Languages

The regional language of Mumbai is Marathi but as it is a multi-cultural society you will find people who speak various languages here. Mumbai is the city who has migrants from all over the nation and they carry their languages with them to Mumbai. Mumbai becomes rich is case of languages because of this as people here know maximum of 3-4 languages.

Mumbai has a very unique tone of all languages. People here have a habit of speaking in Hinglish i.e Hindi and English mix. People often used mixed languages, for example whenever they don’t remember a particular word/thing is called in the language that they are speaking they will just use it in another language (mostly Hindi or English) and convey their messages. They don’t feel hesitant to do that. People here think language is just a means of communication and as long as a person in front understands what we are speaking, then we can speak in any language that we want. Even if the sentences in the language we are using are grammatically wrong, people here are okay with it and no one will correct you. However, this rule does not apply to English as people are very conscious about their own English and some people will also correct you if you are speaking wrong English.

The languages that have been changed in Mumbai are mainly Marathi and Hindi. I can give you examples of only these languages as I have observed only these two. Many people speaking Marathi use Hindi words in between and vice versa. The two languages have many things in common and one being the regional language and another a national one, always get mixed up with each other and people don’t mind it unless you are writing your exam papers in these languages. People who have come here from north  always feel that we have destroyed Hindi language to the core. We have developed a language called ‘Bambaiyya Hindi’ existing in Mumbai. People in north always address each other as ‘tum’ or ‘aap’ for ‘you’ whereas Mumbaikars will say ‘tu’. The word ‘aap’ here is used only for addressing people who are elder and strangers. But this does not mean that we don’t respect other people. Another such example of this is the words ‘tereko’ and ‘mereko’, there are no such words in the whole dictionary of Hindi language but these words do exist in Mumbai’s Hindi. Normally, the substitute ‘Shuddh Hindi’ of these words is ‘tujhe’ and ‘mujhe’ which very rare people know and use in their language. I don’t know where these words came from but they sound really funny. If you have any friend from north India you can just experience the expressions on his/her face when you use such language. They feel you have brutally destroyed the language.

There are misunderstandings among people happening here daily because of different languages used. I can give you one example of my aunt who speaks Marathi with anyone she meets. She met a young boy who used to bring tea to her office and started speaking in Marathi with him. However, the poor boy did not understand Marathi as he was new to Mumbai. He spoke in Gujarati and told her “Mane Marathi nathi aavadtu” (I can’t speak in Marathi). Now, the word ‘aawad’ means liking in Marathi and ‘aawadtu’ is a verb in Gujarati. My aunt thought that the boy said he doesn’t like Marathi language, and she started scolding him saying things like Marathi is the regional language, you should learn how to speak in Marathi, how you cannot like Marathi etc. etc. and the funny part is that she even scolded the boy in Marathi. God knows, what he must have interpreted.

Such incidents are common and people here will continue being entertained because of such goof-ups. About Hindi, we will not change because we have developed our own version of the language which is also popular by the city’s name. And yes, it is said that the type of language changes every 12 miles so we have our versions of languages which are funny and entertaining.