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Indian English (IE) is a group of
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
dialects spoken in the
republic of India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and among the
Indian diaspora Overseas Indians (IAST: ), officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) are Indians who live outside of the Republic of India. According to the Government of India, ''Non-Resident Indians'' are citizens of Indi ...
. English is used by the
Indian government The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the Government, national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy lo ...
for communication, along with
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
, as enshrined in the
Constitution of India The Constitution of India (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ri ...
. English is also an
official language An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...
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
Indian Judiciary The judiciary of India is a system of courts that interpret and apply the law in the Republic of India. India uses a ''common law system'', first introduced by the British East India Company and with influence from other colonial powers and Ind ...
, unless the state
governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
or legislature mandates the use of a regional language, or if the
President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...
has given approval for the use of regional languages in courts.


Status

After gaining
independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...
from the British Raj in 1947, English remained an official language of the new
Dominion of India The Dominion of India, officially the Union of India,* Quote: “The first collective use (of the word "dominion") occurred at the Colonial Conference (April to May 1907) when the title was conferred upon Canada and Australia. New Zealand and N ...
and later the
Republic of India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. Only a few hundred thousand Indians, or less than 0.1% of the total population, speak English as their first language, and around 30% of the Indian population can speak English to some extent. 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. According to the 2005
India Human Development Survey The India Human Development Survey (IHDS) 2005Desai, Sonalde, Amaresh Dubey, B.L. Joshi, Mitali Sen, Abusaleh Shariff and Reeve Vanneman. 2010. India Human Development in India: Challenges for a Society in Transition. New Delhi: Oxford University ...
, 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. 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 The Ministry of Education ( MoE; formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development from 1985 to 2020) is a ministry of the Government of India, responsible for the implementation of the National Policy on Education. The Ministry is further di ...
,
Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
, 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. According to the 2011 Census, 129 million Indians (10.6%) spoke English. 259,678 (0.02%) Indians spoke English as their first language. 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. India ranks 50 out of 100 countries in the 2021
EF English Proficiency Index The EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) attempts to rank countries by the equity of English language skills amongst those adults who took the EF test.
published by the
EF Education First EF Education First (abbreviated as EF) is an international education company that specializes in language training, educational travel, academic degree programs, and cultural exchange. The company was founded in 1965 by Bertil Hult in the Swe ...
. The index gives the country a score of 496 indicating "low proficiency". India ranks 8th out of 24 Asian countries included in the index. Among Asian countries, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea and China (including Hong Kong and Macau) received higher scores than India. Writing for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', journalist
Manu Joseph Manu Joseph (born 22 July 1974) is an Indian journalist and writer. He is the former editor of ''Open'' magazine. Life and career Manu was born in Kottayam, Kerala, and grew up in Chennai. His father Joseph Madapally is a film maker who directe ...
states that, due to the prominence and usage of the language and the desire for English-language education, "English is the
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
national language of India. It is a bitter truth." 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 The high courts of India are the highest courts of appellate jurisdiction in each state and union territory of India. However, a high court exercises its original civil and criminal jurisdiction only if the subordinate courts are not authorize ...
. However, as allowed by the Constitution, Hindi is also used in courts in
Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...
,
Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...
,
Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
, and
Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
by virtue of special presidential approval. As of 2018, the high courts of
Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
and
Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
were also awaiting presidential approval to use Hindi alongside English, and the
Madras High Court The Madras High Court is a High Court in India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is located in Chennai, and is the third oldest high court of India after the Calcutta High C ...
has been taking steps to use
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...
alongside English.


Names

The first occurrence of the term ''Indian English'' dates from 1696, 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).James Lambert, 2012 "Beyond ''Hobson-Jobson'': Towards a new lexicography for Indian English", ''English World-Wide'' 33(3): 294. An item of Anglo-Indian English was known as an ''Anglo-Indianism'' from 1851. In the modern era, a range of colloquial
portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsIndian numbering system The Indian numbering system is used in all South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan) to express large numbers. The terms ''lakh'' or 1,00,000 (one hundred thousand, written as ''100,00 ...
. 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. Formal written publications in English in India tend to use
lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2,2,3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For ex ...
/
crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...
for
Indian currency The Indian rupee (symbol: ₹; code: INR) is the official currency in the republic of India. The rupee is subdivided into 100 ''paise'' (singular: ''paisa''), though as of 2022, coins of denomination of 1 rupee are the lowest value in use wher ...
and Western numbering for foreign currencies like
dollars Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, Un ...
and pounds.


