Synthesized answer
"Hobson-Jobson" seeks to address the challenge of integrating words and phrases from one language into another, particularly when there is no direct English equivalent or when speakers believe there isn't [3]. This involves Oriental words that have been assimilated into the English vernacular, often through common usage, and may be altered by "vulgar lips" [2]. The book aims to document these terms which recur in the daily interactions of English speakers in India [3].
The challenge can be explained as bridging communication gaps that arise when people use words from a different language because their own language lacks a specific term, or they believe it does [3]. This process can lead to the adaptation and alteration of these foreign words as they enter the English vocabulary [2].
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
dem est; VOCEM sic semper eandem Esse, sed in varias doceo migrare figuras." Ovid. Metamorph. xv. 169-172 (adapt.). "... Take this as a good fare-well draught of English-Indian liquor ."— Purchas , To the Reader ( before Terry's Relation of East India), ii. 1463 (misprinted 1464). "Nec dubitamus multa esse quae et nos praeterierint. Homines enim sumus, et occupati officiis; subsicivisque temporibus ista curamus."— C. Plinii Secundi , Hist. Nat. Praefatio, ad Vespasianum . "Haec, si displicui, fuerint solatia nobis: Haec fuerint nobis praemia, si placui." Martialis , Epigr. II. xci.…
which has been given to this book (not without the expressed assent of my collaborator), doubtless requires explanation. A valued friend of the present writer many years ago published a book, of great acumen and considerable originality, which he called Three Essays , with no Author's name; and the resulting amount of circulation was such as might have been expected. It was remarked at the time by another friend that if the volume had been entitled A Book, by a Chap , it would have found a much larger body of readers. It seemed to me that A Glossary or A Vocabulary would be equally…
e to affect its distinctive character, in which something has been aimed at differing in form from any work known to us. In its original conception it was intended to deal with all that class of words which, not in general pertaining to the technicalities of administration, recur constantly in the daily intercourse of the English in India, either as expressing ideas really not provided for by our mother-tongue, or supposed by the speakers (often quite erroneously) to express something not capable of just denotation by any English term. A certain percentage of such words have been carried to…
← Hobson-Jobson ( 1903 ) by Henry Yule and Arthur Burnell A → 2629965 Hobson-Jobson 1903 Henry Yule and Arthur Burnell [ A ] - [ B ] - [ C ] - [ D ] - [ E ] - [ F ] - [ G ] - [ H ] - [ I ] - [ J ] - [ K ] - [ L ] - [ M ] - [ N ] - [ O ] - [ P ] - [ Q ] - [ R ] - [ S ] - [ T ] - [ U ] - [ V ] - [ W ] - [ X ] - [ Y ] - [ Z ] A GLOSSARY OF ANGLO-INDIAN COLLOQUIAL WORDS AND PHRASES AND OF KINDRED TERMS ["Wee have forbidden the severall Factoryes from wrighting words in this languadge and refrayned itt our selves, though in bookes of coppies we feare there are many which by wante of tyme for…
Vocabularies of Indian and other foreign words, in use among Europeans in the East, have not unfrequently been printed. Several of the old travellers have attached the like to their narratives; whilst the prolonged excitement created in England, a hundred years since, by the impeachment of Hastings and kindred matters, led to the publication of several glossaries as independent works; and a good many others have been published in later days. At the end of this Introduction will be found a list of those which have come under my notice, and this might no doubt be largely added to. Of modern…
More questions about this book
- Compare and contrast the perspectives on language mixing presented by the Surat Factors in 1617 and R. Verstegan in 1673. What underlying motivations or concerns might have driven their respective views?
- Iamblichus states that some idiomatic expressions are "impossible to render perfectly in the language of another." How does this specific observation from antiquity justify the very existence and purpose of a glossary like "Hobson-Jobson" for Anglo-Indian terms?
- The glossary focuses on "colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases." What does the term "colloquial" imply about the nature and usage of these words, and why would their informal status make them particularly prone to misunderstanding or difficulty for those outside the immediate cultural context?
- Ovid's quote likens language to wax that changes forms but retains its essence. How does this metaphor effectively capture the dynamic process of linguistic borrowing and evolution depicted throughout the excerpt, particularly in the context of Anglo-Indian language?