English changes twice today
Honestly, you wait years for the English language to evolve, then two changes happen on the same day. Or maybe it’s just Collins having a marketing blitz. Today we get this in the main paper…
Rhyming slang is increasingly peppered with references to famous folk, and has become enough of a social phenomena to warrant a new book. [...] According to a new Collins guide, Shame about the Boat Race, newer celebrities are simply replacing old, so Tony rather than Lionel Blair is increasingly used to refer to flares, and the footballer Billy Wright is superseded by soul singer Barry White as the link to “shite”.
…and this in G2…
More people speak English in south Asia than in Britain and North America combined. The result is Hinglish, a blend of English combined with Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi. Baljinder K Mahal, a teacher and novelist from Derby, has collected a dictionary of the choicest words: the Queen’s Hinglish: How to Speak Pukka (Collins).
You may choose which you prefer. New cockney rhyming slang has the above, plus Paul Weller (Stella), Fatboy Slim (gym) and so on. Hinglish has things like this:
filmi melodramatic; reminiscent of a typical Indian film, eg, “You should have seen cousin Bela’s wedding. It was very filmi”
ganja having no hair on head; bald, eg, “Dad’s gone all ganja since he’s started working at the bank”
stepney a spare wheel for a car; a spare of anything; a mistress. The Stepney was originally a type of spare tyre manufactured in Wales. The term died out in Britain but expanded its meaning in south Asia and Malta
Personally, filmi is my favourite, but it’s good to see Stepney gets a look-in either way.
