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.
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