1.
Background
At
large industrial and defence establishments and in some urban centers of India
where people from different parts of the country speaking different languages
(and dialects) live and work, pidgin varieties of Hindi (Hindi/Urdu/Hindustani)
are used as means of contact between the various linguistic groups, especially
across the socio-economic levels. This
language serves the useful and necessary purpose of establishing communication
between the educated elite and the less educated or uneducated sections of the
community which render sundry services to the society by working in mills and
factories, running small shops, operating petty trading activities and doing the
jobs of drivers, washermen, cobblers, tailors, cleaners, coolies and the like.
These pidgin varieties are known by various names such as Bazar Hindi,
Barrack Hindi1, Butler Hindi2 and have often been viewed
contemptuously despite their invaluable role n society.
These
pidgin varieties, along with English, function as a medium of communication
among the speakers of different languages, who can be divided into two main
groups according to their economic status and educational background.
A. The economically well-to-do- people who have had university/college level education and know English.
- Members
of the lower income group with less or little education having a little or
no knowledge of English or different in using it. Whereas the members of
group `A' can communicate among themselves with the help of English,
irrespective of what their mother tongue is, they cannot do so when dealing
with the members of group `B' on whom they have to depend for various
services. To deal with them,
they must employ an instrument, other than English, which can be easily
picked up, and conveniently handled for the limited purpose of transactional
dealings, and is easily pliable. A
variety of Hindi/Hindustani comes in handy for this purpose.
For the members of group B, it is the sole medium for establishing
communication with members of other language groups.
The
multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-linguistic population of Shillong uses a
pidgin, popularly known as Bazar Hindi (BH), as a link or auxiliary
language. In this paper an attempt
has been made to describe this language.
Shillong
with a population of over 1.5 lakh is now the capital of the hill state
Meghalaya situated to the north of
People
living in Shillong speak a great variety of languages some of which are Khasi,
Hindi, many regional dialects of Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Nepali, Manipuri,
Mizo, Garo, dialects spoken in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, Punjabi,
Malayalam, Marwari, Mikir and Cachari. It
is impossible for anyone to know all these languages.
And although most people use more than one language, they still need,
especially the lower sections, a common link-language other than English.
Wherever there is a need there has to be a way of meeting this need.
BH, a Hindi/Hindustani based `language', performs the function of a link
language in Shillong. It also
performs the extremely useful role of a bridge between the members of group A
and group B mentioned above. As will
be shown below, this link language, apart from being very simple, is a
conglomeration of the influence of the major languages spoken in this area.
It
is worth speculating why the link language used in Shillong is based on
Hindi/Hindustani and not on the language spoken by the natives of the area, that
is Khasi, or one of the dominant languages used in this area i.e. either
Assamese or Bengali, although it takes something from each.
Several plausible explanations can be ventured.
1.
Hindi-Urdu/Hindustani has a long tradition of being a bazaar language.
Its history goes back to the Middle Ages (Chatterji-178-86).
It appears that with the extension of Muslim conquest to the east, the
camp language of the Muslim conquerors came with them and stayed on there.
This might explain the history and origin of Calcutta-Hindustani (see
Chatterji). Influence and
institutions have traveled inwards to the north-east from
2.
A sizable number of the local population specially of group B comes from
Whether
BH descends from the lingua franca originating during the Middle Ages, or is the
language brought with them by the Hindi speaking migrants, or originates from an
interaction of both these factors, this language could not have escaped the
influence of the other major languages spoken in this area.
Consequently BH carries in it the influence of Khasi, Bengali and
Assamese and probably Nepali too. BH
is a language which has derived bits from various sources but has its own unique
identity. It is not the corrupted
form of any language. Although
extremely simplified and restricted in its grammar and lexicon
it is a language in its own right. A
description of this language follows:
- GRAMMAR
A. SENTENCES
The
syntax of BH is marked by extreme simplification.
It uses the minimum possible words in its sentences.
Most sentences have only two words, usually a noun or pronoun and verb,
although one word sentences are also frequently used4.
