Selasa, 22 Juni 2010

CHAPTER I
ANTECEDENT


A. BLACK GROUND

English has been with India since the early 1600's, when the East India Company started trading and English missionaries first began their efforts. A large number of Christian schools imparting an English education were set up by the early 1800's. The process of producing English-knowing bilinguals in India began with the Minute of 1835, which officially endorsed T.B. Macaulay's goal of forming "a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern - a class of persons, Indians in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinion, in morals and in intellect" (quoted in Kachru 1983, p. 22). English became the official and academic language of India by the early twentieth century. The rising of the nationalist movement in the 1920's brought some anti-English sentiment with it -- even though the movement itself used English as its medium.
Once independence was gained and the English were gone, the perception of English as having an alien power base changed; however, the controversy about English has continued to this day. Kachru notes that "English now has national and international functions that are both distinct and complementary. English has thus acquired a new power base and a new elitism" (Kachru 1986, p. 12). Only about three percent of India's population speak English, but they are the individuals who lead India's economic, industrial, professional, political, and social life. Even though English is primarily a second language for these persons, it is the medium in which a great number of the interactions in the above domains are carried out. Having such important information moving in English conduits is often not appreciated by Indians who do not speak it, but they are relatively powerless to change that. Its inertia is such that it cannot be easily given up. This is particularly true in South India, where English serves as a universal language in the way that Hindi does in the North. Despite being a three percent minority, the English speaking population in India is quite large. With India's massive population, that three percent puts India among the top four countries in the world with the highest number of English speakers. English confers many advantages to the influential people who speak it -- which has allowed it to retain its prominence despite the strong opposition to English which rises periodically.
Indian people can communicate the English easily but his pronunciation is little strange. It sounds like flat rhythm, and don’t feel the English is fluently. First, we couldn’t understand his language. We didn’t know that he spoke English. It was very different from English we speak. Example : “apple” in English the phonetic sigh is / aepl /, and his pronunciation is like that / aplu /. He pronounced steadily until last letter, / L/, then sometimes, I feel he spoke with a trill also, his English was felt a little stutteringly. So, I want to research about Indian English, and I want to be able to hear well by this research.

B. Purpose
I wish to know character of Indian English language and I want to be able to hear well by this research.


CHAPTER I
ANTECEDENT

A. Review of literature

1. The position of English in Indian dialect
I think it is important that to know about what English as India, so, I want to research about position of English in India. I heard English is spoken well in India ordinary.
Indian national language is provided Hindi. However, Indian, government regard that people can use English together with Hindi, and lecture the compromise to admit to use English by 1965, 1, 25 because Hindi is a language that was spoken only in North India.
So, Indian government thought that it takes 15 years until Hindi was known nationally. Yet, Hindi couldn’t establish the position as national language because of the objection in South India. Therefore, the moment that English was admitted was extended indefinitely, and English is used as only language it is current nationally today. Then, How English use? Today, English is used largely in India.
It is decided that the question and answer of Indian diets are made in Hindi or English basically. Also, the facility like public offices or national and public university have to depend businesses on English that should be foreign language to do notwithstanding the position they should use Hindi with carring the ball.
Then, Indian couples who are from different place communicate in English is seen ordinary. There are many languages in India, so, English is used as a bridge of communicate. English establish important position to communicate well between Indian people. TV or radio of India, English occupies large specific gravity.
In these ways, English is used every ways. There are one hundred million people in India, and at least more than 40% people can speak English. So, Indian people say that the largest English sphere is India.


