Indian English

Indian English or South-Asian English comprises several dialects or varieties of English spoken primarily in the Indian subcontinent. These dialects evolved during and after the colonial rule of Britain in India. English is one of the official languages of India, with about ninety million speakers according to the 1991 Census of India. Fewer than a quarter of a million people speak English as their first language. With the exception of some families who communicate primarily in English, as well as members of the relatively small Anglo-Indian community numbering less than half a million, speakers of Indian English use it as a second or third language, after their respective Indian language(s).

Several idiomatic forms, derived from Indian literary and vernacular language, also have made their way into Indian English. Despite this diversity, there is general homogeneity in syntax and vocabulary among the varieties of Indian English.

Grammar

The role of English within the complex multilingual society of India is far from straightforward: it is used across the country, but it may be a speaker's first, second, or third language, and the grammar and phraseology may mimic that of the speaker's Indian language.

While Indian speakers of English use idioms peculiar to their homeland, often literal translations of words and phrases from their native languages, only standard British English is considered grammatically correct. In this context, the aim of reaching a large cross-section of society is fulfilled by such double-coding. Many words borrowed from Indian languages find their way into the ostensibly-English media.

Phonology

Indian accents vary greatly. Some Indians speak English with an accent very close to a Standard British (Received Pronunciation) accent (though not the same); others lean toward a more 'vernacular', native-tinted, accent for their English speech.

Vowels

In general, Indian English has fewer peculiarities in its vowel sounds than the consonants, especially as spoken by native speakers of languages like Hindi, which in fact has a vowel phonology very similar to that of English. Among the distinctive features of the vowel-sounds employed by some Indian English speakers are:

Many Indian languages (with the exception Western Hindi and Punjabi) do not natively possess a separate phoneme (as in ). Thus, many speakers do not differentiate between the vowel sounds (as in "dress") and (as in ), except in cases where a minimal pair such as / exists in the vocabulary of the speaker. Such a speaker might pronounce "tax" like the first syllable of "Texas". Speakers of Southern languages and Sinhalese, which do differentiate and , do not have difficulty making this distinction. Eastern IE languages, notably Bengali does have the /æ/ sound for both the vowels ā আ (hāñcco—the sneezing sound—pronounced as hæñcco)and /e/ এ (henglā—greedy—pronounced as hængla). The vowel a অ has two sound values in Bengali:as au in aura (tatkāl) and as o ও (Kalikātā). It lacks the short vowel value for a অ (parāthā). Nowadays most Indian students learn English from childhood which enables them to produce almost all phonetics used in English.

Chiefly in Punjab and Haryana states and western Uttar Pradesh, the short [ɛ] becomes lengthened and higher to long [eː], making sound like .

When a long vowel is followed by "r", some speakers of Indian English usually use a monophthong, instead of the diphthong used for many such words in many other accents. Thus "fear" is pronounced instead of . Bengalis often pronounce all these vowels as , including the -colored versions of these vowels. Thus, may be pronounced the same as [farm].. "Van" as bhan etc. General Indian English realizes (as in ) and (as in ) as long monophthongs , . The same is true of the voiceless postalveolar afficate . The alveolar stops English , are often retroflex , , especially in the South of India. In Indian languages there are two entirely distinct sets of coronal plosives: one dental and the other retroflex. To the Indian ears, the English alveolar plosives sound more retroflex than dental. In the Devanagari script of Hindi, all alveolar plosives of English are transcribed as their retroflex counterparts. One good reason for this is that unlike most other native Indian languages, Hindi does not have true retroflex plosives (Tiwari, [1955] 2001). The so-called retroflexes in Hindi are actually articulated as apical post-alveolar plosives, sometimes even with a tendency to come down to the alveolar region. So a Hindi speaker normally cannot distinguish the difference between their own apical post-alveolar plosives and English's alveolar plosives. However, languages such as Tamil have true retroflex plosives, wherein the articulation is done with the tongue curved upwards and backwards at the roof of the mouth. This also causes (in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh) the preceding alveolar to allophonically change to ( → ). Mostly in south India, some speakers allophonically further change the voiced retroflex plosive to voiced retroflex flap, and the nasal to a nasalized retroflex flap. Many Indians speaking English lack the voiced postalveolar fricative (), the same as their native languages. Typically, or is substituted, e.g. treasure , In unstressed syllables, native English varieties will mostly use the schwa while Indian English would use the spelling vowel, making sound as [sæ.ni.ti] instead of [sæ.nə.ti]. Similarly, and can be heard as [e.bʌv] and [e.go] instead of [ə.bʌv] and [ə.go]. English words ending in grapheme < a > almost always have the < a > being pronounced as schwa /ə/ in native varieties (exceptions include words such as ). But in Indian English, the ending < a > is pronounced as the long open central unrounded vowel /aː/ (as in ) instead of schwa. So, is pronounced as /ɪn.ɖɪ.aː/ instead of /ɪn.dɪ.ə/, and as /soː.faː/ instead of /soʊ.fə/. The word "of" is usually pronounced with a instead of a as in most other accents. Use of instead of for the "-ed" ending of the past tense after voiceless consonants, for example "developed" may be instead of RP . Use of instead of for the "-s" ending of the plural after voiced consonants, for example may be instead of . Further, in some Indian languages, stress is associated with a low pitch, whereas in most English dialects, stressed syllables are generally pronounced with a higher pitch. Thus, when some Indian speakers speak, they appear to put the stress accents at the wrong syllables, or accentuate all the syllables of a long English word. Certain Indian accents are of a "sing-song" nature, a feature seen in a few English dialects in Britain, such as Scouse and Welsh English.

Idioms and popular words/phrases

Note that some of the examples below are only used colloquially. The English taught in the schools in India is British English, where, for instance, spelling "colour" without a "u" is considered incorrect. The use of colloquial phrases in schools, universities and formal situations is considered incorrect and the speaker is advised to use formal British English. Many phrases that other English speakers consider antiquated are still popular in India. The legacy of the East India Company and its practices still prevails in official correspondence in India. Official letters include phrases such as "please do the needful" and "you will be intimated shortly", which are directly lifted from East India Company correspondence from the seventeenth century.

Rubber - Pencil eraser

Flat - 'Apartment house'

shirt pant - 'Shirt and Trousers'

Eve teasing - 'Verbal sexual harassment of women'

Where are you put up? means 'Where are you currently staying'?.

Where do you stay? is the same as 'Where do you live?' or 'Where's your house?'. This is also used in Scottish and South African English.

to shift - to move (e.g. to shift from one place to another).

Wheatish (complexion) - light, creamy brown, or having a light brown complexion.

"Out of station": "out of town". This phrase has its origins in the posting of army officers to particular 'stations' during the days of the East India Company.

"acting pricey": playing "hard to get", being snobbish.

"pass out" is meant to graduate, as in "I passed out of the university in 1995". In American/British English, this usage is limited to graduating out of military academies.

"on the anvil" is used often in the Indian press to mean something is about to appear or happen. For example, a headline might read "New roads on the anvil".

"Road-side Romeo" is used to refer to men waiting near the street entrances to colleges and universities, or to those cruising the city streets usually - but not only - on motorbikes, in search of women to impress and inveigle into romantic affairs.

"tight slap" to mean "hard slap". Girl to a "Road-side Romeo": 'Clear off, or else I'll give you a tight slap.'

Timepass - 'Doing something for leisure but with no intention or target/satisfaction', procrastination, pastime.

Timewaste - Something that is a waste of time; procrastination. Presumably not even useful for leisure.

Dearness Allowance - Payment given to employees to compensate for the effects of inflation.

Pindrop silence - Extreme silence (quiet enough to hear a pin drop).

chargesheet: n. formal charges filed in a court; v. to file charges against someone in court

redressal: n. redress, remedy, reparation

"Hill Station" - mountain resort.

"Railway Station" - Train station.

"stepney" refers to a spare tyre. The word is a genericized trademark originating from the Stepney Spare Motor Wheel, itself named after Stepney Street, in Llanelli, Wales. In South Indian states such as Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh, "stepney" is also used to refer to a mistress (spare wife).

"specs" means spectacles or glasses (as in colloquial UK English).

