jump up and down), a rapper yelping at the top of his voice telling you 'who's in the house' (missy/ usher/ take yo pick/ etc)or telling you what to do (which is invariably 'put yo hands up')and a heavy synth line (ciara's 'goodies'). like all such terms associated with a movement/ culture/ sub culture the usage of crunk then expands...e.g. crunk juice/ (i suppose something like red bull that makes the whole crunk experience that much more well...'crunky' i suppose.

over to t pain- the drank being a drink is to do with how they speak in the south...drawl based thingummy like how gwb pronounces 'doubleyou' like 'dubya'.

indian english is another level all together- even without the addition of indian words like maro-ing/ fado-ing/ hajaar etc, the way we speak is extremely unique. a unique combination of being taught the "queen's english" juxtaposed with subconsciuos sentence construction in an indian language---my personal faves:

Q: have you taken your meals?
A: Yes, I packed my lunch and dinner and took them from colaba to santa cruz.

Q: (in a bus) Darnit!! I dont have change. Will you please 'remove' my ticket?
A: Erm, I dont think its that much of a problem that it requires complete 'removal'. You should re-consider.

And my St Marian favourite...

'FIGHT BECAME'.

ciao.