I getcha. So many names have sort of become western now...like Maya, which in Hindi means 'worldliness.' :D By romantic language, do you mean French and Italian? Hindi = Asian language. My name is ___ = 'Mera naam ____ hai.' I can see where it would sound like English to a non-speaker...I always think French and English are so very alike. With more spitting with the French. I have such fun saying 'merci' with a French accent. 'Mercchhhhrrhsee' ...hee.
Ooh, I can ramble. I could teach a college course on it. Let's see. No, no, I'm very much in India, and I've lived here all my life...two years in Bombay, and the rest in Madras. Umm...the thing is, in India, every state is like a seperate country. Every state has its own culture, language(s), traditional costume, dance, cuisine....race, even. India is like a group of small countries. The biggest difference is between the North and the South...the Northies who are mostly fairer are descended from the Aryans, who basically showed up and invaded eons ago. Southies are Dravidian, for a large part. Culture, language, etc = very different. My mum is Northie (Goa and Kashmir) and my dad is Tamilian. See, my Mum's language would be Konkani or Kashmiri, but she grew up speaking Hindi. Dad, of course, knows Tamil. So, er, we speak English at home. Now Mum's become fluent in Tamil after living here sixteen years, but only lower level Tamil...because she deals in Tamil mainly with shopkeepers, servants, and the like. If she spoke her good Tamil to a Brahmin or someone else, they'd be pretty insulted. So many kinds of one language, but whatever. She took German in college, and adored it. Both my grandfathers are professors, one in Russian (he and grandmum spent some years in Russia) and my dad's dad in English. So both my mum and dad speak excellent English...we probably speak better English than a lot of Brits. We just find it the easiest language at home, now...when my mum's parents come down they speak in Hinglish (Hindi+English, which after a point can be very annoying to listen to.) My uncle, I've mentioned in the last comment...staying in his home was so fun. His ickle ones are growing up fluent in all three languages.
When Northie relatives are down to stay, we have people shouting across to each other in Hinglish, Mum trying to speak to the maid in Tamil over them, and Daddy and me trying to carry on a conversation in English. It's a huge headache after a point. Only about once a year, thank God. Then everyone forgets what language they were speaking to who in, and I get addressed in Hindi, Tamil and whatever else, with everyone forgetting that I'm the ass who doesn't fully understand anything. Meh.
I think the non-English language I speak best is French. Being Indian, that's kind of lame. 800+ languages right here, and I can speak French and none of them :D At least I can converse avec ma petite cousine a Paris. Elle est tres belle...comme une poupee :D
I ramble occasionally in my journal about the 'Mallus' and 'Marus' and all the other different groups packed in here. Everyone's so very different, and we have to live together. When someone says I look or don't 'look Indian' or 'sound Indian' I have to laugh out loud. You can't look or sound Indian. You can only look or sound like the ones you're part of. Come here and inspect our language collection :D
Okay, my ramble on languagey things got rather long and unrelated. Sorry. Hope there was a sentence or two that was useful :">
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Date: 2004-12-12 08:48 am (UTC)Ooh, I can ramble. I could teach a college course on it. Let's see. No, no, I'm very much in India, and I've lived here all my life...two years in Bombay, and the rest in Madras. Umm...the thing is, in India, every state is like a seperate country. Every state has its own culture, language(s), traditional costume, dance, cuisine....race, even. India is like a group of small countries. The biggest difference is between the North and the South...the Northies who are mostly fairer are descended from the Aryans, who basically showed up and invaded eons ago. Southies are Dravidian, for a large part. Culture, language, etc = very different.
My mum is Northie (Goa and Kashmir) and my dad is Tamilian. See, my Mum's language would be Konkani or Kashmiri, but she grew up speaking Hindi. Dad, of course, knows Tamil. So, er, we speak English at home. Now Mum's become fluent in Tamil after living here sixteen years, but only lower level Tamil...because she deals in Tamil mainly with shopkeepers, servants, and the like. If she spoke her good Tamil to a Brahmin or someone else, they'd be pretty insulted. So many kinds of one language, but whatever. She took German in college, and adored it.
Both my grandfathers are professors, one in Russian (he and grandmum spent some years in Russia) and my dad's dad in English. So both my mum and dad speak excellent English...we probably speak better English than a lot of Brits. We just find it the easiest language at home, now...when my mum's parents come down they speak in Hinglish (Hindi+English, which after a point can be very annoying to listen to.) My uncle, I've mentioned in the last comment...staying in his home was so fun. His ickle ones are growing up fluent in all three languages.
When Northie relatives are down to stay, we have people shouting across to each other in Hinglish, Mum trying to speak to the maid in Tamil over them, and Daddy and me trying to carry on a conversation in English. It's a huge headache after a point. Only about once a year, thank God. Then everyone forgets what language they were speaking to who in, and I get addressed in Hindi, Tamil and whatever else, with everyone forgetting that I'm the ass who doesn't fully understand anything. Meh.
I think the non-English language I speak best is French. Being Indian, that's kind of lame. 800+ languages right here, and I can speak French and none of them :D At least I can converse avec ma petite cousine a Paris. Elle est tres belle...comme une poupee :D
I ramble occasionally in my journal about the 'Mallus' and 'Marus' and all the other different groups packed in here. Everyone's so very different, and we have to live together. When someone says I look or don't 'look Indian' or 'sound Indian' I have to laugh out loud. You can't look or sound Indian. You can only look or sound like the ones you're part of. Come here and inspect our language collection :D
Okay, my ramble on languagey things got rather long and unrelated. Sorry. Hope there was a sentence or two that was useful :">