The Influence of English on Serious and
Humorous Tamil Speech
Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi', Rome
More than a century ago, Vedanayaham Pillai in the first novel ever
written in Tamil already complained of his fellow citizen's partiality for
English. They do not even want to read Tamil, "if a Tamil book were
placed into their hands they would feel like putting their hands into an
anthill inhabited by a cobra" (1879/1984: 307), he claimed. Since then,
the influence of English has doubtless still increased; but since borrow¬
ings tend to start in colloquial speech, and until recently written Tamil
was literary Tamil, the progression of English cannot be documented
far back in Tamil literature. Putumaippittan, who wrote some of his bet¬
ter known works in the thirties and forties of this century, used English
loan words and colloquial Tamil sparingly. I know of only one story by
him in which English abounds. Significantly, it deals with students
about to take an exam (Putumaippittan 1978: 42-51).
Only in the last few decades it has become common among TamU wri¬
ters to render their characters' direct speech in colloquial Tamil, and
more or less reserve the literary language for the descriptive parts of the
tale. Plays, and in particular comedies if they describe contemporary
life, are mostly colloquial throughout. Therefore they provide the best
literary source of information on the influence of English on Tamil. Con¬
sequently, the bulk of the data on which this study is based has been
derived from comedies.
Features of English Entering the Tamil Language
There is no limit to the English that can enter Tamil since a person
may at times speak whole sentences in English before returning to his
mother tongue. In what Shanmugam Pillai (Shapiro and Schiff¬
man 1981: 218-219) has called "sprinkled code-switching", however, in
which English words are intermittently used, some preferences and
' A shorter version of the paper was read at the 9th European Coiderence on
Modern South Asian Studies, WUhelmsfeld, Germany, July 1986.
The Influenee of Enghsh on Tamil Speech
resistances can be discerned. In "sprinkled code-switching" I have rare¬
ly come across the English definite article (Tamil has no definite
article), and the indefinite article preferably retains the Tamil form,
which is that of the numeral 'one', even in cases where English speakers
would not use an article at all. The English word 'privacy' for instance,
receives the Tamil indefinite article oru in the sentence "Is there no
need for privacy?" (om privacy ventämäl) (Marina 1978: 100). Among
Tamil pronouns, personal pronouns are most resistant to the impact
of English. One character boasts of his special technique as "en (my)
special technique" (Marina 1982: 122) and another asserts "we are a
bold generation" in the following terms: "nänka (we) bold generation
(Marina 1981: 47).
Next, there are words which have no simple or unambiguous Tamil
equivalents like 'interesting', 'punctual' or 'jealous'. In such cases,
English words are freely used. Often English takes the place of earlier
borrowings from Sanskrit or other languages. While literary Tamil may
speak of a person's character as hmam}, his opinion as apippiräyam,
and his coming late as tämacamäy, colloquial Tamil now has 'character',
'opinion' and 'late-ä'. With these observations, I do not want to suggest
that plausible explanations can be found for all borrowings. English
words may also be used in place of perfectly adequate Tamil words.
The Adaptation of English to Tamil
It is a truism that English in the mouth of an Indian changes phoneti¬
cally, grammatically and semantically; still, some examples of Tamil-
ized English may be of interest. Anton (1975: XXXIX-XLI) has listed
phonemic and graphic representations of English vowels and conso¬
nants in Tamil; Shapiro and Schiffman have dealt with the same
topic; the merest sketch, then, will be sufficient. Shapiro and Schiff¬
man have furthermore raised the question whether distortions of the
English system are due to the fact that the Tamils leam English from
other Tamils (who have in tum leamed it from Tamils and so forth), or
whether they are due to phonological constraints of the borrowing lan¬
guage (1981: 220). In my view, both influences occur. The former cause
is certainly responsible for the regular pronunciation of'leisure' as li^ar
^ The transcription of Tamil words follows the University of Madras Tamil
Lexicon. 1-6. Madras 1924-39. Loan words of any origin are transcribed
according to the same schema. In order to facilitate reading the TamU transcrip¬
tion of English loan words has been kept to a minimmn.
6 ZDMG 140/1
82 Gabriella Eichinger Febro-Luzzi
and 'legend' as lijant as well as shifts of accent and resulting contrac¬
tions, which make some words almost incomprehensible to a native
speaker of English: cf. ehkkarej for 'encourage', ek^trä for 'etc.', eksais
for 'exercise'. — The regular pronunciation of the English open 'o' (as in
doctor) as a long ' a' — even though Tamil has a long open ' o' — may part¬
ly be due to the second cause. On the one hand, it must be remembered
that the Southem English long open 'o' (as well as the American one) is
intermediate between 'a' and 'o' (Principles . . . 1967: 9) so that it
sounds like ' a' not only to Tamils but also, e. g. , to Italians. On the other
hand, by using the Tamil long'a' for the English long'o', the Tamil long
'o' becomes free to represent the English diphthong 'ou' (as in road),
which does not exist in Tamil. ^
The most conspicuous grammatical change in English sentences
inserted in Tamil speech is the frequent omission of the article charac¬
teristic of Indian English in general: as in "what surprise!" or "it is pro¬
mise". In some cases the Tamil prefers the gemnd of an English verb to
the noun. He thus waits at 'a bus stopping', goes to a 'self serving' and
has 'a hair cutting'. He may also create new English nouns and say in
English "it is a compel" rather than "it is compulsory".