Ham
gaya5 -
I went
Baza:r
kharid -
Market buy. I
bough (something at the Market)
Pani
bon -
Water stop.
The water has stopped
Babu
mangta? -
Sir, Want? Do you want to buy
it, Sir?
A:p
bola. -
You asked [me to do
something]
It is not necessary however that two word utterances will contain a noun and a verb. The following are some examples of other patterns:
Babu
kutta6 -
Sir, dog. Beware of the dog, Sir.
Sometimes
a slightly expanded structure is used with an adverb or another noun in it, or
an expanded verb phrase.
Ham
[Pani]
Bharti ho
Admi
aya: duka:n - Man came shop.
Customers came [to my] shop.
Ba:t
bhi nahi sakta:
- Talk even not can.
I can/could not even talk/to them.
In
a number of situations just a one-word utterance such as Khushi suffices.
Khushi is originally a Hindi-Urdu word meaning happiness, joy,
delight, and is used in expressions like
A:p
[jaisa] khushi: - As/if you please.
In
BH this one word response may, according to the context, mean:
Choose
whichever you like
If
you please
As
you think proper
Pay
whatever you like
It
is all right if you don't want to buy it
Some
other instances of single word sentences/utterances are:
Lega:?
Take?
Will you buy/take it?
Malum
know
I know that
Hoga:
will do
[something] will do/will be done
Kaisa:?
How?
How are you?
B.
COMPLEX SENTENCES
Compulsion
to communicate complex meaning makes the speakers of BH elaborate the sentence
by adding clauses.
To
express the meanings :
a)
I was looking
for a small one but could not get it, and
b)
I shall go on
the day my brother comes here,
The
following complex sentences were spoken by one of the informants:
c) Ham
thora chhota: tala:sh nahi mila:
I a little small (one) look (ed) for (but) not got.
d)
Bhaia:ne
ka din me jaega:
> Brother
coming of day (in) on will go
It
is noteworthy that these clauses are not linked by any linking devices.
Reduced sentence structure and inadequate vocabulary, under the
compulsion to communicate, may lead to ludicrous situations and sometimes to
misunderstanding. The story goes
that the host who wanted to exhort his guest to make himself at home, said:
Sharam
nahi apana: ghar samajata:
Shame
not own house considers
Which
could mean:
`You
are so shameless as to treat this place as your own house' What the host wanted
to say was:
Don't
feel shy; make yourself at home.
C. VERBS
BH
uses three invariable and uninflected verb forms which correspond to the three
divisions of time: past, present and future.
i)
Ham bolta: hai
I say
present tense
ii)
Ham bola
I said
past tense
iii)
Ham bolega
I shall speak
future tense
These
verbs are invariable in the sense that they are not inflected to signal number,
gender, person, aspect, or case. Some
Khasi speaker use the present tense verb even when referring to a past action.
This may be due to the influence of Khasi grammar (Singh: 1978-209-10).
Quite often the reduced form.
Ham
bolta
Is
used in place of (i). Thus the
grammar of many speakers of BH has a uniform system of one word verb phrase
(dispensing with the tense-making morphemes which are used in Standard Hindi (SH).
Bolta
:
Bola
Bolega
This simple three-form system is applied to a limited number of words which form the verb repertoire of BH. Comments on the verb system of BH are given below :
Verb
+ Ga :
BH
suffixes the morpheme ga: to verb stems to signal some kind of modality.
The meaning of the invariable ga: ranges over a wide spectrum.
Its meaning in a given situation depends on the specific context in which
the communication, which is invariably oral, takes place.
The participants mutually share the context.
Verb Meaning Example
Dega
promise
I will give . . . . . .
Dikhlayega:
condition
I can show if . . . .
willingness
I am willing to show provided . . . .
Thahrega:?
Soliciting
Shall I wait?
Instruction or advice
Ayega:
(as in request
Please come some other day
Dusra:din
ayega:)
Hoga
The
verb hoga: is used as single word response to signal confirmation,
affirmation, acceptance and other allied meanings.
