Indian English Explained

Indian English
Region:	India
Speakers:	250,000
Speakers2:	L2 speakers: 83 million L3 speakers: 46 million 128 million total speakers (2011)
Ref:	^[1] ^[2] ^[3]
Familycolor:	Indo-European
Fam2:	Germanic
Fam3:	West Germanic
Fam4:	Ingvaeonic
Fam5:	Anglo-Frisian
Fam6:	Anglic
Fam7:	English
Fam8:	South Asian English
Ancestor:	Proto-Indo-European
Ancestor2:	Proto-Germanic
Ancestor3:	Proto-English
Ancestor4:	Old English
Ancestor5:	Middle English
Ancestor6:	Early Modern English
Ancestor7:	Modern English
Script:	Latin (English alphabet) Unified English Braille
Iso1:	en
Iso2:	eng
Iso3:	eng
Isoexception:	dialect
Ietf:	en-IN
Glotto:	indi1255
Notice:	IPA

Indian English (IE) is a group of English dialects spoken in the Republic of India and among the Indian diaspora.^[4] English is used by the Government of India for communication, and is enshrined in the Constitution of India.^[5] English is also an official language in seven states and seven union territories of India, and the additional official language in seven other states and one union territory. Furthermore, English is the sole official language of the Judiciary of India, unless the state governor or legislature mandates the use of a regional language, or if the President of India has given approval for the use of regional languages in courts.^[6]

Before the dissolution of the British Empire on the Indian subcontinent, the term Indian English broadly referred to South Asian English, also known as British Indian English.

Status

After gaining independence from the British Raj in 1947, English remained an official language of the new Dominion of India and later the Republic of India. After the partition of India, Pakistani English and Bangladeshi English were considered separate from Indian English.

Today, only a few hundred thousand Indians, or less than 0.1% of the total population, speak English as their first language,^{[7] [8] [9] [10]} and around 30% of the Indian population can speak English to some extent.^[11]

According to the 2001 Census, 12.18% of Indians knew English at that time. Of those, approximately 200,000 reported that it was their first language, 86 million reported that it was their second, and 39 million reported that it was their third.^[12]

According to the 2005 India Human Development Survey,^[13] of 41,554 surveyed, households reported that 72% of men (29,918) spoke no English, 28% of them (11,635) spoke at least some English, and 5% of them (2,077, roughly 17.9% of those who spoke at least some English) spoke fluent English. Among women, 83% (34,489) spoke no English, 17% (7,064) spoke at least some English, and 3% (1,246, roughly 17.6% of those who spoke at least some English) spoke English fluently.^[14] According to statistics from the District Information System for Education (DISE) of the National University of Educational Planning and Administration under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, enrollment in English-medium schools increased by 50% between 2008–09 and 2013–14. The number of English-medium school students in India increased from over 15 million in 2008–09 to 29 million by 2013–14.^[15]

According to the 2011 Census, 129 million Indians (10.6%) spoke English. 259,678 (0.02%) Indians spoke English as their first language.^[1] It concluded that approximately 83 million Indians (6.8%) reported English as their second language, and 46 million (3.8%) reported it as their third language, making English the second-most spoken language in India.^[2]

India ranks 52 out of 111 countries in the 2022 EF English Proficiency Index published by the EF Education First. The index gives the country a score of 496 indicating "moderate proficiency". India ranks 6th out of 24 Asian countries included in the index.^[16]

As a multilingual country, English is the lingua franca among different regions of India.^[17] Writing for The New York Times, journalist Manu Joseph stated in 2011 that, due to the prominence and usage of the language and the desire for English-language education, "English is the de facto national language of India. It is a bitter truth."^[18] In his book, In Search of Indian English: History, Politics and Indigenisation, Ranjan Kumar Auddy shows that the history of the rise of Indian nationalism and the history of the emergence of Indian English are deeply inter-related.

Court language

Under the Indian Constitution, English is the language of India's Supreme Court and of all the high courts of India.^[6] However, as allowed by the Constitution, Hindi is also used in courts in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan by virtue of special presidential approval.^[19] As of 2018, the high courts of Punjab and Haryana were also awaiting presidential approval to use Hindi alongside English,^[20] and the Madras High Court has been taking steps to use Tamil alongside English.^[21]

Names

The first occurrence of the term Indian English dates from 1696,^[22] though the term did not become common until the 19th century. In the colonial era, the most common terms in use were Anglo-Indian English, or simply Anglo-Indian, both dating from 1860. Other less common terms in use were Indo-Anglian (dating from 1897) and Indo-English (1912).^[23] An item of Anglo-Indian English was known as an Anglo-Indianism from 1851.^[23]

In the modern era, a range of colloquial portmanteau words for Indian English have been used. The earliest of these is Indlish (recorded from 1962), and others include Indiglish (1974), Indenglish (1979), Indglish (1984), Indish (1984), Inglish (1985) and Indianlish (2007).^[24]

Features

Indian English generally uses the Indian numbering system. Idiomatic forms derived from Indian literary languages and vernaculars have been absorbed into Indian English. Nevertheless, there remains general homogeneity in phonetics, vocabulary, and phraseology among various dialects of Indian English.^{[25] [26] [27] [28]}

Formal written publications in English in India tend to use lakh/crore for Indian currency and Western numbering for foreign currencies like dollars and pounds,^[29] although lakh and crore are also used to refer to other large numbers such as population sizes. These terms are not used by other English-speakers, who have to learn what they mean in order to read Indian English news articles.

History

See also: Glossary of the British Raj.

British India

The English language established a foothold on the Indian subcontinent with the granting of the East India Company charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1600 and the subsequent establishment of trading ports in coastal cities such as Surat, Mumbai (called Bombay before 1995), Chennai (called Madras before 1996), and Kolkata (called Calcutta before 2001).

English-language public instruction began in the subcontinent in the 1830s during the rule of the British East India Company. In 1835, English replaced Persian as the official language of the East India Company. Lord Macaulay played a major role in introducing English and Western concepts into educational institutions in British-India. He supported the replacement of Persian by English as the official language, the use of English as the medium of instruction in all schools, and the training of English-speaking Indians as teachers.^[30] Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, primary, middle, and high schools were opened in many districts of British India, with most high schools offering English language instruction in some subjects. In 1857, just before the end of East India Company rule, universities that were modeled on the University of London and used English as the medium of instruction were established in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. During the British Raj (1858 to 1947), English-language penetration increased throughout the subcontinent. This was driven in part by the gradually increasing hiring of Indians in the civil services. At the time of Indian independence in 1947, English was the only functional lingua franca in the region.

Republic of India

After the independence and Partition of British India, Modern Standard Hindi was declared the first official language in the new Indian Republic, and attempts were made to declare Hindi the sole national language. Due to protests from Tamil Nadu and other non-Hindi-speaking states, it was decided to temporarily retain English for official purposes until at least 1965. By the end of this period, however, opposition from non-Hindi states was still too strong to have Hindi declared the sole language. With this in mind, the English Language Amendment Bill declared English to be an associate language "until such time as all non-Hindi States had agreed to its being dropped."^[31] This has not yet occurred, and English is still widely used. For instance, it is the only reliable means of day-to-day communication between the central government and the non-Hindi states.

The view of the English language among many Indians has changed over time. It used to be associated primarily with colonialism; it is now primarily associated with economic progress, and English continues to be an official language of India.^[32]

While there is an assumption that English is readily available in India, studies show that its usage is actually restricted to the elite,^[33] because of inadequate education to large parts of the Indian population. The use of outdated teaching methods and the poor grasp of English exhibited by the authors of many guidebooks disadvantage students who rely on these books, giving India only a moderate proficiency in English.^[34]

In addition, many features of Indian English were imported into Bhutan due to the dominance of Indian-style education and teachers in the country after it withdrew from its isolation in the 1960s.^{[35] [36]}

Hinglish and other hybrid languages

See main article: Hinglish, Tenglish and Tanglish. The term Hinglish is a portmanteau of the languages English and Hindi. This typically refers to the macaronic hybrid use of Hindustani and English. It is often the growing preferred language of the urban and semi-urban educated Indian youth, as well as the Indian diaspora abroad.^[37] The Hindi film industry, more popularly known as Bollywood, incorporates considerable amounts of Hinglish as well.^[38] Many internet platforms and voice commands on Google also recognise Hinglish.^[37] When Hindi–Urdu is viewed as a single language called Hindustani, the portmanteaus Hinglish and Urdish mean the same code-mixed tongue, where the former term is used predominantly in modern India and the latter term predominantly in Pakistan.

Other macaronic hybrids such as Minglish (Marathi and English), Banglish (Bengali and English), Manglish (Malayalam and English), Kanglish (Kannada and English), Tenglish (Telugu and English), and Tanglish or Tamglish (Tamil and English) exist in South India.^[39]

Phonology

Vowels

In general, Indian English has fewer peculiarities in its vowel sounds than the consonants, especially as spoken by native speakers of languages like Hindi, the vowel phoneme system having some similarities with that of English. Among the distinctive features of the vowel-sounds employed by some Indian English speakers:

• North Indians, especially a minority of English students and teachers along with some people in various professions like telephone customer service agents, often speak with a non-rhotic accent. Examples of this include flower pronounced as pronounced as /[flaʊ.ə]/, never as pronounced as /[nevə]/, water as pronounced as /[ʋɒtə]/, etc. Some South Indians, however, like native Telugu speakers speak with a rhotic accent, but the final pronounced as //ə// becomes an pronounced as /[a]/, and an alveolar tap pronounced as /[ɾ]/ is used for /r/, resulting in water and never as pronounced as /[wɒtaɾ]/ or pronounced as /[ʋɒʈaɾ]/ and pronounced as /[nevaɾ]/ respectively.
  • Features characteristic of North American English, such as rhoticity and r-coloured vowels, have been gaining influence on Indian English in recent years as cultural and economic ties increase between India and the United States.^[40]
• Many North Indians have an intonation pattern similar to Hiberno-English, which perhaps results from a similar pattern used while speaking Hindi.
• Indian English speakers do not necessarily make a clear distinction between and unlike Received Pronunciation (RP), i.e. they may have the cot-caught merger, with the target vowel ranging between either option.
• Diphthong is pronounced as pronounced as /link/
• Diphthong is pronounced as pronounced as /link/
• Diphthong is pronounced as pronounced as /link/
• may be more front pronounced as /link/ or central pronounced as /link/
• can be more mid central pronounced as /link/ or open-mid pronounced as /link/
• may be lower pronounced as /link/
• may be more central pronounced as /link/, especially before /l/.^[41]
• Most Indians have the trap–bath split of Received Pronunciation, affecting words such as class, staff and last (pronounced as //klɑːs//, pronounced as //stɑːf// and pronounced as //lɑːst// respectively). Though the trap-bath split is prevalent in Indian English, it varies greatly. Many younger Indians who read and listen to American English do not have this split. Similar to Australian English, variability is especially present when the split occurs before nasal clusters in words such as dance, Francis, and answer.^[42]
• Most Indians do not have the hoarse-horse merger.

The following are some variations in Indian English resulting from not distinguishing a few vowels:

• Pronunciation of ranging from pronounced as /link/ to pronounced as /link/
• Pronunciation of and pronounced as /link/ as pronounced as /link/
• Pronunciation of ranging from pronounced as /link/ to pronounced as /link/

Consonants

The following are the characteristics of dialect of Indian English most similar to RP:

• The voiceless plosives pronounced as //p/, /t/, /k// are always unaspirated in Indian English, (aspirated in cultivated form) whereas in RP, General American and most other English accents they are aspirated in word-initial or stressed syllables. Thus "pin" is pronounced pronounced as /[pɪn]/ in Indian English but pronounced as /[pʰɪn]/ in most other dialects. In native Indo-Aryan languages, a predominant language family in India, the distinction between aspirated and unaspirated plosives is phonemic, and the English stops are equated with the unaspirated rather than the aspirated phonemes of the local languages. The same is true of the voiceless postalveolar affricate pronounced as //tʃ//. The local unvoiced aspirated plosives are instead equated with English fricatives, namely pronounced as //f// and pronounced as //θ//.
• The alveolar stops English pronounced as //d//, pronounced as //t// are often retroflex pronounced as /[ɖ]/, pronounced as /[ʈ]/, especially in the north of India. In Indian languages, there are two entirely distinct sets of coronal plosives: one dental and the other retroflex. Native speakers of Indian languages prefer to pronounce the English alveolar plosives sound as more retroflex than dental, and the use of retroflex consonants is a common feature of Indian English. In the Devanagari script of Hindi, all alveolar plosives of English are transcribed as their retroflex counterparts. One good reason for this is that unlike most other native Indian languages, Hindi does not have true retroflex plosives (Tiwari, [1955] 2001). The so-called retroflexes in Hindi are actually articulated as apical post-alveolar plosives, sometimes even with a tendency to come down to the alveolar region. So a Hindi speaker normally cannot distinguish the difference between their own apical post-alveolar plosives and English's alveolar plosives. Languages such as Tamil have true retroflex plosives, however, wherein the articulation is done with the tongue curved upwards and backwards at the roof of the mouth. This also causes (in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar) the pronounced as //s// preceding alveolar pronounced as //t// to allophonically change to pronounced as /[ʃ]/ ((stop), pronounced as //stɒp// → pronounced as //ʃʈap//). Mostly in north India, some speakers allophonically further change the voiced retroflex plosives to voiced retroflex flap pronounced as /[ɽ]/, and the nasal pronounced as //n// to a nasalised retroflex flap.
• Most major native languages of India lack the dental fricatives and (spelled with th), although [ð] occurs variably in Dravidian languages Tamil. Usually, the aspirated voiceless dental plosive pronounced as /[t̪ʰ]/ is substituted for pronounced as //θ// in the north (it would be unaspirated in the south) and the unaspirated voiced dental plosive pronounced as /[d̪]/, or possibly the aspirated version pronounced as /[d̪ʱ]/, is substituted for pronounced as //ð//. For example, "thin" would be realised as pronounced as /[t̪ʰɪn]/ instead of pronounced as //θɪn// for North Indian speakers, whereas it would be pronounced unaspirated in the south.

The following are the variations in Indian English:

• The English of Delhi often has yod-dropping after coronals, unlike RP.
• The rhotic consonant /r/ is pronounced by most speakers as an alveolar tap pronounced as /[ɾ]/, but may also be pronounced as a retroflex flap pronounced as /[ɽ]/ or alveolar trill pronounced as /[r]/ based on the influence by the native phonology, or an alveolar approximant pronounced as /[ɹ]/ like in most varieties of English.^{[43] [44]}
• Pronunciations vary between rhotic and non-rhotic; with pronunciations leaning towards native phonology being generally rhotic, and others being non-rhotic.
  • In recent years, rhoticity has been increasing. Generally, American English is seen as having a large influence on the English language in India recently.
  • Many Indians with rhotic accents prefer to pronounce words with pronounced as /[aʊə]/ as pronounced as /[aː(r)]/, such as (flower) as pronounced as /[flaː(r)]/ and (our) as pronounced as /[aː(r)]/, as opposed to pronounced as /[flaʊ.ə]/ and pronounced as /[aʊ.ə]/ in more non-rhotic varieties. Speakers with rhotic accents, especially some south Indians, may also pronounce word-final pronounced as //ər// as pronounced as //ar//, resulting in water and never as pronounced as //wɔːtar// and pronounced as //nevar// respectively.
• Most Indian languages do not differentiate between pronounced as //v// (voiced labiodental fricative) and pronounced as //w// (voiced labiovelar approximant). Instead, many Indians use a frictionless labiodental approximant pronounced as /[ʋ]/ for words with either sound, possibly in free variation with pronounced as /[v]/ and/or pronounced as /[w]/ depending upon region. Thus, wet and vet are often homophones.
• South Indians tend to curl the tongue (retroflex accentuation) less for pronounced as //l// and pronounced as //n//.
• Sometimes, Indian speakers interchange pronounced as //s// and pronounced as //z//, especially when plurals are being formed, unlike speakers of other varieties of English, who use pronounced as /[s]/ for the pluralisation of words ending in a voiceless consonant, pronounced as /[z]/ for words ending in a voiced consonant or vowel, and pronounced as /[ɨz]/ for words ending in a sibilant.
• In case of the postalveolar affricates pronounced as //tʃ// pronounced as //dʒ//, native languages like Hindi have corresponding affricates articulated from the palatal region, rather than postalveolar, and they have more of a stop component than fricative; this is reflected in their English.
• Syllabic pronounced as //l//, pronounced as //m// and pronounced as //n// are usually replaced by the VC clusters pronounced as /[əl]/, pronounced as /[əm]/ and pronounced as /[ən]/ (as in button pronounced as //ˈbəʈən//), or if a high vowel precedes, by pronounced as /[il]/ (as in little pronounced as //ˈliʈil//). Syllable nuclei in words with the spelling er/re (a schwa in RP and an r-coloured schwa in GA) are also replaced by VC clusters. e.g., metre, pronounced as //ˈmiːtər// → pronounced as //ˈmiːʈər//.
• Indian English uses clear pronounced as /[l]/ in all instances like Irish English whereas other varieties use clear pronounced as /[l]/ in syllable-initial positions and dark l pronounced as /link/ (velarised-L) in coda and syllabic positions.

The following are variations in Indian English due to language contact with Indian languages:

• Most Indian languages (except Assamese, Marathi and Tamil) lack the voiced alveolar fricative pronounced as //z//. A significant portion of Indians thus, even though their native languages do have its nearest equivalent: the unvoiced pronounced as //s//, often use the voiced palatal affricate (or postalveolar) pronounced as //dʒ//. This makes words such as (zero) and (rosy) sound as pronounced as /[ˈdʒiːro]/ and pronounced as /[ˈroːdʒiː]/ (the latter, especially in the North). This replacement is equally true for Persian and Arabic loanwords into Hindi. The probable reason is the confusion created by the use of the Devanagari grapheme (ज) (for /dʒ/) with a dot beneath it to represent pronounced as //z// (as (ज़)). A similar thing happens in other Indian languages like Bengali, with the letters for pronounced as //dʒ// (except Indian varieties of Nepali where (ज) represents /pronounced as /link//) usually being used to represent pronounced as //z//. This is common among people without formal English education. In Telugu, pronounced as //z// and pronounced as //dʒ// are allophones in some cases, so the words such as fridge pronounced as //fɹɪdʒ// become pronounced as //friz//.
• In Assamese, pronounced as //tʃ// and pronounced as //ʃ// are pronounced as pronounced as //s//; and pronounced as //dʒ// and pronounced as //ʒ// are pronounced as pronounced as //z//. Retroflex and dental consonants are not present and only alveolar consonants are used unlike other Indian languages. Similar to Bengali, pronounced as //v// is pronounced as pronounced as //bʱ// and pronounced as //β// in Assamese. For example; change is pronounced as pronounced as /[sɛɪnz]/, vote is pronounced as pronounced as /[bʱʊt]/ and English is pronounced as pronounced as /[iŋlis]/.^[45]
• Again, in Assamese and Bhojpuri, all instances of pronounced as //ʃ// are spoken like pronounced as /[s]/, a phenomenon that is also apparent in their English. Exactly the opposite is seen for many Bengalis.^[45]
• Inability to pronounce certain (especially word-initial) consonant clusters by people of rural backgrounds, as with some Spanish-speakers. This is usually dealt with by epenthesis. e.g., (school) pronounced as //isˈkuːl//.
• Many Indians with lower exposure to English also may pronounce pronounced as //f// as an aspirated voiceless bilabial plosive pronounced as /[pʰ]/. Again in Hindi Devanagari the loaned pronounced as //f// from Persian and Arabic is written by putting a dot beneath the grapheme for native pronounced as /[pʰ]/ (फ): (फ़). This substitution is rarer than that for pronounced as /[z]/, and in fact in many Hindi pronounced as //f// is used by native speakers instead of pronounced as //pʰ//, or the two are used interchangeably.
• Many speakers of Indian English do not use the voiced postalveolar fricative (pronounced as //ʒ//). Some Indians use pronounced as //z// or pronounced as //dʒ// instead, e.g. (treasure) pronounced as //ˈtrɛzəːr//, and in some south Indian variants, with pronounced as //ʃ// as in (shore), e.g. (treasure) pronounced as //ˈtrɛʃər//.

Spelling pronunciation

A number of distinctive features of Indian English are due to "the vagaries of English spelling". Most Indian languages, unlike English, have a nearly phonetic spelling, so the spelling of a word is a highly reliable guide to its modern pronunciation. Indians' tendency to pronounce English phonetically as well can cause divergence from British English. This phenomenon is known as spelling pronunciation.

• In words where the digraph (gh) represents a voiced velar plosive (pronounced as //ɡ//) in other accents, some Indian English speakers supply a murmured version pronounced as /[ɡʱ]/, for example (ghost) pronounced as /[ɡʱoːst]/. No other accent of English admits this voiced aspiration.
• Similarly, especially with Hindi speakers, the digraph (wh) may be aspirated as pronounced as /[ʋʱ]/ or pronounced as /[wʱ]/, resulting in realisations such as (which) pronounced as /[ʋʱɪtʃ]/, found in no other English accent (although some Scottish accents come close). This is somewhat similar to the traditional distinction between (wh) and (w) present in English, however, wherein the former is pronounced as //ʍ//, whilst the latter is pronounced as //w//.
• In unstressed syllables, which speakers of American English would realise as a schwa, speakers of Indian English would use the spelling vowel, making (sanity) sound as pronounced as /[ˈsæniti]/ instead of pronounced as /[ˈsænəti]/. This trait is also present in other South Asian dialects (Pakistani and Sri Lankan English), and common for many second-language European speakers of English.
• The word "of" is usually pronounced with a pronounced as //f// instead of a pronounced as //v// as in most other accents.
• Use of pronounced as /[d]/ instead of pronounced as /[t]/ for the "-ed" ending of the past tense after voiceless consonants, for example "developed" may be pronounced as /[ˈdɛʋləpd]/ instead of RP pronounced as //dɪˈvɛləpt//.
• Use of pronounced as /[s]/ instead of pronounced as /[z]/ for the (-s) ending of the plural after voiced consonants, for example (dogs) may be pronounced as /[daɡs]/ instead of pronounced as /[dɒɡz]/.
• Pronunciation of (house) as pronounced as /[haʊz]/ in both the noun and the verb, instead of pronounced as /[haʊs]/ as a noun and pronounced as /[haʊz]/ as a verb.
• Silent letters may be pronounced. For example, 'salmon' is usually pronounced with a distinct pronounced as //l//.

Supra-segmental features

English is a stress-timed language. Both syllable stress and word stress (where only certain words in a sentence or phrase are stressed) are important features of Received Pronunciation. Indian native languages are actually syllable-timed languages, like French. Indian-English speakers usually speak with a syllabic rhythm.^[46] Further, in some Indian languages, stress is associated with a low pitch,^[47] whereas in most English dialects, stressed syllables are generally pronounced with a higher pitch. Thus, when some Indian speakers speak, they appear to put the stress accents at the wrong syllables, or accentuate all the syllables of a long English word. Certain Indian accents possess a "sing-song" quality, a feature seen in a few English dialects of Britain, such as Scouse and Welsh English.^[48]

Numbering system

The Indian numbering system is preferred for digit grouping.^[49] When written in words, or when spoken, numbers less than 100,000 are expressed just as they are in Standard English. Numbers including and beyond 100,000 are expressed in a subset of the Indian numbering system. Thus, the following scale is used:

In digits (International system)	In digits (Indian system)	In words (short scales)	In words (Indian system) (Only in Hindustani language)
10		ten
100		one hundred
1,000		one thousand
10,000		ten thousand
100,000	1,00,000	one hundred thousand	one lakh (from Hindi: लाख)
1,000,000	10,00,000	one million	ten lakh
10,000,000	1,00,00,000	ten million	one crore (from Hindi: करोड़)
100,000,000	10,00,00,000	one hundred million	ten crore
1,000,000,000	1,00,00,00,000	one billion	one hundred crore one arab (from Hindi: अरब)
10,000,000,000	10,00,00,00,000	ten billion	one thousand crore ten arab
100,000,000,000	1,00,00,00,00,000	one hundred billion	ten thousand crore one kharab (from Hindi: खरब)(arab and kharab are not commonly used today)

Larger numbers are generally expressed as multiples of the above (for example, one lakh crores for one trillion).^{[50] [51]}

Vocabulary

Indian English includes many political, sociological, and administrative terms, such as dharna, hartal, eve-teasing, vote bank, swaraj, swadeshi, scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, and NRI. It incorporates some Anglo-Indian words such as tiffin, hill station, gymkhana, along with slang.^{[52] [53]}

Indian English, like some other World Englishes, is notable for its treatment of English mass and count nouns. Words that are treated as mass nouns in native forms of English, such as evidence, equipment, or training, are frequently treated as count nouns in Indian English.^[54]

Some examples of words and phrases unique to, or chiefly used in, standard written Indian English include:

• academics (noun) (also Canadian and American English): Academic pursuits in contrast to technical or practical work.
  • e.g. "For 14 years he immersed himself in academics and was a fine achiever." (The Hindu (Madras), 6 December 1991 27/2)^[55]
• all is well: Nothing to be concerned about, everything is fine .
• avail (verb): Take advantage of an opportunity or resource.
• ayye, aiye (interjection) (South India): ew.
• ayyo, aiyo (interjection) (South India): oh no, yikes.
• brinjal (noun): An eggplant/aubergine
• bus stand (noun): A bus station (British English)
• capsicum (noun) (also Australian English): A bell pepper
  • e.g. "He is allergic to capsicum."
• chain-snatching (verb): To snatch a gold chain (or sometimes silver chain) from someone and run away, usually perpetrated by two or more criminals on a motorbike/moped/scooter.
  • e.g. "Women are avoiding wearing gold chains due to the concerning rise in number of chain-snatching cases in many parts of the city."
• cinema (noun): A movie or film
• cinema hall (noun): A cinema or movie theatre^[56]
  • e.g. "Cinema halls in Uttar Pradesh will soon display the newly-unveiled logo for Kumbh Mela, right after the national anthem is played" (The Times of India, 3 January 2018)^[57]
• communalism: The creation of hatred between different religions and ethnicities which cause communal violence between them. The term is usually used to describe the hatred spread by religious leaders and politicians which cause Hindu–Muslim riots.
• desi

South Asian, Indian.

• do the needful: To do that which is necessary or required, with the respectful implication that the other party is trusted to understand what needs doing without being given detailed instructions.
  • e.g. "When asked if the UP government could reduce Value Added Tax (VAT) on petro-products to bring down prices, the CM said that the state government was aware of the situation and will do the needful." (2018 The Pioneer)^[58]
• English-knowing (adjective): Of a person or group of people that uses or speaks English.
  • e.g. "The official and Service atmosphere ... set the tone for almost all Indian middle-class life, especially the English-knowing intelligentsia." (Toward Freedom vii. 40, J. Nehru, 1941)^[59]
• even: Added at end of sentence.
  • e.g. "He didn't call even" meaning "He didn't even call" and not or "Even he didn't call".
• footpath (noun) (also Australian English, British English, Hiberno-English): a sidewalk (American English).
  • e.g. "Pedestrian trips account for a quarter to a third of all trips in many Indian cities, yet, footpaths are designed as an afterthought to vehicles and commercial establishments." (The Hindu, 29 November 2019)^[60]
• foreign-returned (adjective): Of a person or group of people who has returned home after living abroad for a while^[61]
• freeship (noun): A studentship or scholarship.
  • e.g. "Two permanent freeships, each tenable for one year and one of which is for the second and the other for the third year class." (The Medical Reporter (Calcutta) 57/1, 1 February 1893)
  • e.g. "Private institutions can only develop if they are allowed to charge reasonable fees, while also providing need based freeships and scholarships for a certain percentage of students." (The Economic Times (Nexis), 12 October 2006)^[62]
• hartal (noun): A strike, protest.
• highway (noun): A motorway (British English), freeway (American English)
• hotel (noun): A restaurant or café.
  • e.g. "A group of four friends had gone to have dinner at a roadside hotel." (Statesman (Calcutta), 10 February 1999 (Midweek section) 4/3)^[63]
• is it so: Oh really?
• it will be: .
  • e.g. Q: "How much is this?" A: "It will be two hundred and seventy rupee."
• kindly adjust: Used to acknowledge and apologize for something that causes problems or difficulties and ask people to accept and adapt to the situation, or used to apologize for causing inconvenience.
  • e.g. "The store will be closed this afternoon due to staffing shortages. Kindly adjust."
  • e.g.: When asking someone to move along so you can sit down. "I would like to sit down, sir. Kindly adjust."^[64]
• lady finger/lady's finger (noun): okra
• matrimonial (noun): Advertisements in a newspaper for the purpose of finding a marriageable partner.
  • e.g. "When I have a job I'll have to begin a whole new search for my better half ... Back to the newspaper matrimonials on Sundays." (Statesman (Calcutta), 10 February 1999 (Midweek section) 4/3)^[65]
• na (interjection) (North India): "isn't it?"
  • e.g. "That place is quite far na?"
• office boy: Usually a person employed to do less important and menial jobs in a business office (such as a messenger, copier maintenance, Chaiwala, etc.). Often resides or spends their working time in a special service space in the office, behind the front desk or in the pantry.
• out of station: used for saying that someone is away.^[66] This phrase has its origins in the posting of army officers to particular "stations" during the days of the East India Company.
• pass(ing) out (phrase): Graduate from school/college or complete a course at an institution.^[67]
  • e.g. "I passed out of college in 2007."
  • e.g. "I passed out of my school aged 17."
• petrol pump / petrol bunk (used in some parts of south India; noun): A petrol station (British English), gas station (American English)
• prepone (verb): To bring (something) forward to an earlier date or time.^[68]
  • e.g. "The meeting has been preponed due to a change in the schedule."
• pressperson (noun, frequently as a single word): A newspaper journalist, a reporter, a member of the press.
  • e.g. "The Prime Minister greeted the presspersons with a 'namaskar' [customary Hindu greeting] and a broad smile." (The Hindu (Nexis), 20 June 2001)^[69]
• ragging (noun): bullying, fagging
• redressal (noun): Redress
  • e.g. "There is an urgent need for setting up an independent authority for redressal of telecom consumer complaints." (Statesman (India) (Nexis), 2 April 1998)
  • e.g. "Where does he go for the redressal of his genuine grievances?" (Sunday Times of India, 15 September 2002 8/4)^[70]
• revert (verb): To report back with information.
  • e.g. "Please revert with the required documentation."
• right: .
• road junction/circle (noun): a crossroad (British English), intersection (American English)
• talaq, talaq, talaq – A form of divorce practiced in the Indian Muslim community for many generations. Triple talaq in India.
• the same: previously mentioned, the above.
  • e.g. "Read out the para and copy down the same."
• tiffin: lunch, snack.
• upgradation (noun): The enhancement or upgrading of status, value or level of something.
  • e.g. "Our Company lays great stress on technical training and knowledge upgradation." (Business India, 8 September 1986 153/1 (advert))^[71]
• votebank: A bloc of voters from a single community or a group of communities who always back a certain candidate or political party for bribes and/or employment favours given by the particular party.

Spelling

Spelling practices in Indian English generally follow the British style, e.g., using travelling, litre, practise (as a verb), anaesthesia, fulfil, catalogue and colour, rather than the American style.

Dictionaries

The most famous dictionary of Indian English is Yule and Brunell's Hobson-Jobson, originally published in 1886 with an expanded edition edited by William Crooke in 1903, widely available in reprint since the 1960s.

Numerous other dictionaries ostensibly covering Indian English, though for the most part being merely collections of administratively-useful words from local languages, include (chronologically): Rousseau A Dictionary of Words used in the East Indies (1804), Wilkins Glossary to the Fifth Report (1813), Stocqueler The Oriental Interpreter and Treasury of East Indian Knowledge (1844), Elliot A Supplement to the Glossary of Indian Terms: A-J (1845), Brown The Zillah Dictionary in the Roman Character (1852), Carnegy Kutcherry Technicalities (1853) and its second edition Kachahri Technicalities (1877), Wilson Glossary of Judicial and Revenue Terms (1855), Giles A Glossary of Reference, on Subjects connected with the Far East (1878), Whitworth Anglo-Indian Dictionary (1885), Temple A Glossary of Indian Terms relating to Religion, Customs, Government, Land (1897), and Crooke Things India: Being Discursive Notes on Various Subjects connected with India (1906).

The first dictionary of Indian English to be published after independence was Hawkins Common Indian Words in English (1984). Other efforts include (chronologically): Lewis Sahibs, Nabobs and Boxwallahs (1991), Muthiah Words in Indian English (1991), Sengupta's Indian English supplement to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (1996) and Hankin Hanklyn-Janklin (2003). Nihalani et al. Indian and British English: A Handbook of Usage and Pronunciation (2004) delineates how Indian English differs from British English for a large number of specific lexical items. The Macmillan publishing company also produced a range of synchronic general dictionaries for the Indian market, such as the Macmillan Comprehensive Dictionary (2006).

The most recent dictionary is Carls A Dictionary of Indian English, with a Supplement on Word-formation Patterns (2017).

See also

• Regional differences and dialects in Indian English
• Indian English literature
• Indian numbering system
• Languages with official status in India
• Indian States by most popular languages
  • Kanglish Hinglish
• Manglish
• Pakistani English/Paklish
• Bangladeshi English/Banglish
• Tanglish
• Tenglish
• English as a lingua franca
• Regional accents of English

References

Bibliography

• Book: Auddy, Ranjan Kumar . 2020 . In Search of Indian English: History, Politics and Indigenisation . Routledge . 978-0-367-35271-4.
• Book: Ball, Martin J. . Phonetics for Communication Disorders . Muller . Nicole . Routledge . 2014 . 978-1-317-77795-3 . 289–.
• Book: Sailaja, Pingali . Linguistic Theory and South Asian Languages: Essays in honour of K. A. Jayaseelan . John Benjamins Publishing Company . 2007 . 978-90-272-9245-2 . Bayer . Josef . 249–267 . Writing Systems and Phonological Awareness . Bhattacharya . Tanmoy . Babu . M. T. Hany . https://books.google.com/books?id=xac5AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA252.
• Book: Sailaja, Pingali . Indian English . Edinburgh University Press . 2009 . 978-0-7486-2595-6 . Series: Dialects of English.
• Book: Wells, J. C. . Accents of English . Cambridge University Press . 1982 . 0-521-28541-0 . 3: Beyond the British Isles.

Further reading

• Book: HOBSON-JOBSON: Being a glossary of Anglo-Indian colloquial words and phrases . Henry Yule. Henry Yule. Arthur Coke Burnell . John Murray, London . 1886. Arthur Coke Burnell.
• Book: Crystal. The English Language. Penguin. 1990. London & New York. 10.
• Book: Whitworth, George Clifford. An Anglo-Indian dictionary: a glossary of Indian terms used in English, and of such English or other non-Indian terms as have obtained special meanings in India. K. Paul, Trench. 1885.
• News: Rayan. Albert P.. What ails English language teaching?. 9 May 2018. The Hindu. 24 September 2017.
• News: Johnson. Rue the rules. 9 May 2018. The Economist. 27 August 2016.
• News: Joseph. Manu. India Faces a Linguistic Truth: English Spoken Here. 9 May 2018. The New York Times. 16 February 2011.
• News: Aula. Sahith. The Problem With The English Language In India. 9 May 2018. Forbes. 6 November 2014.
  • Book: Balasubramanian, Chandrika. Register Variation in Indian English. 2009. John Benjamins Publishing. 978-90-272-2311-1.
• Book: Baumgardner. Robert Jackson . South Asian English: Structure, Use, and Users. 1996. University of Illinois Press. 978-0-252-06493-7.
• Book: Braj B. Kachru. The Indianisation of English: the English language in India. 1983. Oxford University Press. 0-19-561353-8.
• Book: Gargesh, Ravinder. Braj Kachru. The Handbook of World Englishes. https://books.google.com/books?id=PpeXINCnDbIC&pg=PA90. 17 February 2009. John Wiley & Sons. 978-1-4051-8831-9. 90–. South Asian Englishes. etal.
• Book: Hickey, Raymond. Legacies of Colonial English: Studies in Transported Dialects. https://books.google.com/books?id=OqUBUgW_Ax8C&pg=PA536. 2004. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-83020-1. 536–. South Asian English.
  • • Book: Lange, Claudia. The Syntax of Spoken Indian English. 2012. John Benjamins Publishing. 978-90-272-4905-0.
• Book: Mehrotra, Raja Ram. Indian English: Texts and Interpretation. 1998. John Benjamins Publishing. 90-272-4716-1.
• Book: Schilk, Marco. Structural Nativization in Indian English Lexicogrammar. 2011. John Benjamins Publishing. 978-90-272-0351-9.
• Book: Sedlatschek, Andreas. Contemporary Indian English: Variation and Change. Series: Varieties of English Around the World. 2009. 978-9027248985.

External links

• Web site: English in India . 23 January 2009 . unfit . https://web.archive.org/web/20130531024023/http://www.confluence.org.uk/2008/12/02/the-english-project-and-the-english-language-in-india-christopher-mulvey . 31 May 2013 .
• Indian general spoken Problems in English .
• Indian Pronunciation Problems in English, ESLAN.
• 'Hover & Hear' pronunciations in a Standard Indian English accent, and compare side by side with other English accents from around the World.
• "Linguistic and Social Characteristics of Indian English" by Jason Baldridge: An analysis of Indian language published by the "Language In India" magazine.
• On the future of Indian English, by Gurcharan Das.
• An exploration into linguistic majority-minority relations in India, by B. Mallikarjun.
• 108 varieties of Indian English, Dharma Kumar, India Seminar, 2001 (Volume 500).
• India Human Development Survey-II 2011–2012
• Indian Novels in English: Texts, Contexts and Language Hardcover – 2018 by Jaydeep Sarangi (Author)

Notes and References

1. Web site: LANGUAGE - INDIA,STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES (Table C-16). censusindia.gov.in. 14 May 2019.
2. Web site: POPULATION BY BILINGUALISM AND TRILINGUALISM (Table C-17). censusindia.gov.in. 14 May 2019.
3. Web site: India - Languages. Ethnologue . 14 May 2019.
4. Web site: Case Studies - Asian English . British Library . University of Leeds . 30 May 2019.
5. Book: The Constitution of India . 1 December 2007 . Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India . 212–267 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140909230437/http://lawmin.nic.in/coi/coiason29july08.pdf . 30 May 2019 . 9 September 2014 . Constitution of India - Languages.
6. News: Court language is English, says Supreme Court. 7 December 2015. The Economic Times. 16 July 2018.
7. [Census of India]
8. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/statement9.htm "Family-wise Grouping of the 122 Scheduled and Non-scheduled Languages".
9. Tropf, Herbert S. (2005)."India and its Languages". . Siemens AG, Munich.
10. For the distinction between "English Speakers" and "English Users", see TESOL-India (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), "India is World's Second Largest English-Speaking Country". . The article explains the difference between the 350 million number mentioned in a previous version of this Wikipedia article and the current number:
11. Web site: Flows . Capital . The Problem With The English Language In India . 2016-06-06 . Forbes . en.
12. News: Sanskrit and English: there's no competition. Rukmini S. 24 November 2014. The Hindu.
13. Web site: EF English Proficiency Index – A comprehensive ranking of countries by English skills. www.ef.com. 29 November 2016.
14. Book: Human development in india. Oxford University Press. 2010. Desai, Dubey. Joshi, Sen. Sharif, Vanneman. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20151211124532/http://www.ihds.umd.edu/IHDS_files/HumanDevelopmentinIndia.pdf. 11 December 2015. dmy-all. 978-0-19-806512-8.
15. News: Number of children studying in English doubles in 5 years . The Times of India. 28 September 2015 .
16. Web site: EF English Proficiency Index – India. www.ef.com. 2 August 2021.
17. Ishwarya . N. Iyer . English as a Lingua Franca in a Multilingual India . National Research University Higher School of Economics Journal of Language & Education . 2019 . 5 . 1 . 103–109 . 10.17323/2411-7390-2019-5-1-103-109 . 3381672 . free .
18. Web site: Joseph, Manu. Manu Joseph. India Faces a Linguistic Truth: English Spoken Here. The New York Times. 2011-02-17.
19. News: Use of Hindi Language in Courts. Delhi. 28 April 2016. Business Standard India. 16 July 2018.
20. News: Haryana to approach guv for promoting use of Hindi in HC . The Times of India. 16 July 2018.
21. News: Government taking efforts to make Tamil official language in HC . The Hindu. 20 March 2020 .
22. Ovington, J. (1696). A Voyage to Suratt, in the Year 1689, p. 326.
23. Lambert, James (2012). "Beyond Hobson-Jobson: Towards a new lexicography for Indian English", English World-Wide 33(3): 294.
24. Lambert, James. 2018. A multitude of 'lishes': The nomenclature of hybridity. English World-wide, 39(1): 26.
25. Mukesh Ranjan Verma and Krishna Autar Agrawal: Reflections on Indian English literature (2002), page 163: "Some of the words in American English have spelling pronunciation and also pronunciation spelling. These are also characteristic features of Indian English as well. The novels of Mulk Raj Anand, in particular, are full of examples of ..."
26. Pingali Sailaja: Indian English (2009), page 116: "So what was Cauvery is now Kaveri. Some residual spellings left by the British do exist such as the use of ee for /i:/ as in Mukherjee. Also, some place names such as Cuddapah and Punjab"
27. Edward Carney: Survey of English Spelling (2012), page 56: "Not all distributional differences, however, have important consequences for spelling. For instance, the ... Naturally enough, Indian English is heavily influenced by the native language of the area in which it is spoken."
28. Indian English Literature (2002), page 300: "The use of Indian words with English spellings: e.g. 'Mundus,' 'raksha'; 'Ed Cherukka,' 'Chacko Saar Vannu'"
29. Web site: Shapiro, Richard. The most distinctive counting system in English? Indian cardinal numbers. Oxford English Dictionary. 2012-08-16. 2020-05-24. - Shapiro is/was an OED employee. The article states: "The opinions and other information contained in the OED blog posts and comments do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press."
30. MacKenzie, John (January 2013). "A family empire", BBC History Magazine.
31. Web site: The Official Languages Act, 1963 Department of Official Language Ministry of Home Affairs GoI. rajbhasha.gov.in. 3 April 2020.
32. Encyclopedia: Annamalai . E. . India: Language Situation . Encyclopedia of language & linguistics . Brown . Keith . 2006 . Elsevier . 978-0-08-044299-0 . 10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/04611-3 . 610–613.
33. Web site: The rise of Hinglish: How the media created a new lingua franca for India's elites. Shoaib. Daniyal. Scroll.in. 18 June 2017 .
34. Chelliah. Shobhana L.. July 2001. Constructs of Indian English in language 'guidebooks'. World Englishes. 20. 2. 161–178. 10.1111/1467-971X.00207.
35. Web site: 2021-02-26. To Eat 'Snacks Or Snakes?' Discover The Idiosyncrasies Of Bhutanese English. dailybhutan.com.
36. Web site: 2021-02-26. The idiosyncrasies of Bhutanese English – Kuensel Online. kuenselonline.com. https://web.archive.org/web/20190213122337/http://dailybhutan.com/article/to-eat-snacks-or-snakes-discover-the-idiosyncrasies-of-bhutanese-english. 2019-02-13.
37. News: Hinglish gets the most laughs, say Mumbai's standup comics . The Times of India. 16 July 2018.
38. Web site: Decoding the Bollywood poster - National Science and Media Museum blog. blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk. en-GB. 16 July 2018. 28 February 2013.
39. Lambert, James. 2018. A multitude of 'lishes': The nomenclature of hybridity. English World-wide, 39(1): 1-32.
40. Web site: The Readers' Editor writes: Why is American English becoming part of everyday usage in India?. Reddy. C. Rammanohar. Scroll.in. 6 August 2017 . en-US. 18 April 2019.
41. Domange . Raphaël . March 2020 . Variation and change in the short vowels of Delhi English . Language Variation and Change . en . 32 . 1 . 49–76 . 10.1017/S0954394520000010 . 216377833 . 0954-3945. free .
42. Web site: Domange . Raphaël . 2023 . The Vowels of Delhi English .
43. Book: Spitzbardt . Harry . English in India . 1976 . 31 . 2 September 2019.
44. Web site: Indian English Phonologics . Phonologics . Linda J. Ferrier-Reid, Robert MacAuslan and Joel MacAuslan . 7 November 2019.
45. Mahanta. Shakuntala. 2012. Assamese. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 42. 2. 217–224. 10.1017/S0025100312000096. 26351864. 0025-1003. free.
46. Encyclopedia: Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language . Cambridge University Press . 1995 . 360.
47. Web site: Onset of Rising Pitch in Focused Words in Hindi : an Experimental Study . https://web.archive.org/web/20060901152555/http://www.linguistics.uiuc.edu/sala25/verma.htm. 1 September 2006 .
48. Varshney, R.L., "An Introductory Textbook of Linguistics and Phonetics", 15th Ed. (2005), Student Store, Bareilly.
49. Book: Bellos, Alex. Alex's Adventures in Numberland: Dispatches from the Wonderful World of Mathematics. A&C Black. 2010-04-05. 9781408811146. 114. Indian English has different words for high numbers than British or America English.[...]Note that above a thousand, Indians introduce a comma after every two digits,[...].
50. News: Investors lose Rs 4.4 lakh crore in four days . Business Standard . 27 November 2010 . 7 November 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120316003619/http://bsl.co.in/india/news/investors-lose-rs-44-lakh-crore-in-four-days/416306/ . 16 March 2012 .
51. Web site: Corporate chiefs getting crores in salaries: 100 and counting! . The Smart Investor . 7 November 2013.
52. James Lambert (2014). Indian "English slang". In Julie Coleman (ed.) Global English Slang: Methodologies and Perspectives (pp. 126–134). London: Routledge.
53. Lambert, James (2018). "Anglo-Indian slang in dictionaries on historical principles". World Englishes 37(2): 248–260.
54. Book: Leuckert . Sven . Lange . Claudia . Bernaisch . Tobias . Yurchenko . Asya . Indian Englishes in the Twenty-First Century: Unity and Diversity in Lexicon and Morphosyntax . 21 December 2023 . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge . 9781009323796 . 4 March 2023.
55. Encyclopedia: academic (noun), 6. Oxford English Dictionary . 3rd . December 2011.
56. Web site: cinema hall Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary . Dictionary.cambridge.org . 24 May 2018.
57. Web site: UP cinema halls to show Kumbh logo before screening movies . Hindustan Times . 22 April 2016 . 24 May 2018.
58. News: Yogi Accuses Opposition of Ranking Up Inflation. 28 May 2018. The Pioneer. 27 May 2018.
59. Encyclopedia: English-knowing (adj). Compound, C2. Oxford English Dictionary . 3rd . December 2008.
60. News: India's missing footpaths. Nidhi Adlakha. The Hindu. 29 November 2019.
61. Encyclopedia: Foreign-returned (adj). Cambridge Dictionary .
62. Encyclopedia: freeship, 4.. Oxford English Dictionary . 3rd. March 2008.
63. Encyclopedia: hotel (noun) 3.. Oxford Learner's Dictionaries. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20220322012634/https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/hotel?q=hotel. 2022-03-22.
64. Encyclopedia: Kindly adjust (adj). Oxford Learners Dictionary .
65. Encyclopedia: matrimonial (noun) B. 3b. . Oxford English Dictionary . 3rd . March 2001.
66. Encyclopedia: Out of station . Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners.
67. Web site: 2019-09-13 . You studied so hard you passed out? . 2022-08-19 . Times of India Blog . en-US.
68. Encyclopedia: prepone . Cambridge English Dictionary. 13 November 2019.
69. Encyclopedia: press (noun), Compound. Oxford English Dictionary . 3rd. March 2007.
70. Encyclopedia: redressal (noun). Oxford English Dictionary . 3rd. September 2009.
71. Encyclopedia: upgradation (noun). Oxford English Dictionary. 1993.