The assimilation of English words to Tamil grammar follows fairly
strict rules. English nouns are declined and put into the plural like
Tamil nouns. Since Tamil is an agglutinative language, most Tamil
endings are simply added to English words as in 'ofTicer-Ical-ukku' (to
the officers). English words ending in'm', however, are taken as Tamil
neuters in which the inflectional base changes final'm' to tt(u). Thus
'ask madam' (accusative) is metattaik kelu, 'in the album' (locative) is
albu-ttle and 'at lunch time' (dative) is lunch ti-yattukku. Furthermore,
English nouns ending in 'n' may be treated like Tamil male nouns and
put into the honorific. Thus a polite Tamil speaks of a warden as a
ward-ar.
Since the genitive of some Tamil nouns is the same as the nominative,
English genitive markers may be omitted: 'the director's mood' is
'director mood' and 'the sister's opinion', 'sister opinion'. Since numer¬
als in Tamil do not require the noun in the plural, the English plural
may be omitted after Tamil numerals like 'ancu (five) invitation'.
English verbs are left unaltered and prefixed to the conjugated forms
of the Tamil verb parma (to make) or more rarely ceyya (to make) as in
'ie^parmd! (to feel) or'decide pawm' (to decide). This treatment of bor¬
rowed English verbs is surprising because borrowed Sanskrit verbs are
' Hindi fonns like ^älefar may have had their effects, too.
directly conjugated like Tamil verbs. Sometimes English verbs and
adjectives are nominalized in Tamil speech. 'To dash' becomes 'dash
afikka' (to beat a dash) and 'to be boring' 'bore afikka' (to beat a bore).
The latter is a particidarly common Anglicism. The ending of the
English past participle is usually dropped and, when used as an epithet,
-äva is affixed. An experienced old man is experience-dna kilam (Marina
1974: 77). English adjectives are transformed into Tamil adjectives and
adverbs by adding -ä (the colloquial contraction of literary TamU äka or
äy), thus 'red-handed' is red-hand-ä, 'seriously', serkrus-ä, and 'safely',
safe-ä. Interestingly enough the English dichotomous adjectives 'right'
and 'wrong' may be either borrowed together or individually combined
with the TamU opposite. In the latter case, 'right or wrong' may be ren¬
dered as 'tappä right-ä'. The faet that English adverbs can be declined in
TamU seems particularly noteworthy. 'Without' can be put into the
locative (without-<iZ) in the TamU question "Do you think that I am tra- veUing without [a ticket]?" (Jesaiya 1982: 206).
Since in TamU sentences the verb comes at the end, in Anglicized
TamU 'to teach a lesson' is 'oru lesson teach panrui' , 'to charge fees' is
'fees charge panrui', and the question "why do you lose your temper,"
becomes ew(why) wnAa (your) temper-ai lose panre? (Marina 1977: 144).
English also readUy enters the echo-word construction, which is typi¬
cal not only of coUoquial TamU and other Dravidian languages but
counts among areal features (Emeneau 1980: 114) found in all major
language famUies of the Indian subcontinent. In this construction the
main word is repeated by an echo-word, which is TamU mostly changes
the first syUable to ki. The use of this construction is optional, and
the TamU speaker may repeat any word he pleases in this way. The
echo-word has no independent existence but adds to the main word the
meaning 'and the like' or simply stresses it. In one comedy, the husband
declines to visit his parents-in-law because he caimot get leave (leave-
Hint) (Marina 1978: 65); in another the mother forbids her little son to
call people mad (looae-kisu) (Marina 1981a: 51).
Some semantic changes are striking. The English adjective 'loose' as
in the above instance, has acquired the meaning 'mad', possibly as an
abbreviation of 'to have a screw loose'. A 'semi' is a half-wit. The first
meaning 'stupid' of the English adjective 'dull' has been forgotten: a
person called dull by a TamU is always listless or depressed. 'Close' in
the expression 'äl (person) close' means that the person is dead.
Something that goes too far is over-o. The arrogant rowdy Ärumukam is
known by the name of 'aU-top' Ärumukam, and the liar Annäji is caUed
'out' Annäji (Cavi 1979: 25, 10).
6«
84 Gabriella Eichinger Perbo-Luzzi
To conclude these remarks on how English enters Tamil 1 should like
to give a few instances of loan translations. Some are straightforward
such as ' cütäna (hot) news' others require explanation. The Tamil loan
translation viciri for English 'fan' in the sense of an admirer is due to an
erroneous popular et3rmology which equates him with the instrument
for ventilation since fanning a god or a human being is a sign of respect.
Also ad hoc loan translations exist. People at my Madras hotel knowing
that I want them to speak to me in Tamil now greet me in the morning
with kälai vanakkam (literally 'morning reverence'). This is an artificial
loan translation of English 'good morning': Tamil greetings do not refer
to the time of the day. A pure Tamil greeting would either be simply
vanakkam or 'have you already eaten'? (cäppittäccä?).
