Hindi, Urdu: Mumbai Hindi-isms

[bargolus]

As I spent a lot of time listening to people in Mumbai speak Hindi, I'm trying to pick up some common patterns to help understand the Hindi spoken by Mumbaikars. However, I have not really been able to find good resources on this.

Wikipedia has a page with Bombay slang, which I've primarily heard used in movies rather than real life. Furthermore, it's mostly about vocabulary rather than changes in grammar.

Here are few guesses of things people might say in Mumbai Hindi that I have not seen in standard textbooks. They might also just be forms of colloquial Hindi.

1. kariye / करिये instead of kijie / कीजिए - "please do"

2. chalu karna / चालू करना instead of aarambh kara / आरंभ करना - "to start"

3. chalu hona / चालू होना instead of shuru hona / शुरू होना - "to begin"

4. X karne ko milna / X करने को मिलना instead of X karne ka mauka milna / करने का मौका मिलना - "to get to do X"

5. X kar rahai / X कर रहे instead of X kar raha hai / कर रहा है - "doing X"

And of course wonderful English-Hindi compounds such as

6. X ke through / X के थरु instead of X ke duara / X के द्वारा - "through/by X"

Let me know if these are right/wrong or if you have additional examples!

 

[MonsieurGonzalito]

mere ko, etc.

 

[littlepond]

1. kariye / करिये instead of kijie / कीजिए - "please do"

करिये is very common across speakers, not Mumbai centric. कीजिए sounds more polite.

2. chalu karna / चालू करना instead of aarambh kara / आरंभ करना - "to start"

If you were to use आरंभ करना, then some people would think you are writing some heavy essay. चालू करना or "shuru karnaa" is the usual word for most Hindi speakers.

3. chalu hona / चालू होना instead of shuru hona / शुरू होना - "to begin"

Both are used heavily by all Hindi speakers. And in some cases, like for a car or a motor, I prefer चालू होना instead of शुरू होना. (Certainly not आरंभ होना!)

4. X karne ko milna / X करने को मिलना instead of X karne ka mauka milna / करने का मौका मिलना - "to get to do X"

Using "maukaa" or "avsar" is very wordy. Most people would say "X karne ko milnaa" and there's nothing wrong or regional about it.

5. X kar rahai / X कर रहे instead of X kar raha hai / कर रहा है - "doing X"

Never heard "X kar rahai"! And by "X कर रहे," I guess you mean there will be a "haiN" following it?
There is of course the delightful Western UP "X kar r(h)eyaa hai."

...

6. X ke through / X के थरु instead of X ke duara / X के द्वारा - "through/by X"

Such codeswitching is common across Hindi speakers, especially in all urban and semi-urban settings. And "X के द्वारा" is heavy: very few would use it! A lighter option would be "X ke zariye."

mere ko, etc.

That's a good example, but it's not necessarily wrong or Mumbai-originated - it is more influenced from (Dakkhani) Urdu, where it is standard. Also, "mere ku."

 

[bargolus]

Okay, thanks a lot! Yes, I was not implying wrongness in any way, just trying to collect them, so I can better understand speakers myself in the future, since it's hard to find these phrases in textbooks.

 

[aevynn]

I'd agree with this assessment that these don't really sound strongly associated to Mumbai to me. Essentially all of them are quite ubiquitous in the speech of my family (mostly from Delhi, Punjab, etc). I don't know if these phenomena really originated in Mumbai, but if they did, presumably they've spread far and wide outside of Mumbai under the influence of Bollywood.

1. kariye / करिये instead of kijie / कीजिए - "please do"

It's not just kariye in place of kiijiye, by the way. The other irregular forms of karnaa are also very commonly regularized; karaa/kare/karii/kariiN are used for perfective participles quite often in place of kiyaa/kie/kii/kiiN.

5. X kar rahai / X कर रहे instead of X kar raha hai / कर रहा है - "doing X"

I'm not sure this is what you're talking about, but I have noticed a frequent slurring/dropping of the -ah- out of the progressive marker rahaa/rahe/rahii. The end result is something like kar raa hai instead of the fully enunciated kar rahaa hai.

 

[desi4life]

That's a good example, but it's not necessarily wrong or Mumbai-originated - it is more influenced from (Dakkhani) Urdu, where it is standard. Also, "mere ku."

