Please watch this video before reading the post.warn : this song WILL stick in your head—possibly for days .
Created by the celebrated Youtuber Funzoa, “ Google My Bulbul ” is, at the most basic level, a television of an adorable chemise bear singing a song that praises the utility of Google. Why many find the video funny story ( it has about 2 million views and a 13-1 like-to-dislike proportion ) can be dissected from a assortment of angles : music, visuals, cultural references, and so forth, but for the sake of this post I will focus on the habit of language in it .
In following with Betsy Rymes ’ s concept of “ Citizen Sociolinguistics, ” my hope is not to analyze the video recording from a traditional linguistic bespeak of see. alternatively, I will look at viewers ’ comments posted on the video recording ’ randomness Youtube page and dissect how they reacted to the use of language. As you will see below, what ’ mho particularly interesting about this television is that the godhead himself has responded to some of the most matter to and frequently most negative comments about language.
sol, to start with a simple description, in what matter to ways does Funzoa function speech in “ Google My Bulbul ” ? here are some fairly objective characteristics that immediately jumped out to me :
- Adding an “uh” to the end of lots of words
- Inversion of word order that sounds odd to an American English speaker
- Nonstandard use of the progressive tense–“All the information it always giving free,” “It never getting lost,” “It helping download any file”
- Extremely high pitch
This is not an exhaustive list, rather fair a few independent things will stand out to most people watching the video. So how do viewers react to the mimicry of this, as the godhead puts it, stereotypically “ South indian ” emphasis ? Some of the most interesting comments arose out of replies to the stick to affirmation ( all spell is written precisely as it appeared on the video recording ’ randomness Youtube page ; my translations from Hindi are in brackets ) :
Lukas Hettieratchi : This is the stupidest thing ever ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! What is the earth, it sucks ! ! ! ! ! ! F**K THIS ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Funzoa @ Lukas Hettiaratchi : The pun in this has a certain cultural connotation, uracil habit understand it if you dont see it. then u roentgen correctly from your POV. But im sure uranium shall find smthing interesting from my othr video
syawkcab @ Lukas Hettiaratchi : The video recording makes fun of how desi [ indian ] aunties talk. If you ’ re not desi, you won ’ metric ton understand references .
Chakravarthy Kalyan @ Lukas Hettiaratchi : lukas, equitable because u come from different culture does not give you artistic authority to pass unintelligent comments.This is an adaptation in karnatic classical south amerind music.This culture itself dates back to 1500 years.Learing classical music is a life experience.This person beautifully adapted english into karnatic music and rendred a perfective song.If you cant appreciate some thing atleast have an kernel to encourage .
The beginning two comments, including a gloss from Funzoa himself, tip at the impression that the manipulation of lyric in this video recording is closely tied with cultural or cultural identity. According to syawkcab, in ordering to understand the television ’ sulfur mimicry, viewers must be indian. The final examination commenter finds the video recording “ beautiful ” because of Funzoa ’ s “ perfect ” consolidation of “ English into karnatic music. ”
many viewers, such as Reeta Sood, plainly find the consumption of accent humorous :
Reeta Sood : Funny Funzoa…really mazedaar [ fishy ] …keep up your good sour, accent north all…some morons won ’ triiodothyronine get it becoz of they un-evolved understanding … 😉
other viewers, however, found the video annoyance and even unsavory :
Mohammed Almansour : Wtf is wrong with the writer of this birdcall ? ? ? And he used the freakin amerind s**t accent f**k off ! ! Stupidest song ever
Hamzah Patel : Stop this atrocious song funzoa is unintelligent. This is nauseating to English people
I wonder what Hamzah Patel would consider as “ English ” people ? entirely british people ? The traditional Anglosphere ( UK, US, and other English-dominant former british colonies ) ? Anyone who speaks English at all ? It ’ randomness worth noting that respective hundred thousand people speak english as their beginning language in India and might use some of the phonetic or lexical features in this television that sound “ odd ” to an american English speaker .
One interest exchange between Funzoa and a viewer highlighted different attitudes towards what counts as “ correct ” english :
Zarin Mansur : airheaded grammar error ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Funzoa @ Zarin Mansur Hi, I dont do grammer errors. You may check my other message. The error was designed. Like how sometimes, people from a non-english region in India, use break english to convey a message. And you somehow fathom whats being said. So thats a pun intended, whether you get it or not .
Viewer Zarin Mansur calls the manipulation of indian Englishisms and non-standard English grammar wrong, whereas Funzoa sends a comment ( obviously filled with non-standard English to prove his detail ) that argues that the lyrics he wrote are not full moon of errors ; rather, they strategically deploy speech in a way that represents how some Indians speak. Funzoa believes that he doesn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate “ do grammar errors ” because he is just representing how english is actually spoken .
In conclusion, a immediate scan-through of comments has revealed a surprising array of attitudes towards the manipulation of the language in one of Funzoa ’ s most popular videos. On one hand, some reacted to the use of stress extremely negatively, finding the video recording either dysphemistic, annoying, or simply faulty. Others reacted more positively, praising the generator ’ mho effective deployment of linguistic process for humorous effect .
What do you all think of the video ? Do you think Funzoa is right when says he doesn ’ triiodothyronine “ do grammar errors ” ? Do you find the television dysphemistic as some viewers did ? I ’ five hundred love to hear your comments .
Jacob is a freshman undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Linguistics. His interests include bilingualism, second linguistic process acquisition, code-switching, Bollywood movies, and taking walks around Philly .
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