Depending on the context, the sentence hoga can be translated as
Yes,
I will be able to do this.
Yes,
this is available
Yes,
I accept this
Yes,
this is all right
This
will do
This
in these sentences may refer to `going', `doing', `selling', or whatever is the
topic of interlocution. Use of the
formula `hoga': spares the speaker the botheration of using more words or of
naming the action by using a lexeme.
A cognate, single word expression, frequently used like hoga: is Hogiya
(Hoga" past), (Something) has been done/carried out, etc.
Hoga:8
along with sakna: and mangta:, forms a system of one word utterances in BH. (See
also the section on `sentences' above and on `the communicative situations'
below).
With the negative marker nahi: before hoga:, the meaningconveyed can be the following negative utterances also:
1. Nahi: hone se bhi dega:
2.
Nahi: dene
se bhi hoga:
which
mean
1.
I shall some
how (arrange to) supply/give you the thing even if I do not have it (at that
time or at some other time).
2.
Even if you
can't pay for (something) now, you can have it./
(I shall let you have it if you can pay later.)
Mangta:
Another example of a single word sentence is the verb mangta: which is used in BH as a formula for enquiring or finding out what someone wants. It can be translated into English as
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
wish
to have
want
to buy
Do
you
desire
to get
something?
-------------------------------------------
like
need
-------------------------------------------
want
to fight?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Often
the verb is used along with babu:, an equivalent of `sir', when it is used
transitively. The object, of course
is implied:
Babu:,
mangta
Sakna
In SH Sakna: is used as a model auxiliary and follows a lexical
verb in the sentence. In BH, sakna:
mostly occurs, independently, sparing the speakers the botheration of using a
lexeme.
Nahī
saka:
-
Could not
I/someone
else could not do something.
A:j
nahī
sakega:- Won't be
able to (do something) today.
Sakeega:
(I shall) be able to do (something)
The implied lexeme is inferred from the context. This use of sakna: in BH appears to be a transfer in it of the usage of its Bengali equivalent pa:rna:
Bolna:
The verb bola: is used both as an intransitive verb and as a
subordinating/reporting verb.
As
reporting verb:
Ham bola jayega:?
(I
asked him whether he wanted/was willing to go)
The
verb bola: is used in BH to signify all those semantically related verbs which
express meanings associated with the acts of speaking, asking, enquiring,
informing, advising, answering, demanding, instructing, in short all those
actions which involve speaking.
Karna: and the `Noun + Do' formula for the verb phrase
Like
sakna: the verb karna: occurs without a preceding lexeme more
frequently in BH than in SH.
Picche
karga:
After
(will) do. I shall do it later on.
To
signify the doing of something, SH adopts one of the following three devices:
1. Māi ba:t karūnga:
talk will do. I shall talk
[to you]
Here the verb `do' signifies the action corresponding to
Ba:t – talk. The infinitive
form is `ba:t karna:' = to talk.
2.
Māi jharoo lagaūnga :
I broom will apply. I will
sweep [something]
Here the doing following the noun refers to the appropriate nature of
action.
3.
Māi nahaunga:
I will have a bath
Here the lexical verb with the ga inflexion coalesces in it the
meanings of the act as well as the doing of it.
This is done by inflecting the verb.
BH tends to simplify this system by economizing on the use of the lexeme
and using rather uniformly pattern1 exemplified above.
This spares the speaker the trouble of (a) using an appropriate doing
verb (example in 2 above), (b) inflecting the verb (example in 3 above)
Gusal
karega:
bath
will do. I will have a bath
Absence
of verb inflexion is made up for by using the cognate nominal form with the
doing verb karega: e.g. in
Kharid
karega:
Buy
(will) do – shall buy
In
Hindi, the inflected form `kharidega:' will be used.
Thus BH almost systematically uses the standard formula `Noun + Do' as
verb-phrase.
C.POST
POSITIONS
D. POST POSITIONS
As mentioned above, BH dispenses with all words that express grammatical
or structural relationship. However,
it uses a time and place pre/post position which has no parallel in SH.
