Indian English is a variety of English equal to that of British English, American English, Australian English or any other version. It has its own distinct characteristics of grammar, phonetics, and vocabulary. And of course there are many forms of Indian English (just as there are of British English). I've read many comments here that disparage it as an inferior type of English. Such nonsense! It's high time it took its rightful place at the top table of 'Englishes' across the world and should be celebrated for its richness and diversity.
@VijayaLakshmi-ks9un8 ай бұрын
U right
@exampleemail8488 ай бұрын
@josephrochefort9989 Most of the English speakers aren't native anyway, so i think that as an international language that most of its speakers learn as a second language, it should be easy to pronounce so the Indian English is much better for this purpose.
@FlashKart-km2hc8 ай бұрын
You are right!
@justanotherview32438 ай бұрын
@josephrochefort9989 Well, actually, you're wrong. If a population as large and diverse as India's chooses to speak in their accents and write using their own coined words, there is no need for them to justify to the so-called outside world what they do with the language. Most of the times, it's harder for even Americans and Canadians to understand the English, Irish and Scottish accents, let alone the infamous Cockney accent. Gone are the days of the rigid English class system extending across the empire. Most of the world is independent republics now, and not obligated to follow your proposed hierarchy. People who have disdain for others should lock themselves up in their mommas' basements. The world refuses to follow your diktats. We give ourselves credibility. International community who want to be part of our growth story will join us anyhow, independent of your scorn. :)
@ULHASATHAVALE8 ай бұрын
@josephrochefort9989please tell, didn't you understand anything Ajay said? If you understood most of the things, then it's okay. Our English is not from moon or some other planet, which is impossible to understand. The pronunciation ought to be different, because it is influenced by their first language, as in case of a Russian, German, French or Spanish person speaking English. Even some British and American pronunciation and spelling are different.
@rgrrigel93328 ай бұрын
As a Spaniard living in India, I feel much more comfortable speaking with indians than other native speakers. The vowels and consonants pronunciation is much close to me.
@pocupineyoulove9738 ай бұрын
Just like Espanol is much easier to follow than French for example.
@joemat008 ай бұрын
Y yo, que soy el opuesto, me siento más cómodo con el castellano de Salamanca que de Kai'z(Cadiz), mi arma'! 😂
@shoshinsamurai79018 ай бұрын
Estoy de acuerdo, asi es. Estoy aprendiendo Espanol ahora y puedo decir es muy cerca de las idiomas de India. Especialmente las lenguas del sur de India.
@Yorgos20077 ай бұрын
Same with me (Hungarian).
@av14217 ай бұрын
Yes. Spanish sounds are very similar to Indian (North indian) languages!!!
@akzzthegame9 ай бұрын
I think the “good name” comes from the Hindi phrase “subh naam”. Back in the day it was considered rude to directly enquire about your first name and “subh” (which means auspicious) was a way of showing respect.
@LetThemTalkTV9 ай бұрын
thanks for the explanation.
@ABO-Destiny9 ай бұрын
Yes i think so
@Phjghh8 ай бұрын
Subh? I think it is shubh.
@likheshsharma8 ай бұрын
Also in India every person has a variety of nicknames, so the "good" name would be the official one.
@ex.hindu.now.atheist8 ай бұрын
@LetThemTalkTV “thanks for the explanation.” ================= There are several examples of phrases, terms, and sentences that Indians have *translated **_literally_* into English, from their native language(s). Some of them are quite hilarious.
@erinboyle28898 ай бұрын
I find the Indian English expressions so charming. I notice that many of them are preserved forms of expressions that have become archaic in British English, others evolving from indigenous languages and it is such a lovely dialect to me
@Mranshumansinghr8 ай бұрын
Interesting. I wish you also had a south Indian person (Kerela or Tamil), an east Indian (Bengali) and a North Indian (Punjabi or Rajasthani). The English will be very different.
@ancientminds1998 ай бұрын
I don't think so (I'm from TN)
@Mranshumansinghr8 ай бұрын
Great you can skip the video! Time pass@@ancientminds199
@Mranshumansinghr8 ай бұрын
Great you can skip the video.@@ancientminds199
@Mranshumansinghr8 ай бұрын
Great you can skip the video@@ancientminds199
@arjunps67768 ай бұрын
@@ancientminds199What are you saying? The guest had a typical Marathi accent in the examples he spoke. People from other regions of India would have spoken differently.
@arjunps67768 ай бұрын
Each Indian has his own English accent. We are like that onlyyyyyy. 😂
@thecomment94898 ай бұрын
Yes more like it.
@subhajitpaul30268 ай бұрын
yes, as we have so many different languages, and our mother tongue has an influence on our english, that's why we have so many different accents, thus 'indian accent' is unreal.
@maxuser12218 ай бұрын
Not each Indian...but each state....states of India are bigger than countries of EU
@PankajKumar64938 ай бұрын
haha "onlyyyy" nice touch
@AoptimisticNihilist7 ай бұрын
Then there are A -holes from South Bombay who got Indian-LA accent😛 and then there are folks from Goa, Mumbai people who are around foreigners and consume lot of international content having a confusing neutral accent 🫣
@frmchandan8 ай бұрын
Brinjal is yet another example that we use instead of saying aubergine or eggplant. What is most astounding is that it is not an Indian word, and we use it only in English. Similarly, we use "rubber" for an eraser, and "scale" for a ruler. Also, you would see using "Na" or "No" instead of "Isn't it" or similar places. Sometimes it is also used to put more emphasis on the words. A lot of phrases/grammar that were mentioned in the video are considered incorrect English. Nonetheless, people do commonly use those phrases. As mentioned in one of the comments, it is caused by word-to-word translation from the native language of the speaker. The "Good name" comes from the literal translation of "Shubh naam". In Hindi, and perhaps in other Indian languages as well, when you want to politely ask someone's name, you say "Aapka shubh naam kya hai (what is your good name)". The pronunciation varies widely from region to region and the kind of exposure the person had. We have people like Shashi Tharoor to people like Modi (STREANH) when it comes to speaking English. The GenZ are using some new words/phrases now that confuse me.
@IsCalledTheAtSign8 ай бұрын
Brinjal comes from Portuguese. And the English also call the thing that you erase pencil marks with, a rubber.
@nattance18 ай бұрын
The Indian man's vowels are very similar to mine. I am from North Texas.
@ADawoodKiwi8 ай бұрын
Because his accent is watered down. I wouldn't be surprised if he lived in the US.
@itchyballs31298 ай бұрын
@@ADawoodKiwiolder Indian generation were much influenced by British but the present generation due to American domination in TV shows etc are influenced by American English .
@Mo8yG8 ай бұрын
You mean the right way 😜
@MichToJoshya8 ай бұрын
@@ADawoodKiwi Its not watered down, he is Marathi, and as he clearly said, everyone's english accents are informed by their mother tongue.
@عمادعطايا-و9ظ8 ай бұрын
In their version of English , Arabs also use vowels differently from Britishers or Americans . We have our own pronunciation of vowels. Arabs also pronounce the P and T without aspiration , and pronounce all the Rs . There are also many versions of English among Arabs : Levant , Egypt , Arabian Peninsula , Yemen , North Africa , and among those who are US educated , UK educated or locally educated . There is no English native speaking Arabs , but it is taught in schools as a second language and is used widely in business and higher education . It is only my guess that about 10% ( about 40 m ) of Arabs know English to one extent or another : from the level of native speakers , all the way to the level of persons who can barely conduct basic communication in English. I suggest you make an episode about Arabs' English.
