A final note: Jargon Wiki

What is required for galeej is best expressed by this highly original wikipedia wiki featured above in a screen shot. The actual site can be visited here.
As the title suggests, it is a wiki of jargon of any kind, with a special focus on hacker lingo, culture and history. As such, without such codification, most hacker lingo is likely to be written of as examples of idiosyncratic use, however, the moment it is codified in such a way, it takes on a whole new meaning, as the special lingo of a particular in group.
In that sense, the way one's lexicon evolves is also affected by such an event. We are likely to disregard words if we consider them idiosyncratic. However, actual codification makes it that much more acceptable and usable, and hence, its entry into our mental lexicon is more easily facilitated.
In that sense, what is jargon? Is it more than just an ingroup register or speech variety, but in fact a site where new words are formed, just as a pidgin is a site where new grammars and unique syntaxes are created? such questions are quite beyond the scope of this blog, but I strongly hold the view that, crudely put, states that jargon: lexis :: pidgin: syntax, and would love to look into this further.

An overall look at galeej, helmetspeak

What I have essentially been trying to do is to prepare a glossary of words that have been used on and off by my friends group and the extended tamil society in National University of Singapore.
Several of these examples might seem unforgivably idiosyncratic and one off, with no hope of a pattern. However, no matter what happens, I always keep finding examples of them popping up in the most random instances.
Moreover, they have a certain logic to them. Words like sig, pakak, helmet are never used in public with other members around. Usualy, they are used only with an audience that can be counted upon to understand.
Also, words like 'entasis' and 'ersatz' pop up only when Arun Bharadwaj is about to blog.
There are hundreds of other words, inspired by tamil movie comedy reels that I have missed out.
One famous word is 'thalaivar' which is basically 'leader' in tamil, and refers to Rajnikanth, a famous superstar actor with a bigger fan following than shah rukh khan
Now no tamilian is going to think of Thalaivar as a strictly english, or strictly tamil word. To him it is just a word symbolising a living presence.
I purposely left these all too famous words out as they are too easy to find instances of.
Above are two images, one of them justifying entasis ersatz entry into this dictionary, another a justification of why thalaivar is too common to be introduced. The second picture is one where a galeej gang member is comparing the much awaiting new post on 'Ersatz' (AB's blog) to a Thalaivar movie release.
The second one is a huge riff on the language used in the infamous 'religious fanaticism' post. As usual, the words have become stuck together. entasis is rarely used without ersatz and ecumenical. There are plenty of other instances where the words from arun bharadwaj's blog have been used to furious comic effect, but I hiope this one example suffices.

Pakak

A word that has been around for several years now but has yet been left undiscussed in this blog is pakak. I was a bit reluctant to use pakak as a discussion point because it is not a word but a kind of ejaculation like 'woah' or 'walau'. In essence, pakak is very much like a boorish cat-call. However, like most galeej words, it becomes more than just a cat call but an adjective to be used for anything that deserves a cat call.
On a side note, one of the reasons why so many of these words are being counted by me as words and not as expressions etc is that so many of them are written. There is something about being printed that makes a collection of letters that much closer to a word in a dictionary than anything else.

Entasis publicity.

above is an example of entasis ersatz being publicized before the latest post....which is expected in a few hours.

Entasis Ersatz

This is probably the most obscure priming possible in any group, which is what makes it so interesting.
The above post is a hilariously obscure rant on religious fanaticism written by one of the members of the galeej gang. So obscure were some of the words used, and so comically basic the grammar in which the post was otherwise written, that the words became famous, so much so that any new post is simply announced by 'its entasis time'
One word that became particularly famous was entasis, and also spawned its own short lived spin off...entasig. Entasis is apparently a convexity built into towers in order to correct for the distortion of sight when people look from the ground.
But Arun Bharadwaj, the writer of this post, used it in an abstract sense in a much quoted line..."When Yugoslavia was dismembered, religious faith was rather an entasis ersatz to the concavity among the population which existed" meaning that religious faith was a rather false or fraudulent thing to fill the void left by the Yugoslavian people's troubles.
Since then, his blog, named Ersatz, has been renamed Entasis Ersatz in the minds of followers.
Again, the number of people who are aware of this runs into hundreds. Arun Bharadwaj's posts are awaited with eager anticipation, people look for the same hilariously exaggerated use of language.
What is remarkable here is that entasis no longer stands for a convexity. It is about AB's blog. In the restricted sense, and in the small set of English words adopted by the Galeej Gang, Entasis stands out as the only one which is remarkable for its obscurity. Its meaning, in Galeej speak, is absurdly simple: it signals anything to do with AB's blog.

Unighted Light Holders

Above is a screenshot of a facebook group created by the galeej gang. The name of the group is 'Unighted Light Holders'. To a person not primed to galeej meanings, it might not make any sense at all. One wonders why united is spelt wrong, why one has to be united while holding the light.
In this instance, the unighted is purely idiosyncratic, though rapidly becoming part of the galeej repertoire, where any misspelling quickly becomes the accepted spelling, as it reminds people of the original gaffe and hence is another cause for amusement.
But the phrase 'Light Holders' is by no means idiosyncratic. It is a direct translation of a Tamil phrase that became common here as an indicator for someone who watches while another man 'corrects a figure' so to speak. So essentially, we are all holding the light when James Bond goes about his business.
This facebook group is a particularly famous instance of it. Later, when we participated in a talent competition, we named our group unighted light holders.

Another instance of self consciousness amongst the galeej...

The above is a screenshot from another pic from the same album.....this is in fact a favourite pastime in facebook...pick out any real life place with the word helmet somewhere (like helmet stand, or helmet area) and then take a pic, and tag all the friends...(if you observe below the photo, u will find the tags...and just to make it even more obvious, I have taken a screenshot with on tag showing up.

There are several more like this one up there....and I could coast on several entries just listing the instances where the community is conscious and even slightly vain about its linguistic innovations.

This is something that needs to be examined further, because it does not much make sense to take pride in something with no political, historical or social relevance. In fact, few of the galeej gang even take this self assumed 'helmet' status too seriously. However, it is and endless source of amusement, of analysis. Not a week goes by without all of us arguing about who is the greater helmet, few months go by without at least on photo like the one above. The last time I went along with them to the West Coast Recreation Centre, we hosted a game of 'Team Fortress'. Guess what the password was. 'sig'

Next week...I shall talk about more words, and by the end of the semester, come up with a glossary that lists as many NUS galeej usages as possible.