Actually, “mere ko” is prevalent in northern India as an alternative to the standard “mujhe”/“mujh ko”. I don’t believe Dakhini influence is involved in its use in northern India. The Dakhini form is indeed “mere kuu”.

 

[aevynn]

Actually, “mere ko” is prevalent in northern India as an alternative to the standard “mujhe”/“mujh ko”.

Same thing with some other pronoun+postposition combinations as well, I think; eg mere se (instead of mujhse) is also not uncommon in my experience.

 

[desi4life]

It's not just kariye in place of kiijiye, by the way. The other irregular forms of karnaa are also very commonly regularized; karaa/kare/karii/kariiN are used for perfective participles quite often in place of kiyaa/kie/kii/kiiN.

Yes, I agree. The use of the regular forms of karnaa are an Old Hindi usage that’s still commonplace even though the irregular forms were adopted as standard.

 

[bargolus]

I'd agree with this assessment that these don't really sound strongly associated to Mumbai to me. Essentially all of them are quite ubiquitous in the speech of my family (mostly from Delhi, Punjab, etc). I don't know if these phenomena really originated in Mumbai, but if they did, presumably they've spread far and wide outside of Mumbai under the influence of Bollywood.



It's not just kariye in place of kiijiye, by the way. The other irregular forms of karnaa are also very commonly regularized; karaa/kare/karii/kariiN are used for perfective participles quite often in place of kiyaa/kie/kii/kiiN.



I'm not sure this is what you're talking about, but I have noticed a frequent slurring/dropping of the -ah- out of the progressive marker rahaa/rahe/rahii. The end result is something like kar raa hai instead of the fully enunciated kar rahaa hai.

Omg this explains so much. Thank you!!!

 

[aevynn]

The use of the regular forms of karnaa are an Old Hindi usage that’s still commonplace even though the irregular forms were adopted as standard.

Thanks for this, I didn't know these forms had a long history! I'd love to see some historical samples, if you've run into any.

This also means that, if the irregular forms were adopted as standard, there must have been a discussion of some sort about this matter (eg, in the Nagari Pracharini Sabha or some similar organization). I'm rather curious what reasons they could possibly have come up with for adopting the irregular forms for a standard instead of the regular ones!

 

[desi4life]

I'm rather curious what reasons they could possibly have come up with for adopting the irregular forms for a standard instead of the regular ones!

I think it was probably based on analogy with verbs such as denaa (diyaa, dii, diijiye, etc.) and lenaa (liyaa, lii, liijiye, etc.).

 

[Alfaaz]

Thanks for this, I didn't know these forms had a long history! I'd love to see some historical samples, if you've run into any.

A literary example from 1841 (source currently available here) is given in the Urdu Lughat entry for کری.

 

[aevynn]

I think it was probably based on analogy with verbs such as denaa (diyaa, dii, diijiye, etc.) and lenaa (liyaa, lii, liijiye, etc.).

"We have these two obligatorily irregular verbs. Let's standardize the irregular conjugations of karnaa, so that we get to have a third irregular verb!" lol. Seems like somewhat strange logic to me at least, but of course that doesn't mean that this *wasn't* their train of thought...

I suppose another possibility that comes to mind is that, perhaps the irregular conjugations of karnaa were associated with some prestige dialect at the time...? But this is mere speculation. I have no evidence to back this up.

A literary example from 1841 (source currently available here) is given in the Urdu Lughat entry for کری.

Thank you!

 

[desi4life]

"We have these two obligatorily irregular verbs. Let's standardize the irregular conjugations of karnaa, so that we get to have a third irregular verb!" lol. Seems like somewhat strange logic to me at least, but of course that doesn't mean that this *wasn't* their train of thought...

I suppose another possibility that comes to mind is that, perhaps the irregular conjugations of karnaa were associated with some prestige dialect at the time...? But this is mere speculation. I have no evidence to back this up.

Both the regular and irregular forms have been in common use traditionally but the irregular form was adopted as standard. A feature of standardization was rooting out grammatical features perceived to belong to local dialects rather than Khariboli. According to Kellogg (A Grammar of the Hindi language, pp. 161 and 205) the regular form of this verb is used in Kannauji and also frequently in Braj.

Edit - A couple of other threads where this was discussed: Hindi/Urdu: past tense of karnā and Urdu: کرنا

 

[bargolus]

I'm not sure this is what you're talking about, but I have noticed a frequent slurring/dropping of the -ah- out of the progressive marker rahaa/rahe/rahii. The end result is something like kar raa hai instead of the fully enunciated kar rahaa hai.

In lieu of the above slurring, I've noticed similar contractions for hona such that

ho rahaa hai becomes more like ho raa hai
ho rahaa thaa becomes more like ho raa thaa

 

[littlepond]

In lieu of the above slurring, I've noticed similar contractions for hona such that

ho rahaa hai becomes more like ho raa hai
ho rahaa thaa becomes more like ho raa thaa

While this can exist in some speeches, note that the Hindi "h" is very "light," so it may very well be that you are not hearing the "h" even though it is actually being pronounced. (A native Hindi speaker is very sensitive to even this "light" "h" and will feel the absence of "h" very strongly.) A more common speech pattern, in fact, is "ho rhaa hai" (instead of "ho rahaa hai") - "rhaa" is in fact even more common than "rahaa" in everyday language not meant for podium speeches.

 

[Maharaj]

As I spent a lot of time listening to people in Mumbai speak Hindi, I'm trying to pick up some common patterns to help understand the Hindi spoken by Mumbaikars. However, I have not really been able to find good resources on this.

Wikipedia has a page with Bombay slang, which I've primarily heard used in movies rather than real life. Furthermore, it's mostly about vocabulary rather than changes in grammar.

Here are few guesses of things people might say in Mumbai Hindi that I have not seen in standard textbooks. They might also just be forms of colloquial Hindi.

1. kariye / करिये instead of kijie / कीजिए - "please do"

2. chalu karna / चालू करना instead of aarambh kara / आरंभ करना - "to start"

3. chalu hona / चालू होना instead of shuru hona / शुरू होना - "to begin"

4. X karne ko milna / X करने को मिलना instead of X karne ka mauka milna / करने का मौका मिलना - "to get to do X"

5. X kar rahai / X कर रहे instead of X kar raha hai / कर रहा है - "doing X"

And of course wonderful English-Hindi compounds such as

6. X ke through / X के थरु instead of X ke duara / X के द्वारा - "through/by X"

Let me know if these are right/wrong or if you have additional examples!

Interestingly and to your dismay none of them is originated in Mumbai.

First of all the language is called बम्बईया भाषा or now a days मुम्बईया भाषा since they renamed Bombay as Mumbai.​

Mumbaiya Bhasha came into being when Marathi people used to try to talk in Hindi with the migrant population of Mumbai but naturally they used to insert Marathi words as well as the grammar in their Hindi wherever they couldn't get their Hindi right. So Mumbaiya is a cocktail Hindi and Marathi with some indigenous flavours of Mumbai.

Some words / constructions:

1. अपुन = I/me
2. अपुन को पैसा मांगता है = मुझे पैसा चाहिये
3. बोले तो = मतलब / यानि
4. बन्टाय = यार / दोस्त / भाई
5. Dhoptungi = मारूंगी / पिटाई करूँगी

6. आने का है = आना है similarly जाने का है
अपुन को माहिम जाने का है
7. इच = ही
ये लड़की वोइच है = ये लड़की वही / वो ही है
Gully Boy dialogue "tere bhai jaisa koi hardich (हार्डिच hard + ich) nahin hai"
8. आ रेला हूँ / जा रेला हूँ = aa raha hoon / ja raja hoon
This one is restricted to slums

I will add more as and when they come to my mind till then watch Gully Boy and Munnabhai MBBS for wonderful dialogues in Mumbaiya bhasha.

 

[littlepond]

Agree with you, @Maharaj, but I think the OP was not about the slang or Marathi vocabulary in Mumbaiiya Hindi: he said he already found a page on Wikipedia listing some of the usual Mumbai slang.

 

[bargolus]

Interestingly and to your dismay none of them is originated in Mumbai.

First of all the language is called बम्बईया भाषा or now a days मुम्बईया भाषा since they renamed Bombay as Mumbai.​

Mumbaiya Bhasha came into being when Marathi people used to try to talk in Hindi with the migrant population of Mumbai but naturally they used to insert Marathi words as well as the grammar in their Hindi wherever they couldn't get their Hindi right. So Mumbaiya is a cocktail Hindi and Marathi with some indigenous flavours of Mumbai.

