U.S. condoles with India over soldiers killed in clash with China, tensions stay high

[conuly]

Condoles?

That's a usage I'm unfamiliar with!

The Ngram viewer does suggest it's very rare, and getting rarer by the decade. However, that only checks American + British English - further googling revealed, unsurprisingly, that it's much more common in Indian English.

Comments

[sovay]

That's a usage I'm unfamiliar with!

I've encountered it in fiction and I want to say occasionally nonfiction. I think of it as archaic, but not alien.

[steorra]

I recognize it from Pride and Prejudice:

1. "And Lady Lucas has been very kind; she walked here on Wednesday morning to condole with us, and offered her services, or any of her daughters’, if they should be of use to us."

2. "I feel myself called upon, by our relationship, and my situation in life, to condole with you on the grievous affliction you are now suffering under, of which we were yesterday informed by a letter from Hertfordshire."

[swingandswirl]

Yep! Indian English has a bunch of archaic words/phrases like that - condole, stepney, and others I can't think of right now - that were in common use during the British occupation of the subcontinent that have passed out of common use in the UK but are still around here.

BTW, book rec if you want to know more about Indian English, Kalpana Mohan's An English Made In India is really good.

[wpadmirer]

Condoles is the verb form of condolences.

I've heard it, but then the South tends to use more archaic phrases than other parts of the USA.

[james]

That's actually a cool word!

[fred_mouse]

Adding the book rec to my reading wishlist - definitely something I'd like to know more about.

[shadowkat]

Thank you, the "Condoles" bothered me as well. It made my head hurt, as it tried to fix the sentence in order for it to make sense. Is it the US sympathizes with? The US sends condolences with? US condolences? No that's not right.

Ah, it's a common usage in Indian English - so may be a translation of the Indian phrasing? I've noticed that happening with other languages as well - some sentences and phrases in other languages don't translate cleanly into English.

[conuly]

No, it's an old term that American and British English dropped but Indian English retained - see the ngram viewer. It was much more common 150 years ago.

[shadowkat]

Oh. Interesting. Doesn't make as much sense though.

ETA: Just read all the comments. Apparently the Southern US uses it as well. And apparently India uses a lot of archaic English words and phrases.
So, if a pattern exists regarding usage - it may be that many colonial areas have maintained archaic versions of English, while others have not based on ethnic makeup? (shrugs) No clue why it's not used in Northern US but in Southern US. Or in India, but not in say, Canada.

[conuly]

No clue why it's not used in Northern US but in Southern US. Or in India, but not in say, Canada.

You will never get an answer to that. Language change can be terribly random. We all want language to make sense, and we want its evolution to make sense as well, but in a lot of ways it's just random.

Why do some places say "faucet" and others say "tap" or "spigot"? Why do I say "bucket" and other people say "pail"? Why was the TV show called "firefly" instead of "lightning bug"? These and other questions will never be answered.

[flemmings]

It was used in Toronto when I was young, like the 50s and 60s, but among a very British influenced population. So at a guess, a pre WW1 usage surviving into a later time.

[greghousesgf]

A friend of mine from India told me that there they consider British English and American English two different languages.

[conuly]

Most people wouldn't, as they're mutually intelligible, but as they tell us, a language is a dialect with an army and a navy.

[conuly]

Thanks for the rec :)

[greghousesgf]

I'd never heard that before. I love it.

[conuly]

Haven't you? Oh, you'll need to hang out with more linguists and interested dabblers, then!

Usually when people say it they say it in Yiddish, which is the original quote: A shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot. (It helps that if you know what it says it's still minimally comprehensible in English so long as it's written in the Roman alphabet.)

[firecat]

I guess this is why it's a normal word to me, I've been reading some Austen lately.