BE WORD CONSCIOUS

How many times have we been told by our teachers or parents to speak correctly? And every time they remind us of this, have we really paid heed to it? It is actually a very important practice to speak “correctly” – to use the correct words/phrases to refer to anything in a sentence. It might appear a little confusing now, so let’s see a small example here to understand this concept for clearly. Back in my PhD days in IIT Guwahati, I asked one of my seniors, “Will you have a chocolate?” When she replied in affirmative, I handed her a “Pulse chocolate”. She looked at me, flabbergasted, and said, “This is not a chocolate! It’s a candy! I don’t want this. I thought you meant chocolate – I really needed one now.” And she walked away. I stood there in bewilderment – I did give her “chocolate”. Why didn’t she take it if she needed one? But it was that small incident that taught me the importance of using the “correct” word. A google search made me understand a fact that we probably always ignore – we use a generalized term “chocolate” to refer to any sweets that we offer to children – but actually that is not correct. “Chocolate” refers to those sweets that have cocoa in it such as Dairy Milk, Nestle Classic, even Milky Bar (it has white chocolate!). Whereas the terminology used for “pulse” or other sweets that have a crunch is “Candy”. And what about those sweet things that tend to stick to our teeth and gums? Their correct name is “Toffee” and it includes Eclairs, Coffee bite and others. While we generalize them as “chocolate”, toffees and candies don’t have cocoa in them at all; toffees are mainly composed of caramel and nougat, whereas candies are most liquified sugar in different molds and colors. It blew my mind when I realized why my senior didn’t take the candy – she wanted a chocolate that has cocoa as cocoa is known to uplift the mood – it contains caffeine (just like tea and coffee) which stimulates the brain and leave us with a “feel good” spirit.

This incident made me conscious that we had to use correct words and speak in the correct way. This is especially important to people in the scientific background when writing manuscripts – there is a subtle difference between “diffusion” and “osmosis”, and we shouldn’t be using them interchangeably. Even when we use generalized terms, especially while talking to a layman, we have to politely explain the correct usage to them – in that way, everyone might end up learning something new every day! A lot of people might wonder that this is probably with the use of “fancy English” words but to break the myth, this applies to any language we speak – whether it is English, Hindi, vernacular Assamese or even the lingua franca Goalpariya. Once during lunch in a fancy ethnic restaurant of Guwahati, I overheard an argument. The root of the argument rested on the fact that customer had asked the waiter for a refill of the “chutney”, which the waiter had obliged to. But it became clear late that what he actually wanted was the refill of the gravy/curry of the duck that he had ordered – something that we mostly refer to as “Jul or Jhul”, isn’t it? So, can “chutney” and “jul” be used interchangeably? No, right? The remote possibility of the argument over a duck gravy could have been completely ruled out had there been a “correct” usage of the term!

Now, there might be a backlash on this that who is to decide the correct usage of terms, especially for our vernacular language. I mean, pepper is called “Jaluk” in upper Assam – something that I learnt the hard way in my university days in Tezpur (let’s keep this story for some other time!) – whereas, the people of lower Assam call it “Gulmorich”. Same is the case for the vegetable “lesera” or “dangboti”. As I pointed out before, we learn something new every day – the more we read, observe, capture, and practice, the more we become aware of a language – the varying usage of terms in literature makes us aware of the usage of terms. For example, my Assamese teacher had once corrected me when I had used “Koloi” instead of “Kot” to refer to “Where” in the exam – is that to say that “Koloi” is wrong?

There is a lot of “grey” area when it comes to vernacular language, unlike English. Sadly, there is a lot of argument till date between the people of upper and lower Assam on the “correct” Assamese. But the focal point of this article is to learn and understand the appropriate usage of terms in any language, giving due consideration to where it is used – whether it is in publications, debates, or ever day conversations. Also, enjoy this piece in a light-heated manner but become conscious while reading, writing, and speaking.

And I am sure, next time Eclairs sticks to your teeth, you will think of me and call it a wretched “toffee” not “chocolate”!