History

The English language established a foothold in India with the granting of the
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
charter by
Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...
in 1600 and the subsequent establishment of trading ports in coastal cities such as
Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...
,
Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
(called Mumbai since 1995),
Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
(called Chennai since 1996), and
Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
(called Kolkata since 2001). English-language public instruction began in India in the 1830s during the rule of the British East India Company (India was then, and is today, one of the most linguistically diverse regions of the world). In 1835, English replaced
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
as the official language of the East India Company.
Lord Macaulay Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, (; 25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was a British historian and Whig politician, who served as the Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841, and as the Paymaster-General between 1846 and 1 ...
played a major role in introducing English and Western concepts into educational institutions in 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.John MacKenzie, "A family empire," ''BBC History Magazine'' (Jan 2013) Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, primary, middle, and high schools were opened in many districts of
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
, 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 The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
and used English as the medium of instruction were established in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. During the
British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
(1858 to 1947), English-language penetration increased throughout India. This was driven in part by the gradually increasing hiring of Indians in the
civil services The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
. At the time of
India's independence The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal. ...
in 1947, English was the only functional ''
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
'' in the country. After Indian Independence in 1947, Hindi was declared the first official language, and attempts were made to declare Hindi the sole national language of India. 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." 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 English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
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. While there is an assumption that English is readily available in India, studies show that its usage is actually restricted to the elite, because of inadequate
education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...
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. In addition, many features of Indian English were imported into
Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
due to the dominance of Indian-style education and teachers in the country after it withdrew from its isolation in the 1960s.


Hinglish and other hybrid languages

The term ''Hinglish'' is a
portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsEnglish English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
and
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
. This typically refers to the
macaronic Macaronic language uses a mixture of languages, particularly bilingual puns or situations in which the languages are otherwise used in the same context (rather than simply discrete segments of a text being in different languages). Hybrid words ...
hybrid use of Hindi 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. The Hindi film industry, more popularly known as
Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
, incorporates considerable amounts of Hinglish as well. Many internet platforms and voice commands on Google also recognise Hinglish. When
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''
Hindostani, the
portmanteaus A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsUrdish Urdish (or Urglish), a portmanteau of Urdu and English, is the macaronic hybrid use of English and Urdu in Pakistan, involving code-switching between these languages whereby they are freely interchanged within a sentence or between sentences. The ...
mean the same code-mixed tongue, where the former term is used predominantly in modern India and the latter term predominantly in
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. Other macaronic hybrids such as ''Minglish'' (
Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...
and English), ''Manglish'' (
Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
and English), ''
Kanglish Kanglish (Kannada: ಕಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್) is a macaronic language of Kannada and English. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two languages and was first recorded earliest in 1993. Other less common terms are ''Kannalish'' (recorded fr ...
'' (
Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
and English), ''
Tenglish Tenglish ( te, తెంగ్లిష్ ()), refers to various mixings of the Telugu and English languages. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two languages and has been variously composed. The earliest form is ''Telugish'' (datin ...
'' (
Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...
and English), and ''
Tanglish Tanglish ( ta, தமிங்கிலம்) is the mixing or code-switching of the Tamil and English languages. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two languages and has been variously composed. The earliest form is ''Tamilish'' (d ...
'' or ''Tamglish'' (
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...
and English) exist in South India.


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 In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
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 Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic varieti ...
accent. Examples of this include ''flower'' pronounced as , ''never'' as , ''water'' as , etc. Some South Indians, however, like native Telugu speakers speak with a rhotic accent, but the final becomes an , and an
alveolar tap Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit. Uses in anatomy and zoology * Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs ** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte ** Alveolar duct ** Alveolar macrophage * M ...
is used for /r/, resulting in ''water'' and ''never'' as or and respectively. **Features characteristic of
North American English North American English (NAmE, NAE) is the most generalized variety of the English language as spoken in the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), v ...
, 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. * Many North Indians have an
intonation pattern In linguistics, a prosodic unit, often called an intonation unit or intonational phrase, is a segment of speech that occurs with a single prosodic contour ( pitch and rhythm contour). The abbreviation IU is used and therefore the full form is o ...
similar to
Hiberno-English Hiberno-English (from Latin ''Hibernia'': "Ireland"), and in ga, Béarla na hÉireann. or Irish English, also formerly Anglo-Irish, is the set of English dialects native to the island of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland a ...
, 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 Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent traditionally regarded as the Standard language, standard and most Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been ...
(RP), i.e. they may have the cot-caught merger, with the target vowel ranging between either option. * Diphthong is pronounced as * Diphthong is pronounced as * Diphthong is pronounced as * may be more front or central * can be more mid central or open-mid * Most Indians have the
trap–bath split The – split is a Phonological change#Phonemic splits, vowel split that occurs mainly in English language in Southern England, Southern English English, English in England (including Received Pronunciation), Australian English, New Zealand Engl ...
of Received Pronunciation, affecting words such as ''class'', ''staff'' and ''last'' (, and 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. The distribution is somewhat similar to
Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language; while Australia has no official language, Engli ...
in Regional Indian English varieties, but it has a complete split in Cultivated Indian English and
Standard Indian English Indian English has developed a number of dialects, distinct from the General/Standard Indian English that educators have attempted to establish and institutionalise, and it is possible to distinguish a person's sociolinguistic background from th ...
varieties. * 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 to * Pronunciation of and as * Pronunciation of ranging from to