@MrSyntheticSmile7 ай бұрын
‘Devanagari’ is not a language, but a script.
@swarnadipmitra10957 ай бұрын
How unfortunate that even an Indian such as himself doesn't know this.
@RachaelWill7 ай бұрын
IKR it's a unfortunate how basic things people don't know
@rhiddhis7 ай бұрын
And these are the people who spread 'knowledge' about India in the outside world.
@parvadhami9807 ай бұрын
When you are an Indian but educated from a Eurocentric World view@@swarnadipmitra1095
@EugeniusNaumenco7 ай бұрын
that's just Indian English: language is alphabet and alphabet is language, welcome 🤗
@Santoshlv4269 ай бұрын
As a South African of Indian descent, whose native language is English, I was forever baffled by the lexicon of the folks I grew up around and their use of odd phrases e.g. "cousin brother" & I know now (finally) as to the origin of their phrases. Another great video Gideon. and Ajay.
@LetThemTalkTV9 ай бұрын
I'm glad we helped to clear up the mystery
@FreeYourImagination8 ай бұрын
@@LetThemTalkTVthere's not a single accent of English spoken in India. It depends on which state you come from. Also, it depends what kind of schooling you've gotten.
@NanetteWoolston8 ай бұрын
South Africa!! ❤
@kartikey_a8 ай бұрын
"Only" usage is also an attempt to translate Hindi directly, just like "good name". In Hindi, we would say "Main ne hi kitaab padhi" which word-for-word would translate to "I (erg. marker) only book read" translates to "*I* read the book (nobody else read it, I did)" The "hi" is used immediately after the emphasised word in the sentence but this same word is used to mean "only" when needed like in "Tum ek hi shabd kaho" i.e. "You one only word say" translates to "You must only say one word" In Hindi we use a mix of this stress marker and stressed intonation to show emphasis. The stress marker is what this "only" is in Indian English
@aryan56957 ай бұрын
this is very interesting, is there anywhere i can read more about this?
@kinjaldasbiswas32786 ай бұрын
Other Indian languages also have the same tendencies. Why do Hindi speakers just assume that everything comes from Hindi!
@Maak198 ай бұрын
If Ajay came to some North-East states in India, as where I am from, we will need Gideon to help us out to make sense of the Central-North Indian accent that Ajay showcased. It is impossible to stereotype Indian English accent.
@dnapolren8 ай бұрын
Absolutely hit the nail.. we in South itself have different dialects of English depending on the locality..
@adityadhanarajkundu66277 ай бұрын
@@dnapolren im bengali but we have distinct w and v sounds... got quite surprised to see him pronounce them both the same way..
@av14217 ай бұрын
Every indian speaks his/her version of English! lol
@kinjaldasbiswas32786 ай бұрын
@@dnapolrenwe in south “itself” is a classic illustration of Indian English that could be used anywhere in India like “only”
@dnapolren6 ай бұрын
@@kinjaldasbiswas3278 good catch.. hoped somebody would catch the Easter egg..
@adityaspandit8 ай бұрын
For the grammar section, we are taught from a book called "English Grammar and Composition by Wren and Martin". This has been text book in SSC schools from 6th to 10th standard for more than 50 years. Have you gone through the book? You will get a pretty good idea of what Indians are taught in school for grammar and composition section.
@ex.hindu.now.atheist8 ай бұрын
@adityaspandit “For the grammar [...] and composition section.” ================= Aah, yess... the good old Wren and Martin. I remember that one. 🙂
@VijayaLakshmi-ks9un8 ай бұрын
Even old time britishers say english is intact in India we r proud of our pronunciation don't belittle ourselves in front of foreigners
@maaziy_ghaziyIYI8 ай бұрын
@@VijayaLakshmi-ks9un Stop using the word Britisher. Nobody uses it. It's archaic.
@nithyarajan36107 ай бұрын
😂
@spirituallife40967 ай бұрын
@@maaziy_ghaziyIYI but In Bharat we still call them Britishers and it will be continued
@tomxhardy9 ай бұрын
I work from Poland with the UK (Yorkshire) guys and Indians. It's super hard to switch between the accents especially when you hear both on the same call. Thanks for this video as it helped me a lot!
@dnapolren8 ай бұрын
Yorkshire is as English as it gets and desi (Indian) English is the other extreme.. I empathise..😂
@andrewrobinson25659 ай бұрын
On Air India flights, there are two meal choices, "veg" or "non-veg". That was my family's first culture shock (not really a shock, a pleasant surprise).
@LetThemTalkTV9 ай бұрын
It's good to keep it simple
@dnapolren8 ай бұрын
😂😂
@vorrdegard21768 ай бұрын
What why
@sakshigupta86038 ай бұрын
how is this a shock? you don't call it non-veg?
@andrewrobinson25658 ай бұрын
@@sakshigupta8603 🤣🤣🤣+1. (Edit: No. Hence the surprise.🎉)
@barneylaurance18659 ай бұрын
Lakh and crore are also used in writing numerals. Not as words, but I understand Indians places commas to show the powers of lakh and crore in a number, whereas at Brits only place commas to show the multiples of thousand. It's a whole system.
@arjunps67768 ай бұрын
Lakhs and crores are used as words as well. Business dailies in India are full of those two words.
@narujohn69847 ай бұрын
Yes, it's the Indian numeral system which is native to India. During my childhood we were taught only the Indian numeral system. But since at least a decade ago, kids are taught that International numeral system also exist and conversion from one to another.
@Marvee788 ай бұрын
The use of terms like cousin brother and cousin sister in Indian English I have always suspected is also because in several of our Indian languages like f.ex. Hindi or Urdu we have very specific gendered terms for even extended family members that in an instant tell someone else how we're related to another person, ex. mameri behn (literally maternal uncle side sister) is maternal uncle's daughter or phoophizaad bhai ( paternal aunt side brother) is paternal aunt's son. Those terms translated in English are a mouthful so more efficient to just say cousin sister or cousin brother.
@Thingybob7 ай бұрын
All the Indians I have met abroad have a wonderful knowledge of English's grammar, vocabulary and spelling. They truly make an effort and I respect them enormously. Their accent is warm and welcoming, it always makes me smile. I love it! I have never been in India, but if I ever go, I'll make sure I learn at least a few sentences in their language.
@kzaman8 ай бұрын
I am from Bangladesh, and while we and our ethnic cousins in India have a lot in common with the variety of Indian English presented here, there are many differences as well. India is a huge country, so it is natural that there is not one Indian Engish, but many varieties of it. As Bengalis, we have distinctive pronunciations for v and w, though they are different from how the Brits pronounce them. I always thought 'do the needful', like 'out of station', was something that the colonial bureaucrats had introduced in their official communications in India. My mother used to pack a 'tiffin box' with a light meal for me to consume during 'tiffin period' at school. Office workers carry their lunch in multilayered 'tiffin carriers'. Other words used in subcontinental English include dacoit (robber), eve-teasing (harassment of girls), ladies' finger (okra), and brinjal (aubergine). There is an explanation for 'good name' as far as Bengal is concerned. Bengalis typically have two names, a 'daak naam' (nick name) used by family and close friends, and a more formal name used by others and in official documents. The latter is one's 'bhalo naam', which literally means good name.
