University of Ljubljana

Faculty of Arts
Department of English

Indian English
by

Mitja Horvat

A paper submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the course Variants of English Language

Supervisor: Red. prof. dr. Smiljana Komar Date of submission: 15 May, 2018
Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 4
Historical Background ............................................................................................................................. 5
Grammar.................................................................................................................................................. 6
1. Plural forms of interrogative pronouns: using additional elements ............................................. 6
2. Plural forms of interrogative pronouns: reduplication ................................................................ 6
3. Object pronoun drop .................................................................................................................... 6
4. Subject pronoun drop: referential pronouns ................................................................................ 6
5. Subject pronoun drop: dummy pronouns .................................................................................... 6
6. Insertion of it where StE favours zero ......................................................................................... 6
7. Regularization of plural formation: extension of -s to StE irregular plurals ............................... 6
8. Regularization of plural formation: phonological regularization ................................................ 6
9. Group plurals ............................................................................................................................... 7
10. Different count/mass noun distinctions resulting in use of plural for StE singular ................. 7
11. Absence of plural marking only after quantifiers .................................................................... 7
12. Double determiners ................................................................................................................. 7
13. Use of definite article where StE has indefinite article ........................................................... 7
14. Use of zero article where StE has definite article .................................................................... 7
15. Use of zero article where StE has indefinite article................................................................. 7
16. Use of definite article where StE favours zero ........................................................................ 7
17. Wider range of uses of progressive be + V-ing than in StE: extension to stative verbs .......... 7
18. Loosening of sequence of tenses rule ...................................................................................... 7
19. Was for conditional were......................................................................................................... 8
20. Resumptive/shadow pronouns ................................................................................................. 8
21. Deletion of stranded prepositions in relative clauses (“preposition chopping”) ..................... 8
22. Other possibilities for fronting than StE .................................................................................. 8
23. Inverted word order in indirect questions ................................................................................ 8
24. No inversion/no auxiliaries in wh-questions ........................................................................... 8
25. No inversion/no auxiliaries in main clause yes/no questions .................................................. 8
26. Like as a focussing device ....................................................................................................... 8
27. Like as a quotative particle ...................................................................................................... 8
Numbering System .................................................................................................................................. 8
Phonetic features ..................................................................................................................................... 9
Vowels ................................................................................................................................................. 9
 a) The Short Monophthongs ........................................................................................................ 9
b) The Long Monophtongs ........................................................................................................ 10
c) The Diphthongs ..................................................................................................................... 11
Consonants ........................................................................................................................................ 13
Stops .............................................................................................................................................. 13
Nasals ............................................................................................................................................ 13
Affricates ....................................................................................................................................... 13
Fricatives ....................................................................................................................................... 13
Prosodic Features .............................................................................................................................. 15
a) Word Stress ........................................................................................................................... 15
b) Rhythm and Intonation .......................................................................................................... 15
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 17
Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 18
 Introduction

One of the consequences of the colonial spread and expansion of the British empire has been
the diffusion of the English language in socially, culturally, structurally, and even functionally
transformed forms. The contact of English with the local vernaculars over four centuries led
to the birth of new localised English varieties collectively called World Englishes (Kashyap
2014). Indian English (IndE) is one of the oldest of the new varieties of English with
demographically the highest number of the users of English and therefore a centre of gravity
in the field of World Englishes. The users of English in India outnumber any new variety by a
significant margin, irrespective of the criteria of estimates applied (Crystal, 2008).

English is used for business, education, administration and law. The Indian Constitution states
that all rules and regulation, bylaws etc. are to be in English. Science and Medicine follow the
western pattern and are written in English. In contrast, an Indian languages is used for
personal and emotional conversations. In television, English is used for news and political
programmes, while television series and similar programmes are in Indian languages.
Given the widespread use of English in India and the length of time it has been used, it has, of
course, like Australian English and American English, developed its own dialect or dialects.
Like other large areas it has its own English dialects influenced by regional Indian languages
and language drift. Some writers, such as Dasgupta (1993), argue that there is no such thing as
Indian English; there is Indian’s English or Indian Englishes (Ferrier-Reid et al. 2014).

