The Denial Saloon, Dehiwela
Sri Lankan English is its own form of English which is just as valid as New York English, it just has less political clout. That said, there are some funnies. One is the misallocation of o’s, resulting in phrases like ‘She loosed her virginity‘ and ‘Gentleman’s Saloon’. The former phrasing is rather graphically incorrect and the latter is misleading. A saloon in Sri Lanka is not a place serving whiskey and sarsaparilla, it’s a barbershop. This all comes from doubling the o’s, and exasperating and seemingly constant practice.
This is not, however, my favorite quirk of Sri Lankan English. That would be escape goat, meaning scapegoat. I have discovered that this is not limited to Sri Lanka, but it’s still the first place I’ve heard it.
But to return to the point, ‘lose’ is to not win and ‘loose’ is not tight. A ‘salon’ is a place to cut hair and a ‘saloon’ is a western style bar. I don’t expect these things to change, but they’re constant misapplication still makes me smile.
And to continue the point, “they’re” is a contraction of the words “they are.” The third person plural possessive is “their.”
indeed. Rather fitting for a post on grammar
ha ha good one. :p
Have you read this?
????-???? ????????? ?? ??? ??????? ????????? | Cultured English and Godayatik English
http://taboosubjects.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/189
ESE kiyai, MESE kiyai…
Balaagene giyaama me hi fi ungen kapilla withrai, api wage game kollanta…
Many non native speakers confuse “loose” for “lose”. I’ve noticed this with northern Europeans as well. Another source of confusion is replacing V with W and vice versa. We Sri Lankans celebrate the Niv Year and visit Niv York and we have friends who play the wiolin etc.
Remind me of a fellow name Shakespeare – who convert nouns in to verbs and even .. can you believe.. invented words out of thin air.
I say use Google suggest.
Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTjeoQ8gRmQ
Only an outsider would laugh at our colloquial English.