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'Indian English' refers to the dialects or varieties of English spoken primarily in India, and/or by first generation Indian diaspora elsewhere in the world. This dialect evolved due to British colonial rule of India for nearly two hundred years. The British rulers were more interested in administering and making money from Indian labour than teaching the Queen's English to Indians. English is the ''co-official'' language of India, which has the world's largest English-speaking population.[1]
Variations in the pronunciation of several phonemes are affected by the regional tongues (see Languages of India) across the Indian subcontinent, the greatest distinction being that between South India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh; and the region of North India and Pakistan. Several idiomatic forms crossing over from Indian literary and vernacular language also have made their way into the English used by the masses. Given India's diversity, however, there is indeed a general homogeneity in syntax and vocabulary that can be found among speakers across South Asia. In upper-class families, English is typically very close to Received Pronunciation, while still retaining hints of a uniquely Indian flavour.
Influences: British and American
The form of English that Indians (and other subcontinentals) are taught in schools is essentially British English, especially Scottish English, which has influenced Indian dialects that commonly have a pronounced "r" and a trilled ''r''. For most, it is desirable to emulate the brand of English that is linguistically known as Received Pronunciation or, more commonly, ''BBC English''. However, even during the time of British imperialism (before the creation of a separate states of Pakistan and Bangladesh), Indian English had established itself as an audibly distinct dialect with its own quirks and specific phrases.
The Indian government accepts both British English and American English forms of spellings as 'correct' English and makes no distinction. Indian spellings typically follow British conventions, while American conventions are used less frequently.
After gaining Independence in 1947, Indian English took on a divergent evolution, thus many phrases that the British may consider antiquated are still popular in India. The legacy of the East India Company and its practices still prevails in all official correspondence in India. Official letters continue to include phrases like "do the needful," "please do the needful" and "you will be intimated shortly". This difference in style, though, is not as marked as the difference between British and American English. Older British writers who made creative (and comical) use of now obsolete forms of colloquial English, such as P.G. Wodehouse and Thomas Hardy, are still popular in India.[2] British writer, journalist and wit Malcolm Muggeridge once joked that the last Englishman would be an Indian.
However, due to the growing influence of American culture in recent decades, American English has begun challenging traditional British English as the model for English in the Indian subcontinent. The proliferation of "MTV culture", especially through pop and hip hop, and the increasing desire of Indians to attend U.S., rather than colleges and universities in the UK, is leading to the spread of American English among Indian youth. American English spellings are also widely prevalent in scientific and technical publications while British English spellings are used in other media. The economic and political influence of the U.S. often leads to heated debates as to whether British English or American English is the more practical dialect for emigrating Indians to adopt. It must be stressed, however, that British English retains its hold on the majority of Indians, particularly those of the older generation and the younger generation in smaller cities and towns.
Studies show that "the majority of the informants (70%) felt that RP (Received Pronunciation: ''BBC English''; Standard English in Britain) would serve as the best model for Indian English, 10% thought ''General American English'' would be better, and 17% preferred the Indian variety of English." [3]
Indian English literature
Spoken Indian English is often the butt of jokes by "educated" British, American and Indian English-speakers alike as is evidenced by such characters as Peter Sellers's Indian party-goer in the movie The Party (film) and the convenience-store owner Apu Nahasapeemapetilon in The Simpsons; there is also no dearth of jokes among Indians 'riffing' the pronunciation and idiomatic inconsistencies of Indian English (see External Links at bottom).
However, in spite of banter regarding colloquial English, India has a consistent and long record of pre- and post-Independence thinkers and writers whose writings and speeches are attestations to many Indians' mastery of the language. Some of these include: Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore, C Rajagopalachari, Sri Aurobindo, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohandas Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, the famous novelist R K Narayan and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. More contemporary Indians, such as Vikram Seth and Salman Rushdie, are acknowledged masters of English literary style. Indian English writers and English writers of Indian origin — notably Booker Prize winners Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai, Pulitzer Prize Winner Jhumpa Lahiri and Nobel Prize winner V. S. Naipaul — have made creative use of more stereotypical Indian English through the characters in their works.
"An Indian English ''Grammar''"
Formal British English is preferred over the layman's Indian English in educated Indian circles and higher Indian writing. Middle and upper-class Indians, especially those with greater and wider exposure to the West through books, Electronic Media (such as television or movies) and travel, tend to speak grammatically-standard English. English is an official language of central and some state governments in India. What is characterised as Indian English is not considered "correct usage" by either government-related institutions (such as offices and schools) or educated Indians who prize 'proper' English. Indian schools still teach grammar from (frequently older) British textbooks like Wren & Martin or J. C. Nesfield (1898): the grammar of higher British English is considered the only correct one. Efforts by the Oxford University Press to publish a dictionary of Indian English resulted in abject failure since customers in India preferred the 'proper' British dictionary.
