Strange Words/English that found their way into Nagaland's newspapers. And Editors didn't care

Readers in Nagaland and the northeast region of India may be familiar with my obsession with 'preserving' funny English—primarily the colorful, weird and funny terms, phrases and expressions most Naga persons use.

Add Raja Mircha to injury: editors publish them without a second thought, primarily for the reason that we cannot disagree with newsroom bosses even if they call the spade a shovel.

We, including reporters, don't even do first thought anyway.

Here are some sufficiently potty things most Naga citizens create, apart from unemployment and violence.

The atrocities listed here are real. I still collect these gems, an obsession that began in 2001 when the first generation Naga internet-users discovered something called 'chatting' through something called Yahoo Messenger (is that thing even around these days?). The obsession has leapfrogged from chat window misadventures into straight editorials and hard news reports.

The following howlers were scoured exclusively from press releases civic organizations and private citizens issued to the media.

Note: Frankly, even the media has its warts too—only a bare naked few news reporters in Nagaland can write C1-level English). 

Anyhow, let me introduce you to some artistic gabble. By the way, I have a private "funny newspaper writings" collection.

Here, do not ask me what the following polio-stricken cases mean.

"False Propaganda" 

Truthfully, I've yet to come across truthful propaganda. Have you?

"Honorable, acceptable and beneficial" 

That smorgasbord is the Naga people's most brutal contribution to the integrity of English.

What could be honorable but still manages to be unacceptable, or detrimental?

Conversely, what is dishonorable, but succeeds in being acceptable and beneficial to anyone?

Such synonymic (if there was such a word) excesses are still integral to our much-loved orgies. Ask the Nagaland government, its politicians and, of course, let's not forget the press release writers from the only 10,000 million Naga underground factions.

"General Public"

My favorite. We the Naga (including most of the state's Journalists) love declaring “general public” this and "general public" that. Apparently, that two-word thing describes the greater population or society.

If there were anything in existence as "general public" in the first place, I would have assumed every individual was a public unto himself -- we'd all be Multiple Personality Disorder patients.

Do inform our students' unions, “educated” college leaders, and the government and the underground groups, and your news reporter that there is no “general public.”

Just public.

‘Public’ in itself means ‘general’ or 'all the people.'

Soob manu.

"Recensus" 

A creative village council member from Zunheboto district came up with this word circa 2008. The poor man was merely suggesting a review of his district's census data. He never meant to cross-breed the word.

"Expeditely" 

An NGO favorite. I believe they mean to say ‘joldi joldi koribi ho.’ (For foreign visitors reading this article, "expeditely" is a word 'we' use to mean something similar to "C'mon dude! Get going! Go! Go! Go!"

 

"Overaged" 

That's the term to mean 'old'. It is used mostly by Nagaland government officials and unemployed "graduate" union leaders for wrinkle-friendly job seekers. 

The state's learned students' leaders call you that think when you've flown past 30 years of age, far too ancient to be considered employable under government terms.

"Fastly" 

You already know what it means. The poor man who sent this howler only wanted to emphasize urgency.
if I recall correctly, the specimen was from a Mokokchung Village Development Board secretary.

"Presentee"

Hazard a guess. I'm assuming that a “presentee” is someone who holds out something to you, as opposed to 'presenter'.

Or is it the receiver?

I'm a bit confusee now... 

"Cosonscious" 

That's what you get if you type after two beers. I believe that the computer was unconscious when the author was typing in the word ‘Consensus.’

You are right, the word looks somewhat dazed.

Rudiperlous

The HP printer was drunken when the word was being led to the guillotine.

I believe that the Naga organization responsible for inventing 'Rudiperlous' actually meant to say 'Ridiculous’.

Most Naga organizations' PRs are rudiperlous, sorry, ridiculous, anyway.

"Former ex-MLA" (or "former ex-minister") 

This politically incorrect obscenity was from somewhere Wokha district I think. You get exceptionally vigorous ones from us Kyong tribesmen, you know. 

I think the term attempts to mean politicians who have attained a second tenure of unemployment after being toppled from power.    

"Befoxing the public" 

I don’t know if the government of Nagaland is…er...bewolfing the public. 

I believe that the Press Release writer raked up the howler while searching for the phrase 'cheating the public' or 'hoodwinking the public' to convey the idea of cheating or deceit.

"Incompromisical" 

Honestly, sincerely and admittedly I don’t know what the creative author of this word thought it meant.

Honest. Hosa koi ase tey.

"Redressal" 

You'll agree that the term "redressal" definitely looks all dressed up for the carnival. In frills and lace.

The exact and correct term is ‘redress.’

There are no derivatives to it.

"Non-transparency / Untransparent"

The ‘educated unemployed’ organizations of Nagaland have monopolized the specimen. So have the NSF, Naga Hoho, ENPO and their like.

The correct word is 'nontransparent'.

Note: I'll be posting more about some of such indigestible self-generated words. 'Non-payment,' 'non-release,' and such semantically-challenged creatures. Well, even some of our beloved news reporters use them. 

Always.     

  

"Encadrement / Encadred"

Tell your dear daddies and uncles and aunties working in the state government services that the exact word they are looking for is ‘commissioned.’

‘Encadrement’ is a French term to mean ‘Supervise’ or ‘frame’ and has no English connotative usage other than ‘commission.’

By meaning: 'Commission' primarily means 'to appoint' and is connotative to 'make a member' or 'appoint to a panel'.

The correct word is 'commissioned.'

In the context of contract, the correct word is 'appointed.'  

 

"Press Rewind" 

This thing was the description to the subject of a press release we received from a Naga tribal union (don't ask me which tribe. We'd start a tribal war.).

Did they mean 'recap' or 'reminder'?

Let us simply assume that the polio-stricken anomaly is an antonym for 'Press Forward'!

"Conscentizing /Concentinzing" 

The one word used regularly by the Naga Mothers' Association,  women's commission, and women ‘hoho’ leaders. 

The word they are looking for is “Conscientious.” “Conscientization” itself has no formal projection (even entry) in the English glossary and is used simply as a slangy term to illustrate the semantic weight of ‘Critical Consciousness.’

I believe that the exact word our organizations should be using is ‘critical consciousness’ or ‘awareness.’

"Unauthorisedly" 

The word is self-explanatory.

Eww.

 

"Non-biased" 

Well, I might as well go find myself a non-wrong word, what do you say?

"Safetiness" 

Such words are the result of dangerous bostiness.

Note for foreign readers: 'Bostiness' is a Nagaland slang; the English equivalent is 'boorish'.

Translation: Specimens such as "safetiness" are a result of dangerous villageness.  

"Un-satisfaction" 

If you…er… un-want to go to the dance party, just say you are dis-go!

"Uncivilized rape / Uncivilized killing" 

I shudder at the thought of civilized rape spreading in Nagaland. Dear ladies, watch out for penises that wear tuxedos!

I'll be listing these Naga English specimens soon.

If you search on Google any of the funny English words listed here, you'll notice that all the results the search throws up, are from either Nagaland (mostly) or mainland India (a few)!

Yay, we are famous. 

Example: Google search the word "Rudiperlous." It will throw up only one result. That too, would from my September 2011 newspaper column in the English daily, The Morung Express, India.

We are a colorful lot.

(This article was originally published in the author's column 'United Colors of Nagaland', The Morung Express, 29th September, 2010)

©2012 Al Ngullie ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This article contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this article may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

Tweet

Pin It