I hope the previous posts have convinced readers that a globally understood galeej english exists...with words that can be understood anywhere in the world so long as there is a 'galeej boy' around to understand it.
Hence we come to the micro level situation: that is, the state of galeej english in NUS. I am a member of this community and actually wrote two projects on it, teh first one arguing that my friends spoke a jargon, the second one tracing some grammaticalisation patterns in Galeej english.
In that I found several words that were unique to galeej english here (like Helmet) etc. But there is one word that is so versatile, and ubiquitous, that I had to serve it for the post intermission mark ( :) )
That word is........... sig.
I suggest this exercise to anyone who is actually following this blog with an interest in Galeej english. Go approach an Indian student who looks obviously south indian (dark, shy looking and with a slightly lost look) and just say 'sig'. Its a great icebreaker.
Sig is used by almost every south indian in NUS. Note that it is never used by singaporeans, nor by singaporean indians, but it is almost emblematic of the south indian community in NUS.
Sig is basically anything so random and absurd that it is a no-brainer. Suppose you found someone with an absurd haircut, and you didn't quite expect it. You'll say: sig.
How was it born?
There is actually an origin myth to this super word. (I shall establish why it is a super-word in posts that follow, containing observations where it has been used from screenshots of google buzz, facebook and even the occasional blog)
One day, a few south indian boys were playing poker. One of them, Aku Ganaesh, had a bad hand, and bad english to boot. He looked up and asked of his friends, 'Machan how do you pronounce S-I-G-H?' They, not wanting to miss out on the obvious fun, asked him 'How do you think it is pronounced?' and he said 'Sig'
Thusly was Sig born.
It is used, essentially, for any situation so absurd, such a no-brainer, that it is reminiscent of this slightly hallucinatory moment. Can you imagine a university student from India, who passed the qualifying english test, and who also had to write two advanced english papers in India, think that S-I-G-H was pronounced 'sig?'
Do not assume that all Indians have a similar, nominal command of the language. They do not. However, sig has become a classy example of nativisation, in fact, a hilarious and almost too-good-to-be-true example. Often the simplificatory explanations of language variation posit that words change because they are 'mis-heard', sometimes even pronunciatory difficulties change the word's pronunciation. Sig is like an absurd example of the same. In fact, it is a very sig example of the same. :)
The following 3 posts will track real life occurences of the same.