Users of Anglicized Tamil
The answer to the sociolinguistic question who tends to mix English
with his Tamil is easy. The amount of English in the speech of a Tamil
clearly depends on his knowledge of English and is greatest among edu¬
cated adults and students. The high castes use much more English than
the low castes. Not that the low castes are purists, of course. Among
them borrowings from Hindi seem to be relatively more frequent than
among the high castes. A Brahmin, for instance, speaks of the police as
'police' and eats 'breakfast' while a low caste man is more likely to use
the terms tänäkkäran and näqtä.
Membership in one caste does not preclude good knowledge of other
castes' speech styles. Non-Brahmin authors are skilled at writing the
Brahmin dialect and Brahmin authors at imitating non-Brahmins, each
with their specific admixture of English. The Tamil humorous writer
Marina is a particularly keen observer of his fellow citizens' behaviour
including their speech styles. In his comedy entitled 'The Haughty
Son-in-Law' (MappHlai murukku) (n.d.), the whole gamut of attitudes
towards English can be distinguished. The protagonist is a successful
business manager in whose Tamil all-English sentences alternate with
"sprinkled code-switching". The next in line among devotees of English
is a college student who mostly talks about cricket and films. A well-
read retired postmaster also mixes English freely with his Tamil. His
pensioner friend not quite as leamed, is somewhat less inclined to do so.
Then come the latter's son-in-law, an ordinary employee, as well as his
two daughters who are married to the business manager and the
employee respectively. The business manager's wife uses more English
than her sister. The relatively smallest number of English words crops
The Influence of Enghsh on Tamil Speech
up in the speech styles of two matrons. This gradation might stand to
reason if it were not for the fact that in North India Bharati (1963:
113) has found "almost an inverse relation between the degree of mas¬
tery of English and the use of the Hindi kinship lexemes". According to
him, persons with good knowledge of English tend to Sanskritize Hindi
kinship terms while persons with limited knowledge of English prefer
English kinship terms. Even in the field of kinship terminology this
practice contrasts strikingly with the Tamil one.
Reasons for Using English
1. Social and Psychological Reasons.
Answers to the questions of why and when English terms are pre¬
ferred are not quite as simple and obvious. Both Bharati (1963: 115)
in the case of Hindi, and Shanmugam Pillai (Shapiro and Schiff¬
man 1981: 219) in the case of Tamil have pointed out that emotionally
charged words, especially of a sexual nature, tend to be replaced by
English ones. This is undoubtedly correct but sounds too much inspired
by the Freudian theory of repression to be the whole truth. There exist,
in fact, several more subtle reasons for preferring English, some of
which have nothing to do with sexual matters and not even with height¬
ened emotions.
Take the case of the Brahmin girl who wants to know whether her
non-Brahmin boy friend might be willing to marry her. She broaches the
subject in strongly Anglicized Tamil — to which he elusively replies with
similar "code-switching" (Marina 1977: 52-53). Again, an advocate
when forced to admit that his first client is a prostitute naturally, one
might almost say, does so in English (Cho 1973 a: 24).
In this context it must be pointed out that though 'love panna' occa¬
sionally translates English 'to make love' it mostly means 'to love'
anything including one's country — in accordance with what has been
said above about the assimilation of English verbs to Tamil grammar. If
a girl introduces a man as "en (my) lover" inMauli's comedy 'WUl You
Give Me a Week?' (Oru väram taravä)*, she does not flaunt sexual free¬
dom but means that the man should like to marry her.
Furthermore, English may be used as an understatement, making
signs of affection less apparent even in the intimacy of family life. A
young man who has recently contracted an arranged marriage bashfiUly
" Play performed in Madras on January 18th, 1986.
86 Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi
courts his wife by teUing her in English: "You look beautiful today"
(Marina 1974)'. From the context in which he pronounces these words it
appears that he does not just want to praise his wife for her sex appeal
but to declare his love. The philosophical-religious ideal of unat-
taehment, in fact, has deep roots among the higher castes. If they can¬
not fulfil it, they welcome any distancing device including the use of
English. English may also be preferred for compliments devoid of
sexual overtones. Fathers are not supposed to praise their children. A
father who cannot help doing so therefore says in English: "I am really
proud of my only daughter" (Marina 1977: 72). Even compliments made
to strangers are often couched in English. Hearing the dramatic life-
story of his good-humoured neighbour, an aged Brahmin applauds him
by saying: „Ninkal (you) really a marvellous character" (Marina n.d.,
scene 11), a sentence which of Tamil retains only the personal pronoun
and the omission of the copida.
English kinship terms indeed frequently take the place of Tamil ones,
even when emotions do not run high. For a Tamil wife, it is improper to
mention her husband's name at all. A husband calls his wife by her
name but etiquette forbids him to do so when speaking of her to others.