Some words / constructions:

1. अपुन = I/me
2. अपुन को पैसा मांगता है = मुझे पैसा चाहिये
3. बोले तो = मतलब / यानि
4. बन्टाय = यार / दोस्त / भाई
5. Dhoptungi = मारूंगी / पिटाई करूँगी
6. आने का है = आना है similarly जाने का है
अपुन को माहिम जाने का है
7. इच = ही
ये लड़की वोइच है = ये लड़की वही / वो ही है
Gully Boy dialogue "tere bhai jaisa koi hardich (हार्डिच hard + ich) nahin hai"
8. आ रेला हूँ / जा रेला हूँ = aa raha hoon / ja raja hoon
This one is restricted to slums

I will add more as and when they come to my mind till then watch Gully Boy and Munnabhai MBBS for wonderful dialogues in Mumbaiya bhasha.

Thanks a lot, this is actually very helpful! Many of these I may have heard before, but didn't see listed on the Wikipedia page, esp. 2, 3, 6 and 7, and if you don't know they are simple vocabulary / slang phenomena, they can come across as new grammatical features.

 

[littlepond]

@bargolus jii, if you're looking for Mumbai-flavoured slang additions to Hindi, you will find a whole bunch of them through just searching for "Mumbai slang" or "Bombay slang" (e.g., there are some long lists here) on Google or another search engine.

 

[amiramir]

I'd also add pronunciation differences. In Bombay I often hear बैठो, for example, pronounced as, बईठो

 

[littlepond]

I'd also add pronunciation differences. In Bombay I often hear बैठो, for example, pronounced as, बईठो

बईठो is a very UP-Bihar pronunciation!

 

[eskandar]

7. इच = ही
ये लड़की वोइच है = ये लड़की वही / वो ही है
Gully Boy dialogue "tere bhai jaisa koi hardich (हार्डिच hard + ich) nahin hai"

Also a common feature of Deccani / Hyderabadi Urdu.

 

[bargolus]

Another slightly odd expression (which may not be exclusive to Mumbai Hindi):

All in all it is like this.
Aesa hai karke / ऐसा है करके / ایسا ہے کرکے

I have noticed, people I talk to in Mumbai often add "karke" seemingly randomly at the end of a sentence. After talking to local friend, he explained it to me as a short form for "all in all" or "all taken together", so there is almost an implied:

Aesa hai (ikattha) karke / ऐसा है (इकट्ठा) करके / ایسا ہے (اکتها) کرکے

But I might be completely off here?

 

[littlepond]

All in all it is like this.
Aesa hai karke / ऐसा है करके / ایسا ہے کرکے


Aesa hai (ikattha) karke / ऐसा है (इकट्ठा) करके / ایسا ہے (اکتها) کرکے

There are no such expressions (whether in Mumbai or outside of it): could you give some context please in order to determine what you may have heard in reality?

 

[bargolus]

If you search for the expression on Google, you can find a dialogue on a Marathi site where the characters are mixing up Marathi and Hindi:

खान - उलटा बोलना पडेंगा अब पब्लिकको...

कोरे - अब कहा टायम है उलटा बोलनेको???

खान - कितना लगाया है पब्लिकने??

कोरे - अरे एक के बीस देने पडेंगे..

खान - लेकिन ऐसे कितने है??

कोरे - ऐसेच पचास हजार लिये ना अपनने..

खान - भाग जाते है... बॉम्बे...

कोरे - यडा बनगया क्या?? मर्डर होजायेंगा अपना उधर.....

खान - वो तो इधर भी होयेंगाच...

कोरे - ये क्या नयाच लफडा होगया यार??

खान - रामनको फोन लगाओ... उसको बोलो ऐसा ऐसा है करके..

etc. etc.

It might be something that arises from the crossover between the two, as ऐसा है करके is not Marathi?

But you might know better what is going on!

 

[littlepond]

कोरे - ये क्या नयाच लफडा होगया यार??

खान - रामनको फोन लगाओ... उसको बोलो ऐसा ऐसा है करके..

etc. etc.

It might be something that arises from the crossover between the two, as ऐसा है करके is not Marathi?

But you might know better what is going on!

