“Aye let’s chumma go off for a long drive maccha.” Or a slew of other words that are used universally that have resulted in an almost “Kan”glish language! Adjushtu, scopu, mishtik or just, ‘oh what a.” While a non-native Bengalurean would blink in bewilderment at this statement, a true one would respond with “Yeppah! Too much traffic! Let’s chill here maggaa. Or let’s put it one!” In India, English is one of the most widely spoken languages. But the language, over due course of time, has undergone a lot of changes to suit the natives of a particular region. In Bengaluru, people use a number of languages to communicate with each other, so the lingo not only consists of words from Kannada, but Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi as well.
Chumma, one of the most common words used by localites, brings shock on the faces of people who hail from the North. “Chumma (simply) means kiss in Hindi, so when I responded with Chumma to a question my cousins in Mumbai asked me, they gave me a strange look. It took me a while to understand why they didn’t get what I was saying,” explains Sonshu Iyengar, a freelancer. For some, using these words in other regions may be embarrassing, but here, we are proud to use authentic lingo. But once anybody stays in the city for long enough, the words start to grow on them. “I was shocked when my friend referred to the bus conductor as boss while telling him he didn’t have change. I had to keep asking my friends what they meant when they used certain words like Bombaat (incredible) and why their faces expressed pure disgust when they said Yeppahh (expression of disgust)!” explains Praveen, a student from Jabalpur. “But after living here for a few months, I have caught on and probably use these words as much as they do!” he laughs.
While college students are encouraged to use authentic English words to express themselves, they don’t shy away from certain slang words. “I feel like these slang words express what we’re trying to say much better than plain English does. Goobe (idiot) and kirik (nuisance) are the two words we use the most on campus. I won’t be surprised if these words are soon added to the dictionary. After all, almost the entire state uses them to converse. It has become an inevitable part of our vocabulary,” says Radhika Narain, a smug student.
