Synthesized answer
The core linguistic problem that the *Hobson-Jobson* glossary addresses is the transformation of Oriental words into English-like forms through borrowing and adaptation. The book focuses on words that recur in daily Anglo-Indian intercourse, either expressing ideas not provided for by English or being mistakenly thought to do so [2]. A key example is the term "Hobson-Jobson" itself, which is described as a "typical and delightful example of that class of Anglo-Indian argot which consists of Oriental words highly assimilated, perhaps by vulgar lips, to the English vernacular" [1]. This illustrates how foreign words are "corruptions, more or less violent, of Oriental words and phrases which have put on an English mask" [4].
The glossary aims to document these borrowed and transformed terms, which include new English compounds for Indian objects (e.g., *grass-cutter*, *custard-apple*) and English-sounding corruptions of native words (e.g., *maund*, *compound*, *bobbery*) [4]. The passages explain that many such words were carried back to England by returning Anglo-Indians, influencing the home circles [2]. However, the passages do not provide a general explanation of language…
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From the book
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…
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.…
ng; whilst in other cases our language has formed in India new compounds applicable to new objects or shades of meaning. To one or other of these classes belong outcry , buggy , home , interloper , rogue (-elephant), tiffin , furlough , elk , roundel ('an umbrella,' obsolete), pish-pash , earth-oil , hog-deer , flying-fox , garden-house , musk-rat , nor-wester , iron-wood , long-drawers , barking-deer , custard-apple , grass-cutter , &c. Other terms again are corruptions, more or less violent, of Oriental words and phrases which have put on an English mask. Such are maund , fool's rack ,…
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
- The various historical quotes lament the unintelligibility or mixed nature of language. How do these diverse perspectives, from 17th-century merchants to ancient philosophers, collectively justify the significant "laboris opus" undertaken by Yule and Burnell in compiling a glossary like "Hobson-Jobson"?
- Ovid's adapted quote suggests language is fluid but retains its essence, like wax taking new forms. How does this view reconcile with or challenge the concerns expressed by the Surat Factors and R. Verstegan regarding the perceived degradation or confusion caused by the influx of "foreign" words?
- If the principles behind "Hobson-Jobson" were applied to contemporary English, what kind of modern "colloquialisms and kindred terms" stemming from global interactions or specific subcultures might warrant a similar glossary, and what unique challenges would arise in compiling it today?
- Beyond simply defining words, what deeper insights into cultural exchange, historical power dynamics, or the very nature of language itself can be gleaned from the specific examples and overall purpose of a glossary like "Hobson-Jobson"?