When the British left India in 1947, Indian English developed. It mixes American and British English with vernacular words and syntax, and literal translations of phrases. The website Samosapedia describes itself as “the definitive guide to South Asian lingo” and invites users to “catalog and celebrate the rich, diverse and ever-evolving landscape of this region’s shared vernacular”. For example a chaddi buddy (lit: underwear friend) is someone you’ve known since childhood; kabab mein haddi (lit: a bone in the kebab) is a third wheel with better imagery; an enthu cutlet (lit: an enthusiastic mincemeat croquette) is an overly earnest soul.

Another example of a mongrel language is Spanglish, which refers to the blend of Spanish and English. The Hispanic population of the United States and the British population in Argentina use varieties of this linguistic blend and sometimes, the creole spoken in Spanish holiday resorts which are exposed to both English and Spanish is called Spanglish. For example parquear is a mixture of the English “to park” and the Spanish “estacionar”; carpeta is “folder” in standard Spanish but it is used with the meaning of “carpet” instead of the Spanish ‘alfombra’; actualmente, means “currently,” in Spanish and is used (incorrectly) instead of the words ‘de echo,’ taking on the English meaning, “actually”.

Chinglish is a similar linguistic phenomenon. Some Chinese may be offended to be labelled as speaking it, but according to our blogpost on the 8 Latest Cultural Behaviour in Hong Kong, the use of Chinglish is inevitable since most 80’s born Hong Kong Chinese now prefer to add the “Chinese interjections” at the end of an English sentence. This occurs in Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese too: i.e. “Let’s do it” becomes “Let’s do it la!”;”OK” becomes “OK la!”.

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