Coolers - Sunglasses

"cent per cent" - "100 per cent" as in "He got cent per cent in maths".

"loose motion" - diarrhoea

"expire" - To die, especially in reference to one's family member.

"prepone" - To bring something forward in time. As opposed to postpone.

"bunking" - To skip class without permission.

"carrying" - to be pregnant, as in "She is carrying".

"pressurize" - to put pressure on someone, to influence.

Indian numbering system

The Indian numbering system is generally used, so the following terms, unknown in other varieties of English, are commonly used:

Lakh 100 thousand (100,000)

Crore 10 million (10,000,000)

Medical terms

Often the cause of undesirable confusion.

Viral Fever: influenza

Jaundice: Acute Hepatitis. While standard medical terminology uses jaundice for a symptom (yellow discolouration of skin), in India the term is used to refer to the illness in which this symptom is most common.

Allopathy, used by homeopaths for conventional medicine.

Food

Brinjal : aubergines / eggplant

Capsicum : called chili pepper, red or green pepper, or sweet pepper in the UK, capsicum in Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India, bell pepper in the US, Canada, and the Bahamas; paprika in some other countries

Curds : Yogurt

Sooji or Rava : Semolina

Pulses, dal : pulses, e.g. lentils

Karahi, kadai : wok

Sago : tapioca, Yuca in US

Ladyfinger, bhindi : okra

Sabzi : greens, green vegetables

Addressing others

Referring to elders, strangers or anyone meriting respect as "ji"/"jee" ( used as a suffix) as in "Please call a taxi for Goyal-ji" (North, West and East India)

Use of prefixes "Shree"/"Shri" (Devanagari: श्री meaning Mister) or "Shreemati"/"Shrimati" (Devanagari: श्रीमती meaning Ms/Mrs): Shri Ravindra Patel or Shreemati Das Gupta. "Shreemati"/"Shrimati" is used for married women. "Kumari" (Devnagari: कुमारी literally meaning a virgin) can be used for unmarried (as opposed to single) women or girls. "Sushri" (Devnagari: सुश्री a more recent addition and appropriate translation of Ms where marital status cannot be determined or is unimportant)

Analogous titles "Thiru" and "Thirumathi" are used in Tamil. The title "Tri" is used instead in old Telugu

As with Shree/Shreemati, use of suffixes "Saahib/Sāhab" (Mr) and "Begum" (Mrs)(Urdu) as in "Welcome to India, Smith-saahib" or "Begum Sahib would like some tea".

Use of "mister" and "missus" as common nouns for wife/husband. For example, "Jyoti's mister stopped by yesterday" or "My missus is not feeling well".

"Master" is a common honorific for young boys (children, teenagers). e.g.: Master Kumar.

Use of honorifics (Mr, Mrs, Ms) with the first name. For example, Swathi Ashok Kumar might be addressed as "Ms Swathi" instead of "Ms Kumar". This is the only possible correct usage in South India, especially in Tamil Nadu, where most people don't use a surname (in order to have caste neutral name).

Use of the English words 'uncle' and 'aunty' as suffixes when addressing people such as distant relatives, neighbours, acquaintances, even total strangers (like shopkeepers) who are significantly older than oneself. E.g., "Hello, Swathi aunty!" In fact, in Indian culture, children or teenagers addressing their friends' parents as Mr Patel or Mrs Patel (etc.) is rare and may even be considered unacceptable or offensive (in the sense of referring to an elder person by name). A substitution of Sir/Ma'am, while common for addressing teachers/professors or any person in an official position, would be considered too formal to address parents of friends or any other unrelated (but known) elder persons. On the contrary, if the person is related, he/she will usually be addressed with the name of the relation in the vernacular Indian language, even while conversing in English. For example, if a woman is one's mother's sister, she would not be addressed (by a Hindi speaker) as "auntie" but as Mausi () (by a Kannada speaker as Chikkamma Kannada: ಅತ್ತೆ). Calling one's friends' parents aunty and uncle was also very common in Great Britain in the 1960s and 70s but is much rarer today. The terms 'Uncle' and 'Aunty' with certain intonations can also connote a derogatory reference to the advanced age of an individual.