The Westernized manager mentioned above inadvertently pronounces
his wdfe's name in front of others but corrects himself immediately by
saying in English "I mean my wife" (Marina n. d.)'. In Tamil plays sev¬
eral colloquial words for the spouses are used, but I do not remember
having ever met the literary Tairul terms for 'wife' (manaivi) and hus¬
band (kanavar). Not only persons speaking about their own spouses
prefer the English terms 'husband' and 'wife'; third parties speaking
about their interlocutors' spouses do so, too. More or less the same
applies to the English words 'mother', 'father', 'son', 'daughter',
'brother' and 'sister'. The reason for the preferential use of English in
these cases seems to be that talking about close relatives is taken as an
invasion of the private sphere, which is slightly embarrassing even
when sexual matters are not an issue. However, a person addressing his
own parents and siblings nearly always retains the Tamil kinship terms.
In address, it must be noted, the English words 'brother' and 'sister'
usually imply fictive kinship. More distant relatives like the grandfa¬
ther, grandmother, mother-in-law or mother's brother are rarely spoken
' The sentence is taken from the Columbia record of the comedy: it does not appear in the book.
' The sentence is taken from my tape recording of the comedy in January
1977. In does not occur in the separates from Ananda Vikatan.
The Influence of Enghsh on Tamil Speech
of in English. A medical doctor, for instance, whose speech contains a
more than average share of English, asks about a man's stepmother
"How is your cittir (Marina 1978: 39). Citti literally refers to the
mother's younger sister who frequently becomes a widower's second
wife.
Embarrassment because of an intentional or imintentional favdt is
also preferably voiced wholly or partly in English. The English word
'sorry', therefore, belongs to the loan words heard most frequently.
Embarrassment of any kind may be mitigated by the use of neutralizing
English. In a joke a girl student thinks that her principal has called her
to reproach her for acting in a film. The principal, however, emphatical¬
ly denies this in English: "No, no, not at all!". She then explains partly
in Tamil and partly in English: "I wanted to ask you whether you coidd
not get me a mother role in a fdm" (Jesaiya 1982: 225).
Reproaches and insults are further contexts in which English
abounds. Indian wives have always complained to their husbands about
their in-laws. The member of a joint family noticing that little has
changed in this respect remarks: "Formerly wives used to complain in
Tamil, now that they have acquired an education they do so in English;
that's the oidy improvement" (Marina 1978: 130). In his Tamil sen¬
tence, 'complain' and 'improvement' appear in English. The Tamil son
speaks to his father in the honorific and his attitude towards his father
is normally marked by great respect. A son who feels obliged to
reproach his father tries to make his breach of etiquette less offensive
by saying in English: "Appä (father) , you are making a very stupid mis¬
take" (Marina 1977: 75). At the height ofa quarrel between a father and
a son the latter shouts in English: "I can't tolerate such insults any
more! " and the father shouts back: "I can't tolerate this impertinence
any more" adding in Tamil: "Don't think that you are the only one to
know English" (Marina 1974: 107). Also insulting remarks addressed to
strangers are frequently made in English. In her mother tongue, a well-
educated Tamil girl would hardly say to a hated rival: "You mannerless idiot, get out! ", but in English she has no qualms to do so (Marina 1977:
143).
The use of English in situations like the above may have a second rea¬
son inextricably linked to the first. It raises one's prestige and adds
weight to what is being said, which is perhaps the most common reason
for the use of English by Tamil speakers. A cartoon shows a boss sitting
behind his high desk. In polite Tamil he invites the clerk standing
in front of him to sit down. When the clerk does not seem to heed the
invitation the boss repeats, this time in English: "I say, sit down". Inti-
88 Gabriella Eichinger Febro-Luzzi
midated by these authoritative words the clerk crouches on the floor
because there is no stool (Matan 1970: 91).
A man's elder sister's husband has authority over him almost as if he
were his father. In a comedy the elder brother-in-law questions his
younger brother-in-law about his marriage plans with a considerable
admixture of English in his Tamil speech. The bachelor tries to beat
about the bush. Finally the older man in exasperation comers him with
the blunt English command: "I want a direct answer!" (Marina 1981 a:
91). English may also function as a status symbol independent of any
specific context. In a comedy a poor mother becomes rich thanks to her
daughter's success as a film star. Henceforth, the author remarks, she
can no longer speak without mixing English words with her Tamil (Cho
1973 b: 69).
On the other hand, there are contexts in which the Tamil speaker's
use of English is reduced without disappearing altogether. I am refer¬
ring to the spheres of ritual and philosophical-religious discourse. The
above-mentioned Westernized manager proved to be much addicted to
English when talking about his business career and even in his dealings
with his family members. He remembers his Tamil, however, when
moral and existential questions of guilt and death arise, and he tums
out to be versed in Vedänta. Conversely, his brother-in-law is a little
fuimy when he tries to impart the teachings of the Bhagavad Gitä using
the EngUsh words 'worry' and 'duty' (Marina n.d., scene 24).
2. Stylistic Reasons
In the preceding paragraphs I have shown that the Tamil speaker's
recourse to English may be a means to increase his authority and pres¬
tige, tone down insults, avoid or reduce embarrassment and protect his
privacy which includes sexual matters but is not limited to them. These
social and psychological reasons, however, only partly account for the
Tamil's readiness to use English. Very frequently English words simply
increase his vocabulary, providing him with a stylistic advantage.