Consonants

The following are the characteristics of dialect of Indian English most similar to RP: * The voiceless
plosives In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lips ...
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 in Indian English but in most other dialects. In native Indian languages (except in
Dravidian languages The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant ...
such as
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...
), 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 . The aspirated plosives are instead equated with the fricatives such as or . * The
alveolar Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit. Uses in anatomy and zoology * Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs ** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte ** Alveolar duct ** Alveolar macrophage * ...
stops English , are often
retroflex A retroflex ( /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal ( /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the ha ...
, , especially in the South 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 Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...
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,
955 Year 955 (Roman numerals, CMLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * August 10 – Battle of Lechfeld (955), Battle of Lechfeld: King Otto I, H ...
2001). The so-called retroflexes in Hindi are actually articulated as apical
post-alveolar Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
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 The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity The nasal cavity is a large, air-filled space above and behind the nose in the middle of the face. The nasal septum divide ...
. This also causes (in parts of
Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
and
Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...
) the preceding alveolar to allophonically change to ( → ). Mostly in south India, some speakers allophonically further change the voiced retroflex plosives to voiced
retroflex flap The voiced retroflex flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r`. Features Features of the voiced ...
, and the nasal to a nasalised retroflex flap. * Most major native languages of India lack the dental fricatives and (spelled with ''th''), although occurs variably in languages like
Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...
and
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...
. Usually, the aspirated
voiceless dental plosive The voiceless alveolar, dental and postalveolar plosives (or stops) are types of consonantal sounds used in almost all spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postalv ...
is substituted for in the north (it would be unaspirated in the south) and the unaspirated
voiced dental plosive The voiced alveolar, dental and postalveolar plosives (or stops) are types of consonantal sounds used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiced dental, alveolar, and postalveolar plosiv ...
, or possibly the aspirated version , is substituted for . For example, "thin" would be realised as instead of for North Indian speakers, whereas it would be pronounced unaspirated in the south. The following are the variations in Indian English: * The
rhotic consonant In phonetics, rhotic consonants, or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthography, orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek alphabet, Greek letter Rho (letter), rho, including R, , in the Latin ...
/r/ is pronounced by most speakers as an
alveolar tap Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit. Uses in anatomy and zoology * Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs ** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte ** Alveolar duct ** Alveolar macrophage * M ...
, but may also be pronounced as a retroflex flap or
alveolar trill The voiced alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar trills is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r. ...
based on the influence by the native phonology, or an
alveolar approximant The voiced alveolar approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the alveolar and postalveolar approximants is , a lowercase letter ''r'' rotated 18 ...
like in most varieties of English. * 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 American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
is seen as having a large influence on the English language in India recently. ** Many Indians with rhotic accents prefer to pronounce words with as , such as as and as , as opposed to and in more non-rhotic varieties. Speakers with rhotic accents, especially some south Indians, may also pronounce word-final as , resulting in ''water'' and ''never'' as and respectively. * Most Indian languages (except
Assamese Assamese may refer to: * Assamese people, a socio-ethnolinguistic identity of north-eastern India * People of Assam, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious people of Assam * Assamese language, one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan language ...
,
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
,
Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...
,
Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...
and
Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
) including Standard Hindi, do not differentiate between (
voiced labiodental fricative The voiced labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is v. The sound is similar to vo ...
) and ( voiced labiovelar approximant). Instead, many Indians use a frictionless
labiodental approximant The voiced labiodental approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is something between an English / w/ and / v/, pronounced with the teeth and lips held in the position used to articulate the letter V. The sym ...