Use of Respected Sir while starting a formal letter instead of Dear Sir. Again, such letters are ended with non-standard greetings, such as "Yours respectfully", or "Yours obediently", rather than the standard "Yours sincerely/faithfully/truly".

Sharma sir is not here - same as Sharma-ji is not here, a respectful address. No knighthood suffix.

Divergent usage

Although not mainstream, the insertion of "as" in describing a designation, where it would be omitted in Standard English: "Mahatma Gandhi is called as the father of the nation". "Yoghurt is called as curd in Indian English". This is similar to the American English usage of the phrase "different than", a form that would be considered erroneous in Britain.

"Kindly" used to mean "please": "Kindly disregard the previous message."

"Even" used to mean "as well/also/too": "Even I didn't know how to do it."

"compulsorily" used to mean "definitely" or "sure": "Dont worry, I will compulsorily come to meet you", "This is compulsorily a wrong action"

"Paining" used when "hurting" would be more common in Standard American and British: "My head is paining."

The word non-veg (short for non-vegetarian) is used to mean food which contains flesh of any mammal, fish, bird, shellfish, etc. or eggs. Fish, seafood, and eggs are not treated as categories separate from "meat", especially when the question of vegetarianism is at issue (milk and its products are always considered vegetarian). E.g., "We are having non-veg today for dinner", whereas the native varieties of English would have: "We are having meat today for dinner". Also note that a non-veg joke is regarded as a joke with mature content.

The word "mutton" is used to mean goat meat instead of sheep meat.

The word "hero" is used to mean a male protagonist in a story, especially in a motion picture. The protagonist need not have any specifically heroic characteristics. More significantly, "hero" is used to mean a movie actor who is often cast in the role of the protagonist. Thus, "Look at Vik; he looks like a hero", meaning "he is as handsome as a movie star."

"Music director" is used to mean a music composer for movies.

The word "dialogue" means "a line of dialogue" in a movie. ("That was a great dialogue!" means "That was a great line!") "Dialogues" is used to mean "screenplay". In motion picture credits, the person who might in other countries be credited as the screenwriter in India is often credited with the term "dialogues". Note the usage of British spelling.

The word "timing" is used to denote hours of operation or a scheduled time, such as "office timings" or "train timings", as opposed to the standard usage such as "The timing of his ball delivery is very good."

The word "amount" is used to denote a sum of money, such as "please refund the amount." or "the amount has been billed to your credit card."

The word "damn" used as an intensifier, especially a negative one, far more frequently and with far more emphatic effect, than in other dialects of English, as in "that was a damn good meal."

The word "elder" used as a comparative adjective in the sense of "older". For example, "I am elder to you", instead of "I am older than you."

The word "dress" (noun) is used to refer to clothing for men, women, and children alike, whereas in international varieties of English a dress is a woman's outer clothing with a bodice and a skirt as a single garment. The usage of dress as clothes does exist in international varieties but only in very rare occasions and in relevant context., e.g. schooldress. Young girls in India invariably wear a dress, which is commonly referred to as a frock in Indian English.

"Shirtings and suitings" used for the process of making such garments and also to refer to shops specializing in men's formal/business wear.

Use of "engagement" to mean not just an agreement between two people to marry, but a formal, public ceremony (often accompanied by a reception) where the engagement is formalized with a ring and/or other local rituals. Indians will not speak of a couple as being "engaged", until after the engagement ceremony has been performed. Similar to the use of term "marriage", a person may say "I am going to attend my cousin's engagement next month". Afterwards, the betrothed is referred to as one's "would-be" wife or husband. In this case, "would be" is used to mean "will be" in contrast with the standard and American and British connotation of "wants to be (but may not be)".

"Gentry" is a generalized term for social class - not specifically 'high social class'. The use of 'good', 'bad', 'high' and 'low' prefixed to 'gentry' is common.

"Graduation" used exclusively to mean completion of a bachelor's degree (as in the UK): "I did my graduation at Presidency College" ("I earned my bachelor's degree at Presidency College"), whereas in the United States it refers to completion of Highschool, Master's or PhD as well.