The Tamil scholar Shanmugam Pillai has studied what he calls
"reflected code-switching" in which the Tamil speaker repeats what he
has said in another language. Unfortunately, I have not been able to
obtain his works so that I have to rely on indirect information (Shapiro
and Schiffman 1981: 218-219) and do not know whether he has made
similar observations.
In the most frequent type of "reflected code-switching", the Tamil
speaker repeats the English word or phrase inserted in his Tamil sen-
The Influence of Enghsh on Tamil Speech
tence by a Tamil equivalent. For instance; ' nothing' may be repeated by
onnumillai and 'past is past' by natantatu pönatu. It might seem that
such translations serve to make sure that those not fluent in English
understand what has been said. But this is not the case for two reasons.
Firstly, "reflected code-switching" generally occurs where the speaker
can be quite sure that his words are understood and secondly, it also
occurs in the opposite direction in which a Tamil word or phrase is
repeated in English. If a problem of understanding arises at all it is in
this second case. Purist writers are trying to introduce Tamil neolo¬
gisms for English technical terms but feel obliged to have them followed
by the English terms in brackets.
The fact that "reflected code-switching" is not intended to remedy the
imperfect understanding of one of the codes is so obvious to the Tamil
that both Marina and Cho have made it the subject of jokes. The above-
mentioned prostitute client is telling her advocate she was raised by
her uncle who had two children: she specifies that they were "rettai
kulantainka twins". Comically misunderstanding the purpose of this
translation, the advocate interrupts her snapping in Tamil: "I know
Tamil" (Cho 1973: 27). A character in one of Marina's plays receives the
same impatient reply when he seemingly explains each of his didactic
slogans like the necessity of a human approach, live and let live, etc.
through a Tamil equivalent (Marina 1987: 54).
In my view "reflected code-switching" serves the purpose of semantic
redundance which has nothing to do with the desire or need to make the
message come through. Semantic repetitions, though they stress what
is being said, are mainly a stylistic feature typical of the Tamil lan¬
guage'. Such repetitions may also focus on English words only. Thus
the Tamil tends to speak of'silly nonsense' instead of'nonsense' and of
'night dinner' instead of'dirmer'. Although the Sanskrit word cörupam,
which has long been a part of the Tamil language, by itself means 'one's
true self it is now possible to speak of one's 'original cörupam'. A father
in a comedy who does not like his son's modem ideas gmmbles:
"Modem modem-ä" (Marina 1981a: 101). In the Brahmin dialect the
English term 'decoction' is often used instead of'coffee' but good and
strong coffee may also be spoken of as 'mutal (first) decoction coffee'
(Marina 1974: 61).
The stylistic purpose of creating redundance is particularly evident in
reflected code-switching when it uses more than two codes. In a play
' This stylistic feature seems to be typical of Dravidian languages in general:
RoGHAiR (1982: 67) has made a similar observation for Telugu.
90 Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi
within a play a jealous husband melodramatically asks his wife whether
she loves him. He does so by repeating the TamU word anpu (love) first
through the Sanskrit word päcam and then through the English phrase
"do you love me" (Marina 1977: 6). The accumulation of quasi-syno-
njrms in different languages also occurs in the opposite direction. A per-
son's character may be spoken of as "nature, habits, kunam, natattai"
(Marina 1978: 18), the Sanskrit term kunam repeating nature and the
TamU term natattai repeating habits, behaviour.
Furthermore, English is put into the service of alliteration, another
characteristic feature of TamU rhetoric. Both contrasting and simUar
things may be joined by alliteration. In a short story by Jeyakanthan
(1974: 64-76) with the English-TamU title Lavpannunkö sär (Do Love,
Sir) a Brahmin father deplores that his daughter by running away with a
low caste man has ruined her life because of love. In his whole sad
story (told in colloquial Tamil), he constantly plays on these two allite¬
rative English words sometimes adding light- ä (lightly as in 'taking
things lightly') for good measure. Given this liking for alliteration it
does not come as a surprise that English alliterative pairs are readUy
seized upon by the TamU speaker who may, for instance, render 'to
think calmly and coolly' as 'calm-ä cooU-ä think panna'. In a comedy
the wife reproaches her husband that he should have been more polite.
Replying that he is not the man for such (implicitly false) politeness, he
takes up her Hindi word näsukku and repeats it by the English 'nice' to
form an aUiterative pair (Marina n.d., scene 6).
Sayings are often embeUished by alliteration in TamU and other lan¬
guages. Also in their case the knowledge of English may offer an advan¬
tage. In TamU a helpless person is likened to a tiger which has lost its
teeth (pai pöna puli mätiri with triple alliteration). This traditional
simUe might have aptly depicted a mother-in-law who has been subdued
by her daughter-in-law but the humorist prefers to modernize and Angli¬
cize it comparing her to a politician who has lost his power (power pöna
politician mätiri) (Marina 1981b: 143).
3. Humorous Effects
Although mostly derived from comedies, not all of the preceding
examples of English loan words in TamU had a humorous intent. But
one of the advantages of the knowledge of English as perceived by the
TamU is precisely to increase his chances to create humorous double
meanings and other forms of jokes.
