Madras Bashai (Tamil: , ) is the variety of the

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory o ...

spoken by native people in the city of Madras (currently known as Chennai) in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

n state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

. It is sometimes considered a pidgin, as its vocabulary is heavily influenced by Hindustani, Indian English,

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

, and Burmese; it is not mutually intelligible with any of those except for Tamil, to a certain extent. Madras Bashai evolved largely during the past three centuries. It grew in parallel with the growth of cosmopolitan Madras. After Madras Bashai became somewhat common in Madras, it became a source of

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming o ...

for early

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...

films from the 1950s, in the form of puns and

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...

s. Subsequent generations in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

identified with it and absorbed English constructs into the dialect, making it what it is today.

Etymology

The phrase ''Madras Bhashai'' is a Hindostani compound word, where the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

word ''madrās'' is short for the city of '' madrāsa-paṭnā'' ( ''city of education''), and ''bhaṣa'' is the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

word for "language".

Evolution

Madras Bashai evolved largely during the past three centuries. With its emergence as an important city in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

when they recovered it from the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and as the capital of Madras Presidency, the contact with western world increased and a number of English words crept into the vocabulary. Many of these words were introduced by educated, middle-class Tamil migrants to the city who borrowed freely from English for their daily usage. Due to the presence of a considerable population of Telugu, Hindi–Urdu and many other language-speakers, especially, the Gujaratis,

Marwaris The Marwari or Marwadi (Hindi: मारवाड़ी, Urdu: مارواڑی) are an Indian ethnic group that originate from the Rajasthan region of India. Their language, also called Marwari, comes under the umbrella of Rajasthani languages ...

and some

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

communities, some Hindustani and Telugu words, too, became a part of Madras Bashai. At the turn of the 20th century, though preferences have since shifted in favor of the Central and Madurai Tamil dialects, the English words introduced during the early 20th century have been retained. Madras Bashai is generally considered a dialect of the

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

like the Cockney dialect of English. Lyrics of '' gaana'' songs make heavy use of Madras Bashai.

Vocabulary

A few words unique to Madras Bashai are given below; an Internet project, urban Tamil, has set out to collect urban Tamil vocabulary. ; Words borrowed from other languages

In film

Madras Bashai is used in many

movies after the 1950s. Actors such, Manorama, J. P. Chandrababu, Loose Mohan, Thengai Srinivasan,

Janagaraj Janagaraj is an Indian actor who has appeared in over 200 films predominantly in Tamil cinema as a comedian or in supporting roles. He also starred in few Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi films. Early life Janagaraj was born to Vadivelu and Muthu ...

Cho Ramaswamy Srinivasa Iyer Ramaswamy, better known as Cho Ramaswamy (5 October 1934 – 7 December 2016), was an Indian actor, comedian, character actor, editor, political satirist, playwright, film director and lawyer from Tamil Nadu. He was a p ...

, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vijay Sethupathi, Dhanush, Suriya, Santhanam,

Vikram Vikram may refer to: * Vikram (name), a male name in the Hindu community * ''Vikram'' (1986 Tamil film) * ''Vikram'' (1986 Telugu film) * ''Vikram'' (2022 Tamil film) * Vikram (actor) (born 1966), Indian actor * Vikram (spacecraft), an Indian M ...

Attakathi Dinesh Dinesh Ravi, better known as Attakathi Dinesh, is an Indian actor who has acted in leading roles in Tamil cinema. He made his breakthrough playing the lead role in ''Attakathi'' (2012), portraying Dinakaran. Career Dinesh completed his high ...

, Vijay and Ajith Kumar are well known for using it. Representative films are '' Maharasan'', '' Michael Madana Kama Rajan'', '' Thirumalai'', '' Vasool Raja MBBS'', ''

Attahasam ''Attahasam'' () () is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language action masala film written and directed by Saran featuring Ajith Kumar in dual lead roles. Pooja, Sujatha, Karunas and Ramesh Khanna play pivotal roles in the film, while the score and soundt ...

'', '' Pammal K. Sambandam'', '' Chennai 600028'', ''

Siva Manasula Sakthi ''Siva Manasula Sakthi'' () also known by the initialism ''SMS'', is a 2009 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by debutant M. Rajesh, a former assistant of director S. A. Chandrasekhar. It stars Jiiva and newcomer ...

'', ''

Theeradha Vilaiyattu Pillai ''Theeradha Vilaiyattu Pillai'' () is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Thiru. The film, produced by Vikram Krishna. Starring Vishal in the lead role along with Sarah-Jane Dias who makes her acting debut ...

'', '' Saguni'', ''

Attakathi ''Attakathi'' () is a 2012 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Pa. Ranjith, a former assistant of Venkat Prabhu. Produced by C. V. Kumar, it stars Dinesh, Nandita Swetha and Aishwarya Rajesh. The film garnered a ...

'', '' Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru'', '' Idharkuthane Aasaipattai Balakumara'', '' Ai'', '' Madras'', '' Kasethan Kadavulada'', '' Anegan'', '' Vedalam'', '' Maari'', ''

Maari 2 ''Maari 2'' is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language action comedy film written and directed by Balaji Mohan. It is a sequel to his 2015 film '' Maari''. Dhanush, besides producing the film under his company Wunderbar Films, also stars as the title cha ...

'', '' Aaru'', '' Sketch'', '' Vada Chennai'' and '' Bigil''.

External links

''Chennai Slang''
- List of words

Notes