The British came to India with the original aim of trade
and commerce, not with the intention of
becoming the king of this land. With the passage of time the perspective changed
and after the Battle of Plassey in 1757 the British virtually became the master of
Bengal and decided to rule the country. To achieve the desired place the
British started their designed activities
which may be stated in Kipling's word : "And he sent his armies forth /
South and North / Till the country from Peshawur to Ceylon / Was his own".
Ultimately, the British became the king
of India and it necessitated a large number of English knowing Indians to serve
their reign. Consequently, there emerged a special class of people called
'Baboo' who learnt to speak in broken English,
who were "Indian in blood and colour but English in taste and
opinion". Day by day the British English gained importance and became
popular as well as imperative in educational field. One day the British left
India but English language sustained its place and became a language in the 'Three language formula'
proposed for educational, legal, administrative and media purposes. Though the
Indians speak in British English, there are some difference between Indian
English and Standard British English in respect of phonology, vocabulary and in
syntax.
In the field of pronunciation the difference between
Indian English and standard British English is more prominent. Indian English
tends to the syllable-time where all syllables are pronounced with equal
emphasis. Stress is not used properly and it is used for semantic emphasis.
Some differences are clear with regard to both the consonant sound and vowel
sound. In Indian English / r / is pronounced in all positions. Originally, in the words like ‘are’ and ‘after’,
the final / r / should be silent, and
their phonemic transcription would be like / ɑː /
and / ɑːftə / respectively.
The Indian English speakers confuse in the pronunciation of / s / and / ʃ / and / ʤ / and / z /. Besides,
/ f / and / v / are wrongly pronounced as bilabial not as labio dental where 'lower lip' and 'upper teeth', serve as articulators. Unlike the British, the Indian speakers
replace some dipthongs with similar and nearest monopthongs. So, in Indian
English 'get' and 'gate' are pronounced in the same way, originally in British
English the pronunciation would be / get / and / geit / respectively.
'Flower-bed' and 'separate-eating' are the products of
Indian English and in these types of words we find unusual collocation and
uncommon hybridism which are not treated as decent in British English. Strange things happen here, Sometimes the
order of words are changed. For example ' an address of welcome ' is changed into
'welcome -address' and 'the strength of class' into 'roll-strength'. There are some English
hybrids and nominal compounds like 'lathi-charge', 'bidi-smoking' etc which are
typically Indian. Some words like 'goondaism', 'policwola' etc are made from affixation and these are not
British English, these are of Indian origin.
Brevity is the main feature of English Language, but
Indian English does not value it. Indian English, deviating the norms of
brevity, has a tendency to use complex noun , verb phrases and long sentences.
Unlike British English, it makes the structure complex and does not maintain the
masculine nature of British English. In Indian English the introduction of any
topic is large and digression is more in the narration and naturally the
language becomes cumbersome and tedious. For all these the Indian English can
not preserve the dignity and sweetness like the British English.
Like pronunciation 'the grammar' is a vast field where we
find many points of difference between Indian and British English. Many state
verbs are used in progressive by Indian speakers and naturally they say “I am
feeling cold” instead of its correct form “I feel cold.” The reason behind it may be that in most
Indian languages these verbs can be used in the progressive. Arbitrary use of
articles is found in Indian English. Sometimes Indians say "he sells
different different things" or "give them one one piece". So the
matter of duplication of words for the sake of emphasis is found in Indian
English and it can not be accepted in British English. In case of interrogative
sentences and tag questions Indian English is much liberal where the British English follow strictness.
Naturally we find the following
sentences in Indian English: "What you would like to eat ?"
(interrogative sentence) and "He
will go, isn't it ?" (tag question).
To conclude, the Indians speak what is the British English, but they speak in their
own way and sometimes they use the style of their mother tongue in time of
pronunciation of English. For this mother tongue style the Indian English is
spoken in different ways at different ethnic levels. For the sake of accuracy the difference
between Indian English and standard British English may be at least reduced but
can never be removed. Indian English will remain with its own features, accurate use of British accent by the Indian
speakers of English is next to
impossible.