@LetThemTalkTV8 ай бұрын
Very interesting to hear your perspective from Bangladesh
@stynershiner18548 ай бұрын
India too has a state made just for Bengalis. West Bengal. So, your Bengali explanation is the same for India, as well. Don't lump the whole of India as one.
@knightatdawndonbynight84328 ай бұрын
If "valo naam" is loterally translated to "good name", "bhalobasha" would also get literally translated to "good home". "Shubh Naam" (shubh implying auspicious, the practise of mention of it during certain auspicious hindu religious rituals being associated with it from ancient times) is a sanskrit phrase, Sanskrit being the language from ancient India many Indo-aryan languages including Bengali originated from. Both the colloquial bengali "bhalo naam" and Indian English "Good name" has its origins in relevance of "Shubh naam".
@bibliophile57008 ай бұрын
Bangladesh is kangladesh now in American accent 😊
@pranabsarkar3928 ай бұрын
Bro as an Indian I was surprised that good name means so much different in other regions. Being a Bengali I have two names, one is my nickname and the other is official(good) name.
@Samudra1218 ай бұрын
Here in the corporate sector in India, I have observed just 2 broad categories of Indian English- North Indian (including east, west & central India) & South Indian. All North Indian english tend to merge into one standard english form while South stays different. We can immediately catch whether a person is from south or non-south the moment he/she starts speaking.
@shijoejoseph20118 ай бұрын
Yeah, just need to have a sharp ear for that fake accent which makes their overall slang much thicker and more illegible than usual.
@thecomment94898 ай бұрын
There is a common perception among north Indians that people of south India speak very good English. Well here is one fine example of that. Once I attended an online lecture and the lecturer was south Indian. The way he spoke was already difficult to understand and in between he was pronouncing certain words in a way that it made everyone in the class to scratch their head. One example is "alagrithum". Go figure out what this word actually is. 😂😂😂😂
@johnhonai46018 ай бұрын
As a Malayali, I can distinguish further when Telugu or Tamil speaks English. I would say Tamil has more influence of English of Tamizhans compared to Telugu on English of Telugu. When Hindi speakers speak English, their "the" is different from South.
@dip-tree8 ай бұрын
@@thecomment9489 Algorithm?
@thecomment94898 ай бұрын
@@dip-tree yes and he was also pronouncing it
@eunyoungpark82609 ай бұрын
Hi, I’m Eunyoung. We met on the street on last Sunday. I’m sorry about making mistakes because of my English. I meant your videos are so good, not ‘quite’ good 😭. I realised that I made a mistake when I said that, but I couldn’t correct it at the time. Anyway it was such a pleasure to bump into you like that.
@LetThemTalkTV9 ай бұрын
Hi Eunyoung It was a beautiful moment bumping into you. Actually, I didn't notice any mistakes. I wasn't wearing my teacher's hat that day. Thanks for kind words and best wishes
@eunyoungpark82608 ай бұрын
Actually I’d like to introduce Korean food to you if you like, but I have no idea about how to send you an email.
@LetThemTalkTV8 ай бұрын
you can find my email in the about section.
@Roero9 ай бұрын
Beautiful video as always, Gideon. Indian English should be perfect for Italians, because saying 'informations' instead of 'information,' or 'fornitures' instead of "forniture", not to mention all the other simplifications like isn't it, is priceless.
@LetThemTalkTV9 ай бұрын
Yes, indeed. I suppose it's because "informations" and the others are more logical.
@nickgoodall5789 ай бұрын
At this point it’s starting to be funny that the language is called English, when relatively few English speakers are from England!
@KateGladstone9 ай бұрын
Well, that happens! Likewise (for instance), most Spanish-speakers don’t live in Spain and have never even been there.
@realDunalTrimp9 ай бұрын
Languages are nearly always named after their birthplace. From what I have studied, in the Old World, nearly every country has a language named after itself.
@kodegadulo9 ай бұрын
It’s also hilarious that General American English more closely resembles the language spoken by King George III or even Shakespeare than anything heard now in England itself. Both Received Pronunciation and London Cockney are 19th Century innovations that past British would have considered radical and barbarous! 🙂
@DoodiePunk7 ай бұрын
The same for Spanish, where Spain is the fourth largest Spanish speaker. 🤓
@ted90307 ай бұрын
Same for Arabic and Spanish
@subramaniamchandrasekar13978 ай бұрын
Most of the Indian languages are read as it is written. No change in phonetics or silent letters. English, on the other hand, is written and read differently and has many silent letters.
@av14217 ай бұрын
Easier way to say is "Indian languages are phonetic and English is not"
@av14217 ай бұрын
Each of Indian (languages) alphabet has PRECISE pronounciation = Phonetic language
@v.rajasekar50445 ай бұрын
@@av1421 not all languages though. as far as I know Tamil is not exactly phonetic as many more modern languages. In Tamil for example, both voiced and unvoiced consonants are written using same letter and phonetic rules dictate when to use voiced/unvoiced depending on where the consonant occurs. Ga, Ka both are written using single letter. Kannaki would be with "ka" sound while Ank(g)e would be pronouced with ga sound due to prior "n". But this does lead to confusion for loan words though. For example, technically Ganga would not be possible in typical Tamil phonetic rules. It should be pronounced like kangai. However, all of us pronounce it as Gangai. Same goes for loan words from Persian, and English.
@A0A4ful8 ай бұрын
13:53 Indian English being pronounced as they are spelled is quite true. All Indian origin languages are phonetic - it is spoken exactly as it is written. So, there is very little, if not no ambiguity. So, the same rule applies even to English. Until, the pronunciation is 'corrected' by a more erudite speaker, more well versed in the nuances of spoken British English.
@bhatts187 ай бұрын
Correct! Also, previously most people learnt English by reading and this generation learns it through movies or shows too!
@parvadhami9807 ай бұрын
It's the Brahmi DERIVED scripts that can accommodate almost any sound. English like many European languages is written in the Roman alphabet which has 26 alphabets
@neitho44827 ай бұрын
Exactly. My uncle pronounces "Surrender" as "Soo-ren-der".
@parvadhami9807 ай бұрын
@@neitho4482 English when written in Roman alphabet has many limitations For eg. Characters Chairs Chauffeur All 3 begin with "ch" and have different pronunciation
@KhanakPatwari7 ай бұрын
@@parvadhami980does it accommodate the way je(I) is pronounced in french? I don't think such a letter exists in devanagari
@hambirmazumdar26188 ай бұрын
Egg is considered a " non vegetarian" food in India, but it's not in the UK. Non-vegetarian food is hence meat+ egg . Secondly, many Indians have a" nick" name", and an official name. None of them are " bad", but the latter is the " good" name.
@sanjayra998 ай бұрын
In USA they make fun of British English and likewise (vise versa!). However there are some phrases commonly used in India that makes totally different meaning to westerners, one such is “pass out” which means graduation in India while it means fainting in Western World!
