South Asian English is the

English dialect Dialects are variety (linguistics), linguistic varieties that may differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling and grammar. For the classification of varieties of English language, English only in terms of pronunciation, see regional accents of En ...

South Asia South Asia is the southern region of Asia Asia () is 's largest and most populous , located primarily in the and . It shares the continental of with the continent of and the continental landmass of with both Europe and . Asia cov ...

. Also known as British-Indian English in the

British Raj The British Raj (; from ''rāj'', literally, "rule" in Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language of South Asia that belongs to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the In ...

, the English language was introduced to the Indian subcontinent in the early 17th century and reinforced by the long rule of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. ...

. Today it is spoken as a

second language A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language A first language, native tongue, native language, or mother/father/parent tongue (also known as arterial language or L1) is a language A language is a struc ...

by about 33 million people, 3% of the total population. Although it is fairly homogeneous across the region, sharing "linguistic features and tendencies at virtually all linguistic levels", there are also differences based on various factors.Marco Schilk, Tobias Bernaisch, Joybrato Mukherjee, "Mapping unity and diversity in South Asian English lexicogrammar: Verb-complementational preferences across varieties", in Marianne Hundt, Ulrike Gut, ''Mapping Unity and Diversity World-Wide: Corpus-Based Studies of New Englishes'', 2012,
p. 140''f''
/ref> South Asian English is sometimes called "Indian English", as

British India The Provinces of India, earlier Presidencies of British India and still earlier, Presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

included most of the region, but today, the varieties of English are officially divided according to the modern states: *

Bangladeshi English Bangladeshi English, Banglish, Benglish or Anglo-Bangla (similar and related to British English British English (BrE) is the standard dialect of the English language English is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language fi ...

Indian English Indian English (IE) is a class of varieties of the English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family The Indo-European languages are a language family A language is a structured ...

Nepali English Nepalese English (Nepali language, Nepali:) refers to a variety of the English language principally used in Nepal and is heavily influenced by the Indo-Aryan languages of Nepal. Many Nepalese speak English as a second or foreign language, with E ...

Pakistani English Pakistani English (also known as Pake '') is the group of English language varieties spoken and written in Pakistan Pakistan, . Pronounced variably in English as , , , and . officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country i ...

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 ...

Notes

References

* . *

Braj Kachru Braj Bihari Kachru (15 May 1932 – 29 July 2016) was an Indian Linguistics, linguist. He was Jubilee Professor of Linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He coined the term "''International English, World English''" an ...

, Yamuna Kachru, Cecil Nelson, ''The Handbook of World Englishes'', 2009, . Languages of South Asia Dialects of English {{english-lang-stub