The use of code-mixing in Indian billboard advertising

SUJATA SURINDER KATHPALIA* AND KENNETH KENG WEE ONG**

ABSTRACT: One major area of interest in the study of contemporary linguistic landscapes worldwide is the interaction of English with local languages in public spaces. One such example of this is the use of ‘Hinglish’ in Indian media, particularly in Indian advertising. Although some researchers have previously investigated Hindi-English code-switching in Bollywood films as well as print advertisements, relatively little research has been done on the interplay of these two languages on billboards. This current study aims to analyze this aspect of Hindi-English code-mixing involving literary devices in the ‘Amul butter’ advertising campaign which uses billboards to advertise its product throughout India.

KEYWORDS: Linguistic landscapes, Hindi-English code-switching, Hinglish billboards, literary devices.

INTRODUCTION

Although research has been extensive on language alternation or switching among bilingual speakers, particularly spoken code-switched utterances in a variety of domains and speech functions, research on written code-switching is scarce at best (e.g. Reh 2004; Sebba 2012; 2013). Sebba (2012; 2013) notes this discrepancy in research and proposes that multilingual texts, including print advertisements, be analysed linguistically, spatially and visually, in ways that may broaden our understanding of contemporary linguistic landscapes (Bolton 2012). In this article, we aim to analyse Hindi-English code-switched texts on billboards, with particular reference to novel figures of speech constructed in linguistic hybridity, or what Bhatt (2008) calls the ‘third space’ of the creative recombination of two languages familiar to the audience. Thus, our focus in this study is on the novel recombinations of figurative meanings in Hindi-English code-switched advertising texts that appear on Indian billboards. English and Hindi have been the official languages in India since independence in 1947 (Bhatia & Ritchie 2006a). Hindi is mainly spoken in the north-west and north-central parts of India whereas English is spoken by the educated elite and has become ‘the language of modern intellectual communication’ (784). It has also become dominant in domains such as education, science and technology, government, law and media, leading to what is referred to as ‘the Englishization of Indian languages’ (791). Not surprisingly, this phenomenon is also reflected in Indian advertising. Advertising communication in Hindi-English is ubiquitously found on shop fronts, billboards and print/online media (Bhatia 2012; McCormick & Agnihotri 2009; Trivedi 2011). The audience for such advertising are Hindi-English bilinguals who are adept in both languages and who habitually code-switch between the languages regardless of setting and purpose, to the extent that ‘Hinglish’ is widely spoken by most educated people across India (Anderson-Finch 2011).

______*Nanyang Technological University, Language and Communication Centre, 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637332. Email: MSSKATH@ntu.edu.sg** Nanyang Technological University, Language and Communication Centre, 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637332. Email: ONGKWK@ntu.edu.sg

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Although the term ‘Hinglish’ is commonly used in the literature to refer to Hindi-English code-switching, it needs some clarification as there are divergent views on its meaning. Trivedi (2011: vii) describes this conflict aptly when he comments that “It is obviously a mixture of Hindi and English – but is it the use of Hindi words and syntactic elements in English, or the use of English words and syntax in Hindi?” The other aspect that is problematic is the term ‘Hinglish’ itself as it is closer to English in its pronunciation and spelling, giving the impression that it refers to Hindi-in-English rather than English-in-Hindi (ibid). Yet another aspect concerns the variety of Hindi being referred to in the word blend ‘Hinglish’ – whether it is Mumbai Hindi, Kalkatiya Hindi, Madrasi Hindi or Dakkani Hindi on the one hand, or common mainstream Hindi (Theth Hindi), Sanskritised Hindi (Pandit’s Hindi) or Hindustani (influenced by Urdu) on the other. In the context of the present study, Hinglish is used to encompass Hindi-in-English and English-in-Hindi code-mixing as well as code-mixing of English with different varieties of Hindi, including the Hindi-Sanskrit-Urdu hybrid and regional Hindi. Bhatt (2011: 78) states that Hinglish is ‘the language of the street and is the lingo of most college campuses’. As both languages are intertwined and practiced widely and extensively, the linguistic situation is similar to the linguistic ambiguity of markedness in the case of Taiap-Tok Pisin speakers in Papua New Guinea (Stroud 1992; 1998). English nor Hindi can be confidently attributed as the marked or unmarked language as both are typically mixed and used dynamically and frequently – motivation speculation is fruitless in the Hindi-English context. Bhatt (2008) notes that code-switched advertising texts cleverly exploit the interplay of sociolinguistic similarities and differences of Hindi and English to create enriched and fused meanings that are accessible to bilingual readers in India, although his study was limited to the analysis of only two advertising texts. Previous research on code-switched advertisements has been somewhat limited in scale and depth. Ahn and Ferle (2008) found that Korean youths were more able to recognise and recall brand names in English than in Korean. The hypothesis was that English (the foreign language) in the Roman script is more distinctive and novel than the Hangul script. A similar study by Li and Kalyanaraman (2012) of Chinese participants reading Web editorial content in one language, and advertisements in another language, found that there is higher retention-retrieval of English advertisings messages than Chinese ones. However, the asymmetrical status of English as a foreign language in Korea and China is not mirrored in India, where many middle class speakers are proficient bilinguals in both English and Hindi from early childhood onwards. In their study of Hispanic Americans, Luna and Peracchi (2005a, 2005b) found that code-switches activated positive and negative social meanings – linked to particular languages -- for bilingual audiences. Bhatia and Ritchie (2006b), on the other hand, show that mixing English in global advertising has a positive effect on bilingual audiences due to the strong socio-psychological and literary features associated with English. Figurative speech is often employed by advertisers as a means of persuasive enhancement, and it is claimed that its use is welcomed by consumers (Van Mulken 2003). For example, Djafarova (2008) argues that readers of advertisements often take pleasure in successfully inferring the intended meaning of puns. Leigh (1994) found that frequency of tropes in American print ad headlines is over 74%, especially that of puns (antanaclasis, paronomasia), contradictory associations (metaphor, paradox, parody) and associations (allusion and personification). However, previous studies of code-switched tropes or figures of speech have been limited in number. Viswamohan (2004) examined print journalistic writing and

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found that code-switching is used by writers to express figurative tropes. Kachru (2006a) showed that Hindi pop songs incorporated Hinglish to invoke humour and parody occidentalised youth. However, to our knowledge, no studies have hitherto been carried out on the range of figures of speech used in Hindi-English advertisements and the novel fusion of meanings between the languages. Although research studies have been published on Hindi-English code-switching in Bollywood films as well as print advertisements, little research has been done on the interplay of these two languages on billboards, especially in relation to figurative language. In response to this research gap, our study aims to analyze Hindi-English code-mixing in the successful ‘Amul butter’ advertising campaign which has used billboard advertising as a major strategy. In this context, our research questions are as follows: (1) Is Hindi or English the matrix language in mixed language Amul billboards?, (2) To what extent is the hybridization of language in this context linguistically systematic?, (3) What specific literary devices are used to make the code-switched messages memorable, and (4) What is the motivation for these mixed language billboards?

BACKGROUND TO THE AMUL CAMPAIGN

Derived from the Sanskrit word amulya meaning ‘invaluable’, the Amul brand was registered in 1957, while its billboard advertising campaign began in 1966 and continues to the present (Amul’s India 2012). Apart from being the longest-running outdoor campaign, the Amul billboards are more than a campaign for a product, they tell a story of India as an independent nation by providing a commentary on the political and social culture of India over fifty years. The campaign chronicles the history and evolution of India by showcasing prominent events in the spheres of politics, sports and entertainment.

Figure 1: Photograph of an Amul billboard in Mumbai

The Amul outdoor campaign has captivated the Indian public, with fans across all ages and backgrounds. To begin with, the billboards were targeted selectively at English-speaking urban Indians in the major Indian cities but soon region-specific billboards were released in other cities often in different languages. The introduction of billboards in other languages, and specifically those that combined English with other languages, introduced a local flavor and widened the appeal of the ads from an elite educated urban audience to the common man. Code-mixing in particular was introduced into the campaign in 1977 and the Hinglish one-liners in the campaign gained instant popularity (Raaj 2009).

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The Amul brand has achieved iconic status due to the collective impact of the Amul girl (an impish child in a polka-dotted dress) who has become a brand ambassador for Amul; the catchy slogan ‘Utterly butterly delicious’; the trademark ‘Amul–The Taste of India’; the topical messages delivered in a humorous style; and the local flavor infused through the use of Hinglish and other languages. Through its witty one-liners on current issues, the Amul campaign has set out to reflect current social trends in Indian society and to become ‘an integral part of the collective Indian consciousness’ (Amul’s India 2012: 160).

DATA COLLECTION AND METHODOLOGY

Amul billboards are available online and arranged sequentially in the Amul website according to time of appearance. The data for this study was extracted from 1191 billboards spanning the years 2000 to 2013, with 6% of the billboards being in Hindi, 32.5% being in English, and the majority mixing languages such as English and Hindi (59%) as well as other regional languages (2.5%). In fact, there is a rising trend of mixed language advertisements in the Indian advertising scene, with multilingual and multicultural aspects becoming ‘the hallmark of Indian advertising practices’ (Bhatia 2012: 232). This phenomenon is evident in the Amul campaign where mixed language billboards are becoming common. Among the mixed language Amul billboards, the most common ones were those that mixed English and Hindi (700 billboards). However, the data chosen for this study consists of English-Hindi code-switched billboards that exhibit intra-sentential code-switching (493 billboards) rather than inter-sentential code-switching (207 billboards). The preference for intra-sentential code-switching is mainly because research has shown that bilinguals with proficiency in two languages not only have a better attitude towards code-switching but are able to code-switch intra-sententially in a more complex mode (Montes-Alcala 2000). The terms code-switching and code-mixing are used interchangeably in this paper to refer to intra-sentential language mixing. A distinction was not made between Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit as well as regional varieties of Hindi in the selection of data. Although Hindi and Urdu are written in different scripts, both languages are mutually intelligible as they are similar in the spoken form. As for Sanskrit, it is the language of India’s cultural and intellectual tradition and Hindi has borrowed many of its technical and learned vocabulary from it. According to Bhatia and Ritchie (2006a: 788), similar to Latin and Greek in the western world, ‘Sanskrit is the source of designative cultural and technical innovations in SA [South Asia] and beyond.’ Due to the close link between these languages, the term Hindi is used in this paper as an umbrella term to refer to Hindi (including its regional varieties), Urdu and Sanskrit, and ‘Hinglish’ is used to denote Hindi-Sanskrit-Urdu code mixing with English. Although some have argued that the word ‘Hinglish’ is more like ‘English’ orthographically and phonemically (Trivedi 2011), it is used in the present study to refer to English-Hindi code-mixing irrespective of whether the matrix language is Hindi or English. However, the data was classified according to Hindi-in-English and English-in-Hindi billboards in order to address the research question on the preference of matrix language in the Amul billboards. This distinction was based on whether the advertising messages were framed in a sentence with an English syntax (e.g. A little bit of maska in your slice; maska = butter) or Hindi syntax (e.g. Ek aur cup lao! – Bring another cup/trophy!). The same

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procedure was employed at the phrase level whereas at the word level, the classification was based on whether the original word blend is from English (e.g. Skyscrapers in Bhaiscrapers) or Hindi (e.g. Kurukshetra in Crickshetra). The current view of sociolinguists on language mixing is that it is ‘a systematic and rule-governed phenomenon which satisfies the creative needs of bilinguals, especially those needs that can be met neither effectively nor efficiently by means of the single, separate linguistic systems which are at the disposal of bilinguals’ (Bhatia & Ritchie 2006b: 518). Language mixing in advertisements not only appeals to a bilingual audience but also enables copywriters to experiment with innovative ways of combining the resources of two languages to achieve special socio-psychological effects (Luna & Peracchio 2005a; 2005b). These effects are further heightened when used in conjunction with figures of speech such as metaphors, puns and rhymes which are widely used in advertisements to attract customer attention (McQuarrie & Mick 1993; Leigh 1994; Djafarova 2008). Research has shown that the use of figures of speech is not only common in advertisements but that it also enhances brand recall and positive attitudes (McQuarrie & Mick 1992; 1993). This strategy of systematic language mixing in conjunction with figures of speech is also apparent in the Amul billboards. The analysis of the mixed language billboards showed that the figures of speech employed included alliteration, allusions, assonance, blending, compounding, irony, metaphor, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, parody, puns, and rhyme (Leigh 1994: 19-22) and these were code-mixed in a systematic manner following the grammatical rules of the matrix language. Examples of mixed language billboards that use these devices, intertwined with references to Indian popular culture (Bollywood, television serials, cricket etc.) as well as current social and political issues, are presented in the next section.

THE ANALYSIS OF AMUL BILLBOARDS

One technique commonly used by advertisers to persuade bilingual consumers in India is to mix languages within advertisements, and in the Amul billboards, advertisers often mix English and Hindi to create interesting headlines and bylines that appeal to bilingual Indians. They further combine this strategy of manipulating two languages with the use of literary devices to enhance the effect of the message. The clever use of figures of speech in advertising copy is designed to increase its persuasive force. The sections below present examples of Amul billboards which combine these two strategies of code-mixing and use of figurative devices to make the message more memorable.

PunsPuns are frequently exploited by advertisers to convey double-meaning for humorous effect. They are an economical tool for expressing more than one meaning in a short phrase and this feature is particularly relevant in advertising for attracting audience attention (Djafarova, 2008). Another reason for the popularity of puns is that they are ambiguous and require readers to use their intellect to solve the puzzle posed by the advertiser (Van Mulken et al. 2005). Although requiring more complex forms of processing, puns engage consumers by posing a challenge and providing a sense of achievement when the meanings are derived through contextual cues. This processing activity is made even more challenging in mixed language ads when a word represents different meanings in two different languages.

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In the examples of Amul billboards below, the challenge and resulting humor is intensified as the words cheez (Figure 2) and Kiss mat (Figure 3) have different interpretations in Hindi and English. The former used to refer to the Swiss tennis player Roger Federer, conveys a double meaning of ‘thing / person’ in Hindi colloquial usage and ‘cheese’ in English. In the latter, the phrase ‘Kiss mat aazmao?’ has the double meaning of ‘Tempting fate?’ and ‘Don’t kiss?’ in relation to the fine imposed on couples displaying public affection at Marine Drive in Bombay. In this example, the word can be interpreted as a single word kismet meaning ‘fate’ or a combination of English and Hindi words ‘kiss’ and mat meaning ‘Don’t kiss’. The dual meaning of the word and the juxtaposition of the English word ‘kiss’ with the Hindi word mat also hints at the clash between Western and Indian values, authenticating local social practices and values. In addition to this pun, the rhetorical question adds another layer of meaning by obliquely referring to the conservative but ridiculous law against public display of affection in the country.

Figure 2. Pun on ‘Cheez’. The Swiss star Roger Federer easily wins the US Open Tennis Championship recording three Grand Slam tournaments wins in a single season, September 2004.1

Figure 3. Pun on 'Kiss mat’. Couples displaying public affection at Marine Drive in Mumbai to be fined by the police, September 2000.

