Indian English?
Unlike
today, there was a time when there was only one English language (with its
local variations which continue even today). Attempts to standardise spellings,
sound production and structuring sentences were made and certain standards
emerged. Educated users of English as their first language have followed these
standards while several variations continue to exist in all the countries where
English is the medium of communication among the populations.
And
then the desire to find new trade routes took the English out of their tiny
little island and in the process English became the common language medium in
these new settlements (between the rulers and the ruled)—North America,
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and variations, for whatever reason, occurred
in pronunciation, spelling and even sentence structuring. Thus we have three or
four native English varieties.
The
next step from trade occurred, and the English became rulers of the countries
with which they had begun the trade. Consequently, such a transition in
relationships gave birth to several varieties of English. And Indian English is
one. History tells us the French lost out to the English in the fierce
competition for trade and rule.
You’ll
find below how we Indians pronounce sounds of the English language, how we use
words and construct sentences. The standard for comparison has been British
(that of the educated); and of course, in recent times, North American English
has its influence, too, over how we Indians express ourselves.
Indian English as a term is a misnomer and has somehow come into existence and is persistently being used to how generally ALL Indians speak the English language.
Pronunciation
1.
We
Indians pronounce all the letters we see or say in a word
in our languages, that is, we don’t miss any sound in a word. We use this
practice when we pronounce sounds in an English word. For example we pronounce
the sound represented by the letter ‘r’ wherever it appears: word, world, flower, work, river, floor, person.
2.
We
pronounce ‘cotton’ adding a vowel sound between ‘t’ and ‘n’, we say ‘honest’ pronouncing the ‘h’, we utter words like ‘debt’,
‘lamb’ pronouncing all the sounds, we
speak ‘robot’ as ‘robo’.
3.
We
pronounce all the sounds in a word equally, that is, we say all the sounds equally as in words like ‘about’,
‘address’, ‘competitor’ , ‘condition’.
4.
Some
of us put stress at the wrong syllable. For pronunciation
purposes, words in English are divided into syllables (ask your teacher to help
you with this).We say ‘psychology’ placing stress on ‘lo’ and all words ending
in ‘logy’. We say the ‘o’ in ‘opponent’ as in ‘operation’, we pronounce the ‘a’
in ‘cassette’ and place the stress on ‘ca’, we stress the ‘vi’ in ‘video’
making
the ‘i’ longer.
5.
We
pronounce ‘tw’ in ‘twelve’ as , we utter
‘eleven’ without the initial ‘e’ sound ‘cassette’, some of us tend to add a
sound to certain words: ‘school’ as ‘ischool’,
‘screen’ as ‘sacreen’.
6.
We pronounce certain words the same way whether they are used as nouns, verbs
or as
adjectives. For example we use the
adjective pronunciation of ‘content’
even when we use
it as a noun. A few other words are:
conduct, conflict, contest, contrast,
converse, convict, compound, decrease, import,
object,
perfect, permit, present, produce, progress, project, protest, subject
7.
We
pronounce ‘w’ as ‘v’. We don’t form our lips like a circle and pronounce it as ‘v’
with our upper teeth touching the lower lip.
8.
Some
of us pronounce ‘z’ as ‘j’ as in ‘zero’ as ‘jeero’. Some of us pronounce
‘measure’ as
‘mejor’
Vocabulary
1.
When
a meeting date or an activity is brought forward, we use the word ‘prepone’
which is not considered an English word but now you can find it Oxford Concise
English Dictionary with ‘India’ as the place of origin.
2.
We
tend to add ‘about’ after ‘discuss’ and ‘describe’; we add ‘back’ after
‘return’. We also add ‘back’ after ‘revert’. We use ‘again’ with ‘repeat’,
which is unnecessary. We shouldn’t add ‘together’ after ‘join’. We use ‘enough’
with ‘sufficient’, which is wrong. There’s no need to use ‘forward’ with
‘advance’.
3.
This
is the place where I’d dropped the wallet. (x)
This
is the place where I’d dropped the wallet. (correct)
4.
In
each of the following pairs, the word given in brackets should replace the
underlined word:
Will
you show your willingness with a tick?
(indicate)
He
indicated his marriage album to me. (showed)
I
neglected my father’s advice.
(ignored)
He
ignored his duties to his family. (neglected)
The
supervisor was dismissed for misbehaviour. (misconduct)
Being
indulgent to a child will lead to more misconduct on his/her part.
(misbehaviour)
We
made the error of leaving the bedroom window open. (mistake)
The
doctor committed the appalling mistake of judgement. (error)
He
always deceives when we play cards. (cheats)
My
parents cheated me by showing the photo of the wrong girl. (deceived)
Sentence structuring
1.
We
should use the second verb in –ing form, not to infinitive form after the
following expressions:
I look forward to meet you in the
Conference next week. (x)
I look forward to meeting you in the
Conference next week. (correct)
I’m accustomed to take a walk in the
park in the evenings. (x)
I’m accustomed to taking a walk in the
park in the evenings. (correct)
It’s no use / good to talk to her. (x)
It’s no use / good talking to her.
(correct)
2.
We say:
instead of saying:
Shall
I ask the time to that woman? Shall I ask the
woman the time?
The
boss arrived late because of rain. The boss arrived late
because of the rain.
I’ll
inform to you before I’ll leave. I’ll inform you
before I leave.
The
post office is in front of my house. The post office is opposite
my house.
I
shifted my house yesterday. I moved
house yesterday.
My
sister is born in 1999. My
sister was born in 1999.
He
can’t able to speak French. He can’t
speak French.
His
speaking is good.
He speaks well.
They
can to speak French well. They can
speak French well.
My
children do nothing but watching the TV. My children do nothing but watch
TV.
I
think you haven’t met my wife. I don’t think
you’ve met my wife.
I
don’t hope it rains.
I hope it doesn’t rain.
Give
me five ten-rupees notes. Give me five
ten-rupee notes.
Why
you are crying?
Why are you crying?
She
asked me what was my name? She asked me what my
name was.
Here’s
the book you asked for it. Here’s the book
you asked for.
She
told that she was getting married soon. She told me that she was
getting married
soon.
The
police is looking for the suspect. The police are
looking for the suspect.
Please
borrow me a hundred rupees. Please lend
me a hundred rupees.
I
want to borrow me ten rupees. I want to borrow
ten rupees.
I
used to live in Ethiopia for nine years. I lived in
Ethiopia for nine years.
Can
you suggest me a good dentist? Can you suggest a
good dentist?
Although
I was tired but I went to work. Although I was tired I
went to work. /
I was tired but I went to work.
Everybody
slept late. Also my cousin. Everybody slept late. Even
my cousin.
I’ve
had the car since three years. I’ve had the
car for three years / since
2010.
How
to tell her?
How shall I tell her? /
I don’t know how to tell her.
Who
to invite? Who
shall I invite? /
I don’t know who to invite.
The
boss looked angrily.
The boss looked angry. /
The boss looked at me angrily.
You
make many mistakes. You
make lots of/ too many mistakes.
She
went early to bed.
She went to bed early.
My
brother is engineer.
My brother is an engineer.
I
bought gold chain to my wife. I bought a
gold chain for my wife. /
I bought my wife a gold chain.
I
saw fox in forest.
I saw a fox in the forest.
He
don’t like you.
He doesn’t like you.
Have everyone left
for the day?
Has everyone left for the day?
Smoking
cigarettes are dangerous to health. Smoking cigarettes is
dangerous to health.
Arjun
never get angry.
Arjun never gets angry.
He’s
coming, isn’t it? He’s
coming, isn’t he?
They’re
leaving, isn’t it?
They’re leaving, aren’t they?
I
have seen the film two days ago. I saw
the film two days ago.
Suddenly
I listened strange noise. Suddenly I heard
a strange noise.
Only
few
people were present. Only
a few people were present.
He
made me to do his homework.
He made me do
his homework.
I’m
having headache. I have
a headache.
