English “Modi-fied” Although Prime Minister Narendra Modi primarily spoke in Hindi in his recent visit to America, he embraced bits of English to press the salient and punchy points in his speeches. In fact, some of his coinages may well stay as lasting addition to the English language. From his campaign trail to the prime minister’s bully pulpit, Modi has hit on many phrases, nonce-words, acronyms etc, contrary to his popular impression as a rabid Hindi chauvinist. Given his fondness for these catchy terms, the repertoire of “Modispeak” will surely expand during his political tenure. As of now, it is no less interesting. Some of his abbreviations, for instance, RSVP (Rahul, Sonia, Vadra and Priyanka) and ABCD (Adarsh, Bofors, Coalgate and Damad) targeting the Congress (I), were short-haul verbal missiles. These delightfully indecorous and deliciously derisive abbreviations unleashed the jibe they were meant for, but they will end up as one-dimensional and will perhaps die out eventually. On the other hand, fresh collocations in phrases like “minimum government, maximum governance”, ingenious initialisms, namely 3Ds (democracy, demographic dividend and demand) and 4Ps (people-public-private partnership), punning variation on a well-known abbreviation, FDI (from Foreign Direct Investment to First Develop India), a blend formation like INCH (India and China) and an acronym in the form of MILES (Millennium of exceptional synergy) exude the “Modi-fied” flavour of Indian English. Modi’s opponents think that these catchy terms are being minted by his techno-savvy and imaginative whizzkids, but backroom boys cannot be the drivers of change. Even with modest English inputs of its maker, “Modispeak” has outshone the mocking pun of the Harvard-educated Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who deconstructed Modi into “Man of damage to India” and BJP into (Bharat Jalao Party). Lest anyone find the Modi-Singhvi comparison invidious, let me add that the unlikely likeness has been yoked with a bit of violence only for the limited purpose of making my point that languages live and grow by power.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 07:23:24 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015