--- title: 'So long and thanks for all the loanwords' url: 'https://rethunk.englishup.me/so-long' markdown: 'https://rethunk.englishup.me/so-long.md' date: '2026-10-30' description: 'So long and thanks for all the loanwords "Words of Indian origin have been insinuating themselves into English...lying in wait for entrance into English literature. Such outlandish guests grew more frequent..." (Yule et al, 1903:xv, emphasis added) The above comes from the Introductory Remarks se…' --- # So long and thanks for all the loanwords > "Words of Indian origin have been **insinuating** themselves into English...**lying in wait** for entrance into English literature. Such **outlandish** guests grew more frequent..." (Yule et al, 1903:xv, emphasis added) The above comes from the Introductory Remarks section of Hobson-Jobson by Yule and Burnell - a glossary of Anglo-Indian words first published in 1886 (the citation is from the 2nd edition). The bolded words can be contrasted with the use of the word "influence" in the Foreword of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, CRED, report in proposing a teaching resource: > "We want to create a teaching resource that looks at the **influence** of the UK, particularly during the Empire period. We want to see how Britishness **infuenced** the Commonwealth and local communities, and how the Commonwealth and local communities **influenced** what we now know as modern Britain. One great example would be a dictionary or lexicon of well known British words which are Indian in origin."(Sewell et al, 2021:8, emphasis added) This idea of a dictionary/lexicon as a way that "looks at the influence of the UK" may well have been inspired by Sathnam Sanghera's very similar suggestion in Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain. Sanghera (2020) promotes the idea of "Empire awareness" and suggests, amongst other ways, using something like Hobson-Jobson to go about this. However explaining loan-words is very difficult, linguist Martin Haspelmath (2009) writes > "Explaining why languages change is generally very difficult, and explaining why languages borrow words is no exception. In fact, it is probably more difficult to explain lexical borrowing than most people think." (Haspelmath, 2009:46). And so errors will occur. For example Sanghera accepts the Hobson-Jobson explanation of > "‘Dam‘ originally referred to a copper coin, for example, ‘the fortieth part of a rupee’ and so low in value that it led to Britons in India employing the phrase ‘I won’t give a dumri,’ which in turn led to the popular expression ‘I don’t give a dam(n).” (Sanghera, 2020:17). Yet lexicographer Lambert (2012) states > "However, not all of Yule and Burnell’s etymologies are robust. The connection of the phrase not give a damn with the dam, a Hindu coin of little value (1886: 227–8), is, despite their claim to the contrary, decidedly “far-fetched.” (Lambert, 2012:304). Furthermore the CRED report's aim to "achieve inclusivity" through teaching an "inclusive curriculum" seems to be a very limited version of Empire awareness. Inclusivity is highly susceptible to unintended parody as seen in a promotional film from 1926 called [Think and Eat Imperially](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC92kfaXnQo) reported by Sanghera (2020): > “It depicts Lord Meath, labelled as ‘Empire Movement Veteran’, awkwardly encouraging a series of representatives from the Dominions to take turns to throw relevant ingredients into the mix of the King’s empire Christmas pudding. So we see Zanzibar cloves being presented by black men in fez hats, South African raisins being presented by white women in uniforms, English beer being presented by a sturdy man with a moustache and a barrel on his shoulder, and the overall vibe is a cross between that of a stilted Indian wedding, a Jamie Oliver cookery demonstration and, with Lord Meath sporting a top hat, all-black clothes and a heavy chain, a rap video. There is mercifully no blackface but, frankly, it’s a struggle to imagine how it was considered entertainment then, or why it was deemed worthy of release.” (Sanghera, 2020:35). Sanghera provides another way to look at the influence of Indian words on British English which emphasises less the linguistic aspects and more the historical picture, for example he uses the word loot derived from Hindi (lut, spoils of war) as a jump point to describe a selection of British invasions in a chapter called Emotional Loot. The roping in of linguistic influences to the CRED's modern day inclusivity pudding may also misunderstand linguistic scholarship. The CRED chairman assumes the influence of Commonwealth languages on English is symmetrical with the influence of English on Commonwealth languages. Whereas in fact > "English has probably been more important as a donor of increasing amounts of mostly non-basic and technical vocabulary to the thousands of languages of the world than as a borrowing language since the early 19th century." (Grant, 2009:386). Finally, the underlying linguistic superiority of English in Hobson-Jobson is evident in the following > "Considering the long intercourse with India, it is noteworthy that the additions which have thus accrued to the English language are, from the intellectual standpoint, of no intrinsic value. Nearly all the borrowed words refer to material facts, or to peculiar customs and stages of society, and , though a few of them furnish allusions to the penny-a-liner, they do not represent new ideas." (Yule et al., 1903:xxi). This superiority of English is arguably echoed in the CRED's accusation that the self-reported English proficiency of older women from the Commonwealth countries of Bangladesh and Pakistan ".. clearly is an obstacle to economic advance and broader integration." (Sewell et al., 2021:43). Would Sewell consider employing these people in his Anglo-Indian dictionary project? This is admittedly a flippant question but it also serves to test Sewell's assumption of the symmetry of linguistic influence. # References Grant, A. (2009). Loanwords in British English. In Haspelmath, M., & Tadmor, U. (Eds.). Loanwords in the world’s languages: A comparative handbook, 360-383. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Haspelmath, M. (2009). Lexical borrowing: Concepts and issues. In Haspelmath, M., & Tadmor, U. (Eds.). Loanwords in the world’s languages: A comparative handbook, 35-54. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Lambert, J. (2012). Beyond Hobson Jobson: towards a new lexicography for Indian English. English World-Wide, 33(3), 292-320. Sanghera, S. (2020) Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain. E-reader. Penguin. Sewell, T., Aderin-Pocock, M., Chughtai, A., Fraser, K., Khalid, N., Moyo,. D., Muroki, M., Oliver, M., Shah, S. (2021) Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities: The Report. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-report-of-the-commission-on-race-and-ethnic-disparities Yule, H., Crooke, W., & Burnell, A. C. (1903). Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms; Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive. 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