Comments on: Denglish, Chinglish, Hinglish and Singlish

By: Jean Mercedes

Jean Mercedes — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:01:11 +0000

Thanks for the correction, Sayan!

By: Sayan

Sayan — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:23:53 +0000

This is very interesting website. Just a quick correction:
Hinglish = (Hindi-English)

There is no language called Hindu. Here is another interesting insight: India has the most number of English speakers in the world if native & non-native speakers are combined.
You may find the source of this information quite interesting:
http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/story/0,,1355064,00.html

Thanks and keep up the good work !

By: Jean Mercedes

Jean Mercedes — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:17:21 +0000

Thanks for your comments!
Eileen has a blog about Russia – check it out at http://russiawithlove.blogspot.com

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:17:37 +0000

Hello Jean, Stopped by your blog today for the first time and will definitely come back often. Enjoyed article about Denglish. I live here in Russia and it’s amazing what folks do to English – and what we foreigners do to Russian. Eileen

By: Ren Garcia

Ren Garcia — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:13:44 +0000

The Philippines has “taglish” from the local dialect, tagalog.

Some interesting twists:

“standby” means to loiter as opposed to “get ready”
“salvage” means to kill as opposed to “to save”

By: Miki

Miki — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:33:29 +0000

It wasn’t about using slang, it was about teaching Eubonics in the school in the same way that Spanish, French, etc. are taught. It is not a foreign language. Further, I doubt that any college in the world accepts admission essays written in anything but the standard language including correct grammar of that country.

By: Jean Mercedes

Jean Mercedes — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:16:29 +0000

I can see your point. However I do think it is a matter of how far you take it. Adding interesting expressions to your vocabularly will surely not limit your future, but like all dialects and many accents, if that is the only way you can speak, the mainstream will not be very accepting.

I find the Chinglish expression “airline pulp” very descriptive for the food served in the air and I could imagine this expression being used a lot more in the future. The Denglish term “Handy” for cell phone has already made it into American literature:
” ‘I can and I must. Now if you would bring me the handy, I will arrange a meeting.’ She gave him the cell phone.” Rita Mae Brown, Cat on the Scent, p. 175

And the hip hop expression “bling bling” I believe has already made it around the world. After all, it and other hip hop expressions were added to the Oxford English Dictionary back in 2003. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1471629/20030430/bg.jhtml

By: miki@rampupsolutions.com

miki@rampupsolutions.com — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:31:03 +0000

Controversial is an understatement. I lived in San Francisco at the time. so it was high on the discussion list. Personally, I thought it was the stupidest idea to surface (still do) and one guaranteed to keep the kids using it from good jobs. The same applies to formalizing poor language skills in any curriculum. I bet that the slang of x-lish is NOT taught at any of the schools in the countries you mention.

By: Jean Mercedes

Jean Mercedes — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:20:51 +0000

Thanks for pointing that out. There are a number of “dialects” or regional forms of English in the US. Looking at your link, I gather that Ebonics or African American English is still very controversial. I would guess there is a higher tolerance when non-native speakers change the language as when regional or sociocultural differences change the language. Opinions?

By: Miki

Miki — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:05:34 +0000

Reminds me of the giant fight regarding Ebonics (http://www.linguistlist.org/topics/ebonics/) in Oakland back in 1997.