The distinct evolution of regional variations in contemporary usage has led to terms such as ''Hinglish'' (Hindi + English) , ''Tanglish'' (Tamil + English) and Minglish (Marathi + English). These terminologies are often referred to in a humorous way, but at times they also have a derogatory connotation, with each region or stratum of society having fun at the expense of others. ''Hinglish'', ''Tanglish'', ''Bonglish'' (Bengali + English) and other unnamed variations are particularly capitalised and made popular in the field of advertising. Here, the aim of reaching a large cross-section of society is fulfilled by such double-coding. There are thus many borrowed words from Indian languages that do find their way into popular writing, advertisements and newspapers, not to mention TV spots and shows.
Phonology of Indian English
In spite of the great stress on "good" English in higher circles, the layman's spoken variety, Indian English, is widespread and well-known for its many eccentricities. For this reason, "grammar of Indian English" must be taken with a grain of salt. Indian accents vary greatly from those leaning more towards a purist British to those leaning more towards a more 'vernacular' (Indian language) -tinted speech (one of the reasons for this is that in Indian schools, almost no attention is given to the "Received Pronunciation", but rather to written English). The most ubiquitous instance of modified sounds is the morphing of alveolar English , , and sounds to more retroflex variants (, , and respectively). South Indians tend to curl the tongue more for and , while Telugu speakers (from Andhra Pradesh), Bengalis (from both India and Bangladesh) and Biharis often substitute for (as in 'jero' instead of 'zero'). Subcontinentals, especially those from the Sindh (of both India and Pakistan), have the habit of changing to (as in 'ven' instead of 'when') or vice versa ("I will pay with Weeza" for "...Visa"). Both may also become .
The important features of phonological differences between Indian English and Received Pronunciation (RP) of the London region (and even with most other dialects of Standard English) include:
★ Many native languages of India (including Hindi itself) lack the voiced postalveolar fricative (). Typically, or is substituted, e.g. ''treasure'' , and in the south Indian variants, with as in 'sh''ore', e.g. ''treasure'' .
★ Standard Hindi and most other vernaculars do not differentiate between (voiced labiodental fricative) and (voiced labiovelar approximant). Instead, most Indians use a frictionless labio-dental approximant for words with either sound. So ''wine'' is pronounced like ''vine''.
★ All consonants are distinctly doubled in General Indian English wherever the spelling suggests so. e.g., ''drilling'' .
★ Inability to pronounce certain (especially word-initial) consonant clusters by people of rural backgrounds. This is usually dealt with by epenthesis. e.g., ''school'' .
★ All major native languages of India lack interdental fricatives ( and ; spelled with ''th''). Usually, the aspirated voiceless dental plosive is substituted for and the unaspirated voiced dental plosive is substituted for . This can create confusions like ''themselves'' being heard by native English speakers as ''damsels''.
★ In RP, word-initial and syllable initial have aspirated and unaspirated allophones, but in native Indian languages (except Tamil), the distinction between aspirated and unaspirated plosives is and phonemic. Generally, Indian English speakers use the unaspirated voiceless plosives , , and although they may deal with the allophones as separate phonemes, which is not as apparent to native speakers.
★ A common feature of General Indian English is the use of retroflex plosives and instead of the corresponding alveolar plosives of English and . 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 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 Bihar) 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 nasalised retroflex flap.
★ RP English is a stress-timed language, and word stress is an important feature of Received Pronunciation. Indian-English speakers regularly put the stress accents at the wrong syllables, or accentuate all the syllables of a long English word, since stress is not considered an essential part of pronunciation by them (Indian native languages are actually ''syllable-timed languages'' like Latin and French). Also, Indian English speakers speak English with a pitch-accent, which makes Indian-English sound like a ''sing-song voice'' to non-Indian English speakers. Indians also have problems with other supra-segmental features of English.
★ Sometimes, Indian speakers interchange and , especially when plurals are being formed. It suffices to note that in Hindi (but not Urdu) and Sanskrit, is not a phoneme (as also any other voiced sibilant). So may even be pronounced as by people of rural backgrounds. Again, in dialects like Bhojpuri, all instances of are spoken like , a phenomenon which is also apparent in their English. Exactly the opposite is seen for many Bengalis.
