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The Standard, (Non-)Rhoticity and Rhythm in Indian English: A Response to Lange

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Annual Review of South Asian Languages and Linguistics
This chapter is in the book Annual Review of South Asian Languages and Linguistics
The Standard, (Non-) Rhoticity and Rhythm in Indian English: A Response to Lange Pingali Sailaja Indian English phonology has been studied more extensively than any oth-er aspect of the variety. Yet, controversy surrounds this area. As will be seen below, contrary positions have been taken in the literature. The issues related to the standard, (non-) rhoticity and rhythm raised by Lange (2009) in her review of my book Indian English (Sailaja 2009) are addressed be-low. On the issue of the standard, it is best to begin by considering how the standard may be conceived of. A good survey of the different approaches to the standard is presented in Crowley (1997). It could be uniform, excel-lent or common, or a combination of these, as Crowley argues. Usually, it is the model used in education even if it is used by a minority. The stan-dard, therefore, wherever it is drawn from, becomes a prescriptive model. The problem of defining standard Indian English applies equally to the definition of Educated Indian English as described by Nihalani et al (1979). First, as CIEFL (1972) says, English is used in India only by the educated. Next, there are several different types of educated Indian English and the bilingualism cline has been described by Kachru (Kachru 1965, 1982). The accent varies considerably across the groups. Even among those who belong to the highest class i.e., at the level of the acrolect, there is considerable variation in accent. Given the several different accents in India, which of these is referred to by Educated Indian English? In fact, after providing a brief description of the differences between British Re-ceived Pronunciation and Educated Indian English, Nihalani et al use another term—Indian Recommended Pronunciation—and lay down pre-scriptive rules. It seems as if EIE is deemed to be the standard since it is considered to be more commonly prevalent. The standard described in my book is an accent which is completely devoid of regional markers. It is an accent considered to be excellent by people and one that they wish to have. Curiously, this standard cuts across the country and is usually free of region-al features that mark the speech of most Indians. Whether the speaker is from Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay, Madras or Hyderabad, this is a speech varie-ty that is Indian, but of a higher status than other varieties. (Sailaja 2009: 18)

The Standard, (Non-) Rhoticity and Rhythm in Indian English: A Response to Lange Pingali Sailaja Indian English phonology has been studied more extensively than any oth-er aspect of the variety. Yet, controversy surrounds this area. As will be seen below, contrary positions have been taken in the literature. The issues related to the standard, (non-) rhoticity and rhythm raised by Lange (2009) in her review of my book Indian English (Sailaja 2009) are addressed be-low. On the issue of the standard, it is best to begin by considering how the standard may be conceived of. A good survey of the different approaches to the standard is presented in Crowley (1997). It could be uniform, excel-lent or common, or a combination of these, as Crowley argues. Usually, it is the model used in education even if it is used by a minority. The stan-dard, therefore, wherever it is drawn from, becomes a prescriptive model. The problem of defining standard Indian English applies equally to the definition of Educated Indian English as described by Nihalani et al (1979). First, as CIEFL (1972) says, English is used in India only by the educated. Next, there are several different types of educated Indian English and the bilingualism cline has been described by Kachru (Kachru 1965, 1982). The accent varies considerably across the groups. Even among those who belong to the highest class i.e., at the level of the acrolect, there is considerable variation in accent. Given the several different accents in India, which of these is referred to by Educated Indian English? In fact, after providing a brief description of the differences between British Re-ceived Pronunciation and Educated Indian English, Nihalani et al use another term—Indian Recommended Pronunciation—and lay down pre-scriptive rules. It seems as if EIE is deemed to be the standard since it is considered to be more commonly prevalent. The standard described in my book is an accent which is completely devoid of regional markers. It is an accent considered to be excellent by people and one that they wish to have. Curiously, this standard cuts across the country and is usually free of region-al features that mark the speech of most Indians. Whether the speaker is from Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay, Madras or Hyderabad, this is a speech varie-ty that is Indian, but of a higher status than other varieties. (Sailaja 2009: 18)

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Editorial Preface VII
  4. General Contributions
  5. On the Origin of Affixal Polysemy/Homonymy in Bengali 3
  6. Two Types of NPIs in Hindi with One Licensing Condition 19
  7. Wh-Phenomena in Sinhala 49
  8. Diverging Pathways: The Current Status of Grammaticalization of Hindi Verbs 75
  9. Special Contribution: Hindi Pragmatics
  10. On Hindi Conditionals 107
  11. Regional Reports
  12. Issues in the Description of Bangla 137
  13. Europe 143
  14. Reviews
  15. R.K. Agnihotri and H.K. Dewan (Eds.) - Knowledge, Language and Learning 167
  16. Shreesh Chaudhary - Foreigners & Foreign Languages in India: A Sociolinguistic History 175
  17. Dialogue
  18. The Standard, (Non-)Rhoticity and Rhythm in Indian English: A Response to Lange 183
  19. Appendices
  20. Announcements: The Gyandeep Prize/Housekeeping 189
  21. Notes on Contributors 191
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110254976.183

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Editorial Preface VII
  4. General Contributions
  5. On the Origin of Affixal Polysemy/Homonymy in Bengali 3
  6. Two Types of NPIs in Hindi with One Licensing Condition 19
  7. Wh-Phenomena in Sinhala 49
  8. Diverging Pathways: The Current Status of Grammaticalization of Hindi Verbs 75
  9. Special Contribution: Hindi Pragmatics
  10. On Hindi Conditionals 107
  11. Regional Reports
  12. Issues in the Description of Bangla 137
  13. Europe 143
  14. Reviews
  15. R.K. Agnihotri and H.K. Dewan (Eds.) - Knowledge, Language and Learning 167
  16. Shreesh Chaudhary - Foreigners & Foreign Languages in India: A Sociolinguistic History 175
  17. Dialogue
  18. The Standard, (Non-)Rhoticity and Rhythm in Indian English: A Response to Lange 183
  19. Appendices
  20. Announcements: The Gyandeep Prize/Housekeeping 189
  21. Notes on Contributors 191
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