Scottish English and Sri Lankan and Indian use of English
Hi all, I have two totally unrelated questions for you.
My first query concerns Scottish English.
I have just finished watching a Glaswegian TV series from the early nineties and, having noticed a couple of things, am curious as to whether they are general Scottishisms or specifically Glaswegianisms.
My Da is from Glasgow but left almost forty years ago and got rid of his accent (and, I assume, other linguistic traits) for reasons I won't go into here. I didn't know my grandmother very well but I don't really remember her doing either of these things, whenever I spoke with her.
Okay, the first is the use of naedy.
I'm familiar enough with nae and even naebody (though pronounced more like naebiddy) but this is the first time I ever recall hearing it completely pronounced without the middle syllable at all. There isn't even, as far as I can hear, a glottal stop replacing it. Is this common?
The second thing is the use of 'how' in place of 'why'.
Examples:
"How d'ye always drink so much?" (Why do you always drink so much?")
"How no?" ("Why not?")
Now, I can see a reason for this because you could extend it and say "How is it that you always drink so much" or "How could it not be the case?"
The one that really interested me, though, was this:
"How d'ye not come along?"
("on Saturday" or "to see for yourself" or something - I forget exactly how the sentence ended)
The point is that what was being said was not a question, in this case, nor was it a comment on a habitual action. The character in question was making a suggestion to another character, about the future; "Why don't you come along?", which is performing a different function to the previous examples.
Anyway, I'd like to know how common these are and whether they're used all arouond Scotland or only in Glasgow. Any help (anecdotal or otherwise) appreciated.
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Second question - though it's actually more of a request for resources/information about any research that anyone knows of, that may have been done on the subject.
I was in Sri Lanka for three weeks, recently, and was blown away by the sheer amount of English that is still there. One thing I noticed is that Singhalese speakers (and I'm only comfortable commenting on Singhalese speakers because I met very few Tamils while I was there, so I can't really say much about their linguistic habits) insert a lot of English words into their conversations, even when they're speaking amongst themselves and not to a foreigner. It's logical enough, given Sri Lanka's history, but what interested me in particular was their choice of English words.
Most places you go now, there are elements of English being used - usually buzzwords or short greetings and exclamations (Hi! Cool! Okay! Let's go! Man! Alright! etc). But, in the little time I had to observe people, I was unable to see any logical pattern in the words that tended to be used in English.
At one point, for example, my friend (who is Sri Lankan) was asking our bus guide whether there was likely to be anywhere to stop so we could all go to the toilet, before we got to our next destination. The only English word she used in the whole sentence was 'toilet' and I ended up forgetting to ask her why. I mean, using words for things that didn't exist in Sri Lankan culture before the British invaded, for example, I can understand. That happens quite a bit, with the languages of colonized cultures, I think.
But 'toilet'?
Surely every culture must have some way of referencing that particular place because we all need to use it and always have! So I'm not sure.
I've come across what is, for me, an even odder example, though.
On our Sri Lankan Airlines flight, one of the movies being shown was Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, a Bollywood film starring Shah Rukh Khan (side comment: brilliant film). There was frequent insertion of English words and sometimes entire phrases throughout the film and, once again, there were times where they were catchphrase type utterances but other times where it was just normal speech and there didn't appear to be any particular reason to have switched to English.
When I got home, I found and watched some interviews with Mr. Khan and a few other Bollywood actors and directors and many people seem to do it in real life as well.
I think, so far, he's the most extreme example of it, but it does seem to be quite common.
Below is a link to part of an interview he did (in Hindi, I assume) which contains several instances of this phenomenon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOxrbxbBwmk
As I said, if anyone can point me in the direction of any research that has been done on either Sri Lankan or Indian use of English, within the context of the native languages (any of them) of those countries, I'd be really grateful.
Sorry this got long!
My first query concerns Scottish English.
I have just finished watching a Glaswegian TV series from the early nineties and, having noticed a couple of things, am curious as to whether they are general Scottishisms or specifically Glaswegianisms.
My Da is from Glasgow but left almost forty years ago and got rid of his accent (and, I assume, other linguistic traits) for reasons I won't go into here. I didn't know my grandmother very well but I don't really remember her doing either of these things, whenever I spoke with her.
Okay, the first is the use of naedy.
I'm familiar enough with nae and even naebody (though pronounced more like naebiddy) but this is the first time I ever recall hearing it completely pronounced without the middle syllable at all. There isn't even, as far as I can hear, a glottal stop replacing it. Is this common?
The second thing is the use of 'how' in place of 'why'.
Examples:
"How d'ye always drink so much?" (Why do you always drink so much?")
"How no?" ("Why not?")
Now, I can see a reason for this because you could extend it and say "How is it that you always drink so much" or "How could it not be the case?"
The one that really interested me, though, was this:
"How d'ye not come along?"
("on Saturday" or "to see for yourself" or something - I forget exactly how the sentence ended)
The point is that what was being said was not a question, in this case, nor was it a comment on a habitual action. The character in question was making a suggestion to another character, about the future; "Why don't you come along?", which is performing a different function to the previous examples.
Anyway, I'd like to know how common these are and whether they're used all arouond Scotland or only in Glasgow. Any help (anecdotal or otherwise) appreciated.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Second question - though it's actually more of a request for resources/information about any research that anyone knows of, that may have been done on the subject.
I was in Sri Lanka for three weeks, recently, and was blown away by the sheer amount of English that is still there. One thing I noticed is that Singhalese speakers (and I'm only comfortable commenting on Singhalese speakers because I met very few Tamils while I was there, so I can't really say much about their linguistic habits) insert a lot of English words into their conversations, even when they're speaking amongst themselves and not to a foreigner. It's logical enough, given Sri Lanka's history, but what interested me in particular was their choice of English words.
Most places you go now, there are elements of English being used - usually buzzwords or short greetings and exclamations (Hi! Cool! Okay! Let's go! Man! Alright! etc). But, in the little time I had to observe people, I was unable to see any logical pattern in the words that tended to be used in English.
At one point, for example, my friend (who is Sri Lankan) was asking our bus guide whether there was likely to be anywhere to stop so we could all go to the toilet, before we got to our next destination. The only English word she used in the whole sentence was 'toilet' and I ended up forgetting to ask her why. I mean, using words for things that didn't exist in Sri Lankan culture before the British invaded, for example, I can understand. That happens quite a bit, with the languages of colonized cultures, I think.
But 'toilet'?
Surely every culture must have some way of referencing that particular place because we all need to use it and always have! So I'm not sure.
I've come across what is, for me, an even odder example, though.
On our Sri Lankan Airlines flight, one of the movies being shown was Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, a Bollywood film starring Shah Rukh Khan (side comment: brilliant film). There was frequent insertion of English words and sometimes entire phrases throughout the film and, once again, there were times where they were catchphrase type utterances but other times where it was just normal speech and there didn't appear to be any particular reason to have switched to English.
When I got home, I found and watched some interviews with Mr. Khan and a few other Bollywood actors and directors and many people seem to do it in real life as well.
I think, so far, he's the most extreme example of it, but it does seem to be quite common.
Below is a link to part of an interview he did (in Hindi, I assume) which contains several instances of this phenomenon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOxrbxbBwmk
As I said, if anyone can point me in the direction of any research that has been done on either Sri Lankan or Indian use of English, within the context of the native languages (any of them) of those countries, I'd be really grateful.
Sorry this got long!