Because researching such a broad variety of English has proven extremely difficult even to
experts in the field, this paper's aim is to collect, combine, and organize the numerous experts'
research on Indian English phonetic and prosodic features, grammar, and historical
background.
 Historical Background

English businessmen first came to India in 1612 as traders for the English East India
Company. By the late 1760s, the Company’s influence had grown to such an extent that the
British were controlling most of the country. Initially English was only taught to the local
population through the work of Christian missionaries — there were no official attempts to
force the language on the masses. By the 1700s, English had established itself as the
administrative language. Because of this, there was a huge demand for instructions in English,
mostly by educated Indians as means of social advancement. By 1857 universities had opened
in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. English was increasingly accepted as the language of
government, of the social elite, and of the national press.
After Independence in 1947, India became a nation state, and it was intended that English
would gradually be phased out as the language of administration. But in a country with over
900 million people and more than a thousand languages, it is difficult to choose a single
national language, as mother tongue speakers of that language would automatically enjoy
greater social status and have easier access to positions of power and influence So, although
English is not an indigenous language, it remains as an ‘Associate Language’ in India (The
British Library 2007).

The 2001 census of India states that about 220,000 people said that English is their first
language; 125 million said that it was their second language. Thus, English is familiar, at one
level or another, to most of the people of India, with the greatest familiarity in the cities and
less in rural areas. (Ferrier-Reid et al. 2014)
 Grammar

Listed below are the pervasive/obligatory grammatical features of Indian English. The
examples were taken from the The Electronic World Atlas of Varieties of English
(http://ewave-atlas.org).

1. Plural forms of interrogative pronouns: using additional elements

Who-all did you say was gonna be there?

2. Plural forms of interrogative pronouns: reduplication

Who-who came? ‘Who (of several people) came?’;

What-what they said? ‘What (different) things did they say?’

3. Object pronoun drop

I like.

‘I like it.’

4. Subject pronoun drop: referential pronouns

A: You got tickets? – B: No, Ø sold Ø already

ʼA: Do you have tickets? B: No, I sold them alreadyʼ

5. Subject pronoun drop: dummy pronouns

Ø rained yesterday only (emphatic)

6. Insertion of it where StE favours zero

As I made it clear before, I am going to talk about solutions, not problems;

As it is the case elsewhere in Africa, much can still be done for children.

7. Regularization of plural formation: extension of -s to StE irregular plurals

childrens, oxens, sheeps

8. Regularization of plural formation: phonological regularization

wifes, knifes, lifes, leafs
9. Group plurals
That President has two Secretary of States (rather than two Secretaries of
State)

10. Different count/mass noun distinctions resulting in use of plural for StE singular
woods ‘bits of wood’; How many staffs are on medical leave?;
These advices are coming because they’ve already studied all of us

11. Absence of plural marking only after quantifiers

We did all our subject-Ø in English; four pound; five year

12. Double determiners

This our common problem is very serious.

13. Use of definite article where StE has indefinite article

I had the toothache;

...when theyʼd get the cold… (ʼa cold’)

14. Use of zero article where StE has definite article

Did you get Ø mileage-claim for that trip?;

Ø main reason for their performance…

15. Use of zero article where StE has indefinite article

Then he thought, what about getting Ø girl /to marry/ from India?

16. Use of definite article where StE favours zero

He was appointed sales representative at the Nestlé, Ghana Ltd.;

Do they keep the goats?;

Poor people were starved with the hunger.

17. Wider range of uses of progressive be + V-ing than in StE: extension to stative verbs
Iʼm liking this;

What are you wanting?

18. Loosening of sequence of tenses rule

I noticed the van I came in
 ‘I noticed the van I had come in’

19. Was for conditional were

If I was you

20. Resumptive/shadow pronouns

This is the house which I painted it yesterday.

21. Deletion of stranded prepositions in relative clauses (“preposition chopping”)

…like a big yard that you do gardening anʼall /in deleted/

22. Other possibilities for fronting than StE

To my sister sometime I speak English.

23. Inverted word order in indirect questions

Iʼm wondering what are you gonna do.

24. No inversion/no auxiliaries in wh-questions

What you doing?

What he wants?

25. No inversion/no auxiliaries in main clause yes/no questions

You get the point? You liked India?

26. Like as a focussing device

How did you get away with that like?

Like for one found five quid, that was like three quid, like two-fifty each.

