The Sociolinguistics Of ‘Hinglish’: Code-Switching And Language Practices In Urban India – OpEd

I recently analyzed around fifty episodes of “Shark Tank India”, a TV program where participants mainly present their new startup ideas mostly in the Hindi language. However, what stood out was that English words accounted for approximately fifty percent of all the language used by entrepreneurs during their pitches. This mixed language usage of Hindi and English words which is commonly known as ‘Hinglish’, reflects a significant yet subtle shift in Indian linguistics and culture over time. At the same time this language blend also raises several issues pertaining to language purity, cultural identity and global influence over local languages.

This tendency to blend local languages with English is usually more apparent across Asia where the colonial pasts of many nations have to some extent elevated the status of the English language.;

India, Singapore or the Philippines for instance have incorporated English into their societies at different levels and this has slowly blended with local languages to fit specific historical and cultural contexts. Europe, however, shows a contrasting situation. Although English holds a strong position in Europe especially in business as well as academia, its integration with the indigenous languages has taken place without historical colonial influence. French, Germany and Spain are some of the European countries with strong linguistic identities. English in these countries is predominantly used here as a second language. Both indigenous languages and English have stood distinctly, and we do not see a mixture or blend as seen in the Asian communities.

English’s unique position within Indian society and its linguistic hierarchies have been shaped by its colonial history and post-independence journey. As a result, English became a language for governance, education and privileged social class. After independence, the prestige and status enjoyed by English continued making it become a mark for educational accomplishment and professionalism. The English medium schools provided individuals with easy-to-use vocabulary of complex terminologies in English language. Hence in common conversations people found it easier to use English words when delving into conversations that required specific words from business and science. Then there was another class of people who began using English words in their conversations to display their modern outlook. The advent of internet and social media in the last two decades further diluted the Hindi language as more and more English words crept in. This background has made English not just a language for communication but also one critical skill necessary for moving up the social and career ladder in India.;

The blended language trend of “Shark Tank India” mirrors the wider movement in which English words are infused into local languages, not because of lexical gaps but as an indication of dynamism in society. Over the years, Hinglish has transformed from being simply Hindi and English hybrid into a language of its own that has gained popularity among millions, especially among young people and city dwellers.

Hinglish’s development as a linguistic phenomenon, nonetheless, should be viewed within the broader context of how languages and dialects change over time. The process of language change as exemplified by Hindi provides an insight about how dynamic and fluid linguistic changes can be influenced by social, political and cultural factors.

Modern Hindi belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family and it has been evolving for centuries. The interaction between Persian-speaking Islamic conquerors who brought along Persian language with them and Sanskrit-based vernaculars during medieval period led to Hindustani. In Hindustani which emerged as the lingua franca in several regions of India, especially in the north, modern standard Hindi and Urdu evolved. The vocabulary and script of standard Hindi includes multiple Sanskrit words whereas, Urdu heavily borrows from Persian and Arabic languages and is written in Persian-Arabic script. We rarely refer to Hindustani as a language nowadays. Instead, Hindustani is acknowledged by its standard forms, Hindi and Urdu.

This history of blending languages shows how languages can incorporate elements from each other for new forms of communication that reflect cultural and social dynamics among speakers.

This linguistic evolution usually manifests through the development of dialects where variations occur within different geographical, social or cultural contexts. Dialects evolve because they are isolated from other groups speaking the same language, due to contact with neighboring languages or dialects, if not by internal changes in language. Consequently, these dialects have their own phonetic systems, grammatical structures and lexicological peculiarities.

Hinglish is a current example whereby Hindi blends with English forming a hybrid language or dialect. It symbolizes the interaction between indigenous Indian languages with global varieties of English characterized by practices like colonization and globalization. This hybrid blend is also evolving as a response to the current sociolinguistic environment in India, just as Hindi historically developed through the assimilation of various linguistic elements.

Language change theories within sociolinguistics argue that languages evolve due to diverse social factors like migration, urbanization and interaction between different language communities. As English is now widely used in education, technology, and global business; its vocabulary and structures seep into the native Hindi language leading to Hinglish being formed.

Speakers alternate between languages or blend elements of multiple languages in conversation depending on their location. These can be explained by code-switching and code-mixing theories which are common behaviors among multilingual societies, influenced by a speaker’s linguistic repertoire, social setting or topic of conversation. Speakers use English and Hindi interchangeably in Hinglish while conversing in society hence creating more effective ways of using two languages.;

Identity and language theories show how individual and group identities are reflected through language choices. Many people who speak Indian Hinglish can be cosmopolitan signifying a balance between traditional Indian culture and global modernity.