Language Lisp

A little while ago, a Nepali friend passed on some words of wisdom. "You know, a lot of words in English are Nepali words". Hearkening back to my Indian experiences, I remember a few words that the British picked up whilst in India, namely jungle, shampoo, and pajama. My Nepali friend however, conjured up a few I'd never thought of before. These include words like T-shirt, jacket, traffic jam, and vehicle. I stood there for a moment, deciding the best course of action to take. Do I, as more or less a native English speaker, tell him that these words are English and not Nepali? Or, should I go into the history of English influence in India which then spread to Nepal resulting in English usage for Western influences? Or, do I not say anything all? I opted for the latter: nothing.

Later, I found myself wondering, what is it about languages and their power to determine how we describe the world around us? No, not in an anthropological/sociological way but more in terms of who gets ownership of word usage. He and I have both grown up using the words jungle, shampoo, pajama, T-shirt, jacket, traffic jam, and vehicle. We have probably seen, interpreted, and used these words in very similar ways. So, it seems we're stuck in a lingual samsara, cycle, using and reusing our words over and over again, making this whole notion of ownership, well redundant. Ultimately, this brief internal monologue sprung a new debate. Whty did something like this bother me in the first place? Why even care? Then, alternatively, if I care so much, why didn't I open up the discussion with my Nepali friend. Perhaps, I have been living in other cultures too long, having learned that people will believe what they believe and do not always want or need to be corrected or challenged. Perhaps, as I've now seen, my culture is slowly blending in with other ones, making it difficult for me to answer the question, "why?" Rather than coming up with another conclusion starting with "perhaps", I'd rather go on enjoying life's ideosyncraties and abosrbing myself in this neverending lisp.