English: The Glorious Mongrel That Conquered the World
Language, that most mercurial of human inventions, is forever evolving — slippery, inventive, and gloriously impure. Many years ago, my late friend Frank F. Moore — “Tio Franco” to his circle in Denton, Texas. He was a scientist with Poco Graphite in Denton, Texas, a man trained to measure carbon structures rather than turn phrases — put it more pithily, bluntness he declared: “English is a mongrel language.” He passed away in 2017, but the quip lingers, echoing in my mind every time I stumble upon the quirks of acronyms, initialisms, and our Indianised flourishes.
At first blush, the phrase may sound ungenerous, as though our lingua franca were some scruffy street-dog skulking about alleyways. But in truth, his description was spot on. English is a mongrel of the noblest sort: resilient, resourceful, and gloriously unashamed of its mixed heritage.
A Patchwork Parentage
English has never been shy of borrowing, pilfering, or adopting wholesale from every tongue it encountered. Its patchwork parentage is a veritable museum of world history:
- Latin and Greek: scholarly gravitas — philosophy, radius, auditorium.
- The Saxons and Norsemen: bread-and-butter words — sky, bread, winter, house.
- The Norman French: aristocratic sheen — judge, court, beef, mutton.
- India: hundreds of contributions beyond bungalow, curry, and pyjamas:
- Animals & Nature: cheetah (Sanskrit chitraka), mongoose (Marathi muṅgūs), jackal (Persian via India), banyan (Gujarati vāṇiyo).
- Food & Drink: curry (Tamil kari), chutney, toddy (tadi), punch (Hindi panch), ginger, mango (Tamil maangai).
- Everyday Life: pyjamas (Hindi pae jama), shawl (Urdu shal), khaki (Urdu khākī), verandah (Hindi via Portuguese).
- Other Curiosities: loot (Hindi lut), thug (Hindi/Marathi thag), jungle (Hindi jangal), pundit (Sanskrit pandita), guru.
- Seafaring Culture: catamaran (Tamil kaṭṭumaram).
The Americas, meanwhile, added tomato, chocolate, hurricane, and barbecue.
If words were dowries, English has been married a dozen times over. And the beauty is, it makes no attempt to hide its mixed parentage. Where the French wring their hands over la pureté de la langue française, English cheerfully shrugs and says: “Come along, old chap, you’re one of us now.”
A Linguistic Masala
English has absorbed India’s exotic ingredients and everyday mundanity alike — verandah, khaki, cheetah, catamaran — producing a global thali of words.
Acronyms vs Initialisms
Consider BBC, NASA, OMG, WHO, ISRO — do we know the difference?
Initialism: You read each letter separately
- BBC → Bee Bee See
- USA → You Ess Ay
- OMG → Oh Em Gee
- WHO → Double You Aitch Oh
- ISRO is also an initialism — launching satellites, not words.
Acronym: Pronounced as a word
- NASA → Nassa
- FIFA → Fee-fah
- SIM → Sim
- WHO → sometimes Who
The Indian Quirk
In India, BCCI is often called an acronym, SIM cards are “filled,” showcasing Indian English’s flexibility and inventive charm.
The Larger Lesson & Closing Thought
English is gloriously inconsistent yet forgiving. It thrives on promiscuity, welcomes newcomers, and remains the most successful mongrel language in history. Text OMG, read NASA bulletins, admire ISRO, and order tandoori chicken — all in English.
In memory of Frank F. Moore (“Tio Franco”), who first reminded me that English is, and will always be, a glorious mongrel.
The Indian English Mosaic — Where English Found New Life
When English crossed the seas to India, it did not remain the Queen’s tongue for long. It began listening to other languages — Tamil, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Malayalam — and soon started speaking in a rhythm and idiom entirely its own. English in India is no longer a foreign import; it is a naturalised citizen, a living, evolving presence that reflects the multilingual soul of the subcontinent.
Once, while speaking with my Irish–American friend Frank F. Moore, I said I was “looking for something concrete.” He looked puzzled. For him, concrete meant cement and gravel — but for me, an Indian, it also meant definite, pucca, confirmed. This is how Indian English lives — by taking British words and bending them to Indian realities.
In Indian cities and small towns alike, English has found new idioms, new lives, and new humour. It is the lingua franca of officialdom and cinema, cricket commentary and everyday speech — an English that thinks in many languages at once.
Everyday Conversations — When British English Meets Indian English
A popular online exchange between a British man and an Indian girl went viral for good reason — it showed how the same language wears two very different cultural costumes. Here are a few of the delightful contrasts that reveal how Indian English has carved its own rhythm and meaning.
| British English | Indian English | Context / Note |
|---|---|---|
| Blister | Shoe bite | Used when new shoes hurt the heel — everyday Indian usage. |
| School lunch | Tiffin | “Tiffin” refers to a packed lunch or a light meal, from South-Asian colonial slang. |
| Meat | Non-veg | Menu distinction between veg and non-veg; entirely Indian in origin. |
| Yoghurt | Curd | Home-made fermented milk, a daily staple in most Indian homes. |
| One hundred thousand | One lakh | Part of the Indian numbering system. We write it as 1,00,000. |
| One million / ten lakh | Ten lakh / One crore | Indian English often uses “lakh” for 100,000 and “crore” for 10,000,000. Commas are placed differently: 1,00,000 = 1 lakh, 10,00,000 = 10 lakh, 1,00,00,000 = 1 crore, and figures can go much higher. |
| Bring forward | Prepone | A uniquely Indian innovation — the opposite of postpone. |
| I’ve arrived | I’ve reached | Preferred phrasing when informing someone of one’s arrival. |
| Out of town | Out of station | Railway-era idiom that lives on in offices and government circles. |
| I’m killing time | I’m doing timepass | Cheerful colloquialism for idling or casual chatter. |
| Warehouse | Godown | From Anglo-Indian usage; still common in business English. |
These examples show not incorrect English but a living dialect — expressive, inventive, and tuned to the rhythms of Indian life. The numbering system alone demonstrates a distinctive Indian logic, where commas and terms like lakh and crore help us navigate extremely large figures effortlessly.
Regional Flavours and Variations
Indian English is not a monolith; it wears different regional accents, idioms, and vocabulary across the subcontinent. The influence of local languages, culture, and history gives each region its own flavour:
- South India: Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Pondicherry — retains many colonial English terms; pronunciation influenced by Dravidian phonetics; formal and literary expressions survive.
- North and West India: Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati influences; some words borrowed directly from local languages; syntax sometimes mirrors Hindi grammar.
- East and North-East India: Bengali, Assamese, and other languages influence tone and vocabulary; retains British pronunciation patterns more strongly.
Anglo-Indian English — The Forgotten Bridge
Another fascinating layer of Indian English is Anglo-Indian English, historically spoken in Madras, Calcutta, Bangalore, and other cantonment towns. This variant arose among the Eurasian community during colonial times and served as a bridge between British and Indian cultures.
Examples include:
- “She’s gone for a small walk.” — charmingly formal, yet intimate.
- Use of older British idioms, preserved long after the British left.
- Vocabulary often blends British English with local Indian syntax.
Today, echoes of Anglo-Indian English survive in South Indian speech, in writing, and in popular cinema, giving modern Indian English its soft, polite, and rhythmically distinct tone.
When Words Take a Detour — The Curious Case of Stepney
Some English words in India live double lives. Take Stepney. Literally, it is a spare tyre — but in slang, it also refers to a mistress kept apart from one’s wife. The origin? Stepney is a town in East London historically famous for spare wheels. Only in India did it evolve its cheeky second meaning.
Puncture — A Flat Tyre and More
Similarly, in Indian English, a puncture is not just the act of puncturing; it has become the default term for a flat tyre, the shop where it is repaired, and even the mechanic’s domain. For example:
“There’s a puncture shop near the signal; they’ll fix your Stepney in ten minutes.”
Indian roads are littered with linguistic surprises like this — words that British English speakers recognise, but whose Indian meaning has subtly shifted.
The Car Still Speaks British — Motoring English in India
Indian English retains many colonial-era motoring terms, often with unique Indian usage:
| Term | Indian English Usage | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Steering Wheel | Steering Wheel | Standard usage |
| Dicky | Boot | British “dicky” = car boot/ trunk |
| Bonnet | Hood | Classic British term retained |
| Stepney | Spare tyre / mistress | Double life of a word |
| Puncture | Flat tyre / repair shop | Common Indian English usage |
| Roundana | Roundabout | South Indian local slang |
| Petrol | Petrol | Retained British usage |
| Indicator | Blinker | British/Indian retention |
Indian English Slang and Local Colour
Indian English is wonderfully inventive, full of slang, idioms, and cultural resonances:
- Pucca / Pukka: confirmed, solid, reliable.