2. Meaning of dialect

Dialect is a regional, temporal or social variety within a single language is known as dialect. It is the product of individual's geographical and class origin. It differs in grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary from the standard language, which is in itself a socially favored dialect. So a dialect is a variation of language sufficiently different to be considered a separate entity, but not different enough to be classed as separate language. There is no clear qualitative linguistic measure to indicate where difference of dialect becomes difference of language. The issue is political and social, not linguistic. Everybody speaks a dialect, which is not seen as some kind of derivation from the norm of standard language. There is no linguistic justification for saying that one dialect is better than another rather it is a social judgment that leads people to say that a particular dialect is the correct one.
Dialect is not an important type of language variation for teaching. All language teaching, however, at least implies an assumption about the best dialect to teach.
Dialects are dialects not because of linguistic reasons but because of the political and cultural reasons. It is customary to describe them as varieties of a language according to users. Examples: Cockney, Georide and Scouse are the prominent dialects spoken in England.
To the linguist, however, as stated by Sapir, "There is no real difference between dialect and a language". Grierson also observes, "In the course of survey, it has sometimes been difficult to decide whether a given form of speech is to be looked upon as an independent language or as a dialect of some other definite form of speech". In practice it has been found that it is sometimes impossible to decide the question in a manner which will gain universal acceptance. The two words 'language' and 'dialect' are in this respect like 'mountain' and 'hill'. One has no hesitation in saying that Everest is a mountain and Hauberk a hill, but between these two a dividing line cannot be accurately drawn. However, dialects are of many kinds: Regional dialects, Sociolects, etc.
regional dialects: Regional dialects are spoken by the people of a particular geographical area within a speech community; Cockney in London, for example.
sociolects: Sociolects are spoken by the members of a particular group or stratum of a speech community while a variety of language used at a particular stage in its historical development may be termed as temporal dialects such as Prakrit and Pali in Ancient India.

3. Character of Indian English dialect
I want to write about character of Indian English. Indian people speak English very fast, and also, as I wrote my experiences, their pronunciation is flat. So, it is said that it is difficult to hear Indian English.
3.1. pronunciation
The most characteristic pronounce is “R”. They pronounce clearly the letter “R”, and then, they speak with a trill considerable. It become Flap [ ] or reyroflex flap [ ]. For example, “doctor” is pronounced like “doctoll”, “master” is “mastall”, “Good morning” is “good molning”, “car” is “curle”, “center” is “centall”, “corner” is “colenall”, or “no,1” is “nanball1”.
Now I want to pick out some characteristic of a book.
In South India, It is added [j] to words that are started Front vowel, and It is added [w] to words that are started back vowel. For example, eight is [je:t], own is [wo:n]. In North India, [I] is added to words that are started [sk], [st], [sp]. For example, speak is [Ispi:k], station is [Iste: en], spin is [Isrin]. It because Hindi have not the sounds sk, sp or st in beginning of the words. [v]and [w], [p] and [f], [t] and [ ], [d] and [ð], [s] and [ ] are not differentiated. [p], [t], and [k] tend to become unaspirated, and [t], [d], [s], [l], and [z] tend to pronounce with warp tongue. [a:] and [ ] are pronounced [a:], [æ] become [a], [e ] is [e:], and [ ] become [o:].
As a example of [d] [ð] and [t] [ ], “three” become same pronounce of “tree”. “that” is “dad”. I remember to heard D,J said “I think…”. He pronounced that “I tink…”. It is difficult to understand. In addition, the pronunciation of /h/ become vocal. So, it is clearly difficulty of understanding Indian English.
I wrote that it is difficult to understanding Indian English, but not all Indian pronounce like that. I heard that it depends on the English education they receive. The people who is high caste, is teach English by British or Indian who can speak British English, therefore, the pronunciation become like Japanese text book in English. However, the people who is low caste is taught by Indian teacher, so, the pronunciation become sounds peculiar to India.

4. Different of dialect English in general and dialect English Indian

Indian English is a distinct variety of the English language. Many Indians claim that it is very similar to British English, but this opinion is based on a surface level examination of lexical similarities. Of course, one must keep in mind that not every linguistic item is used by every Indian English speaker and that a great deal of regional and educational differentiation exists. Even so, items can be identified which are indicative of Indian English speech and which are widely used. These operate on various phonological, morphological, lexical, and syntactic levels, which I will characterized with items brought up in the recorded discussions, in my previous experience with Indian English, and in scholarly writings about Indian English.

