The OED recently honoured the Indian-English speaking people by adding ‘aiyoh’ to its lexicon. Being part South Indian (the more dominant part of I), I tend to use that expression a lot - I’m disappointed: aiyoh; I’m irritated: aiyoh; I shocked: aiyoh; disgusted: aiyoh. This onomatopoeia sums up a whole range of emotions and overcomes that ‘at-a-loss-for-words’ feeling and easily masks any embarrassment of a limited vocabulary! Its like a one-size-fits-all among words.
We, Indians, have many words and phrases that are (probably) peculiar to our ethnicity. We prepone events, off lights, catch a seat, are so polite we want that you ‘mention not’ your gratitude, will swear by anything holy to us - mother/father/God promise, will want to know your ‘good name’, will ‘sit on your head’ for you to ‘do the needful’, ask you to ‘revert back’ with information, introduce you to our ‘would be’ life partner, call you a cheatercock (its gender neutral!) if you cheat on us and talk about you to a ‘cousin sister/brother’!
We are like that only!
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