Friday, November 11, 2005

Fy Phenomenon

Growing up in India, one definitely has the benefit of learning few languages. Average Indian at least knows 2-3 languages (just my observation). But it gets tricky when we speak, we combine these languages with one another.

We used to do Englishize everything in Tamil and Malayalam by suffixing "fy" to the end of the respective word. Here are few examples

Thukku - Means hang in Tamil.

You can Thukkufy the picture here - This is a complete English Sentence.

Oddu - Means run in Malayalam

I had to Oddufy to get the bus - This is also a complete English Sentence.

The past tense for "fy" is "fied". The usage is as follows for the past tense

Who Thukkufied the picture here? - Who hung the picture here?

I Oddufied all the way to school - I ran all the way to school.

Unlike "fy", "fied" is commonly used in Hindi too.

She was so rootified with him. - She was mad at him.

Are you all familiar with Fy Phenomenon or you guys are thinking that I just made this up?

PS: Thanks ROS for the email you sent asking what rootified meant.

18 comments:

Jagan said...

yeah ..we have pesified (pesu - talk in tamil) like this in school :-)

Sayesha said...

Hahahaha! I use 'fy' and 'fied' all the time. I also use 'ed'.

When ROS rootho'ed with us, we all manaofied her. :D

Rahul said...

fying was ubiquitous in my campus too. But, somehow i never liked it; prefer stickingto one of the two languages unadulterated...

Sayesha said...

Oh another one: sunaofied - scolded.
The teacher sunaofied me for half an hour!

And oh - bhunofy - roast.
Bhunofy the cumin seeds in the pan.

Deeps said...

:). Nice post. This is a common phenomenon I guess, for it is used as a slang in Kannada too :-D.

For eg: Suththi = lecture

He suththified for an hour!! (You can guess what that means ;-) :-D)

Suththodu also means roaming, so if you say "we suththified a lot today", it means we roamed around a lot. Nuances ;-)

Kaala Kavva said...

there's no word in english for 'roothhna'. amazing huh?

it happens all the time... we use a lot of hindlish! and Im startin to hate that! Makes our writing so .. so barbaad....

Thanu said...

$jagan
Me pesufied too

$sayesha
I used ed too..forgot to mention it though.

$czar
I don't think hte lingo is terrible. IT is slang. Most of the time we use Hindi words, when the english words do not convery the same message. rootna, manana have no exact english words, so we fy it to make it english.

$rahul
IT is just like combining 2 languages. We all say Pata hai kya problem hai. Very few ppl use Masla or any other word for problem.

$deeps
So it is all over the country...

$ze
Luckly I do not write like this.

kickassso said...

Now 'the' and 'of' is the in word!. people insert it anywhere and everywhere innapropriate !.
example..when you were out doing your rounds, someone asks...where were you?
you say "I was the rotating of the kerala"

Leon said...

Haha.. I'm guilty of this too..

We otified the girls all evening..

Tamil - to tease..

Sujit said...

very nice...

Bravecat said...

Oh this is so much like Greek! We can "translate" any Greek word into English by adding either "-ation" for a noun or "-ing" for a verb!

=^..^-

Abi said...

I knw what u mean... but i guess my use of it was limited because you have to hang with friends who speak both languages and thats sorta hard to come by when u grow up outside the subcontinent. But my dad and I used to talk like that :D

Parth Anand said...

liked this post..
"manao-fy" "patao-fy" "rootho-fy" and their past tenses have so much become a part of my vocab...

virdi said...

u can make words to confuse people, without meanings... example...

it was a fantabulous evening but how can I constitulify the lactatulating factors of the factatulating Indian Female???

Ar Ar Ar Arrrrr said...

We do the same for Hindi and Marathi here.

And for few english words too..

like for eg: Dont fcukofied ma brain right now ;)

Kewl one!!

Now me gonna use few of your copyrighted "fied" words on ma South India frends once I get outta this lab. Lemme mug them up now ;)

Thanu said...

$vikram
Just a sight if footboarding, now scares me.

$kick
//I was the rotating of the kerala
Too funny

$Leon
Welcome to the blog. Really Otified, never heard that word in tamil.

$Sujit
Welcome to the blog. Thanks

$Qatar Cat
Glad to see that u r up and about. Really? So this is not jus confined to Indian languages.

$J'Adore said
U dad uses these. I thought this was a thing of our generation. I guess not.

$Parth Anand
I know, it just has become so std these days that we do not even realize it when we speak.

$virdi
//it was a fantabulous evening but how can I constitulify the lactatulating factors of the factatulating Indian Female???
Funny...ROTFL

$Arz000n
How did it go with ur southie friends? Keep me updated. If intrested can teach u more.

Shy said...

i use fy and fied. i bhaagofied alll the way from school

shy

Thanu said...

$shy
Welcome to my blog.