Hinglish, a blending of the words "Hindi" and "English", means to combine both types of words in one sentence. This is more commonly seen in urban and semi-urban centers of the Hindi-speaking states of
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, but is slowly spreading into rural and remote areas of these states via television, mobile phones and word of mouth, slowly achieving
vernacularVernacular is the native language of a country or a locality. In general linguistics, it is used to describe local languages as opposed to lingua francas, official standards or global languages. It is sometimes applied to nonstandard dialects of a global language...
status. Many speakers do not realize that they are incorporating English words into Hindi sentences or Hindi words into English sentences.
Hinglish, a blending of the words "Hindi" and "English", means to combine both types of words in one sentence. This is more commonly seen in urban and semi-urban centers of the Hindi-speaking states of
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, but is slowly spreading into rural and remote areas of these states via television, mobile phones and word of mouth, slowly achieving
vernacularVernacular is the native language of a country or a locality. In general linguistics, it is used to describe local languages as opposed to lingua francas, official standards or global languages. It is sometimes applied to nonstandard dialects of a global language...
status. Many speakers do not realize that they are incorporating English words into Hindi sentences or Hindi words into English sentences.
David CrystalDavid Crystal, OBE is a linguist, academic and author.-Background and career:Crystal was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. He grew up in Holyhead, North Wales, and Liverpool, England where he attended St Mary's College from 1951....
, a British linguist at the
University of WalesThe University of Wales is a confederal university founded in 1893. It has accredited institutions throughout Wales, ranging from nineteenth-century establishments like Aberystwyth and Bangor to post-1992 universities like Newport and institutes of higher education such as UWIC and Glyndŵr...
, projected in 2004 that at about 350 million, the world's Hinglish speakers may soon outnumber
native English speakersA first language is the language a human being learns from birth...
.
This highly popular mixing of both the languages in most parts of northern and central India has grown from the fact that English is a popular language of choice amongst the urban youth who find themselves comfortable in its
lexiconIn linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes....
. It is already the medium for imparting education in many schools across the nation. The advent of cable television and its pervasive growth has seen the masses exposed to a wide variety of programming from across the world.
Columnist
Devyani ChaubalDevyani Chaubal was an Indian journalist and columnist. She was born into a rich family; her father was a prosperous barrister. Chaubal was a film gossip journalist, and among the first in Indian film journalism to have a poison pen and insinuate a lot in her columns. Until her arrival, Indian...
was the first author to use Hinglish in her work. Author Shobhaa De then began to use Hinglish elements in her books and columns in the Indian magazine
StardustStardust is an Indian monthly Bollywood news and gossip magazine published in English and Hindi. It also sponsors the Stardust Awards.-History:...
. Other authors that have used Hinglish extensively in their novels are
Salman RushdieSir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is a British Indian novelist and essayist. He achieved fame with his second novel, Midnight's Children , which won the Booker Prize in 1981. Much of his early fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent...
and
Upamanyu ChatterjeeUpamanyu Chatterjee is an Indian author and administrator, notable for his work set in the milieu of the Indian Administrative Service, especially his novel English August....
.
In 2005, Baljinder Kaur Mahal (pen name BK Mahal) wrote a book called,
The Queen's Hinglish: How to Speak Pukka published by Collins.