Indian English

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The term Indian English (IndE or IE for short) describes the variant of English as it is used in India as the official and educational language. Along with Hindi , English is one of the two national official languages ​​in India and serves as the lingua franca between the country's educated people. In contrast to the two major varieties of English, British English and American English , Indian English is generally not a native language for the speakers, but is acquired as a second language in educational institutions such as schools and universities.

Status of English in India

According to Article 343 of the Indian Constitution of 1950, a decision should be made about maintaining the status of English as the official language every 15 years. With the Official Languages ​​Act of 1963, the status of English as an official language has now been extended indefinitely. However, it is not to be expected that English will be abandoned as the official language, since the primary alternative would be Hindi as the national official language, which would meet with resistance, especially in the Dravidian- speaking area in the south. English remains a prestigious language and is only spoken fluently by a privileged minority of the population. When people from different language communities meet in India, they speak either Hindi or English to one another in the north, and mostly English in the south.

One can observe a considerable variation between speakers of Indian English: For example, the standard English of India is spoken in educated layers who have had English training up to about high school level. This group of speakers includes journalists, senior employees and academics. In addition, there are non-standard variants that are below the level of the standard English of India, e.g. B. spoken by travel guides or waiters. There are also a number of pidgins in India whose speakers have learned English outside of a formal school context and use English to communicate between two language groups. The Pidgins differ considerably from Indian English and are characterized by a mixture of English language structures and structures from a native Indian language. An example of such a pidgin is the Butler English.

Phonology

The pronunciation of Indian English is influenced by native Indian languages ​​such as Hindi , Bengali, and Tamil . Despite the regional differences, however, there are some similarities that can be considered characteristic of the phonology of Indian English:

Vowels and consonants

Indian English differs from the standard pronunciation of British English (Received Pronunciation, RP) in the following ways in particular:

  • Standard Indian English vowels and RP are similar. In non-standard variants of Indian English, however, there is considerable regional variation in the pronunciation of the vowels. So / e / in dress z. B. in Uttar Pradesh , Rajasthan or Tamil Nadu pronounced as [e], while speakers in Kashmir or in northeast India realize it as [ɛ].
  • The sounds / d / and / t / formed in RP alveolar are formed in Indian English retroflex as [ʈ] and [ɖ] .
  • All major languages ​​of India have no dental fricatives [θ] and [ð] as in thin or that . Therefore, the voiceless dental fricative / θ / is usually replaced by the voiceless dental plosive [t̪ʰ] or [t̪] and the voiced / ð / by the voiced dental plosive [d̪] .
  • The voiced postalveolar fricative / ʒ /   is replaced by [z]  or [dʒ]    , e.g. B. treasure [trɛzə: r].
  • Speakers of some Indian languages, e.g. B. Oriya , Bangla and Hindi, do not distinguish the sounds / w /  and / v /  in the pronunciation, so that e.g. B. power is pronounced either [pa: v :r] or [pa: wər].

Varieties of English such as British and American English differ in whether / r / is pronounced everywhere it is written or just before vowels ( rhotic vs. non-rhotic). Standard Indian English usually follows British English and is non-Rhotic. However, there are some non-standard varieties of Indian English that are rhotic influenced by Indian native languages.

Stress, rhythm and intonation

The emphasis of individual syllables in Indian English often differs from that of British English, although it is difficult to make general statements for Indian English because the pronunciation is differently influenced by the regional Indian languages. One pattern seems to be that the stress depends on the weight of the syllable - the heavier the syllable, the more likely it is to be stressed. A heavy syllable consists of a long vowel, a long vowel with one consonant, or a short vowel with multiple consonants.

Standard British English pronunciation (Received Pronunciation, RP) uses an accent-counting speaking rhythm . There is some research that suggests that Indian English is mostly spoken in a syllable-counting rhythm.

As a rule, an intonation comparable to British English is used in Indian English, for example a rising intonation is used for questions, while a falling intonation is used for statements. However, this can differ in some social contexts: India is culturally more hierarchical and very polite to strangers. Therefore the falling intonation, which is actually reserved for statements, is used in hierarchical situations by the superior interlocutor, e.g. B. by the teacher in class. The increasing intonation, on the other hand, which is actually used for questions, is also used in statements to strangers.

Morphology and syntax

The word formation and sentence structure of Indian English do not differ so much from the standard variants of American and British English as the pronunciation. However, there are some peculiarities that are typical of Indian English. Usually, however, the deviations are only common in non-standard variants of Indian English, while the standard of Indian English spoken by competent speakers follows the British or American standard sentence structure:

  • Especially in non-standard variants of Indian English there is a tendency to omit objects from verbs: OK, I'll take for transport instead of OK, I'll take it for transport .
  • Verb particles like off are added to individual verbs where they are not common in British English: I'll eat it off or I'll write off (in the sense of I'll finish writing ).
  • Speaker of Indian English tend the onset form ( progressive use) than in British English common. In non-standard variants of Indian English, it is even used for verbs that are not allowed in the progressive form: I am liking it .
  • The article is used differently in non-standard variants of Indian English . In some contexts it does not exist, where it is actually mandatory, in other contexts it is used although it should not be used: We had group discussion (without indefinite article) or Back to the square one (instead of Back to square one ) .
  • Since many Indians learn the English language by listening and imitating in everyday life, the written English often contains spelling errors: "Maintainance" or "Maintanance" instead of "Maintenance".
  • Texts in brackets are often appended to the preceding word with no spaces in between: "based on previous selection (level)" instead of "based on previous selection (level)".
  • Commas are sometimes placed before the first word after the comma: "to read data, just to make sure" instead of "to read data, just to make sure".
  • Grammatical "mistakes" like "Can you be able to see my screen" or "Did you came" are very common, both in the north and in the south.

A characteristic of Indian English is the tendency towards topicalization , i. H. known information is put in front, followed by new information as a comment afterwards:

  • Those people, I telephoned yesterday only
  • Only fashionable girls, these boys like

vocabulary

Apart from the pronunciation, no area of ​​Indian English differs so much from British and American English as the vocabulary. Indian English uses the vocabulary of British or American English, but has supplemented this with expressions from the Indian language area (for example wallah ).

British vs. American English

When British and American English use different vocabulary (e.g. lorry - truck ), Indian English often prefers the British phrase. However, there are also examples in which American English is preferred (e.g. AE pharmacy instead of BE chemist ) or in which Indian English has its own expression (e.g. brinjal instead of aubergine / eggplant ).

Influence from Indian languages

Many words in the languages ​​of the Indian subcontinent have found their way into British and American English throughout history; B. the following:

Other words, mostly of Hindi origin, are limited to Indian English. Examples are:

  • crore (10 million)
  • abhinaya (dance figure)
  • puja (ritual prayer)
  • bhel puri (Indian fast food)

Words from the Dravidian languages ​​find their way into the nationally spoken Indian standard English , some examples are shikakai (plant extract for hair care) or idli (a lentil and rice biscuit ).

The words listed here have a nationwide distribution in India; many other words are only used regionally.

Numerals

Large numbers, especially for amounts of money, are not formed with “thousand” or “million”, but with lakh (“hundred thousand”) and crore (“10 million”), and grouped accordingly: From 1234567890 (Standard: 1,234,567,890, one billion two hundred thirty-four millions five hundred sixty-seven thousand eight hundred and ninety ) in Indian English 123,45,67,890, one hundred twenty-three crore fourty-five lakh sixty-seven thousand eight hundred and ninety .

Lexical neoplasms

The Indian English forms like the British and American English new words, for example, composition ( compounding ). In this way, some new lexical formations have arisen that are specific to Indian English. Examples are:

  • black money (black money)
  • auto-rickshaw (motorized rickshaw )
  • god-woman (holy woman, faith healer)
  • soapnut (herbal extract for shampooing )

Other compositions are hybrid forms consisting of an English word and a portion of an Indian language, such as B .:

  • ghat road (road that goes through hills or mountains)
  • gobar gas (biogas, produced from cow dung)
  • kirana store (grocery store)
  • disco bhangra ( punjabi dance to disco music )

Courtesy and style

In oral Indian English, some forms of courtesy influenced by Hindi and other Indian languages ​​have become established:

  • As a respectful reference to strangers, older people and other persons of respect, the Hindi-derived suffix ji / jee is added to the name as in Please call a taxi for Gupta-ji .
  • Use of the titles Shri / Sri / Shree (Mr./Mr), Shrimati / Srimati / Shreemati (Mrs./Frau) or Kumari (Ms./Fäulein)
  • Use of no as in I told you no ?! Derived from Hindi na = “not” / “isn't it?”, or as a substitute for please in expressions like Come, no or Eat, no .

It is impolite for children and younger adults to address older adults directly by name in private. Therefore, younger speakers replace e.g. B. the address Mrs. Mamta or Mr. Raghav by Mamta aunty or Raghav uncle . This is necessary even if the elderly are not directly related to the speaker, e.g. B. with the older employees of the family or the friends of the parents.

There are also some expressions influenced by Hindi:

  • Your good name please? corresponds to What is your name? - according to Hindi Aap ka shubh naam?
  • Hello, what do you want? as a (not rude) greeting on the phone, according to Hindi Kya chahie?
  • Tell me as an answer on the phone in terms of How can I help you? corresponds to Hindi boliye = "speak!".

The style of Indian English is often described as archaic and formal. Business correspondence therefore often includes expressions such as the following:

  • Respected Sir instead of Dear Sir
  • Kindly do the needful .
  • We shall be highly obliged to you ...

Corpora

There are several systematic collections ( corpora ) of spoken and written Indian English that are used for scholarly purposes. The best known include:

  • Kolhapur Corpus (1978)
  • International Corpus of English - India (2007)

See also

literature

  • Anjuli Gupta-Basu: The trap of English as universal medium in colonial and postcolonial discourse on India. A historical review of attitudes towards English in India. Dissertation, Philological Faculty of the University of Frankfurt am Main, 1999. No ISBN.
  • Klaus Hansen, Uwe Carls, Peter Lucko: The Differentiation of English into National Variants: An Introduction . Erich Schmidt, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-503-03746-2 .
  • Braj B. Kachru: The Indianization of English: the English language in India . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1983, ISBN 0-19-561353-8 .
  • Claudia Lange: The Syntax of Spoken Indian English . John Benjamin Publishing, Amsterdam 2012, ISBN 978-90-272-4905-0 .
  • Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 .
  • Pingali Sailaja: Indian English . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2009, ISBN 978-0-7486-2595-6 .
  • Laura Terassa: Morphological simplification in Asian Englishes: Frequency, substratum transfer, and institutionalization. Dissertation, Philological Faculty of the University of Freiburg. Freiburg im Breisgau, 2019. No ISBN.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Leitner: The English in India . In: Rüdiger Ahrens, Wolf-Dietrich Bald, Werner Hüllen (ed.): Handbook of English as a Foreign Language . Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-503-03067-0 , p. 50-51 .
  2. ^ Pingali Sailaja: Indian English . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2009, ISBN 978-0-7486-2595-6 , pp. 4-5, 111-112 .
  3. ^ Gerhard Leitner: The English in India . In: Rüdiger Ahrens, Wolf-Dietrich Bald, Werner Hüllen (ed.): Handbook of English as a Foreign Language . Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-503-03067-0 , p. 51, 52 .
  4. ↑ Ravinder Gargesh: Indian English: phonology . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , pp. 235 .
  5. ↑ Ravinder Gargesh: Indian English: phonology . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , pp. 232-238 .
  6. ^ Pingali Sailaja: Indian English . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2009, ISBN 978-0-7486-2595-6 , pp. 19-20 .
  7. ^ Pingali Sailaja: Indian English . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2009, ISBN 978-0-7486-2595-6 , pp. 30 .
  8. ↑ Ravinder Gargesh: Indian English: phonology . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , pp. 240 .
  9. ^ Pingali Sailaja: Indian English . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2009, ISBN 978-0-7486-2595-6 , pp. 34 .
  10. ↑ Ravinder Gargesh: Indian English: phonology . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , pp. 241 .
  11. ^ Pingali Sailaja: Indian English . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2009, ISBN 978-0-7486-2595-6 , pp. 35 .
  12. ^ Pingali Sailaja: Indian English . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2009, ISBN 978-0-7486-2595-6 , pp. 45, 49, 52, 53 .
  13. ↑ Rakesh M. Bhatt: Indian English: syntax . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , pp. 553 .
  14. ^ Pingali Sailaja: Indian English . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2009, ISBN 978-0-7486-2595-6 , pp. 66-68 .
  15. ^ Pingali Sailaja: Indian English . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2009, ISBN 978-0-7486-2595-6 , pp. 69-75 .
  16. ^ Pingali Sailaja: Indian English . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2009, ISBN 978-0-7486-2595-6 , pp. 75-80 .
  17. ^ Pingali Sailaja: Indian English . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2009, ISBN 978-0-7486-2595-6 , pp. 87 .
  18. ^ Pingali Sailaja: Indian English . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2009, ISBN 978-0-7486-2595-6 , pp. 88 .
  19. ^ Pingali Sailaja: Indian English . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2009, ISBN 978-0-7486-2595-6 , pp. 86 .
  20. ^ Pingali Sailaja: Indian English . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2009, ISBN 978-0-7486-2595-6 , pp. 93 .