@indiekidseventysix83728 ай бұрын
In British English you can 'pass out' (graduate) from a military academy like Sandhurst, but not from university. (There are no graduations in the UK prior to university.)
@DoodiePunk7 ай бұрын
Pass out! 🤣
@MusiqOut907 ай бұрын
😂😂
@yeahyeah32067 ай бұрын
That actually doesn’t sound so weird when you think about it. You “pass” your classes and you’re “out”, finished with school.
@lichanyanthan56847 ай бұрын
Pass out is actually graduation and fainting is actually fainting in English. So, who the hell mixed pass out in graduation?
@Dareios0748 ай бұрын
I’m a non-native speaker and used to work with a very nice colleague from India for years. I’ve adopted a lot of his pronounciation and probably will never get rid of it😁
@-beee-6 ай бұрын
I love it!
@amherst889 ай бұрын
Never ceases to amaze me how much there is to learn about my native language -- your posts are a continuous revelation -- gratitude for all the work you do in preparing them ❤
@LetThemTalkTV9 ай бұрын
Very kind of you to say, thanks
@AshutoshRaghuwanshi8 ай бұрын
There are all sorts of mixed eccentricities in Indian English. It all depends on the kind of teachers and social circle one has.
@quadrogue8 ай бұрын
great video! Like Jay said, most of these expressions and phrases and word usage also vary from region to region. like 'tiffin' is used for breakfast where I'm from. Also, expressions like, 'good name', 'I have a doubt', etc come from direct translation from mother tongue. Some other examples of Indian English responding to 'Thanks!' with 'No mention' (we use this in the south a lot) saying, 'I'm here only' to mean 'I'm right here'. that is, to add emphasis. shortening 'fundamental(s)' to 'funda(s)' Addressing all males in authority as 'Sir' and even adding it behind their position or name, like, 'Hello, engineer sir' saying 'I have 'n' number of things to do' to mean I have a lot of things to do. 'telling lies' instead of 'lying'
@LetThemTalkTV8 ай бұрын
Thanks, I'll use this for part 2.
@andrewrobinson25659 ай бұрын
I love this video. I worked with lots of Indian colleagues in Saudi Arabia from the mid-eighties to the early 2000s. It's very interesting to hear this pronunciation analysis+1 😀👍.
@LetThemTalkTV9 ай бұрын
I'm glad you liked it
@rallabhandiprabhakar47508 ай бұрын
Who speaks the correct English? Who pronounces it perfectly? Is it the the Victorian / BBC version ? What about cockney , Welsh, Scottish or Irish versions? How about French, Italian or Germans speaking English ? American English changes from state to state The Southern US states have a rhyme of own while people (of those states) speak English . What difference does it make to comment on who is perfect
@TechnoArpan5 ай бұрын
It's similar to different dialects, in a way. All are valid
@lemon40878 ай бұрын
I also love how its a full 30 min video not a half assed 12 min video just to grab views! I'll be binging ur channel
@sainellore68748 ай бұрын
You two gentlemen have a nice chemistry to do this sort of program to teach your viewers. Thoroughly enjoyable!
@wildebeest7739 ай бұрын
A very interesting and helpful episode indeed. Thank you both!
@OceanChild759 ай бұрын
Thanks to both of you, this was brilliant!! I love the word "prepone"! After all, why couldn’t "postpone" have an antonym? 😊 It reminds me of the French Canadians coming up with the verb "magasiner" to avoid the anglicism "faire du shopping". Also, the musics and the shots were lovely. It is curious that there are words and expressions making "Indian English" when you consider that not all Indians have the same native languages (or even that all their languages aren’t part of the same family). I wonder if English-speaking Indian television could have somehow "impacted" on so many Indian people speaking different languages?
@LetThemTalkTV9 ай бұрын
It's fascinating stuff. So much to take in I might have to do a part 2.
@edmacmahon9 ай бұрын
Cash and Carry is a thing here in Ireland too, typically it referres to bulk wholesale suppliers for grocery shops.
@mlg12798 ай бұрын
Yep, it refers to wholesale suppliers in India too
@overlordnat8 ай бұрын
It means ‘wholesaler’ in Britain too. Of course the meaning mentioned in this video is completely unknown to me though and is probably an exclusively Indian one.
@mlg12798 ай бұрын
@@overlordnat So, the ones in Britain sell items on credit? 🤔
@overlordnat8 ай бұрын
@@mlg1279 No they don’t but it only refers to wholesalers, I was under the impression that it could refer to normal shops or stores that only take cash payments and don’t do deliveries in India from watching this. If not, then the meaning is the same in both countries and this term shouldn’t even appear in the vid at all.
@mlg12798 ай бұрын
@@overlordnat The neighborhood stores in India are called "kirana store" - and these may sell groceries on credit. U may be right - there was no need to include "cash & carry"
@jumu79832 ай бұрын
Reduplication is my favorite aspect of Indian English and the feature my mother uses the most even though her English is mostly north American. Color color or small small are literal translations of how she'd say multicolored/colorful or comprised of many small things in Tamil. It's efficient and cute. Vanga vanga is a common informal way of saying welcome like come come means welcome.
@acyutanand8 ай бұрын
This video is by far the best research oriented study of Indian English. The rest are just for likes and fun. And the host has some resemblance to popular Indian TV anchor Ravish Kumar.
@Clklom4 ай бұрын
Popular LEFT AND COMMUNIST Ravish Kumar😂😂😂😂
@amaanhussainbarbhuyan96284 ай бұрын
@@ClklomAre you Right and Hindutva?
@Clklom4 ай бұрын
@@amaanhussainbarbhuyan9628 do they kill or massacre or terrorise or behead anyone....do you know or understand the meaning of hindutav....are you not a Hindu converted to Muslim.....you are a hindutav as you are living in India.....bharat is a hindu country and every person living in Bharat is hindutav......Hindus are not terrorists but you're.....jai hind and vande materam.
@ninjasrini7 ай бұрын
Ajay is very accurate! Love the tongue-in-cheek tone of this video.
@EricaGamet8 ай бұрын
I know very little about India or any of the languages (the few Indian folks I know well are from Toronto, Canada!)... but this was quite informative. Also, Ajay was a joy to listen to... not just for his accent, but his knowledge of phrases and clear explanations.
@AlbertNonime9 ай бұрын
Quite a pleasant video. Funny reactions of the Londoner. I love hearing Indian English. Also about pronunciation, I found few similitudes with non fluent French speaking English.
@cryptoniku67239 ай бұрын
Exactly.. The pronunciations are effected by the language of the particular Indian state they come from.. Same as French natives speaking English..
@induchopra30148 ай бұрын
Indian English is a whole new language it is according to indian culture. So common to say , bindi, roti, sabji, bhatura, parantha, ghaghra, saree, There are no words in English for this So indian English has all new words, dada,dadi,massi,manu,nani. Structure is English but words are lical. We say ration shop not grocery store. We dont say million. Lakhs and crore is common
@rasul_alizade9 ай бұрын
😃 I experimented it when I was working with indian friends. Weird yet it all sound nice.. Thank you for sharing.
@Alexandra-gk6dy7 ай бұрын
Thank you for inviting Ajay❤it is hilarious to listen to you both. So good!🎉i learned a lot today. I love India as well as the UK very much. Cheers and hugs from Germany
@isabelatence70359 ай бұрын
Valeu!
@LetThemTalkTV9 ай бұрын
You're kindness takes my breath away.
@isabelatence70359 ай бұрын
@@LetThemTalkTV I thank you for motivating me to enjoy learning, your way is incredible
@overlordnat8 ай бұрын
I knew someone who code-switched between a rather posh English accent to the broadest Indian accent you’ve ever heard when speaking to his parents. Instead of saying ‘mum and dad’ (or ‘mom and dad’ as this was in Birmingham) he would say ‘mommypoppy’ all as one word! I’ve also twice heard Indian customers say ‘mesh sharing jug’ to refer to a ‘measuring jug’ - it confused me the first time but I’d learnt by the second time and directed the customer to the right part of the store.
@PankajKumar64938 ай бұрын
The measuring thing is because of there being 2 version of the 'sh' sound - one being voiced (measure/pleasure), the other being voiceless (shift, shame etc.). The voiced one doesn't exist in Hindi, so it either becomes "meshure" or "mejure" depending on the person.
@bombayvega70218 ай бұрын
secretly he is enjoying the "funny" accent. You can see his hidden laugh on every reply of Ajay.
@cryptoniku67239 ай бұрын
Pronunciation will differ from various Indian state to state. The English pronunciation is effected by that person's state language. India doesn't have any National language, however Northern parts speaks the most Hindi. So to say that Indians from different states will pronounce those words like him (or even remotely close) would be incorrect.
@Sal.K--BC9 ай бұрын
I live in Vancouver, Canada where we have a large Punjabi population and I do notice that the English accent of Punjabi speakers (even those with very good English) is different than Ajay's accent in this video (at least a bit different).
@aram56429 ай бұрын
One comment though (as I assume you might be interested in hearing): the correct spelling is pronUnciation (no -ou-) :)
@cryptoniku67239 ай бұрын
@@aram5642 Thanx for pointing out.. Somehow auto-correct was updating it to an incorrect one.. 🤷
@cryptoniku67239 ай бұрын
@@Sal.K--BC O yeah.. Punjabi speakers would have a whole different energy and emphasis on words..
@aram56429 ай бұрын
@@cryptoniku6723 "Auto-correct"? Hahhaa, oh please, have mercy :)
@1234ksn8 ай бұрын
phrase 'good name' comes from most indian language use.... people as for the 'shubh naam ' ( auspicious/ given at auspicious time - not nicknames ) So shubh naam translated into good name.
@kgck158 ай бұрын
Thanks for giving indian english its own place rather than considering it as a distorted english.. but one thing one should know is that we just go by how words are spelled. That's why we dont pronounce words like the native speakers do.
@Kathiarwari8 ай бұрын
I follow your videos Gideon because I love the English language! Let me fill in some explanatory gaps, folks: 1. Pronunciation: we approximate Indian letters to Roman ones in English words and say the word that way. For instance, "Great" would be decoded as Ga or ग+ half-Ra or र + Ey or ऐ + Ta or ट - and be prounced ग्रेट or "Grreyt" We don't have a W sound in Indic scripts except borrowed from Turko-Persians (Muslims). That's why wheel and veal sound the same. 2. What is your good name? Is a hashed translation of a Hindi and other Indian languages enquiry " what is your auspicious name?" as it is considered rude and interrogatory to say " what is your name?" Since a name reflects your identity. 3. Nobody uses Air Dashed anymore - Ajay didn't know it because he's from a younger generation. Even out of station is archaic. 4. Truncated English words are fun. Such as "Don't be such an enthu cutlet!" Or " what's the funda? "Which means what's the underlying principle or explanation - a slang term born in the hallowed IIT engineering colleges from " Fundamentals" 5. The world may as well get used to Indian English because we will soon be the largest English speaking nation on Earth, albeit as a second language. Its the language of Science & Tech and business most of all in India. My Bengali scientist pal when working for Thales in Europe was told by Italian and French scientists they wished they had his English skills 6. As a recent ad campaign celebrating Indianess proclaimed " We are like this only!" Love & best wishes to Gideon. Parshu from Delhi
@LetThemTalkTV8 ай бұрын
Thank you for the explanation. I'll put them into part 2
@francescocorsi62628 ай бұрын
"We are like this *only*"... love it! 😄
@roadrollerdio5658 ай бұрын
Never heard airdashed but I wouldn't say out of station is archaic at all! I'm in college now and we used it in school all the time. We would also say "we're going on an out-station field trip" if the school was taking us out of town. I still say I'm out of station (sometimes out of town) in messages and emails when I want to convey that I can't be present for some event.
@SrikanthCoimbatoreSubramanian7 ай бұрын
What Ajay spoke is not a sample of English that is being spoken or written in other parts of India, like South India.
@chantelm92558 ай бұрын
Interesting overview of Indian English. I would have liked to hear a discussion of the syllabic stress differences for individual words as well. This is where I often have trouble understanding. For instance, a professor of mine would often say "we will develop the formula". But, since he stressed the first syllable of "develop", and I only knew the word to be pronounced with the second syllable stressed, I thought he was saying "we will devil up the formula". I'm curious about whether there's a pattern to look for that would help my comprehension.
@Mscellany18 ай бұрын
I believe Indians stress all syllables equally. I'm Indian but grew up overseas, so I can relate. I actually hear the Indian version of 'develop' as "double up".😊
@MsThe908 ай бұрын
Nobody says "you're coming for tiffin". Where I come from at least, tiffin refers to the the tiffin-box(lunch box). Ex. "What have you brought in your tiffin today?" If someone asks, "Did you finish your tiffin?" they are asking you if you finished all the contents from your tiffin box. (Usually mothers ask this question when the child is back from school. If the answer is "no" you get a lot of scolding. 😂)
@honeybhatt2348 ай бұрын
Hi, yes, that’s how we use the word “tiffin” in the non south Indian states. But in some South Indian states like AndhraPradesh and Telangana, “Tiffin” simply means a small meal. Like breakfast or snacks. So many street side dosa-vada-bhajji establishments are called “Tiffin centers”. Even in the homes, to ask “What did you have for breakfast?” Local people use “What tiffin did you make?”. Just putting it out there. It was new to me also as a Gujarati who had moved to Hyderabad.
@LetThemTalkTV8 ай бұрын
Thanks, I'm fascinated by tiffin.
@roadrollerdio5658 ай бұрын
Here in the South, tiffin _can_ mean lunch when you're a school kid with a tiffin box, but in general, it's an afternoon meal, usually a snack. You might invite someone to your house for tea and tiffin in which case you'd probably be served vada, dosa, baji and items of the sort with chai on the side. Confusingly, since the types of food mentioned above are usually breakfast foods, tiffin can also be morning tiffin! It really depends on the context.
@neerajwa7 ай бұрын
Tiffin is a box in North India. It is breakfast in South India. This word had me confused when I first came to Chennai.
@bhatts187 ай бұрын
@@neerajwaSame when I went to Pune from Bangalore 😅
@oreradovanovi52048 ай бұрын
It's interesting that Hindi has almost all consonants aspirated, yet not used in English. My language has none, Serbian. Otherwise it's similar to how we speak English, without the prolonged vowels.
