Between Flux and Fixity

Kakatiya Jounrnal of English Studies, v.17 (1997)

Between Flux and Fixity

The Linguistic Borrowing in English and Telugu

T. Vinoda

The English language, the glorious mongrel, in all its various stages of metamorphosis so far, the paper argues, has clearly established that inguistic borrowing on such phenomenal scale does not succeed in destroying its native character. It is also demonstrated how the English language has thrown up new mutants imbibing the local cultural and social ethos in other countries without forfeiting international acceptability for each of these varieties. What has happened, the paper argues, to the English language on a global scale has happened on a considerably lower scale to Telugu language also. Without playing the arbiter, the paper also suggests parameters for Telugu language with regard to borrowing and seeking translational equiva­lents.

The "chutney" generation of Indian English writers, as Salman Rushdie has recently asserted, has been since independence doing the "most interesting work" as compared to the work of the regional language writers. Not withstanding the debate and controversy that this assertion might stir up, it must be pointed out that the Indian English (which the purists and conservatives have always felt is neither authentically Indian nor truly English be­cause of the cultural hybridisation) as a language has emerged as a variety like the American English, Canadian English, Australian English, African English, etc., with a distinct identity. In the meanwhile the linguistic controversy between the innovators and the purists rages in many countries the world over. The issue involved here is no different from the one that rocked the sixteenth century England. The innovators defend the practice of free borrowing and adaptations from foreign languages to meet the ever increasing cultural, sociological, communicative needs, while the purists plead for a freer use of the pure linguistic forms taken from the vernacular. The three Cambridge scholars of the Tudor period, Sir John Cheke, Roger Ascham and Thomas Wilson advo­cated the purity of the native tongue and warned against dena­tionalising the language by excessive borrowings from Latin, French, and Italian. Their apprehensions about this have not come true and the process of amalgamation and synthesis went on unchecked in English language without any loss of native charac­ter or identity. Today we ask, isn't the English language the better for borrowing freely and happily from not less than 50 languages even before its entry into the New World. The American poet, Carl Sandburg asserts, "The English language hasn't got where it is by being pure." A senior writer with the US News and World Report, Gerald Parshall humorously says that the effort to keep English pure is like giving a courtesan a chastity belt for her birthday.² And the process of "promiscuous" acquisitiveness from other lan­guages has continued unabated in English over the centuries and has resulted in a language that has incomparable richness, sub­tlety, depth, precision, variety--a language that is best suited to diplomacy, business and every occasion, walk and moment of life. In this context we cannot but recall Dorothy Thompson's observa­tion that the English language is a "glorious and imperial mon­grel."³
What exactly necessitates linguistic borrowing? Is it always the need-filling motive? A new concept, a new object? Faced with such a situation, languages may respond differently. Often even the same language at different phases of its development would respond to similar situations differently. During the Old English period, for instance, Englishmen coined words, especially com­pounds, from out of the existing vocabulary in order to express new concepts borrowed from outside. They came up with such native compounds as:
tungolcraft "starcraft" for astronomy

boccraft "bookskill" for literature

bochord "book-hoard" for library

fielle-seocnes "falling-sickness" for epilepsy
Nevertheless, eventually the Norman Conquest changed the lin­guistic habits of the people and as a result the Middle English borrowed profusely from French and Latin. No wonder, then, English speakers today can calibrate the tone and tenor of their prose with great precision. The apparently synonymous English words have each been assigned a connotation. "Royal, regal, kingly," for instance, are not absolute synonyms; different conno­tations mark each one.
The point, however, is that free borrowing is not resisted even by some purists when it comes to meeting the ever-increasing need for scientific and technical terminology. Greek words like

"television, automobile, haemoglobin, clinic, oxygen, hydro­gen, telescope,

microscope, gramophone, biology, astrology, astronomy," etc.

have become a part and parcel of not only the English language but also of the majority of world languages, despite the remonstra­tions from some purists. The other important area where borrowing is not shunned is the cross-cultural context; the culture-bound words which denote concepts and objects that are unique to the source language. Several non-native varieties of world Englishes manifest this character. Indian English, for instance, includes such Indian loan-words as

"satyagraha, purdah, gherao, curry, dharna, ahimsa, charpoy, ghee, karma,

lakh, sahib, sahiba, dhobi, dhoban, swadeshi, chapati, mangoose, bungalow,

pyjamas, coolie, raj," etc.

Lexical transfer is used by speakers from the basilect to the acrolect and all the examples here are instances of loan-shift.
Just as the English in England has been effected by the cross­cultural interaction, the English in other countries, especially in the former colonies has undergone many changes. Hybrid and mixed formations we find in plenty in Indian English. Some examples:

"lathi-charge, city-kotwali, rail-gadi, police-jamadar, zanana­chambers, Congress-

panda1, great-juloos, inspector-sahib, chamar woman, pariah children,

burning ghats, charas-smuggler, tonga-driver, satyagraha-campaign,

dak-bungalow, khus-khus blinds," etc.

A casual reading of any typically Indian English novel by Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, Bhabani Bhattacharya or Salman Rushdie would flood one with linguistic creations which can only be explained in terms of the socio-cultural context in which English functions. The innumerable social and cultural features of the Indian way of life very often reflect phenomena which do not exist or have so much importance in the English speaking countries. So words are coined to account for them:

"rice-water, cold-meal, invitation rice, marriage-season, bride­showing,

bride-price, nose-ring, ear-ring, rope-cot, sacred-ash, cook-woman,

tuft-knot, village elders, bangle sellers, dining­-leaf, alms-bowl," etc.

There are many more culture-specific vocabulary items which the Indian English users have come to coin:

"interdine, intermarriage, forehead marking, caste-mark, tri­·dent,

nine-stranded thread, waist-thread, dung-wash," etc.

Likewise typical Indian ceremonies and festivals demanded dis­tinct Indian lexis:

"naming ceremony, thread ceremony, turmeric ceremony, mehandi-ceremony,

hair-cutting ceremony, valima, ratha-yatra, Deepawali (Diwali), Holi festival,

Vinayaka festival, Dussehra," etc.

Also, it is not unusual to find items of Indian cookery in Indian English:

"biryani, laddoo, idli, dosa, lassi, sherbet, jalebis, rasgullas, piste-ki-lauz,

shahi-korma," etc.

Nativising the English words and anglicising the native words is another process of assimilation that is largely witnessed in words where (i) native suffixes are added to English stems and (ii) vice-versa:

(i) sisterji; jailkhana; scooter-wallah; doctorji, afsarji; car-en, agency-yan, company-yan; masternii, etc.
(ii) sadhuhood, brahminhood; patelship; goondaism; Upan­ishadic; biris, shikaras, surahis, namaskars, salaams, etc.

Indian English tends to be truly Indian in expression when it comes to greetings, modes of address, blessings, curses, and idio­ma tic expressions. In order to impart native colour to the manners, milieu and mores in their writings, Indian English writers exploit this area to the full; rather, it is inevitable that they do so to be faithful to Indian reality:

"He bowed his forehead; he touched their feet; charan sparsh; may your wife be childless;

may your house be destroyed; lecherous cow-eater; sons of concubines," etc.

In an effort to portray the folkways of the Indian rustic life, Raja Rao goes to great lengths to forge an English that is saturated with the native rhythms, idioms, imagery and even the intonation patterns in Kanthapura. It is an admirable adventure in a pioneer­ing linguistic experiment that is widely acclaimed in India as well as the West. Raja Rao's trend setting, successful experiment gave literary sanction and respectability to the variety of English that has come to be called Indian English. Indian English writers no longer hesitate to forge an English that is ideally suited to commu­nicate the Indian sensibility and Indian ways. This variety of English, as we recognise, has not ceased to be English after all these changes. Indian English, a linguistic melange, has come to be Indian in innumerable ways. Even metaphors and similes are drawn from the common, everyday objects and phenomena with which the rural society in India is inalienably linked. Animals and plants figure most in their folk expressions:

- She is as hale as a first-calved cow.
- The youngest is always the holy bull.
- Our hearts beat like the wings of bats.
- Every squirrel has his day.
- Does a boar stand before a lion or a jackal before
an elephaant?
- ... honest as an elephant
- ... helpless as a calf
- Young boys bright as banana trunks
- (of women) some beautiful as new opened guavas and the
others tender as April mangoes.

Thus banana trunks, lantana bushes, jasmine hedges, guava and mango trees supply the imagery in the Indian writing in English that is about the Indian rural life. Very often idioms and phrases popular in Indian languages are literally translated into English to endow authenticity to Indian English:

- You cannot straighten a dog's tail!
- Leaf is laid.
- They would spit behind her.
- The policemen are not your uncle's sons.
- You cannot put wooden tongues to men.

Sometimes writers Indianise the English idiom, rather than trans­late literally the Indian idiom into English:

- crush it in the seed
- go and ask the squirrel on the fence
- cow and sparrow story

These richly resonant, unexpected collocations also bring the In­dian English closer to the Indian experience. But to this extent it remains baffling to the uninitiated foreign readers. Writers have, to a limited extent, helped the foreign reader overcome the baffle­ment with a helpful glossary at the end of the book. For the Indian reader, however, it is a joy of instant recognition.
It is a matter of unceasing wonder as to how English has retained its character even though the borrowings have far out­numbered the native Anglo-Saxon residuum. Not only should this phenomenon belie the fears of the purists, but that it should bring them joy that English has emerged in the process as the most malleable, supple and suggestive language.
The example of English language should be instructive espe­cially in our time when nationalism and parochialism have been throwing fervent arguments to preserve identity of languages in various countries. In recent times several writers, linguists and critics have been concerned over what they feel is the denaturing of, say, Telugu language. Not many, in fact, mind the borrowing from other languages in a bilingual context, if it is judicious. But the parameters determining the borderline between the judicious and indiscriminate borrowings is contentious, as it always hap­pens when it is a question of drawing the limiting line. But who is to draw this line, when the processes of change inexorably push on undeterred by the innumerable polemics and debates.
During the Nizam's rule the Telugu language in present Telan­gana region in Andhra Pradesh came under the then official language, Urdu. And to this day the stamp of Urdu influence on Telugu language here sets it apart from the Coastal and Ray­alaseema dialects. Hundreds of Urdu usages figure in the Telan­gana Telugu. To name a few:

beenaami, behattar, baadshah, badmaash, beekaar, dukaanam, phakeer,

faisla, dhokebaaz, chaalak, munaafa, nuksaan, baksh­ish, khanoon, khoonkharaba,

sharafat, zuban, zulm, zikar, naksha, mulk, munshi, jameedaar, gulaam, adaalat,

tehsil, etc.

Such a non-Telugu presence has surely rendered Telugu of this region as a separate dialect, but it has not obliterated its character. Yesterday it was Urdu and today it is English which is affecting the Telugu language. The sweeping English influence on Telugu becomes increasingly pronounced as education spreads; and even the uneducated rural folk have begun to mix English in their Telugu as the influence of T.V., radio and newspapers becomes widespread. Often the English mix here might be at a broken English or basilect level. But it surely is English that affects their Telugu. Hundreds of English vocabulary items have become a part of their verbal repertoire, without anybody ever being con­scious of the English presence! Examples:

i. School, college, university, tuition, teacher, headmaster, lecturer, professor, scholarship,

certificate, pass, fail, bag, box, chalkpiece, marks, results, train, bus.
ii. Doctor, hospital, ward, patient, nurse, compounder, injec-. tion, medical tests, nursing-home,

x-ray, TB, cholera, ma­laria, cancer, scanning, medicine.
iii. Lawyer, court, magistrate, bail, arrest, criminal, High-court, supreme-court,

summons, notice, petition, judge, judgement.
iv. Dress, coat, trousers, pants, shirts, saree, bluse, tailor, beauty parlour, gym,

embroidery, lace, cotton, silk, jeans, woollen, polyester, synthetic, nylon, powder,

cream, hair oil, nail­polish, lipstick.

Take any field of discourse or register, it is enriched with words from the English language. Even the native Basic Vocabulary items including kinship terms, body parts, days of the week, numerals, are not spared and are in the process of being replaced with English equivalents. The written Telugu has been perforce using these hundreds of English words in transliterated forms and this practice has gained respectability in the literary Telugu too. Such transliterated forms freely take almost all the Telugu case endings, plurals, etc (Republicanlu, bureaucratlu, collegeloo). Another aspect to this large scale borrowings from English, is the nativization of these words in terms of pronunciation especially at the level of Basilect and Mesolect speakers. The influence of English syntax and idiom on Telugu, however, is rare among the Basilect/Mesolect users, while in case of the Telugu used by intel­ligentsia (the Acrolect speakers) the English structures and idioms begin to assert themselves.
Newspapers, literature, cinema and other mass media in gen­eral playa crucial role in the process of standardisation of any language and are powerful shaping influences. Prescriptivism obviously would not work in a bilingual context, but many think­ing people still feel that there should be some clear cut criteria in regard to borrowing from a foreign language. In its study of the use of vernacular languages in education, the UNESCO Commit­tee pointed out that there are five ways of expanding the vocabu­lary: (1) word-borrowing; (2) coinage; (3) giving new meaning to existing words; (4) extending the meaning of the existing words, and (5) compounding new words from the existing elements of the language.⁴ The committee also made it clear that the devices (3), (4) and (5) should be preferred to (1) and (2). They were also specific in recommending that the borrowed words should be adapted/integrated to the sound system 'and grammar of the language. William E. Bull is more specific and pointed in this context when he said that the use of one device or another depends on the subject matter. Political terminology, for instance, can be created by (3), (4) or (5), but the only devices to create a complete pharmacopoeia are borrowing (1) and coinage (2).⁵
However as stated earlier the Telugu users have fallen into the habit of borrowing indiscriminately from English whether or not there is need, denaturing in the process both Telugu and English. The preponderance of the so-called English medium schools and the widespread attitude that English would give a superior status have to a large extent, lead to this indiscriminate borrowing. Very often this injudicious mixing of English with Telugu takes place as a matter of habit and is naturalised in most Telugu users. This trend is viewed with disapproval and concern by those who complain of the phenomenon of unhealthy inter language interac­tion that is mutually degrading.
When a new concept or object is introduced to a language community they either borrow its form from the donor language or make an effort at finding a translational equivalent. It is not always easy to establish absolute correspondence between related words in two different languages. If finding the translational equivalence between lexical items proves to be difficult the user goes for explanatory or descriptive equivalents. Eugene Nida⁶ posits three requirements to be kept in view whenever we try to find such translational equivalents:
1. The translation must represent the customary usage of the receptor language.
2. The translation must make sense.
3. The translation must conform to the meaning of the original.
To demonstrate how things would go awry when these simple principles are ignored in translation, the inept English translation "Mother's cold look" for the original Telugu expression" Amma challani choopu" would do. Here the connotation the English word "cold" (a snarl-word) has not only nullifies the signification the Telugu word "challani" (a purr-word) has, but also purports a diametrically opposite sense. Thus it violates the third require­ment mentioned above. Similarly, when a Telugu newspaper editorial translates "Big brother attitude" as '"peddanna' thiiru" "peddanna" even with enclosed quotes cannot capture the im­plied domineering attitude of the English expression. Likewise when the English expression "white lie" is translated as "thellati abaddam," even an inattentive reader is alerted to the alien collo­cation. This happens because the writer borrows the English col­location even when the corresponding Telugu expression, "pachchi abaddam" is available for the user. Such conscious/unconscious translations of English idioms into Telugu are obviously cultural/collocational misfits and they baffle the native Telugu readers who have no background of English. This bafflement is the measure of the success or failure of these translations. However in a bilingual situation such disastrous translations are common, and only a high degree of competence in both the languages could be an answer to this problem. A competent, responsible translator would resist literal translation and would endeavour to find an equally acceptable expression from the target language in order to convey the sense of the source language.
One of the parameters laid for good translation is that it must represent the customary usage of the receptor language. An expression like the following:

"innallu viitannitikii neenendukinta guddiga unnaanu," rings a bell

and you have the sentence: "Why was I blind to these all these days?"

