vernac

adj. provincial; culturally backwards, unfashionable, or unrefined. Also n. Subjects: English, India

Editorial Note: The derogatory uses of this term are closely tied to the ongoing debate over the role and use of English in India. Etymological Note: From vernacular ‘typical of a place or of a people, especially everyday language,’ which is sometimes colloquially abbreviated as vernac.

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Citations: 1997 Vikram Chandra Love and Longing in Bombay (Mar. 1) p. 120: They had argued and talked and laughed about what to call their parts, she hated lund and chut, how vernac and crude and vulgar she said. 1997 Economic Times (India) (Dec. 7) “What are Ken and Barbie watching tonight?”: There is the image, that to be successful, you have to speak English, wear a certain kind of clothes, frequent certain kind of places.” Says 14-year-old Rachna: “I can’t think of mixing with the vernac types. What do we talk about. And how?” 1998 Kishore Singh Business Standard (India) (Oct. 24) “Sponsorship for the theatre of the absurd”: “They wanted a famous name from Mumbai to put on the marquee. I even organised that,” she said, “I got them a star performer, but they didn’t like him, said he was too vernac.” “Meaning what?” “Meaning he did serious theatre and gave interviews in Hindi and Marathi. They dumped him, and got me someone else instead.” 2000 Monojit Lahiri Statesman (India) (Aug. 11) “Khan + Kaushik = Magic”: I remember with anger and frustration, the long hours I spent pleading with some sponsors to consider my productions, to no avail. Any other language apart from English, is considered infra dig and vernac! English, no matter how dumb the production is, remains cool! 2001 Saisuresh Sivaswamy Rediff (India) (Feb. 13) “Tears for fears”: It is often said if you want to sample true creative talent in India—or in any other multi-linguistic country—you have to go vernacular. “Vernac” may be a pejorative to us English-speaking elite, but just as true writing flourishes in the local milieu, so does cartooning. 2003 [Aditya] Usenet: rec.sport.cricket (Jan. 26) “Re: India vs Pak WC 03”: You mean to say “The indian team morale IS down”…you PAKI vernac!!! 2003 Leela Prasad South Asian Folklore (Mar. 1) “Character Stereotypes” p. 109: Through their circulation among a fluent English-speaking, often convent-educated community, these joking questions highlight the processes of insider/outsider demarcation common to stereotyping in general. They characterize, for instance, the Tamilian or the Gujarati as having pronounced regional accents when speaking Enlish (creating thus the figure of “the vernac.”) *2004 Donna Rubinoff @ University of Colorad-Boulder Education and “Human Capital” (June 23): English Medium Schools in India: alienation from families and common people? Non English mediums school kids called “vernacs” or HMT’s (Hindi Medium Type=Hindustan Machine Tools). *2004 Philip Lutgendorf @ University of Iowa Who Wants to be a Goddess? (July 13): By the 1970s mythological movies were seen as downmarket and vernac, suitable only for films made in other ethnic Indian languages. (Vernac is short for vernacular. It is a common Indian English word for a person of an ethnic Indian background without much education, English or sophistication who speaks only a local “vernacular” language. The equivalent of a country bumpkin or backwoods bozo.)

Posted 18 May 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend