Indian English

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Indian English

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' Indian party-goer in the movie «The Party» 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 produced many notable writers in the English language, including Sri Aurobindo, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohandas Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, the famous novelist R.K. Narayan, Ruskin Bond, and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. More contemporary Indians, such as Vikram Seth and Salman Rushdie, are acknowledged masters of English literary style. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, a Kolkata-native, is a major figure in current literary theory notorious for her rigorous and, to some, incomprehensibly academic English prose. Indian-English writers and English writers of Indian origin-notably Booker Prize winners Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy; and Kiran Desai, Booker Prize shortlisted author Rohinton Mistry; 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. It should be noted that while some of the novelists in this group often made use of Indian English in their dialogues, all of these aforementioned writers communicate in and write prose of standard English grammar.

The role of English within the complex multilingual society of India is far from straightforward: together with Hindi it is used across the country, but it can also be a speaker's first, second, or third language, and its features may depend heavily on their ethnicity and caste. The grammar of Indian English has many distinguishing features, of which perhaps the best-known are the use of the present continuous tense, as in 'He is having very much of property', and the use of isn't it as a ubiquitous question tag: 'We are meeting tomorrow, isn't it?' The first example rejects another characteristic of the language, which is to include intrusive articles such as in or of in idiomatic phrases. Verbs are also used differently, with speakers often dropping a preposition or object altogether: 'I insisted immediate payment', while double possessives - 'our these prices' (instead of the British English 'these prices of ours') - are commonplace.

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), Kinglish (Kannada + English), Telgish (Telugu + 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

Indian accents vary greatly from those close to a pure British (RP) to those leaning towards a more 'vernacular' (Indian language) - tinted speech.

Among the distinctive features of vowel-sounds of Indian English speakers are:

· Many Indian languages (exception: Western Hindi and Punjabi) do not natively possess a separate phoneme /æ/ (as in <trap>). Many speakers thus do not differentiate between the vowel sounds /(as in «dress») and /æ/ (as in <trap>), except in cases where a minimal pair such as <bed>/<bad> exists in the vocabulary of the speaker. Thus such a speaker might pronounce «tax» like the first syllable of «Texas». Marathi, Bengali and Sinhalese, which do differentiate / and /æ/ are notable exceptions; thus, these languages are not prone to this merger.

· Chiefly in U.P. and Bihar States, the short becomes lengthened and higher to long [e], making <pen> sound like <pain>.

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/Sâhab» (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 wife/husband. For example, «Jyoti's Mr stopped by yesterday» or «My Mrs is not feeling well».

· Use of «Ms» (also Mr, Mrs) 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. 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. 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 is much rarer today.

· 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 any person, 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». 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 was actually meaning «a child was born out of wedlock.»

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, alliyan in Kerala, 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»). T-K is a anglophonic homophone of the Hindi phrase «Theek hai» similar to the French «Ça va» similar to the English phrase «Alright then.»

· Use of oof! to show distress or frustration, as in «Oof! The baby's crying again!»

· Along with «oof!», there is also «off-oaf!» [of.fof] 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» or «Bai-ngan» means eggplant or aubergine.

· «Hill Station» means mountain resort.

· «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 or glasses (as in colloquial UK English).

· «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 «located» e.g. «Where are you sitting?» for «Where are you located? (for one's location in a school or office but not home)»

· Use of «chumma chumma» (means simply in Tamil) at the beginning of a sentence. (eg. chumma chumma dont talk)

· Unnecessary repetition of a word to stress on the general idea. Used mostly with words like Yes No Right Ok etc. (eg. A: Did you finish reading the book? B: Yes yes!!) It is generally accompanied by an emphatic shake of the head.

Anomalous usage

· «Kindly» used to mean «please»: «Kindly disregard the previous message».

· «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)

· The verb «revert» used to mean «reply to» and the noun to mean a «reply» («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 non-veg (short for non-vegetarian) is used to mean food which contains flesh of any mammal, fish, bird, shellfish, etc or even 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». This Indian usage with eggs is non-uniform, because many Indians have started considering eggs as vegetarian due to the fact that with modern technology they are unfertilized and unable to hatch into chicks.

· 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.» (Note the usage of British spelling).

· 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 and in general as in «His build is on the healthy side» to refer to a positively overweight person. This is primarily because India used to have great food shortages and famines during early decades after independence, and a slim person would remind of someone malnourished and probably going to die, as compared to a fat person who would be seen as having enough food to eat.

· The word «dress» (noun) is used to refer to clothes for men, women, and children alike: «She bought a new dress for her son», whereas in international varieties of English a dress is a women'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 called a frock by the Indians.

· 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» or «Short Sleeves». Similarly full-pant means trousers and half-pant means shorts.

· «Cloth» and «clothe» are used interchangeably.

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

· saloon instead of salon, as in «I will visit the hair saloon.»

· «Bath» and «bathe» are also used interchangeably.

· Usage of the word Mohammadans instead of proper Muslims by many Hindus. This is an example of hyperforeignism, i.e. since Mohammadan is a highly anglicized word, it is considered «more proper» term; in reality, most Muslims would consider it disrespectful. Similarly, many Indians would still call the Blacks as negro without knowing that in modern usage it is disrespectful.

· Foreigner often means not just an alien in India, but any ethnic white Caucasian person (even if he or she has got an Indian citizenship). E.g., «Nina has such a fair complexion and blue eyes; she looks just like a foreigner».

· Greetings like «Happy Birthday» are used even to say that «Today is my happy birthday». However, this usage is mostly restricted to children.

· 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»; «Don't worry about small-small things» to mean very insignificant issues.

· Use of «reduce» to mean «lose weight» as in «I need to reduce lot!!»

· 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 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 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 exclusively to mean completion of a bachelor's degree: «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.

· Word order following who, what, where, when, why, or how with clauses is anomalous. 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. 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.

· Use of the word «shift» to indicate «move» (oneself with belongings to a different house or city), 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 «power» to ask people if they are wearing corrective glasses («What is your power?»).

· Use of «blood pressure» or «BP» to refer particularly to high blood pressure, as in «I have BP!» to mean «I am suffering from high BP or hypertension».

· 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 «bucks» as a colloquial name for the Rupee. (This is more common in the US, while «quid» is used likewise in the UK).

· 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?».

· Use of «one another» instead of «one more» or «another»

· «Yoghurt» is called as curd in Indian English, whereas in native varieties of English, curd is sour coagulated milk which is precursor to cheese.

· Pronouncing words starting with the letter <h> as if the [h] sound is muted, e.g. Heidi as (mainly South Indian)

· Pronouncing the word <environment> as (mainly South Indian)

Sometimes indians use english vocab in their sentences but the sentence is basically hindi. eg. Madhuri ne kuch food khaya.

Words unique to or originating in Indian English (in formal usage)

indian english word multilingual

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 «jungle», «bungalow», «bandana», «pyjamas»; others were introduced via the transmission of Indian culture, examples of which are «mantra», «karma», «avatar», «pundit» and «guru». The lead female character in the American pop sitcom «Dharma and Greg» has a Sanskrit name «Dharma» (interestingly, «dharma» is masculine in Hindi and Sanskrit).

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 is eats vegetarian food, milk and eggs but not meat. (See this blog)

· compass for pencil box

· 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.

· 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 swotting, 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).

· rubber for eraser

· In tension for being concerned or nervous

· tiffin for lunch box

· 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 some parts of South India.

· would-be (fiancé/fiancée)

· co-brother indicates relationship between two men who married sisters, as in «He is my co-brother» (commonly used in South India).

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