The Past, Present, and Potential of Hinglish in India Open Access

Abstract

This paper examines the current status of Hinglish as a developing bilingual mixed language, as determined by its grammatical complexity, creation as an identity marker for a bilingual speech community, and use throughout all domains of life. To speculate on the future of Hinglish in India, I look at the history of Hindi and Urdu as an indicator of issues likely to be important in the society's evaluation of a contact language's development. I also identify rural villages, south India, and government institutions as possible key players in the acceptance or rejection of Hinglish as an official language that would ease both regional linguistic tensions and educational hurdles posed by the heavily Sanskritized Hindi currently in use.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction................................................................................................. 1

2. A Short Linguistic History of North India...................................................... 3

3. Hinglish............................................................................................................ 14

3.1 Description of Hinglish.................................................................................. 16

Morphology........................................................................................................ 18

Gender and Case.............................................................................................. 18

Syntax.......................................................................................................... 19

Sounds and Script............................................................................................ 21

3.2 Classification................................................................................................ 22

4. Media and Contexts.................................................................................... 28

5. Current Strength.......................................................................................... 31

6. Lessons from Urdu and Hindi............................................................................... 33

6.1 Linguistic Differentiation......................................................................... 34

6.2 Literature.......................................................................................................... 36

6.3 Orthography............................................................................................. 38

6.4 Religion...................................................................................................... 41

6.5 Social Status................................................................................................... 47

6.6 Institutional Support.............................................................................. 49

7. The Future of Hinglish...................................................................................... 51

7.1 Hinglish in Rural India.................................................................................. 52

7.2 Hinglish in South India........................................................................ 56

7.3 Hinglish in Government............................................................................... 60

7.4 The Future of Hindi..................................................................................... 64

8. Conclusion............................................................................................. 70

9. References.................................................................................................... 72

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Linguistics
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Language, Linguistics South Asian Studies
Keyword	Sociolinguistics Hinglish Hindi Urdu
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Samei, Hossein, Emory University
Committee Members	Tuten, Donald, Emory University Samarth, Brajesh , Emory University

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