The Influence of Enghsh on Tamil Speech
Interlingual puns have been noted before, but imder the influence of
Freud's theory of repression and taboo they have been thought to occur
mainly when one of the meanings is "vidgar, obscene, or derogatory"
(Apte 1985: 211). No doubt such usage does occur, but in my corpus of
thousands of Tamil jokes interlingual puns deal with a great variety of
subjects; there is hardly any, however, for which this interpretation fits.
The following joke, for instance, has a delicate subject and uses double
meaning but its fun consists in the modification of an English metaphor
by opposition and a change of referent. "Girl friend to actress: How
much do you get now for a film? Actress: White-ia (as 'white' money
over the counter) Rs. 40,000, black-Za (as black money under the coun¬
ter) Rs. 60,000. Friend: How many children do you have? Actress:
White-Zo one, black-Zo two (one legitimate child and two illegitimate
children)" (Tenappan 1982: 42). Except for'white' and'black', the con¬
versation is in Tamil. The English adjectives have been put in the collo¬
quial form of the Tamil locative.
In a comedy a school boy claims that he finds Tamil boring. His
mother reproaches him: "You must not say so; Tamil is our mother ton¬
gue" ('mother tongue' in English) . The boy's brother interferes with the
facetious question: "Your tongue (unnäkkä), mummy?" (Marina 1987a:
7). In the live performance the audience burst out laughing at this pun*
rendered more subtle than in English by the fact that 'tongue' is not a
metaphor for language in Tamil. The paradox of the mother reproaching
her son in English for his lack of interest in Tamil was probably meant
to be fuimy by the author, but it passed almost uimoticed by the audi¬
ence. This little incident illustrates well how natural the use of English
now comes to the average Tamil.
Since puns are no longer very fashionable in the West, perhaps the
Tamils play on the double meaning of English words more than the
English themselves. In a comedy the director of an amateur theatre
group wants to tour the province in order to make up for the financial
loss he had suffered in Madras city. His principal actress is displeased
with this project and asks: "Do I have to make up so that you can make
up?" (Marina 1982: 71). She inserts the Enghsh words 'make up' in her
Tamil sentence. English may come handy also in order to create double
meanings in syntactical jokes like the foUowing: "Doctor: Hey, office
boy, you must say outpatient but never patient out! Did you under¬
stand? Office boy: Yes, I did" (Jesaiya 1982: 229). In Tamil English, it
' On January 10th, 1986 I taped the stage performance.
92 Gabriella Eichingeb Ferro-Luzzi
must be known, 'patient out' means that the patient has died, similar to
'äl close' mentioned above.
Another way to arrive at a double meaning is to cut up words, includ¬
ing English words, in a funny new way. A school teacher provoked his
pupils' hilarity when at ten o'clock in the morning in checking their
attendance he pronounced the English word as 'at-ten-dance' (Ananda
Vikatan 16. 2. 1975: 54). The following interlingual pun using the same
technique is called a bad joke in a comedy probably because it comes to
mind too easily to the Tamil. The English question: "Am 1 late?"
receives the punning answer: "The tortoise does come late" (Marina
1980: 52-53) since the Tamil pronunciation of'am F sounds like ämai,
the Tamil word for tortoise. A specially gifted Tamil orator and humor¬
ist managed to divide the English term 'editorial' as if it consisted of
the three Tamil words etu (paper) , ittör (the ones who give or issue) and
iyal (science) (Jesaiya 1982: 229).
Still another method of creating interlingual jokes is to fuse English
and Tamil words in such a way that their meanings overlap. Citäppät}t;i,
the grandmother heroine of a series of humorous stories, opens a
"Grandmothers' Progress Club" (pättikal munnerra kalakam), a parody
of the Dravida Progress Party (Tirävita munnerra kalakam) and organ¬
izes badminton games for her age mates. She calls her simplified ver¬
sion of the game päWi-minton from TamU pätfi meaning grandmother
(Packiyam Ramaswamy 1977: 38).
Just as rhyme and alliteration achieved with English words may
embellish serious speech so these stylistic techniques may be an asset
in joking. The rhyming similarity between a TamU and an English word
inspires the foUowing joke: "What is the name of the film shown in this
theatre? 'As long as there is a heart' (nencimkkum varai). How long do
they sell tickets? As long as there are benches (pencirukkum varai)"
(Jesaiya 1982: 180). Loan translations may equaUy be put into the ser¬
vice of rhymed humour. When the mother in a comedy wants to know
whether her son has written from his honeymoon trip (she uses the
English term 'honeymoon' in her Tamil sentence) a witty relative
replies: "Even those who went to the vänilavukku (moon, term derived
from vän = sky and nilavu = moon that has been created to achieve
rhymed opposition) may send a message to earth but I have never heard
that a person who went to the tenilavukku (loan translation of 'honey¬
moon') has sent a message" (Marina 1978: 6).
Some jokes modify metaphors with the help of English. A traditional
offering to god Murukan is milk carried in two vessels hanging from a
shoulder pole (kävati). Since poor persons substitute rice for milk a des-
The Influence of Enghsh on Tamil Speech
titute person may be called a 'rice kävati' (annakkävati) . The humorist
expands this metaphor alliteratively with an English word and speaks
of an "addressless rice kävati" (address illäta annakkävati) (Marina
1974: 22). In another case he updates a saying by Anglicizing it. One's
daily bread in Tamilnadu is one's daily rice; consequently people say
that "God dispenses to everybody his measure of rice (pati)". In a come¬
dy a youth remarks that this is no longer true; now God dispenses
things literwise and kilowise (liter, kilo in English) (Marina 1978: 35).
Furthermore, English words may be an asset in what I have called
"echo-jokes" (Eichingbr Ferro-Luzzi 1986: 270-271) which consist
in echoing a word by another word similar in sound or meaning. The
husband of the above enterprising grandmother, for instance, wants to
speak to the superintendent of a mental hospital. Told that the super¬
intendent went on his round ('round' in English) he impatiently replies:
"No matter whether he went on his round or his square (caturyam) I
absolutely have to see him" (Packiyam Ramaswamy 1977: 21). Citäp-
pätti herself likes to intersperse her Tamil abundantly with English
words, a habit her traditional-minded neighbour disapproves of. To her
kind English invitation: "Won't you sit down?" the neighbour acidly replies by echoing her last English word: "What town, what village, talk
in Tamil!" (Packiyam Ramaswamy 1977: 184). The neighbour pretends
to mistake the English adjective 'down' for the noun 'town' pronounced
similarly in Tamil and then echoes 'town' by a word with related mean¬
ing. The feigned misunderstanding of an English word inspires a further
"echo-joke". In a comedy the English question: "What do you mean?"
receives the funny incongruous answer: "Neither fish nor sea monster"
(minum illai timinkalum illai) (Marina 1980: 6). Since the English verb
'to mean' and the Tamil noun for 'fish' sound alike, the "echo joke" is
based on an interlingual pun.
Finally, I should like to give an example of a more complicated echo
which extends an English saying in a humorous way. A character in a
comedy does not believe a certain mysterious tale and calls it a "cock
and bull story" in English. His interlocutor replies: "I don't know
whether it is a cock and bull story or a hen and cow story, I am telling
what has happened" (Marina 1978: 14). In his Tamil sentence he uses
the English words 'cock', 'bull', 'hen' and 'cow'.
Outlook
In the introduction to one of his plays the Tamil writer Cho (1973 a: v-
vi) rejects the accusation that he betrays the Tamil language by employ-
94 Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi
ing English words in his dialogues. He asserts to have faith in the power
of Tamil and to believe that his mother tongue need not be afraid of
English. Ramamirtham, perhaps the greatest stylist among contempor¬
ary Tamil writers, also does not deplore the mixing of English and
Tamil, on the contrary, he feels that it makes his mother tongue flourish
and gives it new vigour (1984: 103,107). Judging by a historical parallel
1 tend to agree with both authors. About two thousand years ago a flood
of Sanskrit words began entering Tamil, but these have never sub¬
merged the language and have apparently left its grammar largely
intact. Similarly now, hundreds and thousands of English words are
entering Tamil. They are assimilated to the Tamil language in multiple
ways but seem to have hardly any effect on its grammar.
In 1910 Arden (p. 27) noticed that "in Tamil the passive construction
which answers to the passive voice in English is seldom used". This is
no longer the case, and the increased use of the passive in Tamil probab¬
ly owes to the influence of English. Anton (1975: xlviii) suggests that
in some constructions the use of certain Tamil verbal nouns "seems to
be conditioned by translating . . . certain English verbal noun construc¬
tions into Tamil". Jotimuttu (1970: 73) draws attention to the fact
that in urban colloquial Tamil the accusative of the pronoun is now used
instead of the nominative with the verb 'to know' (teri) in imitation of
the English 'Do you know him ?'. There may be other sporadic gramma¬
tical changes brought about by the grammar of English but its overall
influence seems to be negligible. The main impact of English on Tamil
has been on its vocabulary. Just as Tamils (and Indians in general)
readily accept new cultural items without abandoning the old ones so
they readily borrow foreign words without necessarily abandoning the
Tamil equivalents. With these borrowings they only increase the
already copious vocabulary of their language. For instance, while West¬
em languages have one word for 'hand' Tamil now has three in current
use: the Tamil kai, the Sanskrit karam and the English 'hand'. The
Tamil partiality for English may be irritating for the student of Tamil
but it is unlikely to endanger the survival of the language.
References Cited
Anton, H. and D. Hellmann, 1975: TamU Usage in Mass Media. Foreword by
K. V. Jagannathan. Madras.
Apte, M. L., 1985: Humor and Laughter. An Anthropolocal f!J Approach. Ithäca and London.
Arden, A. H., 1910: A Progressive Grammar of Common Tamil. Madras.
The Influence of English on Tamil Speech
Bharati, A., 1963: Kinship Term Avoidance and Substitution in North Indian
Middle Class Milieux. In: Sociologus 13, 2, 112-120.
Cavi, 1979: Keraktar (Characters). Madras.
Cho, 1973a: Ydrukkum vetkamillai (Nobody is ashamed). Madras.
— 1973 6: Tuklak paiam etukkirdr (Tuklak makes a film). Madras.
