Sounds fine to this American speaker. "Innit" occurs in American slang as well.

@modérateur => retirer l'étiquette NNC, s'il vous plait.

@modérateur => retirer l'étiquette "British slang", s'il vous plait.

@NNC: There is something to be said for the UK slang view:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/innit
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_n...ne/6122072.stm
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/innit

>@NNC: There is something to be said for the UK slang view:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/innit
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_n...ne/6122072.stm
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/innit

"Innit" has nothing to do with "Hinglish" you fool! Stop blindly copying and pasting the web, please!

Apparently the relationship between "innit" and Hinglish isn't the origin of the word (it's a contraction of "isn't it") but rather its usage.

In British slang (but not American slang) the "innit" question tag can be used on all kinds of sentences, whereas American "innit" as well as long-form "isn't it" can only occur after statements containing "is" (though the "is" may be implied).

British slang: You like listening to pop music, innit?
American slang: You like listening to pop music, doncha?

The claim is that the invariable usage of "innit" was borrowed from the Hindi tag "haina." Not being from the UK, and not having studied the development of this particular slang usage, I can't say for sure whether that's valid or not, though.

>The claim is that the invariable usage of "innit" was borrowed from the Hindi tag "haina." Not being from the UK, and not having studied the development of this particular slang usage, I can't say for sure whether that's valid or not, though.

I think you're being mistaken. It is the other way: "And the dictionary identifies how the ubiquitous "innit" was absorbed into British Asian speech via "haina" - a Hindi tag phrase, stuck on the sentences and meaning "is no?".

That means that Hindi speakers found a similitude between English "innit" and Hindi "haina", so that they use it all the time.
But I can tell you everybody I know in Northern England says "Innit", old or young, asian or european. It's been there forever.

> I think you're being mistaken. It is the other way: "And the dictionary identifies how the ubiquitous "innit" was absorbed into British Asian speech via "haina" - a Hindi tag phrase, stuck on the sentences and meaning "is no?".

Ah--yes, that's what I meant to say. Sorry for the lapse in clarity.

> But I can tell you everybody I know in Northern England says "Innit", old or young, asian or european. It's been there forever.

Oh, definitely, it's been around in America for forever too. The thing that's new, and allegedly influenced by Hindi (though perhaps only among British Asian speakers) is using "innit" ubiquitously rather than only after "is" sentences.

--responding to @needs native check--
I think @needs native check can be safely removed.

I'm not a linguist...
In my personal experience working with young people (under 25) in London, it is used a lot as a tag question, or almost as a type of punctuation, more often by male English youth from Greater London, and more often Black and Asian 2nd or 3rd generation. I don't hear it in other regional dialects or from counties bordering London.

see this from BBC world service
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservi...e3/page8.shtml

So I think that British Slang tag is reasonable.

I see it's usage as very close to the Japanese particle ね

Reminder: the tag "British slang" is inappropriate, since this figure of speech is used in the USA as well...

Reminder: the tag "British slang" is inappropriate, since this figure of speech is used in the USA as well...

Reminder: the tag "British slang" is inappropriate, since this figure of speech is used in the USA as well...