27. Like as a quotative particle

And she was like “What do you mean?”

Numbering System

The Indian numbering system is preferred for digit grouping. Numbers up to 100,000 are
expressed the same way they would be expressed in Standard English.
However, numbers including and beyond 100,000 are expressed in a subset of the Indian
numbering system.
Thus, the following scale is used:

 100,000 / one hundred thousand / one lakh (/læk/)

 1,000,000 / one million / ten lakh
 10,000,000 / ten million / one crore (/krɔ:r/)

Larger numbers Larger numbers are generally expressed as multiples of the above (for
example, one lakh crores for one trillion) (Indian English, Wikipedia)

Phonetic features

According to Gargesh (2008), IE speakers articulate/utter words in a way that they are closer
for the written spellings of words and not as they are articulated in RP or General American
English.

Vowels
a) The Short Monophthongs
1. KIT
This near-close near-front unrounded vowel /I/ is generally articulated all over India except
for the Bengal-Orissa region in Eastern India where the languages of this region do not have
the long-short vowel distinctions. Hence, this vowel freely alternates with the close front
unrounded vowel /i:/ in the category of FLEECE.

2. DRESS
The major realizations of this vowel are /e/ and //. In regions of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana,
Rajasthan, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. it is realized as /e/. However, in
Maharashtra, Kashmir, Punjab, Bihar, and Orissa and in the Northeastern region of India it is
realizes as //. At times it is also realized as /ə/.

3. TRAP
By and large the vowel is realized as /æ/, however in Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat it is
often heard as the lowered //.
 4. COMMA
Instead of schwa, the COMMA vowel is realized as the half-lengthened /a/

5. LOT
In IE, the usual vowel realization is /ɔ/ instead of /ɒ/. In some regions like Gujarat,
Maharashtra and Kashmir it is realized as /ɒ/. Its variation /a:/ can also be heard in most parts
of India.

6. STRUT
While it is usually realised as /ʌ/, some informants from Kashmir, Harayana and Uttar
Pradesh articulate it as the non-tressed /ə/. Some follow the written convention to realize it as
/ʊ/.

7. FOOT
Mostly it is realized as a weakly – rounded /ʊ/. However, there are regions like Bengal,
Orissa, and parts of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan where the long back vowel /u:/ can
often be heard.

b) The Long Monophtongs

1. BATH
It is realized as long low back vowel / ɑ:/.

2. CLOTH
It is mostly articulated as /ɔ:/, but is also realized as /o:/ in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan
and Bengal. However, in most parts of the country it is also realized as /a:/.

3. NURSE
It is mostly realized as /:/. It occurs as /ʌ/ in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and in
North-East India. In Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh,
and Kerala it realized as /ə/. In areas of Orissa and Bengal it is also articulated as /a:/.

4. FLEECE
It is by and large articulated as /i:/ with /I/ being in variation amongst speakers of Orissa and
Bengal.
 5. THOUGHT
The usual realization is /ɔ:/, a half-open weakly rounded back vowel. It is also realized by
some speakers as /o:/ and still by others as /a:/.

6. GOOSE
It is usually realized as the high, back rounded /u:/.

7. START
Mostly realized as /a:/ at times with a distinct trill.

c) The Diphthongs
1. FACE
It is invariably realized as the monophthong /e:/.

2. GOAT
It is usually realized as a monophthong /o:/. Some speakers articulate it as /ɔ:/ due to spelling
convention in words like broad.

3. PRICE
It is realized as a diphthong /aI/. The glide element of /I/ is quite distinct.

4. CHOICE
This diphthong has three variations: /ɔI/, /oe/, and /oI/.

5. MOUTH
It is uniformly realized as the diphthong /aʊ/. The latter sound of the diphthong is relatively
stronger than the one in RP.

6. NEAR
The most widespread realization is the diphthong /Iə/. The other significant variations are
/i:jə/, /Ijɜ:/ and /eə/.

7. SQUARE
Mostly it is realized as /:/. Other variations are /e:/, /æ/ and /eə/.
 8. CURE
Generally the diphthong is realized as /Ijo:/. But it has variations such as /Ijɔ:/, /Iju:/, and
/Ijuə/

9. TUESDAY
Generally it is realized as /Iju:/.

10. FIRE
The tripthong is realized as /aIə/ mainly in South India, Bengal and Orissa. The variant form
/aeə/ is realized in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, and Rajasthan.

