The Tribune

The acculturation of EnglishSharda Kaushik “The language I speak, Becomes mine, Its distortions, its queerness All mine, mine alone. It is half English, half Indian, ...                                             —Kamla Das INDIANISMS displaying the local flavour sneak into English as we use it for functional and literary purposes. They surface as variations made to the core variety, Standard British English (SBE). Though these variants are not viewed as superior or inferior to SBE, they are certainly recognised as different. They have earned the local variety its popular label, Indian English. Broadly speaking, Indianisms are evident as pronunciation, word/sentence structure, meaning and style. Not all Indian variants in reference to sentence structure are acceptable, as seen below: 1. Prof. Reddy has given the cheque yesterday. Within SBE rules, the sentence above shows inappropriate use of present perfect tense “has given” in the context of the adverb “yesterday”. The correct sentence will read as “Prof. Reddy gave the cheque yesterday”, the adverb “yesterday” is used with the simple past tense. 2. I am having two brothers. A common usage among Indians, the present progressive form of verb “am having” is not permitted in SBE to show possession. Though the sense the sentence wants to convey is clear, the use of present progressive tense in the given situation has to be avoided. The amended version will read as “I have two brothers” by making use of present simple. 3. The polling booth for the residents is here only. The user’s intention in the sentence above is to draw the interlocutor’s attention to “here” by using the adverb “only”. The location “here” is to be contrasted with “not anywhere else”, implied by the use of “only”. Many users tend to place “only” at the end of sentences excessively since they don’t make use of intonation or pitch variation to show the intended contrast. In SBE, too, “only” is used to show emphasis and contrast but its position within sentences keeps varying, depending upon the word that needs emphasis. For instance, “Only Capt. Kahlon could have rescued so many people.” Here, “only” implies “no other person”. 4. “Like a gossamer- this web brushed aside by a careless hand, the fragile balance of relations in South Asia has dissolved with frightening suddenness ...” (from a news magazine) The writer has condensed a lot of information in the phrases of the yet incomplete sentence. Packing too much in the phrases and clauses or piling up images makes the text difficult to understand. Such texts defy good, clear communication, a recommended feature of writing these days. Once completed, this long winding text can be rewritten in two or three sentences. The acculturation of English in Indian soil is not the only instance of its kind. In the medieval times, Persian had evolved as Indian Persian (Sabk-e-Hind) through a similar process. But amending Indian variants of grammar in English, if they distort the meaning or fail to serve any purpose, is mandatory for pan-Indian communication and international intelligibility.
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