LINGUIST List 7.555

Sun Apr 14 1996

Sum: Indian English dictionary

Editor for this issue: T. Daniel Seely <dseelyemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. JPKIRCHNERaol.com, Sum: Indian English dictionary

Ages ago I posted a query asking if there were a dictionary that might help
me with the terms specific to Indian English that don't appear in an ordinary
English unabridged.

There appear to be three:

Yule, Henry, Sir (1886), Hobson-Jobson: being a glossary of Anglo-Indian
colloquial words and phrases and of kindred terms. London: John Murray.

This is a quaint, chatty and seemingly quite comprehensive reference source
that not only tells you what the Anglo-Indian terms mean, but sometimes what
they don't mean but that the authors originally _thought_ they meant.

Muthiah, S. (1991), Words in Indian English: A Reader's Guide. Indus.

I couldn't get my hands on a copy of this anywhere, whether at a library or a
bookstore. While it's purportedly still in print, I did not succeed in
getting a copy even on special order.

Lewis, Ivor (1991), Sahibs, Nabobs and Boxwallahs: A Dictionary of the Words
of Anglo-India. Bombay: Oxford.

Not nearly as big as Hobson-Jobson, but a good reference source.

Profuse thanks to: Lynne Hewitt, Peter Daniels, Stuart Luppescu, Linda
Coleman, and anyone else whose message may have gotten misplaced in the
caverns of my hard disk.

James Kirchner