While the first pun is easily understood, the second one is more complex and requires some shared cultural and contextual knowledge that kissing in public is frowned upon in the Indian culture and that the State government has introduced a fine on couples flouting this rule. Although rhetorically complex, these puns infuse variety and humor into the text through wordplay.

Associations Amul billboards abound in the use of cultural references to Bollywood (movie titles, lyrics of Bollywood songs, actors’ lives etc.); titles of Hindi TV shows (soap operas and religious serials); socio-political issues (both local and foreign); major sports events (cricket, tennis, soccer etc.) and Indian books (popular and religious). In fact in many of the billboards the headlines allude to information that is not directly related to the product. The only reference to ‘Amul butter’ is in the byline or slogan at the bottom of the billboard, with an attempt to link it in some way to the headline. This strategy has in no way detracted from the popularity of the butter, which enjoys a dominant position in the market. According to Jhally (1995) advertisements typically merge a range of cultural references into product descriptions

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reflecting a well-knit local-indigenous fusion. Such a fusion of meanings in advertising messages in multilingual and multicultural India ‘requires full engagement with readers’ bilingual and bicultural competencies’ (Bhatt, 2008: 190). This aptly describes the linguistic and cultural knowledge required to fully understand Amul’s mixed language billboards. The billboards in Figure 4-6 are related to Bollywood in that the linguistic frames for the headlines are provided by the title of a Bollywood movie (Figure 4), the lyrics of a Bollywood song (Figure 5) and sensational news about a Bollywood star (Figure 6). Dostana, meaning friendship, was the first ever Bollywood movie on a gay friendship and it has been alluded to in Figure 4 by means of a Hinglish phrase ‘Toast Khana’ (‘Toast Eat’) which rhymes with the movie title and symbolizes friendship.

Figure 4. Allusion to a Bollywood Movie. Latest Bollywood block-buster 'Dostana' , November 2008.

In Figure 5, the original lyrics of the song Dost dost na raha? (‘Friend Friend not anymore?’) from the classic film ‘Sangam’ on a love triangle between two close friends and the female protagonist, have been transformed to ‘Dosh Dosh na raha?’ to refer to the embezzlement of cash in the Adarsh Housing Society scam in Bombay.

Figure 5. Allusion to a Bollywood song. Adarsh Housing society scam in Mumbai, July 2012.

The orthographic and phonemic word blend ‘Shahrugate’ (Sharukh + Surrogate) in the headline ‘Shahrugate baby’ in the example below alludes to the recent news that Sharukh Khan, known as the king of Bollywood, is having his third baby through surrogacy.

Figure 6. Allusion to a Bollywood actor. Shahrukh Khan and surrogacy, June 2013.

All these mixed language billboards exemplify the erosion of traditional Indian practices and values on the one hand, and a celebration of modernity in the form of gay culture, materialism or surrogacy on the other. While the Hindi language may typically represent core

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Hindu values, English is apparently associated with a shift of such values towards a modern lifestyle. The next set of billboards refer to popular and religious TV shows in India that were immensely popular among the rural people as well as urban elites. Figure 7 refers to a top TV soap opera Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi (‘Because a mother-in-law was once a daughter-in-law too’) which aired for eight years and revolved around a middle class woman who married into a wealthy joint family and played the role of an ideal wife, daughter-in-law, mother, mother-in-law and grandmother through several generations. The message conveyed in the advertisement is that bread with Amul butter is meant for all - for the bahu (daughter-in-law) and the saas (mother-in-law), because it is tasty (kyu ki isme taste hai).

Figure 7. Allusion to a Hindi TV Show. On the currently popular Hindi TV serial, June 2001.

Apart from soap operas, there are many references to the two Hindu religious epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, which were aired as TV shows and were a runaway success in India. References to the themes and scenes from these two epics abound in print and television advertising. Laxmanrekha in Figure 8 refers to lakshmana rekha in the Ramayana, which was the line of protection drawn by Lakshmana to protect his sister-in-law Sita from the demon Ravana while he went in search for his brother Rama. In modern usage, the term has come to symbolize strict rules or conventions, transgressing of which could lead to dire consequences. In the billboard, the term is a reference to VVS Laxman’s retirement from cricket and it is a clever play on the criketer’s name and the phrase Lakshman rekha (VVS draws his own Laxmanrekha or retirement line).

Figure 8. Allusion to an Indian cricketer. VVS Laxman announces his retirement from International Cricket, August 2012.

Another example of borrowing from a religious epic is evident in Figure 9 where the headline ‘Crickshetra’ (cricket+battle) is a word blend that combines the English word ‘cricket’ with the Sanskrit word kurukshetra from the epic Mahabharata . Kurukshetra was the battle fought between the Kauravas and Pandavas to resolve a dispute over dynastic succession. Its modern usage symbolizes any kind of dispute or conflict between warring parties and in the billboard, it specifically refers to the rivalry between India and Pakistan in the game of cricket. The allusion in these two billboards is both to the Hindu epics as well as India’s obsession with cricket. The interpretation of these messages is not only dependent on

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readers’ cultural knowledge of the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata but also on expert knowledge regarding their national sport and historical rivalry between the competing teams.