4.1. Phonology
I was able to do very little on the phonological level. I set up a test to see if the English alveolar /t/ would be articulated as the Indian retroflex /t/ or as the dental /t/ in different phonological environments. The result was that the retroflex completely replaced the alveolar; in fact, it has been found that the entire series of English alveolar consonants tends to be replaced by retroflex consonants (Trudgill & Hannah 1994, p.128). One item that did come out of the experiment was that some Indian English speakers had a tendency to drop the -ed ending after /k/ and /t/ (ex: walked became walk) (1.6.5). Some interesting things seemed to be happening with the articulation of /ð/ (as in then), which normally is pronounced as an interdental /d/, but which sometimes seemed to become alveolar. Also, listening to the taped discussions revealed that sometimes a was used in front of vowel-initial words (1.4.2) before which North American English and British English speakers would use an. This is a very natural adjustment for native speakers, yet it is apparent that a conscious effort to do this is sometimes required by Indian English speakers (2.2.3). To discover whether or not these observations are significant would require further testing.
Other items listed by Trudgill and Hannah (1994) are that Indian English tends to have a reduced vowel system; /r/ tends to become a flap or retroflex flap; the consonants /p/, /t/, and /k/ tend to be unaspirated; and in some regions, /v/ and /w/ are not distinguished (volleyball is the same as wallyball), while in others, /p/ and /f/, /t/ and /θ/, /d/ and /ð/, and /s/ and /š/ are not (1.4.4). They also note that "Indian English tends to be syllable rather than stress-timed. Also, syllables that would be unstressed in other varieties of English receive some stress in Indian English and thus do not have reduced vowels. Suffixes tend to be stressed, and function words which are weak in other varieties of English (of, to, etc.) tend not to be reduced in Indian English" (p. 128).
4.2. Morphology
Indian English morphology is very creative and it is filled with new terms and usages. Indian English uses compound formation extensively, as in English-speaking classes (1.3.1) or convent-going (1.2.1). The compounds cousin-brother and cousin-sister allow the Indian English speaker to designate whether their cousin is male or female -- a function which is inherent in the terminology of most Indian languages. Others include chalk-piece, key-bunch, meeting notice, age barred, and pindrop silence. Indians also pluralize many English mass nouns and end up with words such as litters, furnitures, and woods (Trudgill & Hannah, pp. 129-130). Sometimes words which should be pluralized are not; for example, S.Shah says, "One of my relative" (1.6.1). A quintessential Indian English term which comes from compound formation is time-pass, which denotes something as non-exciting, as in "That movie was real time-pass." It can also indicate the act of passing time without a specific purpose or motivation.
Indians also shorten many words to create commonly used terms. Enthusiasm is called enthu; as such, it can be used in new ways. One can say, "That guy has a lot of enthu." While this is simply an abbreviation, enthu can also be used as an adjective where enthusiasm cannot, as in "He's a real enthu guy." The same applies for fundamentals, which is shortened as fundas. "She knows her fundas." What is interesting about fundas is that when the -as ending is dropped and -u is added, it takes on a new meaning and can be used in a new way. Fundu basically means wonderful or brilliant. One can say "He is a fundu person" or even "He is fundu."
When bringing Indian words into English, terms such as roti (bread), which are already plural, will be pluralized for English by the addition of -s (rotis). English suffixes are also appended to Indian terms. An example which was brought up in the first discussion is the practice in Bombay of adding -fy to a Hindi word to indicate that an action is being done to someone by someone. From the Hindi word muska, to muskafy means to flatter somebody or to butter them up. Similarly, to pataofy is the action of wooing someone. Other suffixes such as -ic (Upanishadic), -dom (cooliedom), and -ism (goondaism) are used to create new usages for Indian terms. Prefixes can also be used in new ways. In Indian English, pre- is substituted for post- in postpone to create prepone, which indicates, for example, that a meeting has been moved to a sooner time.
4.3. Lexicon
The Indian English lexicon has many distinct terms which are commonly used by its speakers. Some arise through the use of old and new morphological features, as discussed above. Others come from acronyms and abbreviations. Many terms from Indian languages are utilized, and new usages for English words or expressions are created. It must be noted that many of these terms and usages are specific to the population of Indian English speakers who are currently between twenty and thirty years of age.
What is interesting about Indian English abbreviations is that they are pronounced the way they are spelled after they have been shortened. A North American English speaker will generally read an abbreviation as though it were the entire word (i.e. Sec. is read as Secretary). Also, North American English speakers tend to abbreviate phonetically when spoken abbreviations are used (i.e. Soc. is pronounced soash). When read by an Indian English speaker, Soc. Sec. is pronounced sock seck. Actually, many English words which are pronounced quite differently than their spelling would indicate are pronounced as they are spelled by many Indians. Vowels which have been dropped by North American and British English speakers are typically articulated by Indians. For example, typically is generally pronounced ti-pick-lee, but Indian English speakers will often say ti-pick-ah-lee.
4.4. Syntax
Hindi syntax affects Indian English syntax in several ways. There is a seemingly arbitrary use of the articles a and the, which do not have parallels in Hindi.
Indian English speakers often use certain verbs in ways that are confusing to speakers of other English varieties. Keep is used for put, so one finds Indians saying things like "keep the ball there" or "keep the ball back" to a person who is still holding the ball. Leave replaces keep's lost function of allowing something to remain somewhere. Put is often used without an explicit destination or direction, so an Indian might say, "Shall I put the tape?".
One of the most indicative signs of Indian English grammar is the use of the progressive aspect with habitual actions, completed actions, and stative verbs. This produces sentences such as "I am doing it often" rather than "I do it often"; "Where are you coming from?" instead of "Where have you come from?"; "and "She was having many sarees" rather than "She had many sarees".
B. Small Research

