Code-mixed headline
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A note from Ambarish S.:
There’s an ongoing controversy in India with Prime Minister Modi being accused of blackface during an election campaign in the south, where people have darker skin on average. The Alert (a Hindi news website of unknown reputation) had the following Hindi sentence on it’s X:
तमिलनाडु रैली में मोदी जी का लुक वायरल!
where only the postpositions (में and का) and arguably the honorific जी are Hindi! तमिलनाडु and मोदी are proper nouns, while रैली, लुक and वायरल are respectively “rally", “look" and "viral”. The whole thing translates to “Modi Ji’s look at Tamil Nadu rally viral”.
The post:
तमिलनाडु रैली में मोदी जी का लुक वायरल!
कुछ लोग बोल रहे हैं डार्क मेकअप, कुछ कह रहे हैं लाइटिंग का कमाल 🤔
आपका क्या ख्याल है? pic.twitter.com/ARFpKXT3hU
— The Alert (@TheAlert_In) April 20, 2026
Devanagari to Latin characters, courtesy of Google Translate:
तमिलनाडु रैली में मोदी जी का लुक वायरल!
tamilanaadu railee mein modee jee ka luk vaayaral!
Some trad media coverage via Google News.
Mixing Hindi into English is called "chutnefying" — what's the right word for mixing English into Hindi? Or is it the same thing, just written in a different character set?
Jonathan Smith said,
April 21, 2026 @ 9:17 pm
Nice; IMO this can only be regarded as Hindi with English mixed in since it's not just the postpositions per se that are Hindi but the syntax as a whole, with English content words plugged into Hindi slots. This is of course e.g. how bilingual kids speak when they're supposed to be speaking the frame language but are better at the language from which they end up sourcing content words…
A tentative Japanese parallel with assistance from Chat-san; idea is the exact same content words are from English as in the Hindi example–
モディさんのタミル・ナードゥ州のイベントでのビジュアルがバズった！
Modi-san no Tamiru-nādō Shū no ibento de no bijuaru ga bazutta!
corrections welcome…
Rodger C said,
April 27, 2026 @ 9:51 am
Isn't ナードゥ, with its miniature ゥ, to be read "nādu"?