HINGLISH: The new hybrid in the linguistic realm

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According to Wikipedia, the 2011 Census: KS201EW Ethnic group: Local authorities in England and Wales, the Indian population of the UK was 1.451.862 or 2.3% of the UK’s population. This figure includes those of British Indian ethnic origin, who form the largest ethnic national group in London. The UK´s Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported  in the Economic Times paper (November 2017) that 305,000 people born in India are estimated to have moved to the UK between July 2016 and June 2017, making Indian the most common nationality in the country, after nationals coming from EU countries.  There are 542,857 Indians residing in London. The Indians in the United Kingdom are highly diverse in respect of their socio-economic, cultural and religious background, and they are well integrated in the British population.

During the past decade, questions have intrigued researchers about how Indians residing in the UK communicate online, how they code switch by preserving their native Hindi heritage language and their adopted and assimilated English language, and to what extent.  As there are a great number of Hindi speakers in the United Kingdom, this factor seems to have given rise to a new language, which is unlike the Hindi spoken on the Indian subcontinent. This new language combines Hindi and English. Hinglish is the term for the concoction of Hindi and English, though it is not considered to be a fully developed diasporic language, it seems to be growing into one. The hybrid of English and Indian language seems to have gained a fair amount of attention in the British media during the past years. The Guardian (2004) wrote an article about the increasing trend of  English being spiced up with a sprinkling of words from the Indian subcontinent making the headline of the article “Kiss my Chuddies (Welcome to the Queen´s Hinglish”). Additionally, The Independent (2005) announced that “Hinglish” was making its debut in an English dictionary. On 8th November 2006, BBC News Magazine UK published an article stretching the use of Hinglish in the British community.

Examples:

She was bhunnoing the masala-s_ jub_ phone ki ghuntee bugee.” Translation: “She was frying the spices when the phone rang”.

Recent studies have demonstrated that Indians in London, particularly in Southall, are keen to code switch from their maternal language, Hindi, to their host country’s language, English, particularly when using Facebook. This linguistic peculiarity was adopted so well that it gave rise to the new trendy Hinglish language. For instance, in the Portsmouth College in Hampshire, the United Kingdom plans to regularize the teaching of Hinglish in their 2018-19 academic year, as part of their Modern Business Language and Culture Programme.

Studies show that in eagerness to integrate both economically and socially, despite some Indian migrants lacking English language skills, they are not reluctant to blend into the relocated country, the United Kingdom.  It is of interest for academics and linguist experts to follow the evolution of this new Hinglish language.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Indian

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_community_of_London

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/working-abroad/indians-largest-non-eu-migrants-in-uk/articleshow/61867729.cms

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/apr/25/britishidentity.anushkaasthana

Welcome to Queen’s Hinglish

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/hinglish-makes-its-debut-in-english-dictionary-225069.html

Hinglish in British Community

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6122072.stm

http://theconversation.com/the-rise-and-rise-of-hinglish-in-india-53476

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/uk-college-to-expand-hinglish-course-offering/articleshow/63244821.cms

http://theconversation.com/the-rise-and-rise-of-hinglish-in-india-53476


 Written by Raginee Poloogadoo  – Terminology Study Visitor at the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament (Luxembourg) and a student of the Master´s Programme in Learning and Communication in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts at the University of Luxembourg. She holds a Bachelor of Law from Northumbria University, UK, a Post Graduate Diploma in International Trade and Commercial Law from the Nottingham Trent University, UK and a Diploma in Professional Mediation Practices, France. She speaks Mauritian Creole, English, French, Hindi, German and Luxembourgish, Urdu.