Figure 9. Allusion to an Indian cricketer. On the competitive India - Pakistan Cricket Series, March 2004.

The examples of association illustrate that readers require bilingual and bicultural competence to fully appreciate the messages in the billboards. The socio-cultural knowledge required ranges from familiarity with Bollywood, popular and religious TV series, current political issues to sporting events. Textual interpretation in these advertising messages is solely dependent on what Bhatt (2008: 185) refers to as the readers ‘cultural memory’ in relation to the cultural and religious significance attached to the code-switched Hindi words and phrases.

Contradictory associations Contradictory association refers to those figures of speech that provide some kind of contrast in meaning. The devices that typically represent this category are irony, metaphor, oxymoron, paradox, and parody. A feature common to associations and contradictory associations is that in-text interpretation is dependent on knowledge of external events. To fully appreciate these figures of speech, consumers are expected to make correct connections between the advertised message and relevant local and sometimes foreign, socio-political events as illustrated below. The tension between the traditional and modern is evident in Figure 10 where the Hindi word Zindagi meaning ‘life’ is used to refer to a time in the absence of ‘TV’. The irony is that modern technology is meant to enrich our lives but has had the opposite effect of engulfing our lives to such as extent that there is very little time for other meaningful pursuits. Amul ran this Hinglish advertisement of ‘Life on. TV off’ to reinforce the ‘No TV Day’ message, that was being promoted in Bombay by the Hindustan Times newspaper, to encourage people to explore their city with family and friends. Mixing Hindi and English in this billboard juxtaposes the traditional with the modern way of life.

Figure 10. Irony. A leading publication promoting ‘No TV Day’ in Mumbai, January 2011.

A similar strategy is employed in Figure 11 through the metaphoric use of the title Raja meaning ‘king’ in place of Federer’s first name ‘Roger’. The Indian title has a long history in the Indian subcontinent and carries with it connotations of the power bestowed on a monarch or princely ruler of the Kshatriya (ruling or military elite) varna (social order) in the Vedic-

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Hindu social system. The combination of local-global is evident in the phrase ‘Raja Federer’ as a historical Vedic-Hindu social position is attributed to an international tennis player for his victory in Wimbledon, a global sporting event.

Figure 11. Metaphor. Roger Federer wins his 7th Wimbledon title, July 2012.

The next two examples of oxymoron and paradox are an illustration of Indian culture and family values. The phrase in Figure 12 ‘Pappi love!’ means ‘Sinful love!’ and is used in the context of public display of affection. The oxymoron is cleverly used to reflect Indian values of propriety among couples that prohibit kissing in public. In Figure 13, the Hindi word for family, parivar is deliberately misspelt as ‘pari war’ to create a paradoxical effect, that of flouting traditional Indian family values of loyalty, integrity and unity. The English word ‘war’ is deliberately employed to refer to the family dispute among former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s grandsons who joined opposite political camps. The manipulation of Hindi and English words in these phrases is aptly described by Bhatt (2008: 188) as manipulating the resources of the two languages to present different ‘ideological frames of interpretation’, with Hindi symbolizing the ‘old’ and English the ‘new’ way of thinking.

Figure 12. Oxymoron. Controversy surrounding public display of affection between two leading film stars, December 2004.

Figure 13. Paradox. Former Prime Minister India Gandhi's grand children entering opposite political groups, February 2004.

The final example of contradictory association is a parody of the popular Coke slogan in India ‘Thanda matlab Coca-Cola’ (‘Cold meaning Coca-Cola’). The impact of the Amul slogan in Figure 14 ‘Maska matlab Amul Butter’ (‘Butter meaning Amul Butter’) would be lost on the reader unless s/he is aware that it is a deliberate attempt to echo the meaning of the Coke slogan and to raise Amul to the same status as Coke. The euphemistic use of the term maska (polish/shine) instead of makhan (meaning ‘butter’) adds an additional quality of

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localization to the Amul brand in comparison to the global Coke brand. This convergence of local and global adds to the playfulness of this mixed language advertising message.

Figure 14. Parody of Coke Slogan. On the latest T.V. commercial of a leading soft drink manufacturer, November 2002.

Word-creation processes The process of combining words in a language to create new words is common in advertising. This word-creation process when extended to code-mixing, that is combining words from two different languages, provides another level of creativity to copywriters. In the Amul billboards, copywriters have exploited this strategy to create novel compounds, blends and derivations by combining English and Hindi words. Hinglish compounds are created by combining two source words, one from each language, such that the meaning of the compounded word it related to the meanings of the component parts. In the examples below (Figures 15 and 16), the new compounds are based on existing compounds in English (e.g. Skyscrapers) or Hindi (e.g. Agnipariksha = Trial by ordeal or acid test), where one of the source words is replaced. For instance, ‘sky’ is replaced in ‘skyscrapers’ by a Hind word Bhai meaning ‘brother’ to form ‘Bhaiscrapers’, alluding to the rivalry between India’s affluent industrialist brothers trying to outdo each other by constructing taller buildings. The next example shows the Hindi word agni (meaning ‘fire’) being replaced by the English word ‘agony’ to form the compound ‘agonypariksha’.