Tugas sosio

CHAPTER I
ANTECEDENT


A. BLACK GROUND

English has been with India since the early 1600's, when the East India Company started trading and English missionaries first began their efforts. A large number of Christian schools imparting an English education were set up by the early 1800's. The process of producing English-knowing bilinguals in India began with the Minute of 1835, which officially endorsed T.B. Macaulay's goal of forming "a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern - a class of persons, Indians in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinion, in morals and in intellect" (quoted in Kachru 1983, p. 22). English became the official and academic language of India by the early twentieth century. The rising of the nationalist movement in the 1920's brought some anti-English sentiment with it -- even though the movement itself used English as its medium.
Once independence was gained and the English were gone, the perception of English as having an alien power base changed; however, the controversy about English has continued to this day. Kachru notes that "English now has national and international functions that are both distinct and complementary. English has thus acquired a new power base and a new elitism" (Kachru 1986, p. 12). Only about three percent of India's population speak English, but they are the individuals who lead India's economic, industrial, professional, political, and social life. Even though English is primarily a second language for these persons, it is the medium in which a great number of the interactions in the above domains are carried out. Having such important information moving in English conduits is often not appreciated by Indians who do not speak it, but they are relatively powerless to change that. Its inertia is such that it cannot be easily given up. This is particularly true in South India, where English serves as a universal language in the way that Hindi does in the North. Despite being a three percent minority, the English speaking population in India is quite large. With India's massive population, that three percent puts India among the top four countries in the world with the highest number of English speakers. English confers many advantages to the influential people who speak it -- which has allowed it to retain its prominence despite the strong opposition to English which rises periodically.
Indian people can communicate the English easily but his pronunciation is little strange. It sounds like flat rhythm, and don’t feel the English is fluently. First, we couldn’t understand his language. We didn’t know that he spoke English. It was very different from English we speak. Example : “apple” in English the phonetic sigh is / aepl /, and his pronunciation is like that / aplu /. He pronounced steadily until last letter, / L/, then sometimes, I feel he spoke with a trill also, his English was felt a little stutteringly. So, I want to research about Indian English, and I want to be able to hear well by this research.