Ander
mē
Ba:har mē
Idhar
mē
Ka:
l mē
In
SH, mē, after these adverbs is redundant.
In line with BH's tendency to have extremely simple rules, there is
simplification of the post-positional system also.
There is a tendency to use a limited set of post-positions to signal a
number of case relations.
Pulis
mē dega
Police
in (will) give
(I)
shall hand you over to the Police.
This
use of me is a feature of BH grammar.
ka/ki
Occasionally,
BH users use post positions to signal case relations not used in Hindi, e.g. the
use of ki in the slogan such as
Party
ke murda:ba:d – Let party
X perish.
This use of ki along with that of mē, and the use of nē
as exemplified below constitute features of BH grammar not derived from the
base language but emanating from the inter action and convergence of languages.
Ne
It may be noted that BH does not use the SH case marker ne which follows the subject of a transitive verb in the past tense:
Ali nē patra likha
Ali
(case marker) letter wrote.
Bombay
Hindi-Urdu (BHU) also dispenses with this nē.
(Apte:32). A different
morpheme nē however is the feature of the nominal verb usage in BH.
Bolne
nahī sakta:
To
speak not
can I
can't tell you
Dene
nahī: sakta:
To
give not
can I
can't give (it to you).
Se
In
BH this particle is used to imply condition expressed in English by if',
`in/case' etc.
Hone se dega
To
be (?) give
I
shall give (you something) if (I) have (it), or if it is there.
E. PARTICLE `TO'
The
particle to: in BH is used as a tag to sentences, and functions as some
kind of sentence modifier. It
carries some implication which is usually expressed in non-pidgin languages, by
logical links. The implication is
signaled by the use of a rising intonation on to:
Diya:
to:
Gave?
[But]
I gave it [to you].
This
tag is frequently used in spoken Bengali and appears to have been borrowed from
there.
F. NOUNS
BH has a core of a limited set of nouns which have heavy circulation in
it. They are the words indispensable
in transactional and phatic exchanges. A
list of these nouns is given below under `Lexicon'.
The nouns are not inflected for number and case.
They are invariably used in their singular number form.
G. PRONOUNS
There are three sets of pronouns used in BH personal possessive and
demonstrative.
Personal Possessive Demonstrative
ham
– I, we
hamra: my/mine/our
iTHu – this
hamlug
– we
ham lugka: - our
a:p - you
a:p lugka – your
uTHu – that
u(:)
- he/she
iTHu
and uTHu are very convenient expressions as they save the speaker the labour of
naming the article, person, place etc. With
the help of these expressions the users of BH can manage to communicate using
only a limited set of words.
Many
BH speakers can't derive the possessive forms of first person and second person
pronouns. For "Your hen was on
my verandah", the following sentence was spoken:
Tum murgi ham baranda: upar
you
hen
I varanda
on
your
hen was on my verandah.
3.
LEXICON
As BH is used both by the native speakers of Hindi and by those who use
Hindi as a second language with varying degrees of proficiency, the range of
vocabulary in the BH of a particular speaker depends on his linguistic
background. However, on the basis of
the words used by these who know little Hindi, a core lexicon of BH has been
compiled. English equivalents are
given in brackets.
Verbs Pronouns
(root
form)
a:na: (to come) ham (I, we)
baithna (to live, to sit) a:p (you)
bharti (to fill) hamra: (our)
bolna: (to speak) iTHu (this)
Dena:
(to give)
uTHu
(that)
hona: (to be, to happen)
u:
(that)
ja:na (to go)
ham lug (we,
plural)
kha:na (to eat)
a:p lug (you,
plural)
la:na
(to bring)
lena:
(to take)
malum (to know)
mangna (to want)
sakna: (to be able to)
samajhana (to understand)
tala:sh (to look for)
Nouns Adj/Adverbs
admi (men)
accha:
(good)
a:lu
(potato)
baRa:
(big)
aurat (woman)
bharti
(filled)
bakhat (time) chhuta: (small)
basti
(village) dusra:
(another)
bazaar (market) jya:sti
(more, much)
bha:t (rice/food)
ka:la:
(black)
bikri
(sale)
khali
(only)
chhuti (holiday)
khara:b (bad)
chor (thief)
kijin
(perhaps)
churi
(theft)
kamti:
(less)
dastur (rule) la:l (red)
dikdari (problem)
ma:fik
(like)
din
(day) naya:
(new)
duka:n (shop)
nichu
(down, below)
faida (gain/profit)
nu:tun
(new)
fazir
(morning)
picche
(behind)
ghar (house)
thora
(less, little)
ghee/khee (clarified butter)
upar
(above)
gusal (bath)
NUMERALS
ka:chri (court)
ek
(one)
ka:m (work)
du
(two)
kharid (purchase)
tin
(three)
kisim (kind)
sha:r/cha:r(four)
khabor (news)
pa:nch
(five)
khushi (pleasure)
chhe
(six)
khutia
(change/money)
sa:t (i)
(seven) etc.
kwaI/goa (betel nut and leaf)
ega:ro
(eleven)
maha:jan (businessman)
baro
(twelve) etc.
maida:n (flat land)
aRa-I
(one and a half)
mama
(uncle)
paisa:
(money)
pani
(water)
Forms of address
ra:t (night)
babu
rupia (rupee)
babuni
sha:m
(evening)
didi
sharam/shuram
(shyness/shame)
sa:heb
sorka:r (government)
thok
(thug)
sorak/surak(road)
Post-positions
Negative
ki
(of)
nahi
(not)
ko (to)
mē (in)
Interjections
Particle/tag
are:
to
julum
A
classification of the items of the lexicon according to the areas of human
activity with which they are associated, would help us to perceive clearly the
nature and role of BH.
EVERYDAY
LIFE
Places : ghar, maida:n, surak/sorak, basti (village)
Time
:
fazir, sha:m, din, ra:t, bakhat
Location
:
picche, upar, nichu
&
direction
activity
:
a:na:, ja:na:, hona:, bola:, la:na,
lena:, ja:na, hona:, bolna:, la:na,
lena:, baithna, uThana, kha:na:,
lena:, baithna, uThana, kha:na:,
tala:sh (na:)
pinting
:
iThu, uThu
TRANSACTION
lena:,
dena:, mangna:, paisa:, khutia, rupia, bikri:,
maha:jan,
faida
RECEPTION
Malum,
samjha:
MODIFICATION/QUANTIFICATION
Kamti,
thora, jya:sti
SIMILARITY
Ma:fik
UNCERTAINITY
Kijin
LAW
AND GOVERNMENT
Sorka:r,
ka:chri, dastur
CRIME
Thok, churi, chor
INTERPERSONAL
REFERENCE
ham,
a:p, hamara:, hamlug, a:plug
FORMS
& ADDRESS
ma:ma,
didi, babu, babuni, sa:heb, kong
(Khasi word for a
A girl/woman meaning `sister')
FOOD
& DRINK
bha:t,
a:lu, kwai/goa: pani, ghee
PEOPLE
Maha:jan,
admi, aurat, babu
SIZE
& QUALITY
chhuta:,
bara:, khara:b, accha:, nu:tun, naya:
INTENSIFICATION
are:,
julum
The
distribution of these items indicates the situations in which BH is used and the
functions it is made to perform. The
lexicon has no words that can be associated with such things as agriculture,
law, geography, science, art, poetry, community activities, intense human
feelings, or abstract ideas. It is
not used to perform the functions of expressing gratitude, threat, sympathy,
assertiveness, conviction, apology, disgust, derision, etc.
or of presenting an argument. In
fact BH is inadequate for use even in a sustained conversation.
Sources
of the Lexical items
Most
of these words belong to Hindu-Urdu/Hindustani i.e. they are derived through
Urdu from Arabic and Persian sources. Words
of Sanskritic origin are few. This
throws light on the history and lineage of BH.
In addition to the words from Hindi-Urdu/Hindustani, the lexicon consists
of a fairly large number of words used in Bengali.
(See `Bengali influence' below). The
items of BH lexicon have come to it through the Hindustani lingua franca which
developed during the medieval period. The
language appears to have come to Shillong from the eastern part of undivided
The
Bengali Influence
BH
carries a strong influence of Bengali. This
influence is noticeable on its
phonology
usage,
and
vocabulary
Phonology
As
in Bengali, the central vowels in BH are rounded.
Example
:
sarka:r
(unrounded)
sorka:r
(rounded)
Usage
and semantic categorization
The
following verbs of BH derive their usage and meaning from Bengali.
bithana: in the
sense of `living or putting up at some place'.
uThna:
in the sense of `boarding a bus'.
khana:
as a synonym for both eating and drinking.
sakna:
in the sense of `being able to'.
bharti:
in the sense of `filled up'
Vocabulary
The
following words have come to BH from Bengali.
Nouns
Others
bha:t
nu:tun
bha:ti
nichu
khuTia
(Sylhet Bengali)
didi
THE
CORE LEXICON AND THE EXTENDED VOCABULARY
As
mentioned, the BH lexicon comprises the core vocabulary of BH.
With this limited vocabulary an illiterate person usually from the lower
strata of society and ignorant of SH and English, can manage to operate himself
in a situation where BH has to be resorted to.
But most users of BH find this core lexicon inadequate.
Therefore, in order to meet the exigencies of specific situations, they
expand it by adding to it items from their own language especially from the
common
vocabulary of English-Hindi and their mother tongue.
This common vocabulary consists mainly of loan words from English.
But Hindi-Urdu loan words in Khasi, Nepali etc. are also common.
Some examples of English loan words are:
Bus,
police, market, college, school, book, hospital, cigarette, bread, drink, hotel,
case, food, fish, meat, ticket, paper, number.
Some
examples of Hindi-Urdu loan words are:
dawai
(medicine), duk (unhappiness), posa gari (vehicle), ijhar
(report), juta (shoes), kajor (carrot), khulum (pen), miThai
(sweets), mokotduma (law suit), mistri (craftsman/mechanic), niyam
(law), taraju (pair of scales), tarik (date), shabi (key), suk
(happiness).
Thus
BH has a core of limited items of lexicon which is extended by a range of common
vocabulary. These words are used
within the framework of the simplified grammar of BH.
In this way, the lexical resources of BH are supplemented by groups of
words selected from sources available to the speaker to make communication
easier. It is not possible to give a
comprehensive list of the item of this extended vocabulary as its range depends
on the educational background of the users of BH and their knowledge of Hindi
(and English) as well as their contact with Hindi speaking people with whom they
may have to deal. Persons who know
Hindi or often deal with Hindi vocabulary in common use and thus extend and
expand their own vocabulary of BH. The
common vocabularies referred to above may not consist of loan words from English
and Hindi alone. They could also
include Hindi-Bengali common vocabulary consisting of loan words from either.
Apart from the loan words that would belong to the common vocabularies,
there may be words in common currency which are used by common people.
These words are often employed to extend the core lexicon of BH.
Examples of these are:
English
:
breakfast, butter, saloon
Bengali
:
singara
Hindi
:
puri, kha:na:
Assamese
:
mad (wine), la:he la:he
Khaasi
:
kiad (drink distilled from rice and millet)
khublei (greeting)
Also,
there are words in circulation which are from the common Indo-Aryan source which
Assamese, Bengali, and Hindi have equally exploited. Some
examples of such words are:
chor (thief)
mantri
(myntri in Khasi) (minister, counsellor)
From
the core to the periphery is a continuum of vocabulary.
Whereas a clear line can be drawn between the core and extended
vocabularies, it is difficult to circumscribe the outer limit of the extended
vocabulary. The edges of the
extended vocabulary are marked by fluidity.
This can be represented by the following diagram:
