English the Indian way

Thursday, 17 April 2014

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

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.

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’.

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’.

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.

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

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.

Some of us pronounce ‘z’ as ‘j’ as in ‘zero’ as ‘jeero’. Some of us pronounce ‘measure’ as

‘mejor’

Vocabulary

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.

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’.

This is the place where I’d dropped the wallet. (x)

This is ~~the place~~ where I’d dropped the wallet. (correct)

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

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)

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.

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, 6^th Cross Street

Thirumal Nagar Extn.1

Poonamallee

Thamizh Nadu 600 056

The Editor

The Hindu

No.25 Mount Road
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, 6^th 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

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

_________________________________________________________________________

Reported Speech

Direct Speech

Direct speech provides the exact words that someone says, has said or will say in speech or writing.

In print

Direct speech is indicated by being enclosed in what is known as quotation marks:

reporting reported clause (direct speech)

clause

Sheba said, ‘They are making a lot of noise.’

{Sheba said}

‘They are,’ {she said }, ‘making a lot of noise.’

{said Sheba}

{Sabitha complained.

‘They are making a lot of noise,’ {she complained.

{complained Sabitha.

Here ‘said’ and ‘complained’ are the reporting verbs.

As you can see, from the examples, the reporting clause may occur before, within or after the direct speech. The subject-verb inversion, as you can see in the second and third example, is most common when the verb is said and the subject is not a pronoun. If the subject is a pronoun, the inversion (said she) is unusual.

If the reported clause has several sentences, it is usually positioned within in the first sentence.

In fiction, reporting clauses are often omitted when there is no doubt about the identity of the speakers; quotation marks are sometimes omitted, too. These two are regularly omitted in written plays, in formal meetings, and in some types of headlines.

punctuation

Punctuation marks help us see a sentence as direct speech:

· Quotation marks are informally known as ‘quotes’ or ‘inverted commas’ <esp

BrE>

These are used at the beginning and the end of direct speech.

These marks may be single ( ‘…’) or double ( “…”).

The second of these are more usual in manuscripts, typed material and in

American writing; the first of these are more usual in British printing. But the

ultimate choice lies with the printing houses.

· When there is a quotation within a quotation, if single quotation marks are used

for the first quotation, then double quotation marks are used for the second or vice

versa:

‘Have you read the article “Within the Circle”?’ he asked. <esp BrE)

“Have you red the article ‘Within the Circle’?” he asked. <esp AmE)

· Other marks of punctuation like commas and full stops (period) cooccur with

quotation marks; AmE always puts a period or a comma inside the closing

quotation marks while BrE, outside the quotation marks:

I enjoyed the article “Within the Circle.” (AmE)

I enjoyed the article ‘Within the Circle’. (BrE)

While I was reading the article “Within the Circle,” my wife was cooking.

While I was reading the article ‘Within the Circle’, my wife was cooking.

Note: In some writing, a quotation extending over more than one paragraph will have

opening quotation marks, single or double as the case may be, at the beginning of each

new paragraph and the closing marks will occur only at the end of entire quotation.

Note also the use of commas and period in writing a direct speech:

Sunitha said, ‘My father’s on the phone.’

‘My mother is on the phone,’ said Sunitha.

‘My mother,’ said Sunitha, ‘is on the phone.’

Indirect speech

What A says to B or what A says to himself/herself is direct speech; A is the reporter and what he/she says is the reporting clause.

When B says to C what A said to him/her it’s indirect speech; B is the reporter and what he/she says is the reporting clause. A’s direct speech can also be put into indirect speech.

Reporting Reported clause

clause

He said, ‘I’m learning French.’ ¬ direct speech

He said (that) he was learning French. ¬ indirect speech

She said, ‘I’ll have nothing to do with you* anymore.’ ¬ direct speech

She said (that) she would have nothing with him* anymore. ¬indirect speech

I wondered, ‘Should I approach her for help?’ ¬ direct speech

I wondered if I should approach her for help. ¬ indirect speech

‘Will he do,’ I thought, ‘what I say?’ ¬ direct speech

I asked myself if he would do what I said. ¬ indirect speech

Note: *The ‘you’ is converted as ‘him’ but it could be converted to ‘her’, ‘them, ‘me’ or ‘us’, depending on

who ‘you’ refers to in the speaking context.

Changes for conversion

Reporting a direct speech as indirect speech may involve changes in tense, pronoun, time, place, demonstratives. I used ‘may’ because changes depend on the tense of the reporting verb, the person reporting and the person to whom the report is made.

