[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

By the way, my wife uses the word 'repair' or 'under repair' when she means 'broken'. Is this 'Tamil English' or simply an idiosyncrasy? I can imagine that perhaps someone once saw a machine with an over-optimistic sign, Under Repair on it, and understood that it actually meant, will never work again!

Hmm, reminds me of my neighbour from Chennai who always used to say 'so only'. For example, she'd say 'I need to perform puja, so only I cannot come to the movie'. Perhaps she meant to say 'that is why'.
Another of her oft-mentioned responses on the phone when I asked to speak to her husband was 'he is eating'. I used to ask her if he was eating her brains!

[vnabhi]

People who've travelled through Orissa or those having friends from that region must have often been asked 'where are you remaining?' instead of 'where are you staying?'.
Another Oriya pal dogmatically insisted on saying 'Is not it?' instead of 'Is it not?' His rationale was simple...after all 'Isn't it' expands to 'Is not it?'

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

'Is not it?' instead of 'Is it not?' His rationale was simple...after all 'Isn't it' expands to 'Is not it?'

This is a tough one!
I need professional help with this.

[jango]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

People who've travelled through Orissa or those having friends from that region must have often been asked 'where are you remaining?' instead of 'where are you staying?'.
Another Oriya pal dogmatically insisted on saying 'Is not it?' instead of 'Is it not?' His rationale was simple...after all 'Isn't it' expands to 'Is not it?'

He he...nice observation. I was in bbsr for 12 yrs ....

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Hmm, reminds me of my neighbour from Chennai who always used to say 'so only'. For example, she'd say 'I need to perform puja, so only I cannot come to the movie'. Perhaps she meant to say 'that is why'.

Ah, the ubiquitous 'only'!

Another of her oft-mentioned responses on the phone when I asked to speak to her husband was 'he is eating'. I used to ask her if he was eating her brains!

It was very rude of you not to enquire what he was eating. whether she had eaten too, what they had consumed earlier in the day, and what they intended to eat for the rest of the day. It would have been only friendly to contribute your dietary details to the conversation! You will find that, in England, it is the weather that fills this obligatory role in conversation!

Originally Posted by vnabhi

People who've travelled through Orissa or those having friends from that region must have often been asked 'where are you remaining?' instead of 'where are you staying?'.

In British English, staying implies temporary.

I stayed at my friend's house

I am staying at that good hotel

So the British long-term resident here, at first, finds that he has the following conversation regularly, and wonders why it confuses others:

"Where are you staying?"

"I am living here!"

or even...

"I stay in Chennai only."

"Really? It's a shame you don't get to visit other places!"

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Hmm, reminds me of my neighbour from Chennai who always used to say 'so only'. For example, she'd say 'I need to perform puja, so only I cannot come to the movie'. Perhaps she meant to say 'that is why'.

No, I'd say she meant 'Which is why'

Speaking of neighbours, we have a lot of telugu people around in chennai & here are a few funny versions of Telenglish, as I call it.

1. I want to iron(pronounced irun) my clothes.
2. Iz it zo ?
3. only is pronounced ounly.
4. Contingency is pronounced Conti(as in continent)sensy. (Everytime my boss says that, I will have to turn away for a moment)
5. Embarassing is embracing.

plenty more, but i think we would be seriously offtopic here.

[nitrous]

Speaking of neighbours, we have a lot of telugu people around in chennai & here are a few funny versions of Telenglish, as I call it.

1. I want to iron(pronounced irun) my clothes.
2. Iz it zo ?
3. only is pronounced ounly.
4. Contingency is pronounced Conti(as in continent)sensy. (Everytime my boss says that, I will have to turn away for a moment)
5. Embarassing is embracing.

Lol,John.
You post something like this and expect the Deccan BHPians to embrace you.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by nitrous

Lol,John.
You post something like this and expect the Deccan BHPians to embrace you.

There is no shame in having an accent nitrous. It simply means you know more than one language which is something to be proud of. We all have accents as we all know at least 2 languages.

[Sam Kapasi]

Much as I love English as a language, I love the Indian accent and the worlds we throw in, making it Hinglish.

Arrey, yaar, chalo, kya have become part of our daily lingo and an integral part of mine too.
It is beautiful and catchy.

Catchy enough for a certain young German lady to say "Arrey call na!" quite regularly and she loves it!

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

...
1. I want to iron(pronounced irun) my clothes.
2. Iz it zo ?
3. only is pronounced ounly.
4. Contingency is pronounced Conti(as in continent)sensy. (Everytime my boss says that, I will have to turn away for a moment)
5. Embarassing is embracing.
...

Hopefully, 'contisensy' is not leading to incontinence for him. Or may be the other way around!

More OT: John, perhaps one may add the following:
6: Strongly pronouncing the 'd' in any word ending with 'dge', like fridge, bridge, etc. which sound like 'frideje', 'brideje'
[Very similar to the Amdavadi/Vadodara penchance to pronounce the 'gue' at the end of a word as 'gayu'. Now imagine how 'fatigue' is pronounced]
7. Saying 'improvize' for 'improve' (that is a common trait in the Southern states; almost always with a highly emotional 'YIMPROVIZE' coming straight out of the depth of the bowels)
8. 'I am not can be able to ...' - accompanied usually with a facial expression of impending incontinence
9. 'Calaculator' - that 'a' in the middle just has to be there. Aaargh!
10. 'Straight' becomes 'Shtraiiiiiiiiiit' (those i's are a single elongated i)

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

10. 'Straight' becomes 'Shtraiiiiiiiiiit' (those i's are a single elongated i)

I've often heard that in Bangalore.

Strite go.

And I'm not sure if that's a compromise between right and straight.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Naaaaiiiiiiiira ponga!

With accompanying gesture, of course!

Esteem_Lover, if you taught your boss how to pronounce contingency, would he be grateful, or offended? Or are you not doing so because you prefer things the way they are?

I like the idea of an embracing moment!

[CR-V]

A question:

What does this yeti mean? someone new to something?
And also what does Yedi mean? saw a signature saying something about a yeti and a yedi... confused.

[Nikhilb2008]

Yeti - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[revvedup]

Originally Posted by CR-V

A question:

What does this yeti mean? someone new to something?
And also what does Yedi mean? saw a signature saying something about a yeti and a yedi... confused.

If you ask this on T-BHP, then here's the answer
Yeti, Proper Noun, esp. a tall creature (human being ) with long golden locks and a strange fascination for half pants with JBL written on them, has more tattos on his body than there used to be graffiti on the Berlin wall.

Identification Mark- A sign with a black alien thingy on a yellow background

Outside Team-BHP it's another word for the the Abominable Snowman.
For illustration see below


Note-Any resemblance between the two is purely co-incidental.