★ In case of the postalveolar affricates , the native languages like Hindi have corresponding affrictaes articulated from the palatal region, rather than postalveolar, and they have more of a stop component than fricative; this is reflected in their English.
★ While retaining in the final position, Indian speakers usually add a after it. Hence → (''ringing'').
★ Syllabic , and are usually replaced by the VC clusters , and (as in ''button'' ), or if a high vowel precedes, by (as in 'little' ). Syllable nuclei in words with the spelling ''er'' (a schwa in RP and an r-colored schwa in GA) are also replaced VC clusters. e.g., ''meter'', → .
★ General Indian English has long monophthongs and instead of R.P. glided diphthongs and ; this variation is quite valid in General American English.
★ Many Indian English speakers do not make a clear distinction between and nor between and . (''cot-caught merger'').
★ The RP vowels , and are all realized as in Indian English.
★ In RP, occurs only before a vowel. But much of General Indian English uses some sort of in almost all positions in words as dictated by the spellings. Indian speakers do not typically use the retroflex approximant for ''r'', which is common for American English speakers.
★ Indian speakers convert ''gh'' digraphs to aspirated voiced velar plosive . eg., 'ghost' . But ''rough'', ''dough'', etc. are pronounced as in RP.
★ English words borrowed from French are pronounced in RP with a proper French pronunciation, but in India, such words are sometimes pronounced according to the rules of English pronunciation. e.g., 'bouquet' or .
★ Many Indian speakers always pronounce 'the' as , irrespective of the fact whether the definite article comes before a vowel or a consonant, or whether it is stressed or not. Similarly, they pronounce ''a'' as (always) and never as .
In total, such discrepancies exist in General Indian English because, first, Indians tend to look up to their own phonologies for the nearest approximations of English phonemes, and second, because they by and large tend to follow English spelling. By comparison to English, all Indian scripts are highly phonemic alpha-syllabic scripts, and English (in Roman script).
''Reference: Varshney, R.L., "An Introductory Textbook of Linguistics and Phonetics", 15th Ed. (2005), Student Store, Bareilly.''
Grammar, idioms and usage in Indian English
Grammar tweaks
John Lawler of the University of Michigan observes the following anomalies in the grammar of Indian English:
★ The progressive tense in stative verbs: ''I am understanding it.'' ''She is knowing the answer.''; an influence of traditional Hindi grammar, it is more common in northern states.
★ Variations in noun number and determiners: ''He performed many charities.'' ''She loves to pull your legs.''
★ Prepositions: ''pay attention on, discuss about, convey him my greetings''. Most prepositions of English are direct mental translations of the approximate postpositions of Hindi, but the Hindi-speakers fail to note that there isn't always a one-to-one correspondence.
★ Tag questions: The use of ''"isn't it?"'' and ''"no?"'' as general question tags, as in ''You're going, isn't it?'' instead of ''You're going, aren't you?'', and ''He's here, no?'' ('na' often replaces 'no': another influence of Hindi, this time colloquial, common all across the North, West, and East--the South replaces it with the 'ah' sound, as in ''Ready, ah?'', an influence of colloquial Tamil and Kannada.)
★ Word order: ''They're late always.'' ''My all friends are waiting.''
★ ''Yes'' and ''no'' agreeing to the form of a question, not just its content -- A: ''You didn't come on the bus?'' B: ''Yes, I didn't.''"
★ Use of the indefinite article 'a' before words starting with vowels (usually a slip of the tongue). In addition to Lawler's observations, other unique patterns are also standard and will frequently be encountered in Indian English:
★ The past perfect tense used in verbs where International English speakers would use the past simple. ''I had gone'' for ''I went.''
★ Use of ''would'' instead of ''will'' as in "I would be going to New York this weekend".
★ Use of the words ''but'' or ''only'' as intensifiers such as in: "''I was just joking but.''" or "''It was she only who cooked this rice''." Or even "''I didn't go only''" to mean "I didn't end up going after all." (Influenced by Hindi syntax.)
★ Anglicisation of Indian words especially in Chennai by adding "ify" to a local Tamil word.
★ Use of yaar, machaa, abey, arey in an English conversation between Indians, mainly by people of native Hindi-speaking origin; 'da', 'machaa' is more frequently used in the South.
★ Use of the word ''ki'' (Hindi and Marathi) to mean, loosely, ''that'', such as in "What I mean is ''ki'' we should adopt this plan instead." (Seen mainly in North and West India.)
★ Idiomatic English for quantification in use of preposition "of", as in "''There is so much of happiness in being honest''."