Tense forms

When the time of direct speech and that of the indirect speech are different, that is, when the reporting verb is in the past tense, the verbs in the quotation are said to be ‘more past’ (because we are not talking at the same time as the speaker was) then there is a need to change the tense forms of verbs (this change is known as backshift, and the resulting changes in verb forms is known as sequence of tenses).

direct speech indirect (reported) speech

present simple past simple

‘I like chocolates.’ He said (that) he liked chocolates.

present progressive past progressive

‘It’s raining.’ He said (that) it was raining.

past simple past / past perfect

‘He didn’t recognize me.’ She said (that) he didn’t / hadn’t recognized her.

present perfect past perfect

‘You haven’t done your homework.’ She told me (that) I hadn’t done my homework.

past progressive past progressive or past perfect progressive

‘I was reading a book.’ She said (that) she was reading / had been

reading a book.

past perfect past perfect

‘I hadn’t seen her before that day.’ She said (that) she hadn’t seen her before that day.

shall/will should/would

‘We’ll be late.’ I told them (that) we would be late.

can/ may could/ might

‘I know you can sing.’ He told her (that) he knew she could sing.’

‘he* may arrive late.’ He said (that) Mr Gopi* might arrive late.

would/could/might/ would/could/might/ ought/should

ought/should

‘she could be right.’ They said (that) she could be right.

must must/ had to

‘I must go.’ She said (that) she must go. (or she had to go)

have to had to

‘I have to leave.’ They said (that) they had to leave.

* The ‘he’ in the direct speech has to be distinguished from the reporter who is a also

in this instance is a ‘he’ , and so ‘he’ is changed to the person being talked about.

Personal pronouns

When we report a direct speech of one to another, pronoun shift (changes in pronouns) depends on who is reporting to whom and about whom:

‘I was too busy to join you last night.’

Bopanna told me (that) he was too busy to join me last night.

Bopanna told them (that) he was too busy to join them last night.

Bopanna told Sangeetha (that) he was too busy to join her last night.

Bopanna told you (that) he was too busy to join you last night.

Sherina told Sherif (that) she was too busy to join him last night.

You can see, can’t you, the changes that have occurred in the pronouns? In the last but one sentence, however, there is no change in the ‘you’ pronoun because both of them refer to the same person.

Others

This includes time, place and demonstratives; these change in indirect speech

{this } {that

{these } {those

{here } {there

from {now } to {then

{ago } {before

{today } {that day

{tomorrow} {the next day

{yesterday} {the previous day/the day before

direct indirect

‘I saw the strange man here in this room today.’ He saw the strange man there in that room

that day.

‘I spoke to them yesterday.’ He spoke to them the day before.

‘I will teach the same lesson tomorrow that He would teach the same lesson the next day

I taught two days ago.’ he had taught two days before.

‘I’ll do it here and now.’ He said he’d do it there and then.

Changing the content

The content of a direct speech is a statement, a yes-no question, a wh-question, a directive, or an exclamative.

Let’s see each of them in detail:

Changes in a statement from direct to indirect

1. ‘The train will arrive on time.’

1 4

My husband said the train would arrive on time. (say=tell somebody something)

1 3 4

My husband said that the train would arrive on time.

1 2 3 4

My husband said to me that the train would arrive on time.

1 2 4

My husband told me the train would arrive on time. (tell=give information)

1 2 3 4

My husband told me that the train would arrive on time.

4 4 4 4 4 4

2. ‘If you insist that I resign you’ll regret that decision.’

1 2 3 4 4 4 4 4

Sharma warned his lady boss that if she insisted that he resign* she would regret that

decision.

* The verb ‘insist’ is said to be in subjunctive mood (that is, it carries a sense of

‘obligation’, and the verb in the clause following the verb doesn’t undergo any

change. A few other common verbs in the subjunctive are: suggest, request, order,

recommend, wish. ‘should’ is used in BrE but not in AmE in the ‘that’ clause

following these verbs.

1. is the reporting verb.

2. is the object to whom the report is made.

3. ‘that’ connects the reporting verb with the reported clause.

Its use is optional in informal speech, as you can see in the above examples.

4. indicates the changes (see 1.19-1.21) that occur when a direct speech is reported.

Yes-no questions

1. ‘Is Murugan your brother?’

1 2 3 4 4

He asked (me) if (whether) Murugan was my brother. (‘Ask’ = pose a question to get

information)

1 2 3 4 4

They asked (you) if (whether) Murugan was your brother.

2. ‘Divya, is Murugan your brother?’