for words with either sound, possibly in free variation with and/or depending upon region. Thus, ''wet'' and ''vet'' are often homophones.Wells, p. 627 * South Indians tend to curl the tongue (retroflex accentuation) more for and . * Sometimes, Indian speakers interchange and , especially when plurals are being formed, unlike speakers of other varieties of English, who use for the pluralisation of words ending in a voiceless consonant, for words ending in a voiced consonant or vowel, and for words ending in a sibilant. * In case of the postalveolar affricates , 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 Syllabic may refer to: *Syllable, a unit of speech sound, considered the building block of words **Syllabic consonant, a consonant that forms the nucleus of a syllable *Syllabary, writing system using symbols for syllables *Abugida, writing system ...
, and are usually replaced by the VC clusters , and (as in ''button'' ), or if a
high vowel A close vowel, also known as a high vowel (in U.S. terminology), is any in a class of vowel sounds used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of th ...
precedes, by (as in ''little'' ). Syllable nuclei in words with the spelling ''er''/''re'' (a
schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
in RP and an r-coloured schwa in GA) are also replaced by VC clusters. e.g., ''metre'', → . * Indian English uses clear in all instances like
Irish English Hiberno-English (from Latin ''Hibernia'': "Ireland"), and in ga, Béarla na hÉireann. or Irish English, also formerly Anglo-Irish, is the set of English dialects native to the island of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland a ...
whereas other varieties use clear in syllable-initial positions and
dark l The voiced alveolar lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral approximants is , and the equ ...
(velarised-L) in coda and syllabic positions. The following are variations in Indian English due to
language contact Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for th ...
with Indian languages: * Most Indian languages (except Hindustani varieties,
Assamese Assamese may refer to: * Assamese people, a socio-ethnolinguistic identity of north-eastern India * People of Assam, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious people of Assam * Assamese language, one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan language ...
,
Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...
and Konkani) lack the
voiced alveolar fricative The voiced alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a sibilant or non-sibilant fricative is being described. * The symbol for the alveolar sibilant ...
. A significant portion of Indians thus, even though their native languages do have its nearest equivalent: the unvoiced , often use the voiced palatal affricate (or postalveolar) , just as with a
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...
accent. This makes words such as and sound as and (the latter, especially in the North). This replacement is equally true for Persian and
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
loanwords into Hindi. The probable reason is the confusion created by the use of the Devanagari grapheme (for /dʒ/) with a dot beneath it to represent (as ). This is common among people without formal English education. In
Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...
, and are allophones, so words such as ''rosy'' become and words such as ''fridge'' become . The same happens in
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
as well. * In
Assamese Assamese may refer to: * Assamese people, a socio-ethnolinguistic identity of north-eastern India * People of Assam, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious people of Assam * Assamese language, one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan language ...
, and are pronounced as ; and and are pronounced as . Retroflex and dental consonants are not present and only alveolar consonants are used unlike other Indian languages. Similar to
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
, is pronounced as and in Assamese. For example; change is pronounced as , vote is pronounced as and English is pronounced as . * Again, in
Assamese Assamese may refer to: * Assamese people, a socio-ethnolinguistic identity of north-eastern India * People of Assam, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious people of Assam * Assamese language, one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan language ...
and
Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...
, all instances of are spoken like , a phenomenon that is also apparent in their English. Exactly the opposite is seen for many
Bengalis Bengalis (singular Bengali bn, বাঙ্গালী/বাঙালি ), also rendered as Bangalee or the Bengali people, are an Indo-Aryan peoples, Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the ...
. * Inability to pronounce certain (especially word-initial)
consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
s by people of rural backgrounds, as with some Spanish-speakers. This is usually dealt with by
epenthesis In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable ('' prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word ''epenth ...
. e.g., . * Many Indians with lower exposure to English also may pronounce as an aspirated
voiceless bilabial plosive The voiceless bilabial plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in most spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p. Features Features of ...
. Again note that in Hindi Devanagari the loaned from Persian and Arabic is written by putting a dot beneath the grapheme for native : . This substitution is rarer than that for , and in fact in many Hindi is used by native speakers instead of , or the two are used interchangeably. * Many speakers of Indian English do not use the
voiced postalveolar fricative A voiced postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The International Phonetic Association uses term ''voiced postalveolar fricative'' only for the sound , but it also describes the voiced postalveolar ...
(). Some Indians use or instead, e.g. , and in the south Indian variants, with as in , e.g. .