B. Purpose
I wish to know character of Indian English language and I want to be able to hear well by this research.


CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. The position of English in Indian dialect
I think it is important that to know about what English as India, so, I want to research about position of English in India. I heard English is spoken well in India ordinary.
Indian national language is provided Hindi. However, Indian, government regard that people can use English together with Hindi, and lecture the compromise to admit to use English by 1965, 1, 25 because Hindi is a language that was spoken only in North India.
So, Indian government thought that it takes 15 years until Hindi was known nationally. Yet, Hindi couldn’t establish the position as national language because of the objection in South India. Therefore, the moment that English was admitted was extended indefinitely, and English is used as only language it is current nationally today. Then, How English use? Today, English is used largely in India.
It is decided that the question and answer of Indian diets are made in Hindi or English basically. Also, the facility like public offices or national and public university have to depend businesses on English that should be foreign language to do notwithstanding the position they should use Hindi with carring the ball.
Then, Indian couples who are from different place communicate in English is seen ordinary. There are many languages in India, so, English is used as a bridge of communicate. English establish important position to communicate well between Indian people. TV or radio of India, English occupies large specific gravity.
In these ways, English is used every ways. There are one hundred million people in India, and at least more than 40% people can speak English. So, Indian people say that the largest English sphere is India.


B. Meaning of dialect

Dialect is a regional, temporal or social variety within a single language is known as dialect. It is the product of individual's geographical and class origin. It differs in grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary from the standard language, which is in itself a socially favored dialect. So a dialect is a variation of language sufficiently different to be considered a separate entity, but not different enough to be classed as separate language. There is no clear qualitative linguistic measure to indicate where difference of dialect becomes difference of language. The issue is political and social, not linguistic. Everybody speaks a dialect, which is not seen as some kind of derivation from the norm of standard language. There is no linguistic justification for saying that one dialect is better than another rather it is a social judgment that leads people to say that a particular dialect is the correct one.
Dialect is not an important type of language variation for teaching. All language teaching, however, at least implies an assumption about the best dialect to teach.
Dialects are dialects not because of linguistic reasons but because of the political and cultural reasons. It is customary to describe them as varieties of a language according to users. Examples: Cockney, Georide and Scouse are the prominent dialects spoken in England.
To the linguist, however, as stated by Sapir, "There is no real difference between dialect and a language". Grierson also observes, "In the course of survey, it has sometimes been difficult to decide whether a given form of speech is to be looked upon as an independent language or as a dialect of some other definite form of speech". In practice it has been found that it is sometimes impossible to decide the question in a manner which will gain universal acceptance. The two words 'language' and 'dialect' are in this respect like 'mountain' and 'hill'. One has no hesitation in saying that Everest is a mountain and Hauberk a hill, but between these two a dividing line cannot be accurately drawn. However, dialects are of many kinds: Regional dialects, Sociolects, etc.
regional dialects: Regional dialects are spoken by the people of a particular geographical area within a speech community; Cockney in London, for example.
sociolects: Sociolects are spoken by the members of a particular group or stratum of a speech community while a variety of language used at a particular stage in its historical development may be termed as temporal dialects such as Prakrit and Pali in Ancient India.