@aram56429 ай бұрын
Being a web developer, I have watched a gazillion of videos and screencasts run by Indian developers. I honestly don't recall a single one who would stress the word comPOnent as native Americans/Brits do, they all seem to say COMponent. And speaking of the question tags, it is also so common for them to say 'OK?' every other sentence when talking. I loved "to prepone" btw!
@pissupehelwan9 ай бұрын
You are right about COMponent. It took me a while to reposition the syllable stressors correctly after I moved to the US from India a couple decades ago. In fact, that proved to be a lot harder than localization of my accent which was much easier. Another such fiendish word group (for Indians) is "economy", "economics" and "economical" and how the emphasis is all different in them. Indians try to average them out and pronounce all of them incorrectly but in a uniformly wrong way 🙂
@alani39929 ай бұрын
An American guy was wondering why people were invoking the Devil by saying "Devil Up" often. It took him a few weeks to realize they were saying 'develop'.
@PristinePerceptions4 ай бұрын
@@alani3992 well, considering the number of bugs in modern software, maybe the devil does have something to do with it 😉
@gathamore8 ай бұрын
This is sooo interesting to me. Because I'm from Mumbai and Ajay is from Solapur. Both from the same state and both native Marathi speakers.The way he speaks and stresses his words is quite different from the way I do! I think the dialect of marathi he speaks is the reason i see the subtle difference. Eg the way he says veg as vheg.. or I'm liking the book.. present continuous is not what i have done as such!
@PankajKumar64938 ай бұрын
Bengalis also do the veg -> vheg thing, somtimes just "bhej".
@drodrigues34516 ай бұрын
Definitely not a Mumbai accent. His r’s are more pronounced.
@diablodelfuego66338 ай бұрын
The best explanation about stress and intonation of indian English is that it's actually how we speak our native languages and just change words to English. Also, in devanagri script, there is no ambiguity of pronunciation. It's spoken as it's spelled. They apply the same for English in most cases unless they learn the correct English pronunciation.
@hanknichols68658 ай бұрын
I’m from the U.S. and speak with a southern accent. I know I still have my accent when I attempt to speak other languages.
@subbanarasuarunachalam34517 ай бұрын
Ajay: in Marathi' very' is pronounced as 'whery' and'news' as 'newz'and . Punabi pronounces 'pleasure ' as pleyar" Bengali pronounces'very' as 'bery" as there is no equivalent for 'V' sound. Tamils have there own way of talking.Kannada prounounces 'Uncle' as Unkal"Malayalee says"october' as 'voctober".Telugu people say 'page' as 'paze', 'zero' as 'jeero" normally g as ze and Z as j the list goes on.But overall we understand each other very easily!
@Anime-Face.7 ай бұрын
I found this discussion quite engaging and informative. I appreciate your efforts in facilitating this exchange.
@ABO-Destiny9 ай бұрын
There has been a marked shift in Indian english pronunciation from strictly british type english which few indians used to or rather tried to follow before, during and post British Raj to American tawng which became popular among few during the 80s, 90s and maybe around the century to a more neutral accent which basically went by the following rule that there is no need to speak english in either older elitist British accent or the subsequent Yankee one. 😂😂
@ABO-Destiny9 ай бұрын
Good Name can have other meaning too. I got used to it with increasing indianisation of english and i think.ot refers to the official or legal or professional name. So people can have a nick name, a name used at home and an official name. Good name refers to the first name of the official name.
@radiak559 ай бұрын
There are a couple of things that I find interesting of the tendencies Indian English speakers have with English speakers in Latinamerica. As in how the native languages of the speakers influence the way they pronounce English. Mostly between both groups in how there's an emphasis in sounding out all the letters, which is not a thing with American english or British English for the most part. The R sounds are always pronounced amongst the people I hear speak English in Latinamerica because that's a holdover from Spanish and Portugese, in having to sound out all the letters in words. That's something I had to struggle with because it makes accents more apparent, but that's just the prevalent way people who move from speaking Spanish first do when moving onto English. So it's quite interesting that Indian English has these things develop separetely but similarly too.
@kekcsi8 ай бұрын
I will send this video to everyone who refers to Indian English as incorrect English.
@amj.composer8 ай бұрын
You will basically send this to Indians as you'll mostly have Indians with internalized racism telling you Indian English is wrong.
@kekcsi8 ай бұрын
@@amj.composer That would be quite a DoS attack.
@mitesh8utube8 ай бұрын
Why? Put your time to some good use.
@sreejithvk84788 ай бұрын
@@amj.composerspotted one
@bozdowleder23038 ай бұрын
@@amj.composerBut the argument is a bit silly isn't it? Indians don't speak English as a first language. It's a sort of default international language learnt by Indians. Speaking of Indian English would be like speaking of German English or Finnish English or French English. A language has to be a mainstream language of a culture for that to be recognized as a legitimate variant. And there are times when it is better to consider it a separate language altogether, for example Creole is correctly considered a language in its own right, not a variation of French. On the one hand, Indians have no obligation to speak idiomatic English, or to speak it any better than what is needed to be intelligible. On the other hand, to say that if enough Indians make the same aberration, it somehow legitimizes that aberration - that has no merit either. It's like saying Anglo-Indian pronunciations of Hindi are correct if the person's lived in India long enough
@russellforrest17308 ай бұрын
Super awesome! Love the way you gave Indian English its rightful respect as a perfectly justified and correct language. None of the bad old cultural imperialism days of 'proper British English'. Was also interested to see some similarities with Mandarin Chinese, repetition of words (come come come, eat eat eat, OK OK) and the use of uncle to convey respect to older men as a mark of respect. Incidentally, in Mandarin there are even more words for cousin depending on the gender, elder/younger and which side (maternal/paternal) they come from. A real headache to learn! Would have enjoyed hearing some Indian language, Hindi perhaps - maybe it would have given clues as to why these language differences have arisen? How about South African English? The vowel shift is really cool! Check in desk becomes Chicken disc e->i etc.... Keep'em comin'!
@LetThemTalkTV8 ай бұрын
Glad you liked the video. Yes, we've already done one on South African English.
@Mscellany18 ай бұрын
They have those names for extended relationships within the family here as well, uncles, aunts, cousins (especially so in northern India). The words for maternal aunt or uncle are different from the words for paternal aunt or uncle, for instance.
@TheKansen8 ай бұрын
In central and northern part of India, a "tiffin" (short form of tiffin box) refers to a lunch box. It could be a simple rectangular plastic box or it could be multiple stainless steel containers stacked and held together with a metal frame. But in south, the word "tiffin" means snacks or small portions. On a restaurant menu there would be a separate section for "tiffins". Most of the Indian languages have very specific words to describe the "cousin". For example there are 4 different words for, son of your father's brother, son of father's sister, son of mother's brother and son of mother's sister, while in english they are all "cousins". When two Indians are conversing in English, the word "cousin" just doesn't cut it.
@subrasivaram73369 ай бұрын
Hello Gideon. Enjoy your videos. Some important mis-pronunciation didn't get covered. Determine is universally (in India) pronounced as Deter-mine (Mine as in something belonging to me) Same with Examine Exa-Mine. Biology - Bio-logy (logy like Logical not as lugy). Similarly Economy is pronounced as Eco-nomy (like nominal). The latter two are mostly from certain regions. Some Heteronyms are pronounced as well, with same sound in some regions. For ex. Project is pronounced as in verb "project" even if is noun "project" (endeavor). Oh it would be a long list.
