As I prepare to leave India after nearly three years here, I’m reflecting on the many things that make India special. The role of language, especially the use of English, is one of them.
More than a hundred million Indians speak English to some degree. Yet surprisingly little has been written about Indian English. Indian English is a distinct dialect of English. In theory, English speakers in India follow British English as specified in the Oxford or Longman English dictionaries. In practice, Indians use many words and phrases that don’t exist in British or American English.
Indian English seems to lack its own identity, unlike the English in countries such as New Zealand, which has a population the size of a medium size Indian city. When I lived in New Zealand, I was able to buy an Oxford Dictionary of New Zealand English that contained a handful of special kiwi words such as jandals (India’s favorite kind of footwear.) But there’s no dictionary of Indian English, even though there are hundreds or even thousands of words and phrases that are unique, or have unique meaning, in Indian English.
English has a unique role in India. It is not one of the 22 “scheduled” languages that are constitutionally recognized and supported. (“Scheduled” as a specific meaning in Indian English: acts of national government have schedules.) Yet English is an official language of government. While it is the first language of a small minority of people, it is often is a second or third language that people learn in school. It is a national language but culturally, a foreign language. Perhaps that is why Indians feel it less important to codify Indian English, while the Canadians may want to define the distinct features of Canadian English, or the Australians or the Irish want to do so with their dialects.
Indian English as Global English
Indian English is a growing presence within global English. If you doubt that, consider IBM. IBM is headquartered in the United States, and considered an American company. But IBM has more employees in India than in the US or any other country. That pattern is increasingly true for many multinationals. Their employees in India outnumber employees elsewhere.
Today, most speakers of English throughout the world are not native speakers. And India is on course to become the country with the largest population, and possibly, the country with the most English speakers. All of us should become familiar with features of Indian English. We will likely encounter them sooner or later.
“India now claims to be the world’s second-largest English-speaking country. The most reliable estimate is around 10% of its population or 125 million people, second only to the US and expected to quadruple in the next decade.”
— BBC
Features of Indian English
Three features of Indian English stand out to me. First, one hears (or even more often, reads) usage that seems archaic compared with contemporary American or British English. For example, an office within a high rise building may be referred to as a cabin, while customer demand is referred to patronage.
The second feature is the use of Hindi words within English. This is known as “Hinglish” — India’s equivalent of the “Singlish” spoken in Singapore. In some parts of India people speak or write in Hindi sentences sprinkled with a few English words. In other regions, or in print, the core sentence is in English with a few Hindi words or phrases included. Either way, the meaning is not obvious unless one understands the Hindi references.
Mixing vocabulary is a common occurrence in many languages. The French borrow English words, and vice versa. One would expect Indian English to incorporate Hindi words. Even British and American English have incorporated a number of Indic words, including such favorites as pajamas, juggernaut, and thug. (For the linguistically curious, there’s also something called Indian French, spoken by a few thousand people in former French territories in India, that incorporates various words from different languages into French.)
New words and meanings
The third feature of Indian English — by far the most interesting — is the invention of new words or meanings. For example, Indian oil companies may refer to petrol or gasoline as “motor spirits.” A plastic surgery clinic may refer to hair loss as “hairfall”– as though it were snowfall.
There are a handful of words that routinely appear in the workplace that are worth learning.
- Do the needful (do what is required, or take care of it): “The customer has a complaint. Do the needful.”
- Updation (for updating or revision): “Please await updation of the forms.”
- Doubt (for question): “Do you have any doubts about what I’ve said?”
- Upgradation (for enhancement): “The airport is undergoing upgradation.”
- Felicitate/Felicitation (to publicly recognize): “We’d like to felicitate our guest speaker. I’d like to ask Sri Devi join us on stage for the facilitation.”
- Interaction (for discussion): “The eminent scientist had an interaction with the students.”
- Revert (for reply): “Read the attached email and revert to me.”
- Prepone (to schedule earlier): “Let’s prepone the meeting for tomorrow morning.”
Concepts trump words
Even when words in Indian English seem to deviate from conventional usage, they often have a certain logic to them, if considered as the expression of a concept. English is full of words that have acquired specific connotations that are strange when examined. And word formations, especially the attachment of suffixes, are often idiosyncratic.
I hope Indian English gains more recognition. Maybe Oxford can create a dictionary of Indian English.
— Michael Andrews