She’s
having temperature. She has
a temperature.
She’s
running a temperature.
She
has a fever.
Thilak is having two sons. Thilak has two sons.
The
Thigala community is having population of 40 lakhs.
The Thigala community has a population
of 40 lakhs.
(‘a lakh’ is a counting
expression used in India, ‘a hundred thousand’ is the English expression.)
Note: ‘be + having’ is
correct in the following sentences
He’s having a bath/his dinner. He’
having a whale of a time.
Our project is having teething
problems.
I’ve
seen Thilak yesterday. I saw
Thilak yesterday.
You
must be knowing my cousin-brother. I’m sure/I suppose you
know my cousin-brother.
But
‘must be’ in the meaning of ‘subject+ think(s)’ is correct:
You must be wrong. She must be at home. ]
I
went to my native (place) last week.
I went to native town/city last week.
I’ll
email it today itself. I’ll
email it today.
[words
indicating specific time need no emphasis in English.]
They’re
like that only. That’s
how they behave.
Children
behave like that only.
But that’s how children behave.
3.
We
also say these:
1.
short responses:
Sethu, ‘I don’t like coffee.’ Ramu, ‘I also don’t like it.’ (x)
‘I don’t like
it also.’ (x)
‘I don’t like it, either.’
correct
‘Neither do I.’ correct
Sethu, ‘I like coffee.’ Ramu, ‘I also like it.’ (x)
‘I like it also.’ (x)
‘I like it, too.’ correct
‘So do I.’ correct
2.
‘yes’ as response to mean ‘no’
Sethu, ‘Don’t you like coffee?’ } ‘Yes, (I don’t like it.’ (x)
‘You like coffee, don’t you?’ }
‘Yes, (I don’t like it.’ (x)
This ‘yes’ answer/response is wrong because
native English speakers don’t say ‘yes’ to
mean ‘no’; they would say ‘No, I don’t like
it.’
4.
errors in letter writing
• writing your address and the addressee’s
address on the left of the page with ‘from’ and
‘to’ like this:
From
K R Lakshminarayanan
No.2, 6th Cross Street
Thirumal Nagar Extn.1
Poonamallee
Thamizh Nadu 600 056
To
The Editor
The Hindu
No.25 Mount Road
Chennai 600 002
Chennai 600 002
Writing
address like this is still being taught in schools, if I’m not mistaken.
But the addresses should be written like
this:
No.2, 6th Cross Street
Thirumal Nagar Extn.1
Poonamallee
Thamizh Nadu 600 056
25 January 2014
The Editor
The Hindu
No.25 Mount Road
Chennai 600 002
Chennai 600 002
Note:
your name should be printed below your
signature at the left bottom below your signature, not as part of your address .
• In the closure at the end of the letter we write your’s.
This is wrong because ‘yours’ is
already ‘possessive’ and doesn’t require
the addition of ‘s’. ‘Yours’ is the right way.
Some of us capitalise ‘f’ in Yours
Faithfully. This is wrong. It should be ‘Yours
faithfully’.
• In official letters it is still common to
mention both ‘subject’ and ‘reference’ below or
above ‘Dear Sir’. This is unnecessary
because the purpose of the first paragraph is to
mention the subject and the reference(s)
in sentence form.
These
are only samples of how we Indians use English to express our thoughts. The way we use English is different from the
way the British or the North Americans use English. Though there are
differences between these two versions, these differences are accepted as
right. Unfortunately the Indian way of using English is thought to be faulty by either the British or the North American standards and are considered to be
the result of ‘mother tongue interference’ and so are branded as ‘errors’
because like the British or the North Americans we don’t have a standard Indian
English.
And
we Indians accept this criticism or observation willingly and we teach
corrections to our students. Why? Because we Indians don’t have our own
standard. When will we? Will we at all? Who will bell the cat? Nobody seems interested
(including the so-called ELT ‘experts’ and the institutions training teachers
to teach English). Everybody is happy with the status quo.
Note:
See also my post: A Case for Indian Grammar of English
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