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 A phonemic orthography is an orthography (system for writing a language) in which the graphemes (written symbols) correspond to the phonemes (significant spoken sounds) of the language. Natural languages rarely have perfectly phonemic orthographi ...
, 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 A spelling pronunciation is the pronunciation of a word according to its spelling when this differs from a longstanding standard or traditional pronunciation. Words that are spelled with letters that were never pronounced or that were not pronounc ...
. * In words where the digraph represents a
voiced velar plosive The voiced velar plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. Some languages have the voiced pre-velar plosive, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototyp ...
() in other accents, some Indian English speakers supply a murmured version , for example . No other accent of English admits this voiced aspiration. * Similarly, the digraph may be aspirated as or , resulting in realisations such as , found in no other English accent.Wells, p. 630 This is somewhat similar to the traditional distinction between and present in English, however, wherein the former is , whilst the latter is . * In unstressed syllables, which speakers of American English would realise as a
schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
, speakers of Indian English would use the spelling vowel, making sound as instead of . This trait is also present in other South Asian dialects ( Pakistani and
Sri Lankan English Sri Lankan English (SLE) is the English language as it is used in Sri Lanka, a term dating from 1972. Sri Lankan English is principally categorised as the Standard Variety and the Nonstandard Variety, which is called as "Not Pot English". The c ...
). * The word "of" is usually pronounced with a instead of a as in most other accents.Wells, p. 629 * Use of instead of for the "-ed" ending of the past tense after voiceless consonants, for example "developed" may be instead of RP .Wells, p. 628 * Use of instead of for the ending of the plural after voiced consonants, for example may be instead of . * Pronunciation of as in both the noun and the verb, instead of as a noun and as a verb. * Silent letters may be pronounced. For example, 'salmon' is usually pronounced with a distinct .


Supra-segmental features

English is a
stress-timed language Isochrony is the postulated rhythmic division of time into equal portions by a language. Rhythm is an aspect of prosody (linguistics), prosody, others being intonation (linguistics), intonation, stress (linguistics), stress, and tempo of speech. T ...
. Both syllable stress and
word stress In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as i ...
(where only certain words in a sentence or phrase are stressed) are important features of Received Pronunciation. Indian native languages are actually
syllable-timed language Isochrony is the postulated rhythmic division of time into equal portions by a language. Rhythm is an aspect of prosody, others being intonation, stress, and tempo of speech. Three alternative ways in which a language can divide time are postul ...
s, like French. Indian-English speakers usually speak with a syllabic rhythm. Further, in some Indian languages, stress is associated with a low pitch, 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 Scouse (; formally known as Liverpool English or Merseyside English) is an Accent (dialect), accent and dialect of English language, English associated with Liverpool and the surrounding county of Merseyside. The Scouse accent is highly dis ...
and
Welsh English Welsh English ( cy, Saesneg Gymreig) comprises the dialects of English spoken by Welsh people. The dialects are significantly influenced by Welsh grammar and often include words derived from Welsh. In addition to the distinctive words and gr ...
.


Numbering system

The
Indian numbering system The Indian numbering system is used in all South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan) to express large numbers. The terms ''lakh'' or 1,00,000 (one hundred thousand, written as ''100,00 ...
is preferred for digit grouping. When written in words, or when spoken, numbers less than 100,000/100 000 are expressed just as they are in Standard English. Numbers including and beyond 100,000/100 000 are expressed in a subset of the Indian numbering system. Thus, the following scale is used: Larger numbers are generally expressed as multiples of the above (for example, one lakh crores for one
trillion ''Trillion'' is a number with two distinct definitions: * 1,000,000,000,000, i.e. one million million, or (ten to the twelfth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the meaning in both American and British English. * 1,000,000,000,0 ...
).