EiCHiNOER Ferro-Luzzi, G., 1986: Language, Thought, and TamU Verbal
Humor. In: Current Anthropology 27, 265-272.
Emeneau, Murray B., 1980: Language and Linguistic Area. Essays by M. B.
Emeneau. Selected and introduced by A. S. Dil. Stanford.
Jesaiya, M., 1982: Cintikka vaikkum cirippu vetikal (Peals of laughter that make you think). Madras.
Jeyakanthan, 1974: Lav pannunkö sär (Do love, sir). In: Yuka canti (The con¬
junction of ages). Madurai, pp. 64-76.
Jotimuttu, P., 1970: A Guide to Tamil. Madras.
Marina, 1974: Tanikkutittanam (Separate household). Madras.
— 1977: Cänti enke. (Where does Shanti stand?). Madras.
— 1978: Kdlkattu (Wedlock). Madras.
— 1980: Skailäp campanti (The skylab father-in-law). Madras.
— 1981 a: Ur vampu (Gossip). Madras.
— 1981 b: Cämiyärin mämiyär (The holyman's mother-in-law). Madras.
— 1982: Atdvati Ammdkkannu (Quarrelsome Ammakkannu). Madras.
— 1987 a: Mämiyär mecciya mdppiHai (The son-in-law who praises his mother-
in-law). Madras.
— 1987 6: Enkammä (Our mother). Madras.
— n.d.: Mdppillai murukku (The haughty son-in-law). Separates from Ananda
Vikatan.
Matan: Captioned cartoon in Ananda Vikatan 7. 6. 1970.
Packiyam Ramaswamy, 1977: Appucämi kataikal (Stories about Appucami).
Madras.
Principles of the Intemational Phonetic Association, The, 1967. London.
Putumaippittan, 1978: Nikumpalai (The deviner). In: Putiya oli (New hght).
Madurai, pp. 42-51.
Ramamirtham, L. S., 1984: Pärkatal (The mUk-ocean). Madras.
Roghair, Gene H., 1982: The Epic of Palnädu. Oxford.
Shapiro, Michael C. and Harold F. Schiffmann, 1981: Language and
Society in South Asia. Delhi.
Tenappan, V., 1982: Attaikku micai mulaikkiratu (A moustache is sprouting on
aunt's lip). Devakottai.
Vedanayaham PUIai, 1879/1984: Piratdpa mutaliyär carittiram (Pratapa Muda-
liyar's life-story). Madras.
Die 256 Nächte Aiiokas
Von Harry Falk, Freiburg i. Br.
1. Formen und Verbreitung der Formel vivuthena
200506
Bisher wiu-den an 17 Orten in Indien die sog. Kleinen Felsenedikte
(minor rock edict; abgekürzt MRE) Aöokas entdeckt. ' Die Fundplätze
liegen in dem Dreieck, das die Städte Delhi, Patna (Pätaliputra) und
Hampi (Vijayanagara) bilden. In der nördlichen Hälfte dieses Dreiecks
sind die bisher entdeckten Fundorte sehr verstreut, im Süden dagegen
konzentrieren sich die Inschriften in der Spitze des Dreiecks in einem
Kreis von etwa 150 km Durchmesser.
Es gibt zwei dieser Kleinen Felsenedikte. Im Norden und im Deccan
findet sich ausschließlich das erste der beiden. Im Süden dagegen ist
auch das zweite häufig, das aber nie alleine eingemeißelt wurde, son¬
dem immer nur im Anschluß an das erste.
Die Fundorte im angesprochenen Kreis im Süden um Hampi werden
von der Tuhgabhadrä in zwei Gmppen geteilt. Nördlich des Flusses, in
Maski, Pälkigundu und Gavimath, ist nur das erste Edikt eingemeißelt,
im Süden sind immer beide Edikte gleichzeitig zu finden.
Vergleicht man den Wortlaut der einzelnen Texte, so zeigen diejerü-
gen im Norden eine recht große Unabhängigkeit voneinander. Bezie¬
hungen zwischen zwei Edikten sind gelegentlich auszumachen. Im
Süden dagegen lassen sich eindeutige Verwandtschaften feststellen.
Nördlich des Flusses, wo nur das 1. Edikt zu lesen ist, gehören Gavi¬
math (Gav) und Pälkigundu (Päl), 4 km voneinander entfemt, in
Sprache und Wortfolge, ja sogar in der Typographie der Brähmi zusam¬
men. Maski (Mas) ist von den beiden Nachbam in mehrfacher Hinsicht
' Einen Überblick über Fundstätten und Publikationen geben F. R. Allchin
and K. R. Norman: Guide to theAiolcan inscriptions. In: South Asian Studies 1
(1985), 43-50. Bei den griechischen und aramäischen Inschriften von Kandahar auf S. 46 ist der Zusatz „resembles contents of MRE 1" lücht wörtlich zu neh¬
men. Alle Texte sind enthalten in E. Hultsch: Inscriptions of Asoka. New Ed.
Oxford 1925. (Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum. l.)[J^] undD.C. Sircar: .4io-
kan Studies. Calcutta 1979.
