Sunday, January 18, 2009

Mallu-english in google talk. But Why?

One problem with mallu english I have often noticed has been the poor construction of interrogative sentences. Recently I happen to see a status message on Google Talk. It read
"Why another life is not possible"


I could imagine a mallu nodding his head 15 degrees vertically at the end of that statement, which apparently is the universal mallu-sign for a question mark. To a non-mallu this sentence would simply be the start of an explanation to the Question: "Why is another life not possible?".

When you say "Why another life is not possible" This does not become a question till you add the most important "is" after the questioning word "Why".

Now I am uncertain whether the person intended the status as a question or as a statement. If it was a question it should have been re-phrased as "Why is another life not possible?"

I often wonder why they simply don't write the whole damn thing in Malayalam. It would make life so much easier.

2 comments:

  1. That's exactly why I always copy-paste my English status messages from the net rather than writing my own :)

    പിന്നെ ചെറുപ്പത്തില്‍ ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് ഭാഷ പഠിക്കാന്‍ അവസരം കിട്ടാത്ത മലയാളീസല്ലേ...
    ക്ഷമി ;)

    Why? Another life is not possible.

    ReplyDelete
  2. :-)

    "what you are doing ?"
    "why you are doing what you are doing?"

    from Dan Ninan's stand-up

    ReplyDelete

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