Vocabulary

Indian English includes many political, sociological, and administrative terms, such as
dharna A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to m ...
,
hartal Hartal () is a term in many Indian languages for a strike action that was first used during the Indian independence movement (also known as the nationalist movement) of the early 20th century. A hartal is a mass protest, often involving a total sh ...
, eve-teasing,
vote bank Votebank (also spelled vote-bank or vote bank), in the political discourse of India, is a term referring to a loyal bloc of voters from a single community, who consistently back a certain candidate or political formation in democratic elections. ...
,
swaraj Swarāj ( sa, स्वराज, translit=Svarāja '' sva-'' "self", '' raj'' "rule") can mean generally self-governance or "self-rule". It was first used by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to attain self rule from the Mughal Empire and the Adil ...
,
swadeshi The Swadeshi movement was a self-sufficiency movement that was part of the Indian independence movement and contributed to the development of Indian nationalism. Before the BML Government's decision for the partition of Bengal was made public in ...
,
scheduled caste The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...
,
scheduled tribe The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...
, and
NRI NRI or Nri may refer to : * Kingdom of Nri, an Igbo kingdom that flourished between the 10th century and early 20th century * National Radio Institute, a now defunct post-secondary vocational correspondence school * National Resources Inventory * N ...
. It incorporates some
Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The ''Oxford English ...
words such as
tiffin Tiffin is an Indian English word for a type of meal. It refers to a light breakfast or a light tea-time meal at about 3 p.m., consisting of typical tea-time foods. In certain parts of India, it can also refer to the midday luncheon or, in s ...
,
hill station A hill station is a town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The term was used mostly in colonial Asia (particularly in India), but also in Africa (albeit rarely), for towns founded by European colonialists as refuges ...
,
gymkhana Gymkhana () ( ur, جِمخانہ, sd, جمخانه, hi, जिमख़ाना, as, জিমখানা, bn, জিমখানা) is a British Raj term which originally referred to a place of assembly. The meaning then altered to den ...
, along with slang. Some examples of words and phrases unique to, or chiefly used in, standard written Indian English include: * ''academics'' (
noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
) (also
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
and
U.S. English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...
): Academic pursuits in contrast to technical or practical work. ** e.g. "For 14 years he immersed himself in academics and was a fine achiever." (''Hindu'' (Madras), 6 Dec 1991 27/2) * ''avail'' (
verb A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
): take advantage of an opportunity or resource * ''brinjal'' (
noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
):
eggplant Eggplant ( US, Canada), aubergine ( UK, Ireland) or brinjal (Indian subcontinent, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit. Mos ...
/
aubergine Eggplant ( US, Canada), aubergine ( UK, Ireland) or brinjal (Indian subcontinent, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit. Mos ...
* ''cinema hall'' (noun): A
cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking * ...
or
movie theatre A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall (Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...
. ** e.g. "''Cinema halls'' in
Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
will soon display the newly-unveiled logo for
Kumbh Mela Kumbh Mela or Kumbha Mela () is a major pilgrimage and festival in Hinduism. It is celebrated in a cycle of approximately 12 years, to celebrate every revolution Brihaspati (Jupiter) completes, at four river-bank pilgrimage sites: Allahabad ( ...
, right after the national anthem is played" (''
Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, t ...
'', 3 Jan 2018) * '' 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 A value-added tax (VAT), known in some countries as a goods and services tax (GST), is a type of tax that is assessed incrementally. It is levied on the price of a product or service at each stage of production, distribution, or sale to the end ...
(VAT) on petro-products to bring down prices, the CM said that the
state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...
was aware of the situation and will ''do the needful''." (2018 '' The Pioneer'') * ''English-knowing'' (
adjective In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Tra ...
): 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 The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the in ...
." ('' Toward Freedom'' vii. 40, J. Nehru, 1941) * ''freeship'' (noun): A studentship or
scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarsh ...
. ** 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." (''Med. Reporter'' (Calcutta) 57/1, 1 Feb 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." ( ''Economic Times'' (India) (Nexis), 12 Oct 2006) * ''hotel'' (noun): A
restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...
or
café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-ca ...
. ** e.g. "A group of four friends had gone to have dinner at a roadside ''hotel''." (''Statesman'' (Calcutta), 10 Feb 1999, (Midweek section) 4/3) * ''lady finger/lady's finger'' (
noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
):
okra Okra or Okro (, ), ''Abelmoschus esculentus'', known in many English-speaking countries as ladies' fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It has edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with su ...
* ''matrimonial'' (noun):
Advertisements Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
in a
newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
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 Feb 1999, (Midweek section) 4/3) *''Out of station'': used for saying that someone is away. This phrase has its origins in the posting of army officers to particular "stations" during the days of the
