The Linguist

32 The Linguist Vol/64 No/3 ciol.org.uk/thelinguist OPINION & COMMENT LAKSHMI-RAJ JESA CULTURAL ACCESS The Gujarat dance garba is traditionally danced at the Hindu festival Navratri, which is often conducted in Gujarati Why hybrid languages like Gujlish do not dilute the source languages, but preserve cultural connections The Gujarati language is an Indo-Aryan language spoken primarily in Gujarat. It has over 60 million speakers worldwide, including large communities in the US, UK and East Africa, due to historical migration. Gujlish, a hybrid language which combines words and phrases from Gujarati and English, is often used in informal settings and everyday speech both by British Indian Gujaratis and by those in Gujarat who are exposed to it through social media. In an increasingly globalised world, hybrid languages are becoming more popular. They reflect people's complex and multifaceted cultural identities, fostering a sense of community and belonging, and are particularly favoured by younger generations. Technology has influenced both the development and spread of these languages. By helping to document them, it has contributed to them being taken more seriously. Through social media, they reach a broader audience faster than they may have done otherwise, contributing to their normalisation and acceptance. Features such as memes and hashtags often employ hybrid languages, for example the Gujlish #nashtatime, meaning '#breakfast time'. There is much debate about whether hybrid languages harm the languages on which they are based by diluting them, potentially even causing them to become extinct, or whether they are simply a natural evolution of language. While some argue that the use of hybrid languages erodes the cultures associated with them, as a speaker of Gujlish, I feel they play a significant role in cultural preservation. I was born and raised in the UK and, for me, using Gujlish facilitates communication with my grandparents and other relatives, who primarily speak Gujarati. When they speak to me, my grandparents (who also live in the UK) pepper their Gujarati with English words, either to help me understand or because there is no appropriate word in Gujarati. I respond in Gujlish, which mixes the two languages equally, for example Chokro jump nath kartho ('the boy is not jumping') or teacher angry che ('the teacher is angry'). Gujlish also uses Gujarati verbs with an English verb ending, as in He is herraning me (herran meaning 'to bother'). Speaking Gujlish allows people like me to communicate and be largely understood by Gujarati speakers, helping to preserving our culture. It has enabled me to access, enjoy and participate in traditions, festivals and religious occasions such as Navratri, Holi and Diwali, which are often conducted in Gujarati. Hybrid languages also make sense in a country which has 123 major languages according to the last census (2011) and around 1,600 others, with Hinglish (Hindi and English) a popular example. In this context, they provide common ground for us to understand each other to some degree, serving as bridges between communities and allowing smoother communication among speakers of diverse native languages. Why not just learn Gujarati? There are several reasons why an individual might learn Gujlish over Gujarati. There are many dialects of Gujarati, so if someone living outside India were to learn a dialect to communicate with their elders, they might struggle to converse fully with those who speak a different dialect. This could limit communication just as much as Gujlish might. I belong to the Maher community, located primarily in Porbandar, so the Gujarati my family speaks is related to the Kathiawari dialect of this region. To complicate matters, my grandparents' Gujarati is infused with Swahili words (e.g. sufuria for 'pan'), as they migrated to Uganda before coming to the UK, so they are sometimes misunderstood by other Gujarati speakers. There are many words in Gujarati that are specific to life within India, and to make them more relevant or appropriate to life in the UK, we may substitute them with an English word. This is one of the reasons why some people who speak fluent Gujarati also use Gujlish. Language is moulded by our environments and, naturally, hybrid languages have developed to make our languages more relatable to us, with word selection informed A cultural bridge

• Cover