C. Character of Indian English dialect
I want to write about character of Indian English. Indian people speak English very fast, and also, as I wrote my experiences, their pronunciation is flat. So, it is said that it is difficult to hear Indian English.
1. pronunciation
The most characteristic pronounce is “R”. They pronounce clearly the letter “R”, and then, they speak with a trill considerable. It become Flap [ ] or reyroflex flap [ ]. For example, “doctor” is pronounced like “doctoll”, “master” is “mastall”, “Good morning” is “good molning”, “car” is “curle”, “center” is “centall”, “corner” is “colenall”, or “no,1” is “nanball1”.
Now I want to pick out some characteristic of a book.
In South India, It is added [j] to words that are started Front vowel, and It is added [w] to words that are started back vowel. For example, eight is [je:t], own is [wo:n]. In North India, [I] is added to words that are started [sk], [st], [sp]. For example, speak is [Ispi:k], station is [Iste: en], spin is [Isrin]. It because Hindi have not the sounds sk, sp or st in beginning of the words. [v]and [w], [p] and [f], [t] and [ ], [d] and [ð], [s] and [ ] are not differentiated. [p], [t], and [k] tend to become unaspirated, and [t], [d], [s], [l], and [z] tend to pronounce with warp tongue. [a:] and [ ] are pronounced [a:], [æ] become [a], [e ] is [e:], and [ ] become [o:].
As a example of [d] [ð] and [t] [ ], “three” become same pronounce of “tree”. “that” is “dad”. I remember to heard D,J said “I think…”. He pronounced that “I tink…”. It is difficult to understand. In addition, the pronunciation of /h/ become vocal. So, it is clearly difficulty of understanding Indian English.
I wrote that it is difficult to understanding Indian English, but not all Indian pronounce like that. I heard that it depends on the English education they receive. The people who is high caste, is teach English by British or Indian who can speak British English, therefore, the pronunciation become like Japanese text book in English. However, the people who is low caste is taught by Indian teacher, so, the pronunciation become sounds peculiar to India.

D. Different of dialect English in general and dialect English Indian

Indian English is a distinct variety of the English language. Many Indians claim that it is very similar to British English, but this opinion is based on a surface level examination of lexical similarities. Of course, one must keep in mind that not every linguistic item is used by every Indian English speaker and that a great deal of regional and educational differentiation exists. Even so, items can be identified which are indicative of Indian English speech and which are widely used. These operate on various phonological, morphological, lexical, and syntactic levels, which I will characterized with items brought up in the recorded discussions, in my previous experience with Indian English, and in scholarly writings about Indian English.