★ Use of the plural ''ladies'' for a single lady or a woman of respect, as in "There was a ''ladies'' at the phone."
★ Use of "open" and "close" instead of switch/turn on/off, as in "Open the air conditioner" instead of "Turn on the air conditioner", and "Open your shirt" for "Take off your shirt." This construction is also found in Quebec English.
★ Use of "hope" where there is no implication of desire but merely expectation: "We don't want rain today but I hope it will rain." (Used mainly by people from the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh)
★ Use of "off it" and "on it" instead of "switch it off" and "switch it on."
★ Use of "current went" and "current came" for "The power went out" and "The power came back"
★ Use of "y'all" for "you all" or "all of you", as used in Southern American English, especially by Anglo-Indians.
★ Swapping around the meanings of "slow" and "soft" as in "I shall speak slower for you" (actually means I will speak softly) or "make the fan softer" (actually means make the fan go slower/ reduce its speed)
★ Creation of nonsensical, rhyming double-words to denote generality of idea or act, a 'totality' of the word's denotation, as in "No more ice-cream-fice-cream for you!", "Let's go have some chai-vai (tea, "tea and stuff")." or "There's a lot of this fighting-witing going on in the neighbourhood." (Prevalent mainly in Hindi- and Punjabi-speaking states.)
★ Use of "''baazi''"/"''baaji''" or "-''giri''" for the same purpose, as in "business-baazi" or "cheating-giri." (Also prevalent mainly in Hindi-speaking states.)
★ Use of word "''wallah''" to denote occupation or 'doing of/involvement in doing' something, as in "The taxi-wallah overcharged me.", "The grocery-wallah sells fresh fruit." or "He's a real music-wallah: his CD collection is huge."
★ Use of the word ''maane'' (Bengali) , "Yani" (Urdu) and ''matlab'' (Hindi/Urdu) to mean, loosely, "meaning" ("What I mean is..."), as in "''The problem with your idea, ''maane'', what I feel is missing, is ''ki'' it does not address the problem of overstaffing''." or "''Your explanation, ''matlab'', your feeble attempt at one, was sorely lacking in cohesiveness.''"
★ Overuse of the words "Generally"/"Actually"/"Obviously"/"Basically" in the beginning of a sentence.e.g "Actually I am not feeling well."
★ Use of the word "''since''" instead of "''for''" in conjunction with periods of time, as in "''I have been working since four years''" instead of "''I have been working for four years''" or "''I have been working since four years ago''". This usage is more common among speakers of North Indian languages such as Hindi where the words for both "''since''" and "''for''" are the same.
★ Confusion, especially among North Indians, between the use of ''till'' and ''as long as'', as in "Till you haven't finished your homework, you will not get dinner." This is again directly traceable to Hindi grammar.
★ Use of the word "''gift''" as a verb : You are gifting me a new cell phone?
★ Use of "I can able to cook" instead of "I can cook" - a widespread grammatical error in India.
★ Use of "Can you drop me?" and "We will drop her first" instead of "Can you drop me off?" and "We will drop her off first"
★ Omission of the definite article: e.g. "Let's go to city" instead of "Let's go to the city"
★ Usage of "out of hundred" instead of per cent: "He got hundred out of hundred" instead of "He got a hundred" or "He got one hundred per cent".
★ Pronunciation of "h" as "hech" in South India.
★ Use of the Latin word "''cum''", meaning "with", as in "Welcome to the gymnasium ''cum'' swimming pool building." This was common in the past in British English.
★ In South India, phrases such as "that and all", or "this and all" are used roughly to convey the meaning "all of that (stuff)" or "regarding that". e.g: A: "Can I pay you back later? I don't have my wallet." B: "That and all I don't know. I need the money now."
★ Use of "the same" instead of "it", as in "I heard that you have written a document on .... Could you send me the same?" (this again used to be standard British English but now appears old-fashioned).
★ Use of "kindly" instead of "please" - although grammatically correct in British English, it sounds formal or pompous in spoken English.
★ Use of "right?", a translation of Hindi ''kya'', at the end of a sentence. ''Kya'' is also encountered in Indian English.
Idioms and popular phrases
★ ''Mast'' meaning great. "''Mast hai''" meaning "It's great"
★ "''Your ''good'' name please?''": "What is your name?", carryover from Hindi expression "Shubh-naam", literally meaning "auspicious name". This is similar to the way Japanese refer to the other person's name with an honorific "O-" prefix, as in "O-namae" instead of the simple "namae" when referring to their own name. It is also an indication that the questioner wants to know the person's formal or legal given name, as opposed to the pet name s/he would be called by close friends and family.
