'Hinglish' helps users engage more effectively with a broader audience, Bollywood boosting its popularity: Study

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Hinglish helps users engage more effectively with a broader audience on social media platforms, particularly 'X', with Bollywood significantly boosting its popularity, a new study showed on Friday.

In the study, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi researchers at the Laboratory of Computational Social Systems (LCS2) led by Professor Tanmoy Chakraborty conducted a thorough statistical and econometric analysis covering 260,000 posts on 'X' by 17,000 users and showed that more than 34 per cent of users prefer 'Hinglish' to connect more effectively with their followers.

The study reveals that the Hinglish population has grown steadily between 2014 and 2022, with an annualised growth rate of 1.2 per cent, and the usage of Hinglish on 'X' has increased annually by 2 per cent.

This growth is driven by the desire for broader audience engagement and relatability, said researchers.

The researchers also elaborated on Bollywood's influence on Hinglish evolution, with frequent references to famous actors contributing to Hinglish's spread.

The study also highlighted socio-economic factors, such as living standards and internet activity, as key drivers of Hinglish adoption.

"Considering these external factors, we developed an econometric model to predict Hinglish's future evolution. This model helps understand the broader implications of socio-economic conditions on language usage," said Chakraborty.

In addition, the researchers delved into the dynamics of language use, showing that not all Hindi words are equally likely to be mixed with English.

The context of the conversation often changes how words are used, with political 'X' posts exhibiting the highest level of code-mixing, followed by Bollywood and sports.

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