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
. * ''pass(ing) out'' (phrase): graduate from school/college or complete your course at an institution. ** e.g. "I passed out of college in 2007." ** e.g. "I passed out of my school at age of 17." * ''petrol pump'' (
noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
): a
petrol station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoline ...
(British English), gas station (American English) * ''press person'' (noun, frequently as a single word): A newspaper journalist, a reporter, a member of the press. ** e.g. "The
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
greeted the ''presspersons'' with a '
namaskar ''Namaste'' (, Devanagari: नमस्ते), sometimes called ''namaskar'' and ''namaskaram'', is a customary Hindu non-contact manner of respectfully greeting and honouring a person or group, used at any time of day. It is found on the In ...
' ustomary Hindu greetingand a broad smile." (''Hindu'' (Nexis), 20 June 2001) * ''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 Apr 1998) ** e.g. "Where does he go for the ''redressal'' of his genuine grievances?" (''Sunday Times of India,'' 15 Sep 2002 8/4) * ''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 Sep 1986 153/1 (advert)) * ''revert'' (
verb A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
): To report back with information. ** e.g. "Please ''revert'' with the required documentation." * ''chain-snatching'' (verb): To snatch a gold-chain (or sometimes silver-chains) from a woman (or a man) and run away, usually perpetrated by 2 or more criminals on a
motorbike A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: Long-distance ...
/
moped A moped ( ) is a type of small motorcycle, generally having a less stringent licensing requirement than full motorcycles or automobiles. The term used to mean a similar vehicle except with both bicycle pedals and a motorcycle engine. Mopeds typic ...
/ scooter. ** e.g. "Women, (as well as men), are avoiding wearing gold-chains due to the concerning rise in number of ''chain-snatching'' cases in many parts of the city." * ''prepone'' (verb): To bring (something) forward to an earlier date or time. ** e.g. "The meeting has been ''preponed'' due to a change in the schedule." *''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 Nov 2019) * ''capsicum'' (
noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
) (also Australian English):
Bell pepper The bell pepper (also known as paprika, sweet pepper, pepper, or capsicum ) is the fruit of plants in the Grossum Group of the species ''Capsicum annuum''. Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in different colors, including red, yellow, orange ...
** e.g. "He is allergic to capsicum." * ''
communalism Communalism may refer to: * Communalism (Bookchin), a theory of government in which autonomous communities form confederations * , a historical method that follows the development of communities * Communalism (South Asia), violence across ethnic ...
'' is a word meaning the creation of hatred between different religions and ethnicities which cause
communal violence Communal violence is a form of violence that is perpetrated across ethnic or communal lines, the violent parties feel solidarity for their respective groups, and victims are chosen based upon group membership. The term includes conflicts, riots ...
between them. The term is usually used to describe the hatred spread by religious leaders and politicians which cause Hindu-Muslim riots. * ''
votebank Votebank (also spelled vote-bank or vote bank), in the political discourse of India, is a term referring to a loyal bloc of voters from a single community, who consistently back a certain candidate or political formation in democratic elections. ...
'' is a political term used to refer a particular
bloc Bloc may refer to: Government and politics * Political bloc, a coalition of political parties * Trade bloc, a type of intergovernmental agreement * Voting bloc, a group of voters voting together Other uses * Bloc (code school), an educational we ...
of
voters Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holde ...
from a single
community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...
or a group of communities who always back a certain
candidate A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * t ...
or
political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
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 Yule, actually Yuletide ("Yule time") is a festival observed by the historical Germanic peoples, later undergoing Christianised reformulation resulting in the now better-known Christmastide. The earliest references to Yule are by way of indig ...
and
Brunell Brunell is a surname of French origin meaning "brown (haired / skinned) one" same as '' Burnell'' ( metathesis). Notable people with the surname include: * Angel Brunell (born 1945), former Uruguayan footballer *Beatriz Stix-Brunell (born 1993), ba ...
's ''
Hobson-Jobson ''Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive'' is a historical dictionary of Anglo-Indian words and terms from Indian languages which came in ...
'', originally published in 1886 with an expanded edition edited by
William Crooke William Crooke (6 August 1848 – 25 October 1923) was a British orientalist and a key figure in the study and documentation of Anglo-Indian folklore. He was born in County Cork, Ireland, and was educated at Erasmus Smith's Tipperary Grammar S ...
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 Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
''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 Elliot (also spelled Eliot, Elliotte, Elliott, Eliott and Elyot) is a personal name which can serve as either a surname or a given name. Although the given name has historically been given to males, females have increasingly been given the name ...
''A Supplement to the Glossary of Indian Terms: A-J'' (1845),
Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...
''The Zillah Dictionary in the Roman Character'' (1852), Carnegy ''Kutcherry Technicalities'' (1853) and its second edition ''Kachahri Technicalities'' (1877),