★ "''Out of station''" to mean "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.
★ "''Join duty''" to mean "reporting to work for the first time". "''Rejoin duty''" is to come back to work after a vacation.
★ "''Hello, What do you want?''": used by some when answering a phone call, not perceived as impolite by most Indians
★ "''Tell me''": used when answering the phone, meaning "How can I help you?"
★ "''send it across''" instead of "send it over", as in "send the bill across to me" instead of "send the bill over to me".
★ "''order for food''" instead of "order food", as in "Let's order for sandwiches".
★ "''What a ''nonsense''/''silly'' you are!''" or "''Don't be doing such nonsense any more.''": occasional - idiomatic use of nonsense/silly as nouns (although this use of nonsense is not uncommon in British English).
★ "''back''" replacing "''ago''" when talking about elapsed time, as in "''I met him five years back''" rather than "''I met him five years ago''." (Though this too is not uncommon in British English)
★ "''freak out''" is meant to have fun, as in "''let's go to the party and freak out''."
★ "''make out''" instead of "''figure out''", as in "''Did you make out what he was saying?''."
★ "''pass out''" is meant to graduate, as in "''I passed out of the university in 1995''."
★ "''go for a toss''" is meant to go haywire or to flop, as in "''my plans went for a toss when it started raining heavily''."
★ "funny" is meant to replace not only "odd"/"strange" but "rude"/"precocious"/"impolite" as well. "That man was acting really funny with me, so I gave him a piece of my mind"
★ "''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".
★ "''tight slap''" to mean "hard slap".
Titles (of respect; formal)
★ Referring to elders, strangers or anyone meriting respect as "'jee'"/"'ji'" (suffix) as in "''Please call a taxi for Gupta-ji''" (North, West and East India)
★ Use of prefixes "''Shree''"/"''Shri''" (Mr) or "''Shreemati''"/"''Shrimati''" (Ms/Mrs): Shri Ravi Shankar or Shreemati Das Gupta.
★ 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 "Mr" and "Mrs" as common nouns. For example, "Jyoti's Mr stopped by yesterday" or "My Mrs is not feeling well".
★ Use of "Ms" with first name. For example, Swathi Ashok Kumar might be addressed as "Ms Swathi" instead of "Ms Kumar". This is logical and perhaps the only possible correct usage in South India, especially in Tamil Nadu, where most people don't use a surname.
★ 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 friend's parents as ''Mr Patel'' or ''Mrs Patel'' (etc.) is considered unacceptable, perhaps even offensive—a substitution of ''Sir/Ma'am'' is also not suitable except for teachers. On the contrary, if a person is ''really'' one's uncle or aunt, he/she will usually not be addressed as "uncle"/"auntie", but with the name of the relation in the vernacular Indian language, even while conversing in English. It is interesting to observe that calling one's friends' parents auntie and uncle was also very common in Great Britain in the 1960s and 70s but has is much rarer today. 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'' (Hindi: मौसी).
★ 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".
★ Use of "Baba" (father) while referring to an elderly male, such as "No Baba, just try and understand, I cannot come today".
★ In lengthy texts, such as newspaper articles, a person is referred to with his name, position, department and company without prepositions and often without the first name spelled out, leaving just the initial: "D. Singh, manager, ''department function'' ("tech sales"), ''company name''".Is Windows losing out and Linux gaining? - India Times In South India, especially in Tamil Nadu, where surnames are not used, the initial stands for one's father's first name, e.g., in M. Karthik, the initial M could stand for Mani, Karthik's father's first name.
★ the phrase of 'the concerned person' is widely used in oral Indian English.
★ 'A child was born of wed lock' in Indian English has the oppositive meaning of its English origin.
Interjections and casual references
★ Casual use of words ''yaar'' (friend, buddy, dude, man, mate), ''bhai'' (brother) and ''bhaiyya'' (elder brother) much as with the American English 'man' or 'dude', as in " Arey! C'mon, yaar! Don't be such a killjoy!", "Long time no see, bhai." or "Ay, bhaiyya! Over here!" Yaar is the equivalent of mate in Australian and British English. The word ''boss'' is also sometimes used in this way, among friends but also to male strangers, as in "How much to go to the train station, boss?", or "Good to see you, boss."
★ Informal and sometimes coarse assignations of familial relationships to friends. For example, ''machan'' in Chennai and ''sala'' in Mumbai literally mean brother-in-law, but are informally used by the youth to refer to each other. Targeted at a stranger, such words may take a derogatory meaning (like "sleeping with your sister").
★ Use of interjections ''Arey!'' and ''acchha!'' to express a wide range of emotions, usually positive though occasionally not, as in "Arey! What a good job you did!", "Accha, so that's your plan." or "Arey, what bad luck, yaar!"
★ Use of the word "chal" (Hindi for the verb "walk") to mean the interjection "Ok", as in "Chal, I gotta go now" at the end of a phone call
★ Use of ''T-K'' in place of O.K. when answering a question, as in "Would you like to come to the movie?" -- "T-K, I'll meet you there later." ("theek hai", literally "fine is", meaning "okay")
★ Use of ''oof!'' to show distress or frustration, as in "Oof! The baby's crying again!"
★ Along with "oof!", there is also "oof oaf!" which is in a more whining voice which kind of means "oh, no!". Not many Indians will say this, but it is used widely in Hindi movies or soap operas. The South Indian equivalent is "Aiyo!", expanded to "Aiyaiyo!" in proportion to the provocation. The latter phrase is the trademark of the South Indian, as caricatured in Hindi movies.
★ Use of "Wah" to express admiration, especially in musical settings, as in "Wah! Wah! You play the sitar so well!"
★ Use of "just" and "simply" in a seemingly arbitrary manner in southern India, especially Kerala. e.g. Q:"Why did you do it?" A:"Simply!" or "Just I was telling to [sic] him.
★ "Lady's finger" means "Okra" (as in some other English-speaking countries). "Brinjal" means eggplant or aubergine.
★ "Hotel" means "restaurant" (as well as specifically "big hotel") in India: "I ate in the hotel". "Lodge" is used to refer to small hotels. Sometimes "Lodge" refers to a place where you stay (in rooms) and "Hotel" refers to a place where you eat.
★ "stepney" or "stepaney" refers to a car's spare tyre. It is also used to refer to a mistress (i.e., a "spare" wife!)
★ "specs" means spectacles (as in colloquial UK English).
★ "Dhap" means lie or terminological inexactitude).
★ "cent per cent" means "100 per cent" as in "He got cent per cent in maths."
★ "centum" is also frequently used to refer to 100.
★ Overuse of the word "Please" as an interjection, often over-stressing the vowel. This could stem from "please" being implied within the verb conjugation in Hindi, causing speakers to overcompensate for its absence in English.
★ Use of the verb "sit" in place of "live., e.g. "Where are you sitting?" for "Where do you live? (about one's location in a school or office but not home)"
★ ''High-End'' : (Supposedly) of very high quality (used sarcastically for work and people).
Anomalous usage
★ "Paining" used when "hurting" would be more common in Standard American and British: "My head is paining."
★ "Cover" to mean envelope or shopping bag. For example, "Put the documents in a cover and post it", and "Put the vegetables in a separate cover".
★ "To fire" used to mean "given an oral (not written) dressing down by a superior" rather than "sacked" or "dismissed." Indian: ''I got fired today at the office.'' American: ''I got chewed out today at the office.''
★ "Today morning" (afternoon, evening, etc.) instead of "this morning." ("I met with him today morning."). Similarly, "yesterday night" instead of "last night".
★ "Pattice" is used for a singular vegetable /Corn patty or plural Corn patties.(even among educated classes)
★ "Revert" used to mean "reply to." ("Why have you not reverted my letter?" meaning "Why have you not replied to my letter?")
★ The word "marriage" used to mean "wedding." ("I am attending my cousin's marriage next month.")
★ The word "holiday" used to mean any day on which a person is not at work, including official holidays, vacations, sick leave, weekends, etc. ("Sunday is my holiday.")
★ Treatment of the phrase "I don't think so" as a unit, as in "''I don't think so'' I can do that" instead of "I don't think I can do that."
★ The word "meat" is used to mean the flesh of any mammal, fish, bird, shellfish, etc. Fish, seafood, and poultry are not treated as categories separate from "meat," especially when the question of vegetarianism is at issue. (This is also a tendency in several dialects of North American English.)
★ The word "mutton" is used to mean goat meat instead of sheep meat (and sometimes in a broader, euphemistic sense to mean any red meat, i.e., not poultry or fish).
★ 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."
★ The verb "repair" in southern India is used as a noun for a broken object as in, "The TV became repair." The same word is used for saying when the broken object is fixed: "The TV is repaired and now it is working properly."
★ The word "stay" used for "live" or reside at": "Where do you stay?" meaning not "Where are you temporarily lodging" but "Where is your residence?" (though this is normal in Standard Scottish English)
★ The word "damn" used as an intensifier, especially a negative one, far more frequently and with far more emphatic effect, than in international English, as in "That was a damn good meal".
★ The word "healthy" to refer to fat people, in North India in general and in Bihar in particular as in "His build is on the healthy side" to refer to a positively overweight person. It is used because most people who are thin often suffer from many diseases. People presume that if a person is in a financial position to get fat he mustn't suffer from diseases i.e. he must be healthy
★ The expression "my dear", used as an adjective to refer a likeable person, as in "He is a my dear person." Very common in Bihar.
★ The word "dear" used as a term address of pleasant (male) companionship equivalent to "mate" in Australian English and presumably used as ''yaar'' would be in Hindi/Urdu.
★ The word "dress" is used to refer to clothes for men, women, and children alike: "She bought a new dress for her son."
★ The word "cloth" usually refers only to any clothes or fabrics that are not wearable, like "waste cloth": "Use that cloth for cleaning."
★ "Full Shirt or Full Arm Shirt" is used for "Full Sleeves" and "Half Shirt or Half Arm Shirt" for "Half Sleeves"
★ "Cloth" and "clothe" are used interchangeably. 'Clothe' is sometimes regarded as the singular form of 'clothes'.
★ "Shirtings and suitings" used for the process of making such garments
★ "''saloon''" instead of salon, as in "''I will visit the hair saloon''."
★ "Bath" and "bathe" are also used interchangeably.
★ Greetings like "Happy Birthday" are used even to say that "Today is my happy birthday"
★ The use of "also" in place of "too" or "as well"; as in "I also need a blanket" instead of "I too need a blanket" or "He was late also" instead of "He was late as well"
★ Intensifying adjectives by doubling them. This is a common feature of most Indian languages. For example: "She has curly-curly hair"; "You are showing your hairy-hairy legs; "We went to different-different places in the city in search of a good hotel; "You will get used to the humidity slowly-slowly". An extreme example is the use of the phrase "simp-simply" by Kannada speakers to mean "without any reason", obviously mirroring the Kannada "sum-sumne".
★ Use of "colour" to imply "colourful"; often doubled in usage as in the previous item. "Those are colour-colour flowers".
★ Use of "reduce" to mean "lose weight." "Have you reduced?"
★ Use of "this side" and "that side" instead of "here" and "there." "Bring it this side." "We went that side."
★ Use of "engagement" to mean not just an agreement between two people to marry, but a formal, public ceremony (often accompanied by a party) where the engagement is formalized. 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 will not be)."
★ The word "marry" used to mean "arrange or organize a wedding for," as in "I will be marrying my daughter next month", meaning: "I will be hosting/organizing my daughter's wedding next month."
★ "Keep" is used to refer to a woman who is someone's mistress. For example, "She is his keep", and also "She is a kept woman".
★ "Graduation" used to mean completion of a bachelor's degree: "I did my graduation at Presidency College" ("I earned my bachelor's degree at Presidency College.")
★ Word order following who, what, where, when, why, or how. In standard American and British English, the following are correct
:"Where are you going?"
:"Tell me where you are going"
:In Indian English, however, a speaker will tend to choose one or the other word order pattern and apply it universally, thus:
:"Where are you going?" and "Tell me where are you going.", or
:"Where you are going?" and "Tell me where you are going."
★ "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.
★ Use of the word "shift" to indicate "move", as in "When are you shifting?" (instead of "When are you moving?").
★ Use of "Sugar" to ask people if they are diabetic ("Do you have sugar?", instead of "Do you have diabetes?").
★ Use of "off" as an emphatic. ("''I did it off''" to mean "I went ahead and did it", or "''Do it off''" to mean "Do it without hesitation".)
★ Use of "buck" as a colloquial name for the Rupee.
★ Lifting the phone instead of picking up the phone.
★ Use of "doubt" to mean "a follow-up question", as in "I have a small doubt about this week's homework" or "Do you have time for a doubt?".
Words unique to or originating in Indian English (in formal usage)
:''Main articles: List of English words of Hindi origin, List of English words of Tamil origin, List of English words of Sanskrit origin, List of English words of Urdu origin, and List of English words of Malayalam origin''
Indians frequently inject words from Indian languages, such as Marathi,Bengali, Kannada,Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Urdu into English. While the currency of such words usually remains restricted to Indians and other Indian subcontinentals, there are many which have been regularly entered into the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' as their popularity extended into worldwide mainstream English. Some of the more common examples are "", "", "", "pyjamas"; others were introduced via the transmission of Indian culture, examples of which are "mantra", "karma", "avatar", "pundit" and "guru". The lead character in the pop sitcom "Dharma and Greg" has an Indian name "Dharma".
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)
★ ''Chatni'' (something you eat with naan)
★ ''cousin-brother'' (male first cousin) & ''cousin-sister'' (female first cousin); used conversely is ''one's own brother/sister'' (of one's parent, as opposed to uncle or aunt; English brother/sister): most Indians live in extended families and many do not differentiate even nominally between cousins and direct siblings.
★ ''crore'' (ten million) and ''lakh'' (one hundred thousand)
★ ''Dicky/dickey'' the boot of a car
★ ''Double-confirm'' for re-confirm or just confirm.
★ ''eve teasing'' (catcalling - harassment of women)
★ ''foot overbridge'' (bridge meant for pedestrians)
★ ''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).
★ ''Himalayan blunder'' (grave mistake)
★ ''mugging'' to mean studying hard or swetting, and having nothing to do with street crime
★ ''nose-screw'' or ''nose-ring'' (woman's nose ornament)
★ ''opticals'' (eyeglasses)
★ ''pass-out'' to graduate from college
★ to ''prepone'' (to advance, literally the opposite of 'postpone').
★ ''Ragging'' for fagging(UK)/hazing(US).
★ ''In tension'' for being concerned or nervous
★ ''time pass'' or ''timepass'' to mean something that is good enough for killing time. For example, "The movie was not great, but timepass".
★ ''updation'' (used in out-sourcing to mean to update something, as in "I've completed the updation".)
★ ''upgradation'' (commonly used in business communication instead of 'upgrade')
★ ''uptil'' used for or "up until".
★ ''upto'' (a shortening of "up to")
★ ''villi'' used for villainess, especially in South India.
★ ''would-be'' (fiancé/fiancée)
The book ''Hobson-Jobson'' by Henry Yule and A. C. Burnell, first published in 1886, gives a glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words.
Colloquial and slang words used in Indian English
The words below are not generally used in formal Indian English. These are mainly used by the younger generation and may not be used or understood by older English speakers in India.
★ ''arbit'' (a slang term and short for arbitrary. Can be used to mean "vague", "random" or "bad". e.g.: "What an arbit ending that movie had!" Used primarily by college students in the metros. It is pronounced either as "arbitt" or "arbid", usually with equal stress on both syllables)
★ '' short for fundamental. Refers to the background behind a concept - "''I can't understand the funda of compactness!''", "''He explained the funda of Newton's Law of Cooling''". Used almost exclusively by college students in large cities, esp. Delhi and Mumbai.
★ ''fundu'' or ''fundoo'' - great. Someone who has good fundas is fundu. 'Fundu grub' means great food. The word sometimes surfaces more publicly as in this ad for chips: 'Five fundu flavours', probably aimed at the young, college-going market
★ ''enthu'', a short form for 'enthusiasm' or 'enthusiastic'. For example, 'He has a lot of enthu'.
★ ''n'' - Many (He takes n troubles to stay neat).
★ 'Shag' in Indian English means 'to masturbate' as opposed to the International usage of the word meaning 'to have sexual intercourse with'.
★ ''time pass'' or ''timepass'' to mean something that is good enough for killing time. For example, "The movie was not great, but timepass".
★ "''Deadly''", "''hi-fi''", "''sexy''" are used in idiomatic ways as adjectives. ''Deadly'' means intense, "''hi-fi''" stylish or beyond the perception of the average person and "''sexy''" excellent or extremely cool. Examples are "''That movie was deadly, yaar; what an action scene!''", "''Your shoes are hi-fi. Where'd you get them?''" and "''That's a sexy car, man!''"
★ "Propose", to ask out on a date. Unlike Western usage, it does not imply marriage.
★ "Gone for a toss", to mean something got ruined. The British usage would mean gone for a wank(mastrubation).
See also
★ Indian English literature
★ India
★ Regional Differences and Dialects in Indian English
★ Indian subcontinent
★ South Asia
★ Pakistan
★ Bangladesh
★ Sri Lanka
★
References
1. [1] ABC News Radio
2. [2] Shashi Tharoor on P G Wodehouse in India
3. [3]Hohenthal, Annika. ''English in India:Loyalty and Attitudes'' Language in India Volume 3 : 5 May 2003
External links
★ Dictionary of Indian English
★ "Linguistic and Social Characteristics of Indian English" by James 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.
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