Figure 15. Hindi-English Compound. Top Industrialist brothers competing with one another, December 2010.

Figure 16. English-Hindi Compound. Teachers’ agitation disrupting board exams, March 2013.

Although the examples in Figures 15 and 16 above allude to local events, they convey a deeper meaning by focusing on the issue of family unity in one and the mythological event in the Hindu epic Ramayana in the other, when Sita had to walk through fire to prove her

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innocence after she was rescued from the demon Ravana. This juxtaposition of English and Hindi words reflects the fusion of traditional with modern values in modern day India. Another word-creation process is blending (or ‘portmanteau’ creation) which is similar to compounding in that two source words are combined to form a new word. However, one or both source words are shortened (e.g. cranberry+apple = cranapple) or fused in such a manner that there is partial phonemic blending between the two words (e.g. critical+particular = criticular) (Gries 2004). Gries (2004) further classifies the fusion into linear (e.g. breakfast+lunch = brunch) and non-linear (e.g. ambidextrous+sex = ambisextrous). In the Amul billboards, there is a preference for Hinglish linear blends, which have some phonemic and/or graphemic overlap. The example below (Figure 17) seems to combine source words in such a manner that a conflict is created between traditional Indian customs and modern day terrorist threats. In the blend ‘Anthraksha’, the first source word is a shortened form of ‘anthrax’ and the second one refers to raksha, the Hindi word for ‘protection’. By extension, ‘raksha’ refers to the Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan celebrated to honor the relationship between siblings with friendship bands which are often sent via postal mail.

Figure 17. Linear blend with phonemic overlap. On the recent Anthrax scare, October 2001.

Apart from linear blends, there were some examples of non-linear blends in the sample. One such example is a blend that combines star cricketer Tendulkar’s name with the English word ‘drool’ to form ‘Ten drool kars’ in celebration of his new restaurant in Mumbai (Figure 18). Another example of such a blend is ‘Harlemul shake’ which combines the product name ‘Amul’ with ‘Harlem Shake’, a dance track that became an Internet sensation. The strategy in these blends is to enhance the product name by riding on the fame and popularity of local and global celebrities or events.

Figure 18. Non-linear blend with phonemic overlap. On the launch of the restaurant `Tendulkars' in Mumbai, October 2002.

The third process of word creation that was evident in the sample is that of derivation which involves the addition of English affixes to Hindi words or vice versa. The examples in the data either have Hindi/English prefixes (Figure 19) or suffixes (Figure 20 and 21). These are illustrative of the nativization of inner circle English in India, particularly in advertising where these lexical adaptations lend it a distinct flavor through innovation or violation of word formation rules in the language. For instance, the word ‘pass’ does not take any of the

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English negative prefixes (e.g. un-, im-, in-, il-, ir- and dis-) and ‘hero’ takes the suffix ‘-ic’ (e.g. heroic) but the same does not apply to the word ‘heroine.’ However, in the examples below, ‘napass’ has the Hindi negative prefix na- in the question ‘Ministry napass hua?’ (‘Ministry did not pass?’) and both ‘hero’ and ‘heroine’ take the Hindi suffix –giri in the question ‘Herogiri se heroingiri tak?’ (‘From the antics of a hero to that of a heroine’).

Figure 19. Hindi prefix attached to an English word. Confrontation between Government and the prestigious IIMs over the annual tution fees, March 2004.

Figure 20. Hindi suffix attached to English words. Drug allegations against Olympics boxing medalist, March 2013.

While derivational affixes change the lexical meanings of words, inflectional affixes only change the grammatical meaning of words. English has eight inflectional affixes and all these are suffixes. In the example below, the ‘–ing’ affix which is usually attached to English verbs has been tagged to a Hindi noun maska meaning ‘butter’ to create a novel word form ‘maska-ing’. In Figure 21, the copywriter plays with the acronym SMS but replaces the original expansion ‘Short Messaging Service’ with ‘Smooth Maska-ing Service’ which serves the purpose of simultaneously alluding to the cap on social media messaging and the attributes of Amul butter. The copywriter also flouts the rule of such inflectional combinations in Hinglish by condensing the usual inflectional form maskafying to maska-ing.

Figure 21. English suffix attached to a Hindi word. Cap on SMS, FB and Twitter, August 2012.

This approach of creating new words by manipulating the resources of two languages and in some instances, violating conventional word combination rules in one of the source languages adds freshness and novelty to advertising messages in the Amul campaign. Apart from this, it illustrates the extent of linguistic hybridity that is possible when two languages have been in contact for several decades.

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Repetitions The use of poetic devices such as rhythm, rhyme and sound effects is commonplace in advertising and is aptly referred to as the poetry of consumer culture. The Amul billboards exploit the use of alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia and rhyme to provide structural unity to the advertising messages as well as to increase their memorability. When combined with code-mixing, the selection of words from the two languages involves the added challenge of ensuring that they rhyme. Hindi has many onomatopoeic words which are formed by full or partial reduplication, with the second elements being ‘empty’ in that they do not occur independently (Kachru 2006b). In Figure 22 below, the second element of the compound hai hai (meaning ‘oh, oh!’) has been replaced by the English word ‘high’, resulting in an alliteration ‘hai high’ (‘Oh high’) that alludes to the cases of sexual harassment of airline crew on board. The byline ‘Amul Lo Lo’ (‘Take Amul’) uses a similar strategy of reduplication and as ‘Lo Lo’ is phonemically similar to ‘Low Low’ in English, it contrasts with ‘high’ in the headline to imply that the crew’s behaviour on board was low and despicable.

