Eddie, The sign should actually read "Horn OK please?" Now, don't make the mistake of trying to comprehend what this means, since it is in *Indian English* and not the Queen's version of the lingo. As, post-1947, after the sun rose of Indian English, we have been marching ahead and eagerly look forward to shortly become the country with the largest number of English-language speakers in the world.
Maybe by then, we will be able to define *some* rules. Or, is it a case that the minority will always rule? Goan English has nuances of its own. Chak'upcer is slang for shock-absorber. Vicer is a washer (of the mech kind). K'linder is the driver's assistant (cleaner?). I never understood why a girlfriend gets abbreviated to "handbag" in Konklish, a language which one of the few experts is my journo-friend Valentino Fernandes (recently retired from Gomantak Times, and doing well with his self-published book 'How To Be An Instant Goan'). Please add to this list.... I once had this friend from Papua New Guinea (who went on to become the Press Secretary to the Prime Minister) who was explaining the finer nuances of the PGN lingo called Tok Pidgin. Someone asked him, "So is it just badly-spoken English?" He shot back: "If that's the case, you could call English badly-spoken German." So c'mon guys, let's embark on this huge process of legitimising the role of Konklish (and Indian English) in the English speaking world. Just think of the benefits. No one will be able to point fingers at how "poorly" English is spoken here. Talking about English, why are Konkani speakers so often laughing at each other's variants, dialects, vocabulary and pronounciation? And I'm not talking about expats who have only a nodding acquaintance with the language, but also long-time residents, who speak one or the other variant of the language well enough for all their purposes, but still get laughed at. FN > Eddie Fernandes eddie at fernandes.u-net.com > Tue Apr 4 14:16:22 PDT 2006 > The sign behind every truck, is in fact, HORN OK? > The use of the question mark has often intrigued me > One year, only after about a week, I realised that the horn of the > car I had rented was not working. I had it seen to just in case. In my > experience there is much less use of the horn in the last two years. -- ---------------------------------------------------------- Frederick 'FN' Noronha | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha http://fn.goa-india.org | [EMAIL PROTECTED] Independent Journalist | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436 ---------------------------------------------------------- 1277 copylefted pics from Goa: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/ _____________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: %(user_optionsurl)s This email sent to %(user_address)s