@matteo-ciaramitaro9 ай бұрын
i think covering the stress timed vs syllable timed part covers biology and economy. The syllables are given equal time instead of being reduced to schwa
@LibbyRoseEmbroidery2 ай бұрын
I love listening to Indian Englisg. I asked a young man how old he was and his answer made me say "Really?!" He asked, " I don't look?" Beautifully simple and devoid of all the fluff of "Don't you think I look it?"
@sanjayra998 ай бұрын
In Indian languages there is nothing like “silent” letter. After living in North America for several decades I can’t get rid of “b” in debt! Also, we often use half letter like in April where “p” and “r” are joined (like Pranam), which to westerns feel as if r is rolled!
@maksuduzzamankhan14089 ай бұрын
Okay, I think I can contribute to the discussion: "What's your good name." and "come, come" and "sit" In western culture, you have a name, followed by a family name. When you are formal, you call them them by the family name. When you are not formal, you call them by the first name. Now, in the culture of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, There can be many different parts of a person's name- 1. Full name is sometimes written like this: Rajani Kant Boshu (Opu) 2. Semi-formal: Shri (=Mr.) Rajani; not necessarily Mr. Boshu (the name of the family) 3. Nickname: Opu (usually omitted from the Good name as nickname is sort of private) 4. Good Name (Full name without the nickname= formal or academic name): Rajani Kant Boshu You see, we used to exactly say the same thing in our native languages, "what's your good name" and then we exactly translate it into English. Thus, you will find tons of phrases exactly translated from the native language to English : Hindi: Aao, aao= Bangla: Eso, eso= Indian English= come, come English says, "sit down" But hindi does not say, "neeche baitho" Bangla does not say, "neeche bosho" As Bangla says only "bosho" And Hindi says only "baitho" So, our local English tends to say, "sit" instead of "sit down". Moreover, "down" has a degrading tone in our languages. So our forefathers chose to omit the "down" with "sit".
@LetThemTalkTV9 ай бұрын
thanks for the explanation
@Wandering.Homebody8 ай бұрын
Interesting! Thanks for elaborating! ❤️
@rajendradangi25858 ай бұрын
Down part is quite interesting and I might agree with you.
@광동아재廣東大叔8 ай бұрын
One of the biggest characteristics of Indian languages is that their plosive consonants are unaspirated just like French, Spanish, Italian or Russian does. So they aren't used to aspirated sounds which is typical in Germanic languages like English, German, Dutch or Swedish. On the contrary, if you hear Indians speak Spanish or French they sound much more natural thanks to their similar phonetic system of Romance languages and Hindic languages.
@Mscellany18 ай бұрын
You're probably right. We're Indian, my son works on a cruise ship and speaks Spanish like a native. He says there are other similarities between India and Latin America culturally - spicy food, strong family connections and one doesn't mess with one's mother (who often smacks their kids...)😂
@augth7 ай бұрын
The intonations in French and Hindi are similar, which helps.
@deveshdevesh48118 ай бұрын
23:43 But in South india "Tiffin" is often used to mention breakfast and rarely for dinner. But definitely not Lunch. I haven't even heared someone mentioning "lunch" as "tiffen"
@Mscellany18 ай бұрын
Actually in Tamil Nadu tiffin is used to refer to the mid-afternoon snack and breakfast
@samwienska17037 ай бұрын
@@Mscellany1 not exactly! Tiffin means the dishes which are not typically included in afternoon banana leaf meals (apart from the snacks)
@Mscellany17 ай бұрын
@@samwienska1703 I lived in TN for over 3 decades, I married into the Tambrahm community, so I believe I am in a position to know better... 😄
@rajitspdstr7 ай бұрын
I find it amusing that Americans call our tea, chai tea. chai itself means tea in Hindi, so it sounds tea tea to us
@PeterMoss5432128 күн бұрын
You might be amused by curry sauce as well.
@melc90016 күн бұрын
Naan bread
@sakshigupta86038 ай бұрын
I'd add one thing about 'Tiffin' - this is mostly about Mumbai and people living there - back in 1980s-90s the city was fast growing with respect to population, jobs, city area etc and the workplace would be very far from home so the wives would pack a lunchbox for their husbands - a tiffin, but it'll get cold by lunch time so the locals came up with a delivery system where they'd collect the tiffins from all the houses and deliver it to the office exactly before lunchtime so it's nice and hot so Tiffin would be a 'lunchbox' not 'lunch' and now we all use it across the country
@ekamsat4298 ай бұрын
Very nice. Many Indian languages share the common inherited characteristic from Sanskrit that makes each syllable count; and also, each consonant in a word, unless it's specifically silent, gets its due. E.g., plumBer. Conversely, if an Indian term is written in English, one must touch upon each consonant. E.g., Jammu is not to be pronounced as Jamu. Btw, lakh and crore also have their origins in Sanskrit.
@IsCalledTheAtSign8 ай бұрын
Nice video, Gideon. I would like to point out that Indian English's lack of stress is more obvious in individual words than in sentences. Words like "photographer" and "meteorological" are pronounced completely flat without any stress whatsoever. Some more quirks of Indian English: * Here's what you can do: "do one thing" * I live in Mumbai: "I am staying in Mumbai" * I moved to Kolkata a year and a half ago: "I shifted to Kolkata one and half years ago" * Even is replaced by also...only. Even I am from India: "I am also from India only" * Sparing use of the hypothetical verbs would, could and should (should is used as must/have to/need to) * and many many more
@LetThemTalkTV8 ай бұрын
This is very interesting, thanks. If I make a second video I'll refer to this.
@Evan490BC9 ай бұрын
"He's out of station" sounds quite posh, actually... 👍
@nishchaljayaprakash6596 ай бұрын
23:45 Tiffin, in the state of Karnataka, usually means a Breakfast. The ubiquitous brand MTR that started out in Bangalore, Karnataka when elaborated is Mavalli TIFFIN Rooms.
@alani39929 ай бұрын
You need to get the linguist Peggy Mohan on your show. She has done extensive research/books on how Indian languages came into being, & also on Indian-English sounds.
@KiranMachiraju8 ай бұрын
14:30 - Many people in India don't pronounce the W in sword
@nHans9 ай бұрын
Gideon, as you explained in a previous video, it's hard to get a number for how many Indians speak English fluently. For each citizen, the Indian Census tracks only their one native language (which it designates as the "mother tongue"), not the other languages they speak. So while hundreds of millions do speak English fluently-many even at native or bilingual proficiency-most don't designate it as their mother tongue. For that matter, all schools in India (except a few run by certain religious minorities) are required to teach English. Unfortunately, not everybody ends up learning English proficiently-or even functionally-due to various reasons: they drop out, are taught poorly, can't afford books, aren't motivated enough etc. The question of "mother tongue" is a highly divisive issue-both emotionally and politically. For one, the states in India are demarcated on the basis of language. Further, a language that has a large number of native speakers gets special privileges from both the State and Central governments. Which is why people vote strategically when answering census questions. The only people who list English as their mother tongue are the ones who grew up speaking English naturally with their parents. The rest of us were taught English explicitly, whether at home or in school. We'd never consider it our "mother tongue" even if we win Pulitzers, Bookers, or Nobel Prizes for our English works!