Ah, you understood it wrongly (or forgot to emphasise the first ऐसा): it is "ऐसा, ऐसा है करके" - note that comma

The sentence means "Call Ram, tell him it is such and such" (i.e., tell him what has happened). You would probably have understood it more easily if there were no "kar ke" at the end: "us ko bolo aisaa, aisaa hai." Now, "kar ke" is not exactly random here: the speaker wants to say "us ko bolo aisaa aisaa huaa hai," which becomes equivalent to "us ko bolo aisaa, aisaa (kisi ne) kiyaa hai," and this "kiyaa hai" of standard Hindi becomes "kar ke" here. But you are right, this is very typical of Hindi in the Mumbai region.

No Marathi in the above dialogue by the way: it's a mix of standard and (Mumbai) slang Hindi.

 

[aprendiendo argento]

Many times, Marathi speakers tend to pronounce nasal vowels without nasality, that is that as oral vowels when speaking Hindi.

 

[bargolus]

Ah, you understood it wrongly (or forgot to emphasise the first ऐसा): it is "ऐसा, ऐसा है करके" - note that comma

The sentence means "Call Ram, tell him it is such and such" (i.e., tell him what has happened). You would probably have understood it more easily if there were no "kar ke" at the end: "us ko bolo aisaa, aisaa hai." Now, "kar ke" is not exactly random here: the speaker wants to say "us ko bolo aisaa aisaa huaa hai," which becomes equivalent to "us ko bolo aisaa, aisaa (kisi ne) kiyaa hai," and this "kiyaa hai" of standard Hindi becomes "kar ke" here. But you are right, this is very typical of Hindi in the Mumbai region.

No Marathi in the above dialogue by the way: it's a mix of standard and (Mumbai) slang Hindi.

Acchaa, thank you littlepond ji that makes everything clearer for me.

Sorry for the many questions: Have you encountered a general pattern in regards to using the absolutive +ke instead of past tense in Bombay Hindi?

For example, sometimes I think people say

"mein jaaunga" kahke

instead of

"mein jaaunga" usne kaha

but again I may be wrong here.

 

[littlepond]

Acchaa, thank you littlepond ji that makes everything clearer for me.

Sorry for the many questions: Have you encountered a general pattern in regards to using the absolutive +ke instead of past tense in Bombay Hindi?

You can ask as many questions as you'd like to, they are all welcome: some forum member will surely help you, there's no need to say sorry for that!

Yes, that's a general pattern: for example, "voh gayaa hai" can be "voh jaa ke hai." And I think this general pattern is not influenced by Marathi but by (Deccani) Urdu, where this pattern (but with "ko" instead of "ke") is the standard. (So the "jaa ko" of Urdu is very different from the Uttar Pradesh "jaako," which means "jis ko.") So you will here the same pattern from Urdu speakers in Bangalore or Hyderabad, too.

For example, sometimes I think people say

"mein jaaunga" kahke

instead of

"mein jaaunga" usne kaha

but again I may be wrong here.

I didn't understand this particular example, though.

 

[MonsieurGonzalito]

I came across "naklii" recently, to indicate something that is "faux, inauthentic, duplicate"
Can't say if it is from Mumbai specifically, but it seems to be used by Hindi-speaking people.

 

[Alfaaz]

I came across "naklii" recently, to indicate something that is "faux, inauthentic, duplicate"
Can't say if it is from Mumbai specifically, but it seems to be used by Hindi-speaking people.

That is Urdu نقلی - naqlii, used as an antonym of اصلی - aSlii. (The word isn't slang/specific to a certain city, etc.)

A نقلی naqlī (rel. n. fr. naql), adj. Transmitted; handed down; traditional; — imitated; fabricated, artificial; fictitious, spurious, counterfeit, false; — s.m. A mime, mimic, an actor, a jester, buffoon; — a narrator, relater, story-teller.

 

[aevynn]

Just a thought: might it be easier for future readers to find information if we started separate threads to discuss each phenomenon in consideration...? The question "is this phenomenon a Mumbai-ism?" could be addressed in a thread devoted to that phenomenon. While this thread has brought up lots of interesting phenomena, it seems to me that the discussion is turning into a bit of a hodgepodge which includes things that aren't Mumbai-isms at all. Given the title of the thread, this may make it challenging to find these discussions of these phenomena.

 

[Pokeflute]

A few others that haven't been mentioned in this thread. Unsure if these are used outside of Mumbai, but most of my family is from Mumbai, and these are all things that they say that my textbooks didn't mention:

Vocab items:
खाली (khaali) to mean सिर्फ (sirf) (e.g. अपनी लाइफ में उसे खाली देते हुए ही देखा - apni laaif mein use khaali dete hue hi dekhaa - I've only seen him giving it in my life)
तब कहीं जाके (tab kahiN jaake) to mean "at long last" (e.g. तब कहीं जाके मुझे याद आया - tab kahiN jaake mujhe yaad aayaa - until finally I remembered)

You also get lots of Gujarati/Marathi loan words too (e.g. फ़टाफ़ट - faTaafat - ASAP)

Grammar:
Infinitives do not decline for gender in the preterite. So you'd say मैंने हिंदी बोलना सीखा (maiNne hindi bolnaa siikhaa). I've been told this is due to Marathi influence.

 

[Qureshpor]

Infinitives do not decline for gender in the preterite. So you'd say मैंने हिंदी बोलना सीखा (maine hindi bolnaa siikhaa). I've been told this is due to Marathi influence.

This form exists in Urdu too.

maiN ne Hindi bolnii siikhii (This is considered to be Delhi Urdu)

maiN ne Hindi bolnaa siikhaa (This is linked to Lucknow Urdu)

 

[Alfaaz]

Unsure if these are used outside of Mumbai, but most of my family is from Mumbai, and these are all things that they say that my textbooks didn't mention:

Vocab items:
खाली (khaali) to mean सिर्फ (sirf) (e.g. अपनी लाइफ में उसे खाली देते हुए ही देखा - apni laaif mein use khaali dete hue hi dekhaa - I've only seen him giving it in my life)
तब कहीं जाके (tab kahiN jaake) to mean "at long last"

These usages are also present in other regions/standard or formal language.

خالی - xaalii - #2 (Sirf, maHz, faqat)

میں اپنی عمر بھر کا چین جب اس در پہ چھوڑ آیا
ملی ہے تب کہیں جا کر ذرا سی بے کلی مجھ کو

قتیل شفائی​

maiN apnii 3umr bhar kaa chain jab us dar peh chhoR aayaa
milii hai tab kahiiN jaa kar zaraa sii be-kalii mujh ko

Qateel Shifai

 

[littlepond]

A few others that haven't been mentioned in this thread. Unsure if these are used outside of Mumbai, but most of my family is from Mumbai, and these are all things that they say that my textbooks didn't mention:

Vocab items:
खाली (khaali) to mean सिर्फ (sirf) (e.g. अपनी लाइफ में उसे खाली देते हुए ही देखा - apni laaif mein use khaali dete hue hi dekhaa - I've only seen him giving it in my life)
तब कहीं जाके (tab kahiN jaake) to mean "at long last" (e.g. तब कहीं जाके मुझे याद आया - tab kahiN jaake mujhe yaad aayaa - until finally I remembered)

You also get lots of Gujarati/Marathi loan words too (e.g. फ़टाफ़ट - faTaafat - ASAP)

Grammar:
Infinitives do not decline for gender in the preterite. So you'd say मैंने हिंदी बोलना सीखा (maiNne hindi bolnaa siikhaa). I've been told this is due to Marathi influence.

All those you mention are normal Hindi usages rather than anything non-standard or specific to Mumbai, though Hindi has फटाफट more common than फ़टाफ़ट.

From Bahri:
फट फट phaṭ adv [also फट से, फटाफट] at once, immediately: काम ~ ख़त्म करो finish the work --; -वापस आओ come back --. [syn. झटपट, तुरंत]

 

[eskandar]

Moderator note: I'm locking this thread as the scope is too broad and violates rule #2 (one topic per thread). @aevynn's suggestion is very appropriate, so I am quoting it here; please use the search function and/or form new threads accordingly.

Just a thought: might it be easier for future readers to find information if we started separate threads to discuss each phenomenon in consideration...? The question "is this phenomenon a Mumbai-ism?" could be addressed in a thread devoted to that phenomenon. While this thread has brought up lots of interesting phenomena, it seems to me that the discussion is turning into a bit of a hodgepodge which includes things that aren't Mumbai-isms at all. Given the title of the thread, this may make it challenging to find these discussions of these phenomena.