Wilson Wilson may refer to: People * Wilson (name) ** List of people with given name Wilson ** List of people with surname Wilson * Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender * Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson Ro ...
''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 temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
''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 Hankin is a surname. This surname can trace its roots back to either the Anglo-Saxon people of Britain and to the name ''Johan-kin'', or to the Scandinavian Nordic name ''Haakon'' and its patronymic ''Haakonsson''. The name "Haakon" is from Old Nor ...
''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 MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to: People * McMillan (surname) * Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan * Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician * James MacMillan, Scottish composer * William Duncan 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 and comprehensive 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 has developed a number of dialects, distinct from the General/Standard Indian English that educators have attempted to establish and institutionalise, and it is possible to distinguish a person's sociolinguistic background from th ...
*
Indian English literature Indian English literature (IEL), also referred to as Indian Writing in English (IWE), is the body of work by writers in India who write in the English language but whose native or co-native language could be one of the numerous languages of India. ...
*
Indian numbering system The Indian numbering system is used in all South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan) to express large numbers. The terms ''lakh'' or 1,00,000 (one hundred thousand, written as ''100,00 ...
*
Languages with official status in India There is no national language in India. However, article 343(1) of the Indian constitution specifically mentions that, "The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. The form of numerals to be used for the official pur ...
*
Indian States by most popular languages The following table contains the Indian states and union territories along with the most spoken scheduled languages used in the region. These are based on the 2011 census of India figures. (Note: Telangana and Andhra Pradesh statistics are based ...
*
Kanglish Kanglish (Kannada: ಕಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್) is a macaronic language of Kannada and English. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two languages and was first recorded earliest in 1993. Other less common terms are ''Kannalish'' (recorded fr ...
*
Hinglish Hinglish, a portmanteau of Hindi and English, is the macaronic hybrid use of English and languages of the Indian subcontinent, and especially Hindi. It involves code-switching or translanguaging between these languages whereby they are freely i ...
*
Manglish Manglish is an informal form of Malaysian English with features of an English-based creole principally used in Malaysia. It is heavily influenced by the dominant languages of the country, Malay, Chinese languages, and Tamil. It is not an offi ...
*
Pakistani English Pakistani English (also known as Paklish or Pinglish) is the group of English language varieties spoken and written in Pakistan. It was first so recognised and designated in the 1970s and 1980s. Pakistani English (PE), similar and related to ...
/
Paklish Pakistani English (also known as Paklish or Pinglish) is the group of English language varieties spoken and written in Pakistan. It was first so recognised and designated in the 1970s and 1980s. Pakistani English (PE), similar and related to ...
*
Bangladeshi English Bangladeshi/Bengali English, Banglish, Benglish or Anglo-Bangla (similar and related to British English) is a variety of English heavily influenced by Bengali very common among Bangladeshis (mainly), and some Indian Bengalis (mainly from West ...
/
Banglish Bangladeshi/Bengali English, Banglish, Benglish or Anglo-Bangla (similar and related to British English) is a variety of English heavily influenced by Bengali very common among Bangladeshis (mainly), and some Indian Bengalis (mainly from West ...
*
Tanglish Tanglish ( ta, தமிங்கிலம்) is the mixing or code-switching of the Tamil and English languages. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two languages and has been variously composed. The earliest form is ''Tamilish'' (d ...
*
Tenglish Tenglish ( te, తెంగ్లిష్ ()), refers to various mixings of the Telugu and English languages. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two languages and has been variously composed. The earliest form is ''Telugish'' (datin ...
*
English as a lingua franca English as a lingua franca (ELF) is the use of the English language "as a global means of inter-community communication" and can be understood as "''any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communica ...
*
Regional accents of English Spoken English language, English shows great variation across regions where it is the predominant language. For example, the United Kingdom has the largest variation of accents of any country in the world, and therefore no single "British accen ...


References


Bibliography

* Auddy, Ranjan Kumar (2020). ''In Search of Indian English: History, Politics and Indigenisation.''London & New York: Routledge. & * * *


Further reading

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

*
Indian general spoken Problems in English

Indian Pronunciation Problems in English
ESLAN.

and compare side by side with other English accents from around the World.

An analysis of Indian language published by the "Language In India" magazine.
On the future of Indian English
by
Gurcharan Das Gurcharan Das (born 3 October 1943) is an Indian author, who wrote a trilogy based on the classical Indian goals of the ideal life. ''India Unbound'' was the first volume (2002), on artha, 'material well-being', which narrated the story of I ...
.
An exploration into linguistic majority-minority relations in India
by B. Mallikarjun.

Dharma Kumar, ''India Seminar'', 2001 (Volume 500).
India Human Development Survey-II 2011–2012English to Hindi
*Indian Novels in English: Texts, Contexts and Language Hardcover – 2018 by Jaydeep Sarangi (Author) {{Authority control Languages of India Dialects of English