Variety of New English and Its Current Social and Political Status in and Outside - Essay Example

Variety of English Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction New English is the English which is being spoken by various countries from which English was not the official language. The original English originated from America and United Kingdom. During the colonial period, the countries which America and Britain colonized started assimilating the English language. However, the assimilated English is not exactly the same as the original English from UK and American English. Examples of new English include the Nigerian English and the Indian English. There are many issues affecting the new varieties of English. This essay will focus on the Indian English. It will discuss the various concepts of Indian English, the features of the new English, various perspectives of the new language and the problems facing the new English language. Finally, the essay will give a conclusion based on the findings of this paper. Structure of the Indian English (IE) For a long time now, many scholars have been arguing that the Indian English is not different from the British English more especially in the syntax area (Pingali 2009). There are those who argue that despite India being a colony of Britain, their English structures are very different. The Indian English shares some grammatical structure with the native English. The IE is used in India as the second language. Always with a second language, there are various variations which are important. One of the features of Indian English is about the phonetics and phonology. The phonetics and phonology of Indian English is divided into various categories. There is the category which is the study concerned with the description of Indian English segmental and suprasegmental, the second category is the study that aims at comparing the systems of the sounds, studies which try to contrast Indian English and the British English and finally the studies which try to focus on the extent of the intelligibility of the Indian English. The system of vowels in the Indian English comprises of 17 vowels. In contrast, the vowel sounds in the British English comprises of 20 vowels. The number of pure vowels in the Indian English is 11 and the glide vowels are 6 which make a total of seventeen vowels (Chandrika 2009). Many of the Indian speakers do not especially those from the South most often do not pronounce rounded sounds. For instance in the South India, their pronunciation is different and they sound differently like coffee they will pronounce it kaafi while copy will be pronounced as kaapi. Furthermore, the Indian English structure is characterized by different consonant sounds (Pingali 2009). For instance the Indians pronounce the word flower as Fla instead of [flaʊə(r)]. This makes the Indian English slightly different from the original British English from where the English originated. The Indian English structure is further characterized by the plosives. The IE does not aspirate the plosives /p/, /t/, /k/ into it. In this case, the pronunciation of different words is different from the original English. For instance the word pin can be pronounced as [pɪn]. The difference between the aspirated and unaspirated plosives in the Indian English lies in the phonemic issue. The original English language adopts unaspirated plosives. On the other hand, the structure of the Indian English is characterized by the system of the consonants. It is only the first three stops out of the six stops whose realizations are different. The six stops include /p, t, k, b, d, g/. This can be because of the languages on Northern India which affect the language pronunciations of the Indian English (Pingali 2009). Further, these stops can also be retroflexed in words like dentist and den. Features of Indian English The main feature of Indian English lies in the phonology and morphology. The Indian English has voiceless plosives and this brings about the greatest difference between English language and the original English language. It further shortens words but still create the same meaning for instance enthusiasm can be shortened as enthu. Another feature of the Indian English is the distinction and use of Lexicon. There are many words in the Indian English which are often used and some of them are formed from the old and new features. The Indian English use the Indian languages and together with the English language and from them the expressions are formed with meaning (Andreas 2009). The Indian English has many abbreviations but which have meaning. For instance many of the political parties are known by their abbreviations which have meaning. The Indian English is mostly affected by the Hindi syntax which leads to arbitrary use of articles which are “a and the”. Further grammar feature that distinguish the Indian English is the application of the use of the progressive tense with the verbs. The Indian English tends to be influenced much by the Hindi language. For instance instead of saying she knows the answer, the Indian English says that she is knowing the answer. The order of words in the Indian English is unique (Naik 2004). For instance, what you would like to eat is in Indian English instead it can be asked what would you like to eat? These differences make the Indian English language different from other English languages like the American and UK English. Indian English plays a great role in India and its people. To begin with, the Indian English enables people of India to interact with one another. There are many languages and cultures in India and the only language that will to understand one another is the English language (Neeru 2006). They will be able to interact and exchange ideas to improve their living standards as a result of the flow of information. Although other cultures and languages are equally important, the only way the people of India will share ideas is through a universal language which is the English language thus the people can be linked up. Another advantage of the Indian English is that it promotes communication and unity among the people of India. The Indian English bridges the gap between the different cultures of different people and enhance communication (Neeru 2006). Not only in India but also connects India with other people in the outside world. Because English is an international language, it connects the people of India with other countries. It enhances international interaction as it helps people from different cultures to communicate and understand one another. On the other hand, English language improves trade among the people of India and other countries. This is because the people of India are taught English in schools and can easily communicate with other people of different languages. This improves trade in the international market because of the universal language enabling people to exchange business ideas. Through this universal language, the economy of India has improved and in turn improved living standards of the people through trading activities. Problems facing Indian English The first issue facing the Indian English is lack of passion for the language. Many Indian English learners try to be perfect in speaking. In the process the learners are not much concerned about the learning process. Many Indian English learners are willing to speak English but they dislike the learning process itself. In this regard, they want to speak English although they see it as the something they ought to do but they are not willing to do it themselves (Neeru 2006). This is the most challenge facing the Indian English learners. They perceive English as something difficult to learn and therefore they develop a negative attitude towards which in turn leads to lack of passion for studying the Indian English language. Due to lack of passion, the English language is not preferred by many learners. However, the Indian English can be successful if strategies are put in place to enhance the passion for the language. One of the strategies to develop and improve the passion for the Indian English language is through spending much time learning the language by studying various materials such as studying the English sentences using the dictionary to get new vocabularies and practice using them in the daily speaking and taking personal judgments to learn how to pronounce Indian English words. The leaner should also try to perceive the English language as their hobby and this will improve the passion for the English language. Lack of change in personal life and commitment among the learners is another challenge facing the English language in India. The learners do not spend some time in their daily activities to study the English language because of low motivation. The learners are not motivated to spend at least some few minutes daily to study English (Neeru 2006). This leads to poor concentration in studying the English language and the local languages continue to dominate. To promote the learning the new English language, the learners should be encouraged to spare some of their time daily like thirty minutes to study English language. This can be a personal decision and can lead to positive attitude towards the language and the learners can start enjoying the study of the English language. Cultural practices also challenge the Indian English language. There are different cultures in India some of which are preservative of their languages. They resist the learning of the new English language as they argue that it interferes with their cultural practices (Neeru 2006). For instance, they think that with the new English language, the learners will learn new styles of living from other cultures of the world which will have influence on their culture. In this regard, they oppose the use of the English language and its learning in learning institutions. Conclusion The Indian English language was adopted from the original British English. India was a colonial of Britain and when colonialism came to an end, they Indians began to emulate the English language and led to establishment of Indian English. New English are the development of English language which is spoken by English and American colonies like the Indian English. The Indian English is characterized by various structures like the phonetics and phonology, the system of the vowels and the system of the consonants. The features of the new Indian English language according to this paper include distinction and use of Lexicon, phonetics and phonology and the grammar like the arrangement of words. On the other hand the challenges facing the new Indian English include lack of passion, lack of commitment and the cultural practices. References Andreas, S 2009, Contemporary Indian English: variation and change, John Benjamins Publishing Company. Chandrika, B 2009, Register variation in Indian English, John Benjamins Publishing Company. Naik, M 2004, Twentieth Century Indian English Fiction, Delhi, Pencraft International. Neeru, T 2006, Perspectives and Challenges in Indian-English Drama, New Delhi, Atlantic. Pingali, S 2009, Indian English, Edinburgh University Press. Read More