8 Nov. 2007

corresp. fr. india
8 nov. 2007


Dear RVB,

Now I'm really flummoxed. .....exact equivalents are tough because Indian kids, at least from the lower middle and poorer sections who would be likely to use more colorful slang, are too poor to buy Barbies and GI joes. The kids who have GI Joes would be anglicized and tend to use the original english profanities :-)

here are some untranslatable very Indian words. these are Hindi, but everyone uses them:

1. chakka= literally means hitting six on the toss of the dice. Colloquially used to mean a man who isn't a 'man', 'can't get it up', and his member remains limp like a six.

2. Ullu ka pattha= son of an owl. Owls are considered stupid because they blunder about half-awake in the daylight.

3.behen-chut= sister-fucker, maa-chut= mother-fucker These are commonly used very strong curses in Hindi, also appropriated by other linguistic comunities

Some Kannada ones which everyone in B_____ and neighbouring areas use, whether they speak Kannada fluently or not;

1. chattri = literally umbrella. an abject flatterer

2. terle= a fellow who messes up things, useless fellow, screw-up

3. bombaat = fantastic, teriffic

Hope this helps. Wish you all the best with this and future projects. Cheering you all the way.

Do stay in touch when time permits. Your mails are a joy to read :-) Hope the cats are not into Satyagraha, but behaving themselves and keeping fit and happy.

smiles from B_______,


M_____

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corresp. fr. s. africa, via n.z.
8 nov. 2007

allo allo,

seriously, what you have here is pretty comprehensive.
i couldn't add much else.

i will mention one spelling thingamajig:

HALSSNOEMOORD (NECKLACE/NECKLACING MURDER)

i'm sure that should be HALSSNOERMOORD -- note the R after the E. ("Halssnoer" = "Necklace")

I would have said Soweto Necklace myself.

l________