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I've watched a couple modern Indian films recently, and the characters switch effortlessly between English and Hindi, sometimes in mid-sentence. More than once

I've watched a couple modern Indian films recently, and the characters switch effortlessly between English and Hindi, sometimes in mid-sentence. More than once I even saw one character ask a question in Hindi and the other quote them in English: for example, (in Hindi:) 'Aren't I the smartest guy in the world?'; (in English:) 'No, you aren't "the smartest guy in the world".'. I've been wondering: What is the subtext, what are the implications, of using English or of switching languages? There must be some and I'm missing the subtleties. EDIT: clarification

namanyayg 8y ago
Vernacular use has not many such "subtleties", except maybe that some sentences flow better when translated to English. I have not seen much vernacular use of this "quoting" phenomenon you noticed in sacred games, I think that is mainly to offer a clearer understanding to a multilingual audience.
- forapurpose 8y ago
  > I have not seen much vernacular use of this "quoting" phenomenon you noticed in sacred games To be clear, that phenomenon wasn't common, it was just a powerful example: The second character had just heard the words in Hindi and yet chose to repeat them in English.
happy-go-lucky 8y ago
It’s a blend of Hindi and English (Hinglish). Here’s a wiki you may find interesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinglish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinglish > Hinglish, a portmanteau of Hindi and English,[1] is the macaronic hybrid use of English and South Asian languages from across the Indian subcontinent, involving code-switching between these languages whereby they are freely interchanged within a sentence or between sentences.[2] While the name is based on the Hindi language, it does not refer exclusively to Hindi, but "is used in India, with English words blending with Punjabi, and Hindi, and also in British Asian families to enliven standard English".
pavanky 8y ago
I have friends who keep switching between three (not counting the made up language only those two understand). This isn't uncommon among multi lingual people.
walrus01 8y ago
Modern Urdu on the Pakistan side of the border is quite similar. The amount of English that is worked into Urdu in a higher budget TV or movie production is increasing. Or watch any of the major Pakistani TV news channels (Geo, etc) for an example.
- fellellor 8y ago
  I saw a few scenes from Waar, which is supposedly a very successful Pakistani film. I however, felt the amount of English being used in that film to be unnaturally high. That is the ending of the film is fully in English. Indian writers are also guilty of this. It makes the entire thing seem artificial and even unprofessional.
puranjay 8y ago
Very common among bilingual speakers. It's called "code switching" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching It's hilarious watching my wife's aunts talk. They grew up in Hyderabad in a Sindhi household but emigrated to UK. They effortlessly switch between Telugu, Hindi, Sindhi, and English in the same conversation.
- mcny 8y ago
  The characters in Anna Karenina speak French in some parts (at least in my English copy of the book). I don't know why but it clearly meant something for that conversation to be in French. It's there something the story is trying to say when they switch between Hindi and English on that show?
  - drdaeman 8y ago
    As far as I know, it was just a matter of style - no deep meaning beyond the fact the speaker was being conformant to the societal norms of the day. Of course I cannot fit the background into a short comment (and I'm not good enough with history of that period), but the reason for this is that in 18-19th centuries the majority of Russian nobility was very francophilic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francophile#Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francophile#Russia Of course, switching to a different language - or different style of the same language, like switching to extremely formal speech - has a stylistic meaning, but that's it.
  - Mediterraneo10 8y ago
    For the Russian aristocracy in the 18th and 19th centuries, French was often their everyday language. Russian was only used to communicate with servants. The sprinkling of French phrases through Tolstoy is meant to evoke this aristocratic world, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the phrases which Tolstoy sets in French are somehow more important than the dialogue he presets in Russian.
    - drdaeman 8y ago
      AFAIK, in 19th century, esp. after the Napoleonic invasion of Russia it wasn't as hardcore as that. Aristocracy spoke a fair amount of Russian among themselves, but still mixed in a lot of French (and IIRC some accidental Latin). I could be wrong though.
AYBABTME 8y ago
Happens to me all the time when speaking to another French/English bilingual person. I think it's just a result of multilingualism, people pick whichever language they're more comfortable using for specific topics. For instance I have a hard time talking about tech in French, despite it being my first language.
pmichaud 8y ago
Yeah, this happens whenever people speak more than one language. My experience of it with English and Spanish is that there are some things that are more fluidly expressed in one language or another, or there's a joke that's only possible in one, or there's a joke that's only possible by combining. It just expands your vocab a lot, basically, so you get access to a wider range of nuanced connotations.
calvinbhai 8y ago
Urban population sometimes or often does speak that way, without any reason. Depends on the context sometimes.

namanyayg 8y ago

Vernacular use has not many such "subtleties", except maybe that some sentences flow better when translated to English. I have not seen much vernacular use of this "quoting" phenomenon you noticed in sacred games, I think that is mainly to offer a clearer understanding to a multilingual audience.

forapurpose 8y ago
> I have not seen much vernacular use of this "quoting" phenomenon you noticed in sacred games To be clear, that phenomenon wasn't common, it was just a powerful example: The second character had just heard the words in Hindi and yet chose to repeat them in English.

happy-go-lucky 8y ago

It’s a blend of Hindi and English (Hinglish). Here’s a wiki you may find interesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinglish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinglish > Hinglish, a portmanteau of Hindi and English,[1] is the macaronic hybrid use of English and South Asian languages from across the Indian subcontinent, involving code-switching between these languages whereby they are freely interchanged within a sentence or between sentences.[2] While the name is based on the Hindi language, it does not refer exclusively to Hindi, but "is used in India, with English words blending with Punjabi, and Hindi, and also in British Asian families to enliven standard English".

pavanky 8y ago

I have friends who keep switching between three (not counting the made up language only those two understand). This isn't uncommon among multi lingual people.

walrus01 8y ago

Modern Urdu on the Pakistan side of the border is quite similar. The amount of English that is worked into Urdu in a higher budget TV or movie production is increasing. Or watch any of the major Pakistani TV news channels (Geo, etc) for an example.

fellellor 8y ago
I saw a few scenes from Waar, which is supposedly a very successful Pakistani film. I however, felt the amount of English being used in that film to be unnaturally high. That is the ending of the film is fully in English. Indian writers are also guilty of this. It makes the entire thing seem artificial and even unprofessional.

puranjay 8y ago

Very common among bilingual speakers. It's called "code switching" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching It's hilarious watching my wife's aunts talk. They grew up in Hyderabad in a Sindhi household but emigrated to UK. They effortlessly switch between Telugu, Hindi, Sindhi, and English in the same conversation.

mcny 8y ago
The characters in Anna Karenina speak French in some parts (at least in my English copy of the book). I don't know why but it clearly meant something for that conversation to be in French. It's there something the story is trying to say when they switch between Hindi and English on that show?
- drdaeman 8y ago
  As far as I know, it was just a matter of style - no deep meaning beyond the fact the speaker was being conformant to the societal norms of the day. Of course I cannot fit the background into a short comment (and I'm not good enough with history of that period), but the reason for this is that in 18-19th centuries the majority of Russian nobility was very francophilic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francophile#Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francophile#Russia Of course, switching to a different language - or different style of the same language, like switching to extremely formal speech - has a stylistic meaning, but that's it.
- Mediterraneo10 8y ago
  For the Russian aristocracy in the 18th and 19th centuries, French was often their everyday language. Russian was only used to communicate with servants. The sprinkling of French phrases through Tolstoy is meant to evoke this aristocratic world, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the phrases which Tolstoy sets in French are somehow more important than the dialogue he presets in Russian.
  - drdaeman 8y ago
    AFAIK, in 19th century, esp. after the Napoleonic invasion of Russia it wasn't as hardcore as that. Aristocracy spoke a fair amount of Russian among themselves, but still mixed in a lot of French (and IIRC some accidental Latin). I could be wrong though.

AYBABTME 8y ago

Happens to me all the time when speaking to another French/English bilingual person. I think it's just a result of multilingualism, people pick whichever language they're more comfortable using for specific topics. For instance I have a hard time talking about tech in French, despite it being my first language.

pmichaud 8y ago

Yeah, this happens whenever people speak more than one language. My experience of it with English and Spanish is that there are some things that are more fluidly expressed in one language or another, or there's a joke that's only possible in one, or there's a joke that's only possible by combining. It just expands your vocab a lot, basically, so you get access to a wider range of nuanced connotations.

calvinbhai 8y ago

Urban population sometimes or often does speak that way, without any reason. Depends on the context sometimes.