Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T09:16:18.579Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anglo-Indian English: A nativized variety of Indian English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2009

Gail M. Coelho
Gail M. Coelho
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-1196, gail@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The speech of native speakers of Indian English has generally been neglected in studies of English in South Asia. This article describes a variety of Indian English used by a section of the Anglo-Indian community in Madras, South India. A comparison of this variety to available descriptions of “General” or “Educated” Indian English shows that the two are substantially similar, but that the Anglo-Indian variety differs in two features: deletion of/h/ (h-dropping) and the distribution of r-lessness. The community shows classbased variation in the phonological feature of h-dropping and in one syntactic feature: auxiliary movement in questions. Sources for features of Anglo-Indian English are discussed, including possible inheritance from both standard and non-standard BrE dialects as well as transfer from Tamil, the likely substrate Indian language for this section of the Anglo-Indian community.(South Asia, Indian English, language variation)

Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , December 1997 , pp. 561 - 589
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anthony, Frank (1969) Britain's betrayal in India DelhiAlliedGoogle Scholar
Asher, Ronald E (1985) Tamil LondonRoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Bailey, Richard W, & Gorlach, Manfred (1982), eds English as a world language Ann ArborUniversity of Michigan PressGoogle Scholar
Bansal, R K (1969) The intelligibility of Indian English Hyderabad, India, Central Institute of English and Foreign LanguagesGoogle Scholar
Baumgardner, Robert J (1993), ed The English language in Pakistan Karachi & OxfordOxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Baumgardner, Robert J (1996), ed South Asian English Structure, use and users UrbanaUniversity of Illinois PressGoogle Scholar
Bayer, Jennifer (1979) Anglo-Indians and their mother tongue Indian Linguistics 40 78–84Google Scholar
Bayer, Jennifer (1986) A socwlingmstic investigation of the English spoken by the Anglo-Indians in Mysore City Hyderabad, India, Central Institute of English and Foreign LanguagesGoogle Scholar
Bhattacharya, D K (1968) The Anglo-Indians in Bombay An introduction to their socio-economic and cultural life Race 10 163–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coelho, Gail (1992) An experiment on the use of intonation-based questions in Indian English Linguistics Department, University of Pittsburgh, MSGoogle Scholar
Cottrell, Ann Baker (1979) Today's Asian-Western couples are not Anglo-Indians Phylon 40 351–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gist, Noel P (1967a) Conditions of inter-group relations The Anglo-Indians International Journal of Comparative Sociology 8 199–208CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gist, Noel (1967b) Cultural versus social marginahty The Anglo-Indian case Phylon 28 361–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gramley, Stephan, & Patzold, Kurt-Michael (1992) A survey of modern English LondonRoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Kachru, Braj B (1965) The Indianness of Indian English Word 21 391–410Google Scholar
Kachru, Braj B (1969) English in South Asia In Sebeok, Thomas (ed), Current trends in linguistics, 5 627–78 The HagueMoutonGoogle Scholar
Kachru, Braj B (1975) Lexical innovations in South Asian English International Journal of the Sociology of Language 4 55–74Google Scholar
Kachru, Braj B (1976) Indian English A sociolinguistic profile of a transplanted language Studies in Language Learning 1 139–89Google Scholar
Kachru, Braj B (1982) South Asian English In Bailey, & Gorlach, 353–83Google Scholar
Kachru, Braj B (1983) The Indianization of English The English language m India DelhiOxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Kachru, Braj B (1986) The alchemy of English The spread, functions, and models of non-native Englishes 3rd ed New YorkPergamon Institute of English [Reprinted, Urbana University of Illinois Press, 1990]Google Scholar
Kachru, Braj B (1992), ed The other tongue English across cultures 2d ed UrbanaUniversity of Illinois PressGoogle Scholar
Kachru, Braj B (1994) English in South Asia In Burchfield, Robert (ed), The Cambridge history of the English language, 5 497–553Cambridge & New YorkCambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Love, Henry Davison (1988) Vestiges of old Madras, 1640–1800, vol 3 DelhiMittalGoogle Scholar
Lowenberg, Peter H (1990) Standards and norms for World Englishes Issues and attitudes Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 20 123–37Google Scholar
Masica, Colin (1972) The sound system of Indian English Hyderabad, India Central Institute of English and Foreign LanguagesGoogle Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend (1987) From OV to VO in language shift South African Indian English and its OV substrates English World-Wide 8 263–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend (1990) Syntactic variation in language shift The relative clause in South African Indian English Language Variation and Change 2 31–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend (1992) English in language shift The history, structure and sociolinguistics of South African Indian English Cambridge & New YorkCambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Murray, James A H et al. (1933), eds New English dictionary on historical principles [Oxford English Dictionary] OxfordClarendonGoogle Scholar
Orton, Harold, Sanderson, Stewart, & Widdowson, John (1978), eds The linguistic atlas of England LondonCroom HelmGoogle Scholar
Platt, John T, Weber, Heidi, & Ho, M L (1984) The new Englishes LondonRoutledge & Kegan PaulGoogle Scholar
Pride, John B (1982), ed New Englishes Rowley, MANewbury HouseGoogle Scholar
Sahgal, Anju, & Agnihotn, R K (1985) Syntax The common bond Acceptability of syntactic deviances in Indian English English World-Wide 6 117–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sahgal, Anju, & Agnihotn, R K (1988) Indian English phonology A sociolinguistic perspective English WorldWide 9 51–64Google Scholar
Schermerhorn, R A (1975) Socio-cultural history and sex roles in an urban minority of India Sociological Focus 8 173–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Larry E (1981) English for cross-cultural communication New YorkSt Martin's PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spencer, John (1966) Anglo-Indians and their speech A sociohnguistic essay Lingua 16 57–70Google Scholar
Sridhar, S N (1996) Toward a syntax of South Asian English Defining the lectal range In Baumgardner, , 55–69Google Scholar
Thomason, Sarah Grey, & Kaufman, Terrence (1988) Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics BerkeleyUniversity of California PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valentine, Elias (1969) The phonology of Anglo-Indian English Dissertation, University of Kerala (India)Google Scholar
Valentine, Elias (1978) Some non-segmental features of Anglo-Indian English In Manuel, M (ed), English and India Essays presented to Professor Samuel Mathai on his seventieth birthday, 190–212Madras, India WasaniGoogle Scholar
Verma, Shivendra Kishore (1973) The systemicness of Indian English ITL Review of Applied Linguistics 22 1–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, John C (1982) Accents of English, vols 1–3 Cambridge & New YorkCambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Jessica (1987) Non-native varieties of English A special case of language acquisition English World-Wide 8 161–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar