Language, accent, pronunciation and the "I-am-so-cool" syndrome
Haven't you all realized that everyone of us has subconsciously (or maybe even deliberately) developed notions regarding the use of languages and their accents and pronunciations of some words in a way so that we *think* we look cool :-).
I can't think of theories to explain this so let me directly jump to examples.
I come from a city whose official name is Pune. However, inspite of it being a proper noun, I wonder why some people keep referring to it as Poona. I'm quite sure everyone knows that the official name is Pune, so saying "Poona" doesn't come out of lack-of-knowledge :-). Plus, more often than not, its people usually speaking in English who keep referring to it as "Poona". Some people (whether they admit it or not) think its more "cool" or more "hip" to use the word "Poona" instead of "Pune". I don't really understand why. If you see English news channels, this is quite evident.
More than the Pune-vs-Poona debate, we see people using the word Bombay when the official name of the city is Mumbai. Again, its usually the English speaking(and therefore supposedly more "hip") population using the word "Bombay" and not Mumbai. Again, if one proper noun replaces the other, why is one supposed to be better(as in "more hip") than the other?
We recently saw a case where a supposedly more "cool" film producer (suave, sophisticated, urban, good-at-English-sucks-at-Hindi, etc.) had to apologize to a political leader (no "hip" at all :D... always-ready-with-the-"Marathi"-sword) because he used the word "Bombay" instead of Mumbai in the movie (interestingly, a good chunk of the movie revolved around "Mumbai beat"). Who made these unwritten rules that "Bombay" is more sophisticated than "Mumbai"?
I understand that the transition from "Bombay" to "Mumbai" happened recently and not everyone was happy with it. But then, this decision was taken by a democratically elected government. So people should go by it. Not everyone agrees to the increase in taxes but people still pay it, right?
Then comes the most hilarious part. Accent!! People have this notion about a hierarchy of accents :-). The western accent is supposed to be right at the top. The more western your accent is, the more "hip" you are....
WHAT??
Yes... but for some reason, this seems to be the unwritten rule about accents. One easily finds Bollywood film stars speaking in these accents just so that they look cool [the most hilarious piece was; recently Rakhi Sawant was trying to do this accent (in an interview to a Marathi channel)... she tried to speak one sentence in English using this accent and forgot some word in between... then switched to Marathi... again forgot some word... then simply started shaking her head and moving her shoulders up and down hoping that the interviewer would move to the next questions :)) ]
Even within the various parts of India, unfortunately, the hierarchy of accents exists. So people from the northern part of India, esp. Haryana, are supposed to be not-so-hip since their accents don't quite exude too much "hipness" :D. But I think this is similar to the accent and attitude of people from Texas :-).
Aishwarya Rai had made an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and it was so weird seeing her faking the western accent. Neways... let's not even get started on Aishwarya Rai!!
And last comes the unwritten hierarchy of languages. Speaking in English is supposed to be coolest, followed by Hindi and the last is the regional language (this is the hierarchy I've seen people conform to, it might be different elsewhere). In college (undergrad), this would result is some really really funny situations.
Two perfectly Marathi speaking classmates meet each other. But #1 is supposedly more "cool" than #2. So no matter what, #1 will always speak in English. #2 will make some futile attempts first, then switch to Hindi and eventually simply get back to what he knows best... Marathi. When both have a language in common, why can't they simply talk in that language? After all language is supposed to be a medium to convey your thoughts.
Why is one language supposed to be more sophisticated than the other? These hierarchies completely beat me!!
I can't think of theories to explain this so let me directly jump to examples.
I come from a city whose official name is Pune. However, inspite of it being a proper noun, I wonder why some people keep referring to it as Poona. I'm quite sure everyone knows that the official name is Pune, so saying "Poona" doesn't come out of lack-of-knowledge :-). Plus, more often than not, its people usually speaking in English who keep referring to it as "Poona". Some people (whether they admit it or not) think its more "cool" or more "hip" to use the word "Poona" instead of "Pune". I don't really understand why. If you see English news channels, this is quite evident.
More than the Pune-vs-Poona debate, we see people using the word Bombay when the official name of the city is Mumbai. Again, its usually the English speaking(and therefore supposedly more "hip") population using the word "Bombay" and not Mumbai. Again, if one proper noun replaces the other, why is one supposed to be better(as in "more hip") than the other?
We recently saw a case where a supposedly more "cool" film producer (suave, sophisticated, urban, good-at-English-sucks-at-Hindi, etc.) had to apologize to a political leader (no "hip" at all :D... always-ready-with-the-"Marathi"-sword) because he used the word "Bombay" instead of Mumbai in the movie (interestingly, a good chunk of the movie revolved around "Mumbai beat"). Who made these unwritten rules that "Bombay" is more sophisticated than "Mumbai"?
I understand that the transition from "Bombay" to "Mumbai" happened recently and not everyone was happy with it. But then, this decision was taken by a democratically elected government. So people should go by it. Not everyone agrees to the increase in taxes but people still pay it, right?
Then comes the most hilarious part. Accent!! People have this notion about a hierarchy of accents :-). The western accent is supposed to be right at the top. The more western your accent is, the more "hip" you are....
WHAT??
Yes... but for some reason, this seems to be the unwritten rule about accents. One easily finds Bollywood film stars speaking in these accents just so that they look cool [the most hilarious piece was; recently Rakhi Sawant was trying to do this accent (in an interview to a Marathi channel)... she tried to speak one sentence in English using this accent and forgot some word in between... then switched to Marathi... again forgot some word... then simply started shaking her head and moving her shoulders up and down hoping that the interviewer would move to the next questions :)) ]
Even within the various parts of India, unfortunately, the hierarchy of accents exists. So people from the northern part of India, esp. Haryana, are supposed to be not-so-hip since their accents don't quite exude too much "hipness" :D. But I think this is similar to the accent and attitude of people from Texas :-).
Aishwarya Rai had made an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and it was so weird seeing her faking the western accent. Neways... let's not even get started on Aishwarya Rai!!
And last comes the unwritten hierarchy of languages. Speaking in English is supposed to be coolest, followed by Hindi and the last is the regional language (this is the hierarchy I've seen people conform to, it might be different elsewhere). In college (undergrad), this would result is some really really funny situations.
Two perfectly Marathi speaking classmates meet each other. But #1 is supposedly more "cool" than #2. So no matter what, #1 will always speak in English. #2 will make some futile attempts first, then switch to Hindi and eventually simply get back to what he knows best... Marathi. When both have a language in common, why can't they simply talk in that language? After all language is supposed to be a medium to convey your thoughts.
Why is one language supposed to be more sophisticated than the other? These hierarchies completely beat me!!
Labels: accent, india, Language, Mumbai, pronunciation, Pune
posted by Shri at 2:39 PM
5 Comments:
Until recent years 'common man' couldn't afford sending their kids to english medium or convent schools. As a result of this 'common man' did not (or could not in many cases) speak in english. Moreover, level of sophistication is usually directly proportional to financial status/capability. Because of this, notion of sophistication and speaking english went hand in hand for years and probably this is why people started perceiving speaking english as one of the characteristics of sophistication.
Theoretically, everybody had access to english medium schools and going to english medium school as child has got nothing to do with ability to speak in english. However, if you attend a vernacular school as your early schooling your mother tongue becomes your preferred language of communication. Because in your mind you think in you mother tongue. When you want to count 1-10 what do you say in your mind one-two-three or ek-don-teen ... If you attend convent or english medium school your preferred language of communication becomes english. Because you are trained in english since your childhood.
So your preferred language of communication depends on what kind of school you went. And what kind of school (till high-school) you go depends on your financial capability. After high-school (10th or 12th) what school one gets admitted to depends on is his intellectual capability not parent's financial capability.
This is probably the link between sophistication/hip and speaking in english in Indian context (the context in which we grew up).
Good analysis Gajanan. I totally agree with it. It explains the relation between English and sophistication.
But the other questions about pronunciation and accent still beat me :-).
As sent by Mrs. Sudha Javadekar :-)
--------------------------------------
Shrinand,
Whether you like it or not,spoken variety of any language WILL have a prestigious choice. Do you notice Pune Marathi is more prestigious- Hip?- compared to say Nagar or Kolhapur variety.For English, the southern London variety --it is known as R.P.,i.e. received pronunciation--is most prestigious.The British look down upon American way of speech.
Reasons for such choices are many.It is a part of social linguistics to study them.For preference to Pune Marathi ,we must remember the rulers-Peshwas-ruled from Pune.I could go on and on but I think this explains some of your questions.
Sudha
This comment has been removed by the author.
I think sometimes people read a lot of meaning in some things which do not have that meaning. People try to "look" cool or "hip" are people who are insecure in who they are and want to be "perceived" differently. But there are others who do not care what "others" think of them and in that way do and say things the way they feel correct. Now if the receiver is insecure in who he/she is, they will perceive a seemingly simple sentence as wanting to mean something which was not intended int he first place.
How many times do people say Banguluru or Kolkutta? Just becos Mumbai is close to us as is Marathi, we feel that usage of word Bombay is inappropriate, unpatriotic, or so said only to be associated with "English" speaking people. Not necessarily so - it is just a way of communicating the name of a place - know to many as Bombay - especially while speaking to older caucasians.
I personally have never felt the need to "fake" an accent - but there have been times - multiple times actually when I have wished that I was speaking in a more natural "American" accent while talking to my clients living in parts of America which have not seen such a huge influx of Desis.
So it is all in the perspective. Of both the communicator and the receiver.
I think as receivers we have to be more open to letting people be who they want to be and express themselves the way they want to - who knows what reasons they have for doing so???
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