1. Phonology
I was able to do very little on the phonological level. I set up a test to see if the English alveolar /t/ would be articulated as the Indian retroflex /t/ or as the dental /t/ in different phonological environments. The result was that the retroflex completely replaced the alveolar; in fact, it has been found that the entire series of English alveolar consonants tends to be replaced by retroflex consonants (Trudgill & Hannah 1994, p.128). One item that did come out of the experiment was that some Indian English speakers had a tendency to drop the -ed ending after /k/ and /t/ (ex: walked became walk) (1.6.5). Some interesting things seemed to be happening with the articulation of /ð/ (as in then), which normally is pronounced as an interdental /d/, but which sometimes seemed to become alveolar. Also, listening to the taped discussions revealed that sometimes a was used in front of vowel-initial words (1.4.2) before which North American English and British English speakers would use an. This is a very natural adjustment for native speakers, yet it is apparent that a conscious effort to do this is sometimes required by Indian English speakers (2.2.3). To discover whether or not these observations are significant would require further testing.
Other items listed by Trudgill and Hannah (1994) are that Indian English tends to have a reduced vowel system; /r/ tends to become a flap or retroflex flap; the consonants /p/, /t/, and /k/ tend to be unaspirated; and in some regions, /v/ and /w/ are not distinguished (volleyball is the same as wallyball), while in others, /p/ and /f/, /t/ and /θ/, /d/ and /ð/, and /s/ and /š/ are not (1.4.4). They also note that "Indian English tends to be syllable rather than stress-timed. Also, syllables that would be unstressed in other varieties of English receive some stress in Indian English and thus do not have reduced vowels. Suffixes tend to be stressed, and function words which are weak in other varieties of English (of, to, etc.) tend not to be reduced in Indian English" (p. 128).
2. Morphology
Indian English morphology is very creative and it is filled with new terms and usages. Indian English uses compound formation extensively, as in English-speaking classes (1.3.1) or convent-going (1.2.1). The compounds cousin-brother and cousin-sister allow the Indian English speaker to designate whether their cousin is male or female -- a function which is inherent in the terminology of most Indian languages. Others include chalk-piece, key-bunch, meeting notice, age barred, and pindrop silence. Indians also pluralize many English mass nouns and end up with words such as litters, furnitures, and woods (Trudgill & Hannah, pp. 129-130). Sometimes words which should be pluralized are not; for example, S.Shah says, "One of my relative" (1.6.1). A quintessential Indian English term which comes from compound formation is time-pass, which denotes something as non-exciting, as in "That movie was real time-pass." It can also indicate the act of passing time without a specific purpose or motivation.
Indians also shorten many words to create commonly used terms. Enthusiasm is called enthu; as such, it can be used in new ways. One can say, "That guy has a lot of enthu." While this is simply an abbreviation, enthu can also be used as an adjective where enthusiasm cannot, as in "He's a real enthu guy." The same applies for fundamentals, which is shortened as fundas. "She knows her fundas." What is interesting about fundas is that when the -as ending is dropped and -u is added, it takes on a new meaning and can be used in a new way. Fundu basically means wonderful or brilliant. One can say "He is a fundu person" or even "He is fundu."
When bringing Indian words into English, terms such as roti (bread), which are already plural, will be pluralized for English by the addition of -s (rotis). English suffixes are also appended to Indian terms. An example which was brought up in the first discussion is the practice in Bombay of adding -fy to a Hindi word to indicate that an action is being done to someone by someone. From the Hindi word muska, to muskafy means to flatter somebody or to butter them up. Similarly, to pataofy is the action of wooing someone. Other suffixes such as -ic (Upanishadic), -dom (cooliedom), and -ism (goondaism) are used to create new usages for Indian terms. Prefixes can also be used in new ways. In Indian English, pre- is substituted for post- in postpone to create prepone, which indicates, for example, that a meeting has been moved to a sooner time.
3. Lexicon
The Indian English lexicon has many distinct terms which are commonly used by its speakers. Some arise through the use of old and new morphological features, as discussed above. Others come from acronyms and abbreviations. Many terms from Indian languages are utilized, and new usages for English words or expressions are created. It must be noted that many of these terms and usages are specific to the population of Indian English speakers who are currently between twenty and thirty years of age.
What is interesting about Indian English abbreviations is that they are pronounced the way they are spelled after they have been shortened. A North American English speaker will generally read an abbreviation as though it were the entire word (i.e. Sec. is read as Secretary). Also, North American English speakers tend to abbreviate phonetically when spoken abbreviations are used (i.e. Soc. is pronounced soash). When read by an Indian English speaker, Soc. Sec. is pronounced sock seck. Actually, many English words which are pronounced quite differently than their spelling would indicate are pronounced as they are spelled by many Indians. Vowels which have been dropped by North American and British English speakers are typically articulated by Indians. For example, typically is generally pronounced ti-pick-lee, but Indian English speakers will often say ti-pick-ah-lee.
4. Syntax
Hindi syntax affects Indian English syntax in several ways. There is a seemingly arbitrary use of the articles a and the, which do not have parallels in Hindi.
Indian English speakers often use certain verbs in ways that are confusing to speakers of other English varieties. Keep is used for put, so one finds Indians saying things like "keep the ball there" or "keep the ball back" to a person who is still holding the ball. Leave replaces keep's lost function of allowing something to remain somewhere. Put is often used without an explicit destination or direction, so an Indian might say, "Shall I put the tape?".
One of the most indicative signs of Indian English grammar is the use of the progressive aspect with habitual actions, completed actions, and stative verbs. This produces sentences such as "I am doing it often" rather than "I do it often"; "Where are you coming from?" instead of "Where have you come from?"; "and "She was having many sarees" rather than "She had many sarees".
E. Small Research