Similarly,
"aideellugaa rajanitoo praana sneeham cheestunna nirmala aamaata

ariginchukooleeka yuddham cheestoondi."

though not quite off the mark of the Telugu idiom, this still smacks of English usage. For "mingudu padaleedu" or "aakalimpu cheesukooleedu" would have been closer to the Telugu idiom here.
The point to be noted here is, such an unconscious importation of the syntax, collocations and idioms from a foreign language into the native language frequently happens even among the most enlightened users. This could be seen in Telugu newspapers these days:

Telugu expressions Original English Idiom

1. (a) gaddi vaamuloo kukkalaa 1. dog in the manger

(b) thaaganeerani pilli boorla

poosukunna chandam
2. (a) khaathaa theruva leedu 2. they failed to open account

(b) booni kotta leeka pooyaaru
3. (a) aa thaanuloo mukkee 3. cloth from the same bolt

(b) oka guuti pakshulee
4. (a) kantiki kannu, pannuku pannu 4. eye for eye, tooth for tooth

(b) debbaku debba
5. (a) kanche kavathala gaddi athi pachchana 5. grass is greener on the other side of the fence

(b) poruginti pullaguura ruchi
6. (a) jeebu samstha 6. pocket borough

(b) swantha jaagiiru
Anyone whose first language is Telugu would prefer the second members (b) in all these constructions because they preserve the character of the native idiom and would not show themselves as alien forms. The first members (a) here look obviously English and are out of place in the Telugu linguistic context. It is only when a native idiom is available that we prefer it to the English equivalent; otherwise any translational equivalent would do. For example, a translation like:

idi naaneeniki oka paarshvam maatramee (It's only one side of the coin)

may not cause such bafflement and might even find ready accep­tance into native Telugu possibly because a corresponding Telugu idiomatic expression is not available. However the happy situ­ation is when the expressions in the source language and the target language appear to overlap or coalesce. Examples:
Telugu English
merseedantha bangaaram kaadu all that glitters is not gold
bakaai sommu ka kku thaa ra ta cough up the balance amount

One encounters several hundreds of translational equivalents in the Telugu newspapers, which do not seem to disturb the reader; they are the ones that have no penumbra of meaning, no associa­tive senses, no connotations, but are mostly denotative and neutral in signification. Most of them are loan-translations.

Telugu English
simha bhaagam lion's share
sandeeha laabham benefit of doubt

vadapotha kamiti screening committee
prakka prabhaavaalu side effects
merupu samme lightning strike
sudigaali paryatana whirlwind tour

sanghatitha rangam organized sector
saaradhya sangham steering committee

diddubaatu charyalu corrective measures

eekadhruva prapancham unipolar worls

eekaruupa kaniisa veethanaalu uniform minimum wages

Such loan-translations testify to Roman Jakobson's observation that "all cognitive experience and its classification is conveyable in any existing language."⁷

The focus of this paper, however, has not been on this kind of translation, but to point to areas where changes and borrowings fall in place and where they go awry. Also, the endeavour here has been to alert the language user to the problems of borrowings or translations in the area of culture because the culture-bound words denote objects and concepts peculiar to source language. There is a close relationship between language and culture, and words are "sym­bols for dynamic and explicit features of the culture...;"⁸ as such it is not always easy establishing absolute corre­spondence between related words in different languages.
At the same time it must be underlined that holier-than-thou attitude does not work in a bilingual situation, and that change is the defining characteristic of all living languages. What the lin­guists and scholars are busy with these days is to see how Telugu language could enrich itself with increased vocabulary from for­eign sources without any loss to its essential character.

Notes

1. Quoted by Gerald Parshall, "A 'Glorious Mongrel,'" Span (January 1996) 9.
2. Parshall 9.
3. Parshall 9.
4. I read this UNESCO study and took notes a long time ago. The exact reference is not available with me now and the limited library resources in Warangal are no help in my predicament. Forced to choose between not giving at all referential details when they are not available, and the necessity of making a point, I decided in favour of the latter and explained away the flimsy problems of documentation.
5. William E. Bull, "The Use of Vernacular Languages in Education," Language in Culture and Society, ed. Dell Hymes (New York: Harper & Row, 1964) 530.
6. Eugene A. Nida, Bible Translating (London: United Bible Societies, 1961) 13.
7. Roman Jakobson, "Linguistic Aspects of Translation," On Translation, ed, Reuben A. Brower (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1959) 234.
8. Eugene A. Nida, "Analysis of Meaning and Dictionary Making," On Translation, ed. Reuben A. Brower (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1959) 282.