(Untitled)

[dewdropsonrosa]

Do terms of affection (I have dear and darling in mind) have more casual connotations and usage patterns in Indian varieties of English?

I've been chatting casually with a few native speakers of Hindi, Telugu, and Marathi on LiveMocha and the amount of "dear" I'm getting is unnerving in my cultural context, but perhaps not theirs.

Comments

[nyxelestia]

In my experience, it depends on their own levels of formality, but it is essentially ends of extremes - i.e. if they're the more formal type, then they'll never used terms of affection, or if they're the informal type, then they'll use them like crazy. And it seems the kind of people who would have casual conversations on LiveMocha would lean heavily towards "informal".

But this is mostly based on my own experiences with family and friends of family while visiting India, so my perception/experience may be rather biased, here.

[neophyte_13]

here in the UK some people use those sorts of terms quite often, if anything I get it more from white british than I ever have from anyone else. Also common are chick, pet and petal depending where you are.

[green_knight]

'Petal' is a new one to me.

You forgot 'duck' and 'ducky'.

[neophyte_13]

I knew there were more, I just couldn't think of any... And I think it also comes down to regional variations... I've mainly heard petal from people in the Yorkshire area.

[lemur_man]

And 'heart'. My dad once called one of his bridge partners that, because he thought it was his name or a shortened version thereof. I mean, he heard the man's wife call him that, so why not?

[houseboatonstyx]

I've seen a translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead that repeatedly refers to the reader as "My dear" (or some such term that seemed to me surprisingly personal and emotional).

But then consider British expressions like: "But my dear fellow! [usually prefacing disagreement']", "Luv" [to a stranger]", etc.

And my Southern US has "Honey", "Sweetie" etc used when you don't know a stranger's name.