"Metro" to mean large city (i.e. 'metros such as Delhi and Chennai') This is a shortening of the term Metropolis. This can be confusing for Europeans, who tend to use the word to describe underground urban rail networks. However, following the popularity of the Delhi Metro, the word Metro now tends to be used to describe both the metropolis and the underground rail network.

The word "solid" is often used to mean something great or exceptional ("What a solid idea!" means "What a great idea!").

The word "fundamental" is often used to mean something which is great and exceptional rather than something basic. Also see fundoo below.

Words unique to (i.e. not generally well-known outside South Asia) and/or popular in India include those in the following by no means exhaustive list:

batchmate or batch-mate (Not classmate, but a schoolmate of the same grade)

"eggitarian" for a person who eats vegetarian food, milk and eggs but not meat; ovo lacto vegetarian.

compass box for a box holding mathematical instruments like compasses, divider, scale, protractor etc. Also widely referred to as a "geometry box".

cousin-brother (male first cousin) & cousin-sister (female first cousin)

foot overbridge (bridge meant for pedestrians)

flyover (overpass or an over-bridge over a section of road or train tracks)

godown (warehouse)

godman somewhat pejorative word for a person who claims to be divine or who claims to have supernatural powers

gully to mean a narrow lane or alley (from the Hindi word "gali" meaning the same).

long-cut (The "opposite" of short-cut, in other words, taking the longest route).

mugging or mugging up (memorising, usually referring to learning "by rote," and having nothing to do with street crime, what the word would mean in British/American English).

nose-screw (woman's nose-ring)

(The "opposite" of postpone, that is to change a meeting to be earlier). Many dictionaries have added this word.

tiffin box for lunch box. The word is also commonly used to mean a between-meal snack.

co-brother indicates relationship between two men who married sisters, as in "He is my co-brother"

co-inlaws indicates relationship between two sets of parents whose son and daughter are married, as in "Our co-inlaws live in Delhi."

vote-bank is a term commonly used during the elections in India, implying a particular bloc or community of people inclined to cast their votes for a political party that promises to deliver policies favouring them.

fundoo is an often used word, especially on college campuses, used to mean something something "fundamental" which in turn means something great or exceptional.

Words which are considered archaic in some varieties of English, but are still in use in Indian English:

Curd, where yoghurt would be more common in British/American English.

Dicky/dickey the trunk of a car or rarely, to refer to someone's rear. Into to mean "multiplied by", as in 2 into 2 = 4, rather than 2 times 2 = 4, which is more common in other varieties of English. The use of into dates back to the fifteenth century, when it had been common in British English.

Similarly, "is equal to" is substituted for "equals" in calculations in Indian English

Use of the phrases like nothing or like anything to express intensity. For example, "These people will cheat you like anything". Such usage was part of colloquial English language in seventeenth century Britain and America.

ragging for hazing(US).

In tension for being concerned or nervous. Phrased another way, "He is taking too much tension". Found in eighteenth century British English.

Use of thrice, meaning "three times", is common in Indian English.

Use of double and triple for numbers occurring twice or three times in succession, especially for a phone number. For example, a phone number 2233344 would be pronounced as double two, triple three, double four.

Use of "the same" instead of "it", as in "I heard that you have written a document on .... Could you send me the same?"

Word pairs "up to" and "in spite" compounded to "upto" and "inspite" respectively.

See also

Hindi English

Indian English literature

Regional accents of English

Regional differences and dialects in Indian English

Indian numbering system

Languages with official status in India

Sri Lankan English

References

Bibliography

Vellikkeel Raghavan (2010). Worshipping the English Goddess: A Dalit Revisitation to the Colonial Legacy. Unpublished UGC Project Report.

Further reading

External links

English in India

'Hover & Hear' pronunciations in a Standard Indian English accent, and compare side by side with other English accents from around the World.

"Linguistic and Social Characteristics of Indian English" by Jason Baldridge : A rather thorough analysis of Indian language published by the "Language In India" magazine.

On the future of Indian English, by Gurcharan Das.

An exploration into linguistic majority-minority relations in India, by B. Mallikarjun.

108 varieties of Indian English, Dharma Kumar, India Seminar, 2001 (Volume 500).

Category:Languages of India Category:Indian English