LANGUAGE
Celebrating Indian English—A Dialect Too Often Belittled
It’s time we recognized a language of over 100 million
Have you ever heard anyone ask something like, “When will you reach office?” Or perhaps if you’d like to “Avail a discount?” Have you ever been told about a problem and then asked if you could “action the same” or “do the needful”? Chances are you were talking to someone that speaks Indian English.
Indian English has evolved into its own unique dialect (or set of dialects), with its own unique vocabulary, spelling and grammar. This can sometimes cause confusion for speakers of other dialects of English as words have different meanings from what you are used to.
Food is a great example. In Indian English, a “cutlet” is a breaded meat or vegetable patty; a “patty” (or pattice) is a meat or vegetable-filled pastry, and a “pastry” is a slice of cake. There are a plethora of other Indian-isms I could throw at you, but the point of this piece is to reflect on the attitude towards this language, both in India and in the wider Anglosphere.
Most people know that India was occupied by the British for nearly two centuries, and English is consequently well spoken across the country, with most road signs and shop signs being in English. It is, in fact, the working and official language of the country.
Most people also know that India is now the most populous country in the world, but what you might not have realized is that India has the second-highest number of English speakers in the world! India had 130 million speakers of English in 2011, compared to the USA’s 316 million. This means just around 12% of India speaks English to at least a basic level of fluency. More interestingly, between 7–9% of all English speakers in the world are Indian, and speak Indian English.
Get Avinash B’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Despite this, outside of India, specifically in the Global North, where a lot of Indians have emigrated to, Indian English is still viewed as a polite peculiarity rather than a real language. In fact, Indians who have made a home in the Anglosphere more often than not adapt to the English spoken there. This might seem a normal thing to do, until you realize that Americans, Brits and Australians rarely adapt to the way English is spoken when they live in an English-speaking country other than their own. Why is this?
One of the reasons might be the belief (among Indians themselves) that Indian English is not a “pure” form of the language. I went to high school in India and the need for perfect English was always drilled into me. We learnt 20 to 30 new English words every week in high school. If I made a spelling error, I was made to write down the word 100 times to ensure it didn’t happen again. (“Their” as “theire,” in case you were wondering). We were warned not to use Indian-isms because they were an inferior or uneducated way of communicating in English. I myself subscribed to this way of thinking, until I moved to the U.K.
In the U.K., it seemed like different rules applied for what constituted “correct” English grammar. Within my first few days, I heard people say things like “I was sat here,” “I’m going London this weekend” and “Cold, innit?” all the time, and I was bemused. These were not uneducated people but university students that seemed unable to grasp the grammar of their own native tongue. I was told that it was “regional nuances” and “dialects” and that it was all very socially accepted and even celebrated, to an extent.
This eye-opening experience taught me that I had been wrong to dismiss Indian English as a serious language. Instead, I now wanted to celebrate the fact that so many Indian turns of phrase could be direct translations from Hindi or another Indian language. It’s the reason why I’d be called “Avinash Uncle” instead of “Uncle Avinash.” It’s why someone would ask me to “give side” if I was in their way, or tell me to stop “eating their head” if I was annoying them.
I realized we should celebrate, not snigger when someone pronounces “atmosphere” as “at-moss-sphere.” or when someone pronounces “bowl” as “bowel.” (Ok, that last one is a little funny).
If you’re interested in learning the basics of Indian English, you need to know that it is based on British English—but with the influence of American culture, it has borrowed several phrases, prounciations and spellings from the U.S.A.
In spelling, for example, “z” (not “s”) is used in words like realize and analyze, but the “ou” is used in words like colour and honour. We love to create acronyms for anything vaguely complex, probably because everyone is always rushing everywhere at a high-octane pace. We say “route” like the British, but “router” like the Americans. Go figure.
In summary, it would be great if the English-speaking Indian diaspora across the world celebrated and spoke their version of English and taught the rest of the native and non-native English speakers some idiosyncrasies of the language, which would help them better understand the culture, and better prepare them for their next trip to India.
What are some of the unique aspects you love about your way of speaking, writing or forming English? Let me know in the comments. And if you liked this article, please consider using the ‘clapping’ button. It’s good for up to 50 claps.