11. EITHER
The initial diphthong is realized as /aI/ most of the time. Its variant form /eI/ is heard more in
South India, particularly in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Some speakers also realize it as /i:/, and
in the northeast some even as /e:/.
Consonants
Stops
1. The voiceless stops /p/, /t/, /k/ are not aspirated in syllable initial position in IE.
2. It is usually thought that IE speakers retroflex all alveolar stops in words such as tight,
tin, den and dinner. (Retroflex sounds are made by curling back the tongue tip and
making contact with the hard palate further back than the alveolar ridge.) However,
standard Indian English pronunciation does have alveolar sounds. While the voiceless
/t/ sound may be retroflexed, the voiced /d/ is almost invariably retroflexed /ɖ/
depending on the experience of the speaker.

Nasals
1. In syllable initial positions, only /m/ and /n/ occur. The velar nasal /ŋ/ is the
homorganic nasal. The velar nasal is realized as a combination of the nasal and the
voiced velar consonant as in the words sing and rung - /sIŋg/, /rʌŋg/.

Affricates
1. The affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ are distinct as in the words chin and gin.

Fricatives
1. The labiodental /f/ and /v/ are not realized in some varieties of IE. In languages like
Oriya and Bangla and mostly in the Hindi speaking belt /f/ is realized as /ph/ and /v/
often overlaps with /w/ as in the realizations of the word power - /pa:vər/ ~ /pa:wər/.
In Orissa and Bengal the labiodental fricative /v/ is also realized as /bh/ as in the
realization of the word never /nebhər/.

2. The th sounds, unvoiced /θ/ and the voiced /ð/, take considerable training for Indian
English speakers to master. The voiceless /θ/ is mostly replaced by an unaspirated
voiceless dental stop /t̪ /, which is present in Indian languages. Indian languages,
except Tamil, have aspirated and unaspirated plosives, so those fricatives written as th
are often aspirated. Tamil speakers instead use an unaspirated voiceless dental stop / t̪ /.
The voiced dental stop /d̪ / is used for the voiced th in words such as these, those and
weather.

3. The palato-alveolars /ʃ/, /ʒ/ also have their variant forms. While /ʃ/ is realized in most
places as it is, however, in Bengal it is often replaced by a /s/ as in /si:/ for she, and
 /si:p/ or /sIp/ for ship. The /ʒ/ sound is mostly non-existent in IE. It is realized as /dʒ/,
/z/ or /j/ as in /ple:dʒər/, /ple:əzr/ or /plaIjər/ for pleasure.

4. The glottal fricative /h/ is generally realized in North India. There is, however, a
tendency of H-dropping amongst some Punjabi speakers. For example, the word house
is realized as /aus/ and heat as /i:t/. In South India, /j/ and /w/ are sometimes realized
in place of the /h/ as in /jill/ for hill, /jæd/ for had and, /laIvlIwud/ for livelihood .

5. IE has two liquid sounds /l/ and /r/. The /l/ is generaly clear and /r/ is a trilled one. In
consonant clusters of words like trap, drain, cry etc. it is quite clearly realized. It may
be said that its phonetic realization is as per its occurrence in the written script. It is
realized post-vocalically too as, e.g., /ka:r/ and /ka:rʈ/ for car and cart respectively.

6. Amongst the semivowels /j/ is distinct while /w/ has an overlap with the labiodental
fricative /v / as in /pa:vər/ or /pa:wər/ for power.