Figure 22. Alliteration. Recent cases of sexual harassment of airline crew on board, January 2010.

In Hindi, echo compounding is a special type of reduplication where the second word duplicates the first word but the first consonant is replaced with a v- consonant (e.g. English Vinglish) (Kachru 2006b). The second word rarely occurs independently, has the meaning of ‘and the like’ and suggests a casual style. This productive process is extended to word borrowings form English as in Figure 23 below (Dish Wish and Butter Vutter):

Figure 23. Echo compounding. Latest Bollywood release 'English Vinglish', October 2012.

In addition to alliteration and reduplication, assonance is also employed frequently in advertising to lend it a poetic quality. In Figure 24 below, the vowels in the English words ‘posts’ and ‘toasts’ (pronounced the Indian way with monophthongs rather than diphthongs) match with the vowel in the Hindi word dost meaning ‘friend’, giving rise to assonance in the phrase ‘Share posts and toasts with dosts’. Furthermore, the English plural inflection ‘–s’ is attached to the Hindi word dost to reinforce the rhyming effect and to suggest that sharing a toast with friends is the same as sharing posts on social networking sites.

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Figure 24. Assonance. Freedom to express our views on social networking sites, November 2012.

The most obvious example of rhyming employed for memorability is the Amul slogan ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious’. In fact, there are many variations of this slogan on the Amul billboards: ‘utterly butterly Diwalicious’ (on Diwali, Hindu festival of lights), ‘Utterly ‘phut-phutt’erly Amul’ (when helmets were made compulsory for motorcylclists in Bombay; phut-phutt is an onomatopoeic word in Hindi to refer to motorized two-wheelers), ‘utterly Sutta’ly’ (on the Police Commissioner’s crack down on betting parlours in Bombay; sutta is a colloquial word for cigarettes and the number seven in a pack of cards); ‘Utterly Beta-ly Delicious!’ (when the son or beta of Congress Party’s President, Rahul Gandhi was appointed vice-president of the party) and many more.

Figure 25. Rhyme in Amul slogan. Congress appoints Vice-President, January 2013.

CONCLUSION

In the first part of this article, we set out our research issues as concerned with: (i) whether Hindi or English was the usual matrix language in such advertisements, (ii) whether there was visible systematicity in language mixing, (iii) which literary devices were used, and (iv) the motivation for language mixing in such advertising. The first issue is related to the preference of matrix language in the data, and here our analysis suggests that there is no particular preference for a matrix language in the Hinglish Amul billboards. Combinations of both constructions were found in the data – some with Hindi as the matrix language (45%) and others with English as the matrix language (53%). Only a small proportion of the billboards (2%) used a combination of both Hindi and English as matrix languages. Mixing was apparent at the word, phrase and clause level, with a sprinkling of English in some examples (Figure 3: Kiss mat aazmao?) and with a sprinkling of Hindi in others (Figure 24: Share posts and toasts with dosts!). The same was apparent at the level of word-creation in that the base language was English in some instances (Figure 15: Skyscrapers>Bhaiscrapers) and Hindi in others (Figure 15: Agnipariksha>Agonypariksha). As for the issue of the systematicity of language mixing, there is clear evidence from the analysis that the mixing of Hindi and English is generally systematic. This is particularly apparent in the word-creation processes of blending, compounding and derivational/inflectional affixes. Blending, for instance, follows the rules of English blends in

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that one of the words is shortened and the blend is either linear with phonemic overlap (Figure 17: Anthrax+Raksha = Anthraksha) or non-linear with phonemic overlap (Figure 18: Tendulkar+drool = Tendroolkar). Another example is that of echo compounding, a special type of reduplication in Hindi, where the second word duplicates the first word but the first consonant is replaced with a v- consonant. This reduplication process is extended to English words (Figure 23: ‘Dish Wish’ and ‘Butter Vutter’). These word creation processes are complex as they require linguistic integration based on the rules of two language systems. Although such code-mixing is unconscious on the part of bilinguals, ‘advertisers have the uncanny ability to tap that unconscious knowledge’ (Bhatia and Ritchie 2008: 11) and apply it creatively to their advertising messages. With reference to the two other questions concerning the role of literary devices and the motivation for using Hinglish in Amul’s billboards, we would suggest that the following conclusions can be drawn. As these two strategies are interwoven, the discussion that follows will encompass both aspects. Hinglish, in combination with a host of literary devices such as puns, associations, contradictory associations, word-creation processes and repetitions is used creatively in Amul’s advertising messages as has been illustrated in the preceding sections. This is not to say that puns, allusions, blending and rhyming could not be employed independently in English or Hindi but ‘language mixture in advertising adds new semantic and affective features which single-language advertising is incapable of rendering’ (Bhatia and Ritchie 2008: 10). Although English was the favoured language of advertisers in the past, Hinglish has fast overtaken it in modern India. There was a clear distinction between English and Hindi in post-colonial India, with English being preferred for professional and official communication and Hindi for private and traditional interactions (Anderson-Finch 2011). Such indexing of the languages, the former as representing ‘authority’ and ‘social distance’ whereas the latter indicating ‘solidarity’ and ‘familiarity’ has disappeared over time, with Hinglish emerging as the new language of advertising. Many reasons have been proposed for this shift in language preference, especially in Indian advertising.

To start of with, the phenomenon of language mixing is a natural one, in the sense that languages that co-exist in a geographical space tend to converge and interact with each other. For instance, Hindi has a long tradition of mixing with languages such as Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and other Indian languages, the most recent of these fusions being Hinglish (Bhatia 2011). The relevant question in this context is whether such a fusion is the outcome of deficiency or creativity – a subtractive or additive process. According to the language deficiency hypothesis, it is believed that a bilingual person who code-switches is not proficient in one of the languages and borrows words from his dominant language to fill gaps in his vocabulary. Disputing this, Bhatia (2011: 40) claims that lack of proficiency in one or both languages is not ‘the primary motivator for language mixing’ in the India context, where, he argues, many bilinguals are in fact skilled users of the linguistic resources available to them, leading ‘them to mix language with the aim of achieving maximum efficacy from the two linguistic systems at their disposal’ unconsciously or consciously (Bhatia 2011: 40). This is apparent in the present study where copywriters have many resources at their disposal, including literary devices as well as vocabulary from multiple languages (English and Indian languages) for creating unique puns, word blends, compounds and rhymes. This kind of word play adds yet another layer of amusement and interest for consumers who have to unravel the meaning conveyed through poetic devices as well as through associations to their own language and culture.

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Yet another motivation for using Hinglish in advertising messages is to juxtapose two different cultures – the local and global, the traditional and modern, the indigenous and foreign. Bhatt (2008: 178) refers to the space occupied by these conflicting yet convergent collectives in post-colonial and modern India as the ‘third space’. This plurality and convergence of voices is evident in the copy of the Amul billboards, where such words as kurukshetra (referring to the battle fought between the Kauravas and Pandavas in the Mahabharta – see Figure 9), lakshmanrekha (referring to the line of protection drawn by Lakshmana to protect his sister-in-law Sita in the Ramayana – see Figure 8), and agnipariksha (referring to Sita walking through fire to prove her innocence in the Ramayana – see Figure 16) in word blends invoke cultural and historical knowledge. In order to understand the significance of these words, readers would have to invoke a bundle of cultural knowledge related to events in the Hindu epics Mahabharata and Ramayana. This knowledge connects with what Bhatt (2008: 186) terms the ‘cultural memory’ of the audience, where interpretation of the text ‘require[s] bilingual and bicultural competence – to be able to faithfully decipher the writer’s (speaker’s) intention’. Similarly, the use of Hindi vocabulary alongside English, reflects the hybrid culture of the new urban Indian, in that it juxtaposes traditional Indian social practices against the global modern values of the Indian middle class people. The impression conveyed is that of an erosion of old traditional values of family, marriage and propriety and an emergence of new modern values of materialism, consumerism and liberalism. According to Bhatt (2008: 188), this is facilitated by exploiting bilingual resources, with ‘the two languages present[ing] two ideological frames of interpretation: Hindi-old, English-new.’ This reflects a sociolinguistic reflexivity or cognizance that language or languages modulate one’s sociocultural identity (ibid). Although the indexing of the two languages as representing dichotomies of traditional and modern, old and new, local and global is relevant in certain contexts of code-mixing in advertising messages as exemplified in the copy of the Amul billboards in this study, this does not apply to every instance of Hindi-English mixing. That English is the best vehicle for rational ideas and Hindi for emotional expression is hard to defend in modern India, where Hinglish has become the unmarked mode of communication. In this mixed mode of communication, the social worlds represented by the two languages have merged to create a hybrid code of social and linguistic integration, which has become a natural way of communicating among urban Indians, especially the youth. According to Kothari (2011: 123), this ‘happy blend’ is evident in ‘Hinglish cultural products – films, advertisements, signboards, short text messages, talk shows, T-short slogans, social networking sites – promoting in overt and covert ways a lifestyle that allows you to be desi and consumerist simultaneously’. The Amul billboards in this study, with their topical references to Bollywood, Indian TV, cricket and current socio-political issues, are an obvious example of this ‘happy’ coexistence of Hindi and English, giving the billboards a colloquial flavor that appeals to both the elite and common man. The analysis of Hinglish advertising messages in this study has revealed that language mixing is indispensable for creativity. Although literary devices could have been employed in either English or Hindi, their impact would not have been as profound on a bilingual consumer, especially in a country where language mixing is considered to be a normal and natural verbal phenomenon. The linguistic and social integration achieved through Hindi-in-English and English-in-Hindi is not only a matter of everyday sociolinguistic reality but also fulfils the creative needs of both copywriters and consumers.

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NOTE

1. The Amul butter advertisements referred to in this article can be found online at: http://www.amul.com/m/amul-hits

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