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Indian English - Bertucci, Costa, Cunsolo, d'Offizi
10
INDIAN ENGLISH
Alessia Bertucci, Silvia Costa,
Federica Cunsolo, Giulia D'Offizi
Mediazione Linguistica e Interculturale
historical background
part 2
The English language was introduced in India during the 17th century, with the granting of the East India Company charter by Queen Elizabeth I and the subsequent establishment of trading ports in coastal cities.
indian english today
Even after the British rule was over, in the middle of the 20th century, the English language remained in use in India.
After Indian Independence in 1947 Hindi was declared the unique official language, but the opposition from non-Hindi states was too strong.
For this reason, English was declared an associate language.
Nowadays this language is the only reliable means of communication between the government and those states who don’t speak Hindi.
India is on course to become the country with the highest number of English speakers.
While Indian English is the first language of a small minority of people, it is often the second or third language that people learn in school. It is a national language, but culturally a foreign language.
English is the official language of the Judiciary of India.
how is indian english pronounced?
GIULIA
In India, English is an official language together with Hindi, which, with other local languages, tends to influence how the first one is reproduced.
The Indian English pronunciation varies depending on:
● The native language of the speaker.
● Whether he is from the Southern or the Northern part of the continent.
● The exposition to the English language, in terms of quality and quantity, he has received.
American accent's influence.
More generally, Indian English has determined features:
PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
Non-rhotic accent
Reduced vowel system respect to RP (/ɑ:/ both for /ɑ:/ and /ɔ:/, /ɑ/ both for /æ/ and /ɒ/ )
PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY 1
No distinction between some vowel sounds (e.g. the cot-caught merger; /e/ for both /æ/ and /ɜ:/)
Monophthongization of RP diphtongs /eɪ/ in /e:/ and /əʊ/ in /ɔ:/
No distinction between some consonant sounds ( /t/ and /θ/, /d/ and /ð/, /s/ and /ʃ/ ) (some varieties)
Unaspirated plosives
Retroflex consonants (/t/, /d/, /s/, /l/, /z/)
PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
/r/ as a flap or retroflex flap
/l/ is always clear
PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY 2
/ŋ/ in final position
No distinction between /v/ and /w/
Interchange of /s/ and /z/ (some varieties)
"Of", past tense "ed"
South: /j/ sound before word-initial front vowels and /w/ sound before word-initial back vowels
North: word-initial /sk/, /sp/, /st/ (preceded by an /ɪ/ sound)
RHYTHM & STRESS
"Sing-song" quality.
RHYTHM & STRESS
Tone which reproduces the one used while speaking Hindi.
Syllable-timed rather than stress-timed.
Difference in stress respect to RP.
Curiosity: the Indian nod!
MORPHOLOGY, GRAMMAR AND LEXIS
Some prepositions are used differently – sometimes, even when unnecessary.
Use of adverbial there (not reduced) for "dummy there" (reduced) is common.
The question tag isnt'it? is often used regardless of person or tense.
Itself and only are used emphatically.
Some uncountable nouns are plural.
Can and will are often replaced by could and would, since they are perceived as more polite – also, may is used to express an obligation politely.
part 2
Differences in tenses and aspects, in particular:
- present tense with duration forms;
- future forms with temporal phrases;
- different sequence of tenses;
- use of the progressive with habits, completed actions and state verbs;
- perfective aspects instead of the past tense.
Use of nominal instead of participial forms of some words when used as adjectives.
Extended use of compound formation (meaning that IndEng includes constructions with other prepositions than for).
part 3
The subject-verb inversion is absent in direct questions and present in indirect questions.
INDENG LEXIS
Lexical borrowings from Indian languages into English, such as durzi (tailor), or dhobi (washerman).
The meaning of some English words could be extended or alterated (e.g. colony residential area).
NEVER HAVE I EVER...
American comedy/drama tv series created by Mindy Kaling
It premiered on Netflix on April 27
SILVIA
Semi-autobiographical
Indian couple moves to the US
Iqbal/Uncle Periyappa
Pakistani origins but mostly indian characters
Many other roles, same accent
No problems with the accent's outcome
Poorna/Nalini
Indian-American origins
Multilingual
Very familiar with the series's world and accent she
had to use
Never have I ever...
Episode 9 - Indian English's main features
Monophthongization (even in the pronuciation the protagonist's name)
Flap /r/ + other retroflex consonants, /t/ and /d/ in particular
/W/ vs /v/ and unaspirated plosives
More generally Nalini's accent is slightly less strong than Aravind's, although they are both influenced by USEng