7. With regard to /r/, IE shows large regional variation due to the effects of different first
languages. There is, however, a standard Indian English pronunciation (SIEP) still
marked by pan-Indian features.
It is non-rhotic, a feature derived from RP. So the /r/ is silent in words such as bird,
car, park, hurt, higher, etc. However, /r/ is pronounced in word-final contexts where
the following word begins with a vowel such as 'The car is mine'. In IE, the /r/ sound
may be realized as a frictionless alveolar approximant or as an alveolar tap.
 Prosodic Features

Some of the main features that make IE a very unique variety of English are word stress and
intonation patterns. These features make IE a lot harder to understand. This is because the
rules of accentuation in IE are closer to those of Indian languages than to those of standard
English.

a) Word Stress
In IE, lexical stress is somewhat complex. Stress placement tends to depend on the weight of
the syllable.
A syllable is light if it contains just one short vowel. The number of consonants preceding the
vowel has no effect, so a CV syllable with a short vowel is light;
A heavy syllable contains a long vowel or a vowel with a consonant, V: or VC;
An extra heavy syllable is one in which there is either a long vowel followed by a consonant
(V:C) or a short vowel followed by at least two consonants (VCC or VCCC) (Ferrier-Reid et
al. 2014)

Garesh (2004) gives a simple explanation of stress as follows:

 Stress falls on the first syllable of a bi-syllabic word unless the second syllable is extra
heavy, so ˈtaboo, ˈmistake.
 In tri-syllabic words the stress is also on the first syllable unless the second syllable is
heavy, in which case this syllable is stressed, so moˈdesty, charˈacter.

However, there is considerable individual variation with many speakers ignoring these rules.

There is also a tendency in IE to stress more words in a sentence and not reduce function
words. (This is a trait emerging in AmE newscasters, who perhaps do this to sound different,
e.g., This ˈis CNN.)

b) Rhythm and Intonation

IE has its own syllable timed rhythmic patterns. Syllables are uttered with an almost
equal prominence. This also means that many times IE does not use weak forms of vowels in
unstressed positions. Thus, a sentence like: 'I’m thinking of you.' can be heard as: /'a:I 'æm
'thIiŋg 'ɔf 'ju:/ (Gargesh 2008)
 Most non-native speakers of English impose the intonation pattern of their own
mother tongue on to the English language. Such implementation or variation in the use of
intonation patterns gives unique colours to the language. As India is a multi-lingual country,
there are several variations with regard to intonation patterns. Intonation patterns of a Bengali
speaker contain a touch of the Bangla language, a Punjabi’s contains a touch of the Punjabi
language, a Gujrati’s English contains elements of the Gujrati language and so on; e.g.
“Punjabi language has a number of intonation patterns, which add conventionalized meanings
to the utterance. There is no real agreement amongst phonology specialist about the exact
number of tones in speech, but all agree on at least four. These are: Fall, Fall-Rise, Rise and
Rise-fall,” (Ahmed et al. 2018). A Bengali English speaker generally follows three intonation
patterns even in wh-questions that is “falls, rise-falls and rises” (Khan 2008). The intonation
patterns of a non-native speaker are affected as much as the English pronunciation of a non-
native speaker by the respective mother tongue. (Gowsami 2014)

According to Gargesh (2008), the phonology of IE requires more work on the sound
patterns of the regional varieties of IE. Intonation, he says, has been a more or less neglected
field. However, Gargesh goes on to say that:
1. IE reveals a falling intonation in statements, such as in:
The boy is running on the road = [də bɔe Iz ↗’rʌnnIŋg ɔn↘ də ro:ɖ].
2. A falling intonation can be perceived in commands and exclamations.
3. Rising intonation is visible in yes-no questions, tag questions, some Wh+
questions, and in dependent clauses:
a. Yes-No question: Are you coming? = [a:r ju: ↗ kʌmIŋg]
b. Tag question: He has done the work, hasn’t he? = [hi: hæz dʌn
də vərk, ↗hæznʈ hi:]
c. Wh+ question: What is the financial benefit? = [wʌʈ Iz də
faInænʃəl ↗ bɛnɛfIt]
d. Dependent clause: The boy who is walking will come here soon. =
[də bɔe ↗ hu: Iz va:kIŋg ↘ wIl kʌm heər su:n]
 Conclusion

From a colonial point of view, Indian English is one of the oldest variants of the English.
Furthermore, its incredibly high number of indigenous languages and people make it rather
difficult to study Indian English precisely. There are commonalities, of course, but there are
countless influences and exceptions to the rule. Nevertheless, it is one of the most colourful
varieties, if not one of the richest as well. It keeps the order in India, while also helping the
people communicate and trade with as well as learn from the rest of the world. Indian English
is an integral part of India, its society and culture. Hopefully, the rest of the world learns more
about this variety, and in doing so stops stereotyping it so heavily.
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