1 2 3 4 4

I asked Divya* if (whether) Murugan was her brother.

1 2 3 4 4

I wanted to know from Divya* if Murugan was her brother.

3. ‘Will it rain?’

1 3 4

I wondered if (whether) it would rain.

1. is the reporting verb: ask is the most usual reporting verb for yes-no questions. The

object may or may not follow it (see the above examples). ‘wanted to know (from + object)’ can also be used.

‘Wonder’ is used when the yes-no question is not posed to anybody in particular (see

3 above).

‘Say’ or ‘tell + object’ cannot be used to report questions.

2. is the object (person) to whom the question is posed.

*Sometimes, it happens, as in the case of sentence 2, that the person to whom the

question is addressed is part of the direct speech. You need to take out that name and

use it as object of the reporting verb.

2. ‘if’ or ‘whether’ is used to connect the reporting verb with questions without ‘wh’

words.

3. are the changes (see 1.19-1.21) that take place when a direct yes-no question is

reported.

4. The question becomes a statement in reported speech; this means that in the reported

clause the subject comes first and the verb comes next.

6. No question marks should be used in the reported speech.

Wh-questions

1. ‘What’s your name?’

1 2 3 4 4

She asked (me) what my name was. (‘Ask’ = pose a question to get information)

1 2 3 4 4

I asked (Shalini) what her name was.

2. ‘Shankar, Why did you come here?’

1 2 3 4 4 4

He asked Shankar why he had come there.

3. ‘Where does she live?’

1 3 4

They wanted to know where she lived.

4. ‘Who could’ve stolen the money?’

1 3

I wondered who could have stolen the money.

1. is the reporting verb: ask is the most usual reporting verb for wh-questions. The object

may or may not follow it (see the above examples). ‘wanted to know (from + object)’ can also be used.

‘Wonder’ is used when the wh-question is not posed to anybody in particular (see 4

above).

‘Say’ or ‘tell + object’ cannot be used to report questions.

2. is the object (person) to whom the question is posed.

*Sometimes, it happens, as in the case of sentence 2, that the person to whom the

question is addressed is part of the direct speech. You need to take out that name

and use it as object of the reporting verb.

3. Wh-words are used to connect the reporting verb with questions.

4. are the changes (see 1.19-1.21) that take place when a direct wh-question is reported.

5. The question becomes a statement in reported speech; this means that in the reported

clause the subject comes first and the verb comes next. But this does not happen

when a direct speech has ‘who’ (see 4) for the simple reason the question is about the

doer (subject).

6. No question marks should be used in the reported speech.

Directives

A directive can be any of these: order, request, plea, advice, suggestion, instruction, permission, offer, wish, invitation, warning, or prohibition

1. ‘Play the veena, please.’

1 2 3 4

She asked/requested me to play the veena. (‘ask’ = make a request)

1 3 4

She requested that I play/should play the veena.

2. ‘Give me a ring as soon as my daughter arrives there.’

1 2 3 4

He told us to give him a ring as soon as his daughter arrived there. (tell=order) advise

(Note the pronoun and tense changes in 4, which is the reported clause.)

1 3

She suggested (that) we give/should* give her a ring as soon as her daughter

arrived there.

With ‘suggest’ and other similar verbs (see 4 and 5 below), the object of the reporting

verb is placed as part of the reported speech.

* see example 2 in section 1.25. Remember ‘suggest’ is not followed by a to-

infinitive:

She suggested to give a ring as soon as her daughter arrived there. (x)

3. ‘Sit down.’

1 2 3 4

She ordered/ snapped at me to sit down.

4. ‘Tidy up the room at once.’

1 2 3 4

I told my son to tidy up the room.

1 3 4

I insisted that my son tidy/should tidy up the room at once.

‘Insist’ is a more forceful verb than ‘tell’ in expressing a directive.

5. ‘Don’t open the door.’

1 2 4 3 4

He told/asked me not to open the door.

1 3 4

He suggested/insisted that I not/should not open the door.

1 2 4 3 4

He whispered to me not to open the door.

1.is the reporting verb. Ask, request, order, tell, or other verbs appropriate to the kind of

message given by direct speech can be used; see the examples 2,3,4 above.

2. is the object to whom the directive is given.

3. ‘(not) to’ links the reporting verb and the directive. That is the link for verbs in the

subjunctive.

4. Generally speaking, the direct speech is repeated in the indirect speech. Changes in the

pronouns and the verb in the reported speech may be necessary (see example 2 above.)

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Thursday, 17 April 2014