- Funda: concept or principle.
- Co-brother: brother-in-law, often son’s father-in-law.
- Hotel: restaurant, not lodging.
- Timepass: idling, casual fun.
- Batchmate: school or college peer.
OC — A Tamil Nadu Special
OC (short for On Company) is a uniquely Tamil Nadu / South Indian English term used to indicate that something is free of cost — whether a service, a gift, or an item provided without payment. The term traces back to colonial times when letters bearing OC were sent free of postage by the East India Company.
Today, people in Tamil Nadu still use the term OC casually. For example:
- "Don’t pay for the sweets; they are OC."
- "This ticket was OC — got it as a gift from a friend."
- Exclusive to Tamil Nadu and some adjoining regions — rare elsewhere in India.
- Originates from the colonial postal abbreviation On Company.
- Widely understood in everyday Tamil Nadu English, especially for gifts, freebies, or complimentary items.
- Demonstrates how colonial and local histories merge into regional English variants.
Indian English doesn’t borrow from its mother tongues; it converses with them. Each word carries the weight of centuries of cultural contact, humour, and colonial history, making the language rich, playful, and unmistakably Indian.
Butler English — A Colonial Relic
Another fascinating, though now rare, variety connected to India’s English history is Butler English — historically also called Bearer English or Kitchen English. It developed during the British colonial era, especially in the Madras Presidency, as an occupational dialect used between British masters and Indian household staff. ([Wikipedia])
Note: Butler English was historically used by domestic staff in British households, simplifying grammar and vocabulary for functional communication. I remember hearing it frequently in my childhood, though today it is rare, surviving only occasionally in certain pockets. ([Read more])
Butler English was not “bad English”; rather, it was a practical adaptation of English for everyday communication, with structural features resembling pidgins. Key characteristics include:
- Simplified grammar and reduced inflections;
- Omission of auxiliary verbs such as is or have;
- Use of been as a past tense marker;
- Concise vocabulary suited to household and social contexts. ([Wikipedia])
Illustrative examples of Butler English phrases include:
“One master call for come India … eh England. I say not coming. That master very liking me.” — a snippet showing how meaning was conveyed through simplified constructions. ([Wikipedia])
- Originated in the Madras Presidency during British colonial rule, primarily for domestic and social communication.
- Shares features with pidgins — simplified grammar, reduced forms, and functional vocabulary.
- Illustrates a style distinct from modern Indian English, reflecting colonial occupational roots.
- Rarely used today; survives only in isolated pockets or through historical memory and anecdotes.
- Highlights English’s adaptability and flexibility across social and cultural contexts.
English in the Indian Imagination
English came to India as a visitor, but it stayed as a member of the household. It absorbed, adapted, and evolved. It listens to Tamil prayers, sings Hindi songs, debates Urdu poetry, and orders dosa at the local café — all in the same sentence. It has learned to eat with its hands, dance to the beat of Indian streets, and still keep the Queen’s grammar at bay when needed.
Truly, Indian English is not a deviation. It is a triumphant hybrid, a living testament to how a language can survive, thrive, and flourish by embracing multiplicity rather than purity.
Closing Thought
The next time someone tosses “OMG” or “NASA” into the conversation, you may gently enlighten them: both are abbreviations, but only one is an acronym. And if you wish to impress further, point out that WHO is both — a rare double agent in the world of words.
Yes, English is a mongrel. But it is also the most successful mongrel in history — resourceful, resilient, and utterly unashamed of its eclectic parentage. And perhaps that is why, when the story of human civilisation is told in centuries to come, it will most likely be told — in English.
In memory of Frank F. Moore (“Tio Franco”), who first reminded me that English is, and will always be, a glorious mongrel.
© Dhinakar Rajaram, 2025 — Bibliotheque Series: Science, Memory and the Indian Gaze. All rights reserved. The term “mongrel” is used here to celebrate English’s remarkable adaptability, eclectic heritage, and global reach — it is a term of admiration, not insult. No part of this blog may be reproduced or used without proper attribution.
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