@LetThemTalkTV9 ай бұрын
That's very interesting. I guess "mother tongue" is a question of politics not language.
@Wandering.Homebody8 ай бұрын
@@LetThemTalkTVI mean, it's also usually the truth, that it's not exactly what would commonly be termed as mother tongue, i e the first language someone learns, and speaks in, with their parents. But honestly, most Indians, even not that highly educated ones, do speak English quite well, even most of the elderly ammas who just do some cleaning work in cafes and other people's private homes; and really very many speak it very, very well.
@Andrew212198 ай бұрын
@@Wandering.Homebody Do some people in India speak English to each other? Or is it something limited to their families? I mean, in my country, no one would dare to speak to others in English unless they're foreigners
@Wandering.Homebody8 ай бұрын
@@Andrew21219 if they are not from the same region, then yes, very often they do. Especially in the South, where Hindi isn't prevalent, English will likely be their only mutual language. I ve sat in business meetings between only Indians, (with me just sitting in, but not partaking) between South Indians (but not from Tamil Nadu) and people from Delhi, and the meeting was conducted almost exclusively in English, but with some lengthy sentences in Hindi thrown in for good measure, which initially I didn't quite realise, so it ended up sounding almost like there were these curious, blank spaces, it was almost trippy.
@GoToMan8 ай бұрын
@@Andrew21219 yes we do speak English for example I am South Indian and we don't really speak Hindi right here and I moved to another state for education and to get by every day I need to speak English to my fellow countrymen and I honestly don't see any problem with it, it is convenient. May I ask where are you hail from?
@jenesuispassanslavoir76982 ай бұрын
As a first-time visitor to your channel I find it also very interesting how your pronunciation is really quite divergent from what I think of as SSBE (which is how you characterise your accent) - your accent has many features of Estuary English, including the diphthong on "our" and "fear" and the tendency to turn "oh" into almost-"ow" (as in "ouch") but tending towards "ae" in the vowel. As a northern RP speaker with a strong influence of 1920s-30s RP, "our" and "fear" are monophthongs with falling intonation in my accent, and "oh" is open-ended, without the spread "w" colour at the end. As Indian English derives most of its pronunciation features from a blend of Indian-language pronunciation with older forms of RP, I would say that Ajay says some things closer to standard RP/SSBE than you do, particularly in those features I've mentioned where your accent has Estuary English features. This is not to suggest that there is anything at all wrong with how you pronounce them, but I wouldn't call it SSBE, but of course Estuary English features are becoming more widespread now, even in public school RP, so it's a blurry distinction at the best of times. I absolutely love that you are championing the right of other English dialects to be considered on their own terms, and that is partly my reason for wanting to ackowledge the Estuary English features of your speech, which have not always been treated so kindly by RP speakers, but have their own entirely legitimate and charming flavour. After all, British people love to disparage regional accents even in England, let alone the English(es) spoken in America, let alone those spoken in other parts of the world. It feels particularly offensive when British people criticise Indian English for not being "proper English" after the way India was treated by the British Empire, and the vast wealth of Indian literature written in English, as well as numerous Indian novels in English that have won the Booker Prize, including examples by V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Aravind Adiga, or Arundhati Roy. As Salman Rushdie put it "Indians have liberated the English language from the English". English is such a flexible language that it can be moulded to fit so many disparate groups of English speakers: Indian English, Caribbean English, Scots English, Irish English, American English, to list just a few, to say nothing of the hybrid languages like Hinglish, Singlish, Jamaican Patois, the list goes on. As someone of mixed British-Indian heritage who lives in Norway, where dialects are a source of local pride, I so love the diversity of language. Is it not English if I say "you hogging the seats is eating my brain, you haven't noticed us all standing even, you just think you can spread yourself out all over the place, na? What are you, butter? How are you alive without a brain?"
@Sal.K--BC9 ай бұрын
A quintessential Indian phrase is "do the needful". I work in IT, and whenever I see that phrase in messages & posts, I know the writer is Indian (or influenced by Indian English). I remember when I first saw it and thought "that's an odd phrase". But, then I kept seeing it, and found out online that it's an Indian phrase.
@cryptoniku67239 ай бұрын
They are trying to be polite basically, instead of not saying it..
@dobby31599 ай бұрын
I Use it 😂 didn't know it is an Indian thing
@cryptoniku67239 ай бұрын
@@dobby3159 It's not Indian actually.. That's being polite and not trying to be an arse and ordering ppl.. Some people would rather take in Orders than hear something polite, so identify those, and just throw them your tantrums.. They are happy with that..
@ABO-Destiny9 ай бұрын
Thats kind of typical indian managers authoritative and confusing instruction. 😢😢
@abupinhus9 ай бұрын
It american official language : one does "required" or "requested". "Needfull" sounds strange.
@aditya.khapre6 ай бұрын
It's very nice to see that no one is trying to judge who is right or wrong. It's just a language, and languages evolve.
@XE1GXG9 ай бұрын
The pronunciation of the different accents in English from India are very pleasant. MUCH nicer than the nasal whine of our neighbours in USA. Saludos desde México...
@ABO-Destiny9 ай бұрын
I bet you will have the time of your life listening to some people from bangladesh speaking english in their own accent. My favorite used to be that from the popular cricketer Shakib Al Hasan
@luminous33578 ай бұрын
Nasal? There are dozens of widely varying accents, vocabularies, and styles of speaking English in the states. Many are not even mutually intelligible.
@meteoman79588 ай бұрын
@@luminous3357He may have been referring to Texans.
@jayfloramusic8 ай бұрын
You found the most quintessential Indian guy for this video. All over India, there are many accents of English but what this guy is speaking is BY FAR the most common one. Some other regions will be too posh or too ugly but this is the most balanced one.
@lynn000077 ай бұрын
Exactly this
@jayfloramusic7 ай бұрын
@@lynn00007 Thanks for agreeing!
@LG-nk7qk7 ай бұрын
This guy is the mean median and mode of indian english .All of us dont deviate from his accent more than 1 -2 standard deviations
@Lana.S.6 ай бұрын
Thank you for this video. It is a really clear guide for understanding Indian English. A lot of Indian people work in call centres, so it will help me to understand them better during communication by phone.
@Jenny.C19788 ай бұрын
Absolutely fascinating!
@sashamellon8228 ай бұрын
The pronouncation of flower as flaar and monodipthonigs is actually a hangover from old RIP . That’s what they heard and have stuck with it since. It took me along time to understand this. I’ve lived in both countries and now understand why many of the pronunciation are a hang over from old rip colonial style mixed in with Indian accent.
@L202418 ай бұрын
Agreed
@undekagon22648 ай бұрын
Devanagari is a script (writing system) not a language. yes, Marathi and Hindi are distantly related and both from the Indo Aryan language branch, but in which script they are written and how scripts are related to each other doesnt play a role in language relatedness. (there are many counter examples like hebrew (semitic) and jiddish (germanic) for example, both written in the hebrew script)
@dcmhsotaeh8 ай бұрын
Marathi has plenty of Kannada influence Kannada dynasties ruled Maharastra fir centurues Shilahara dynasty ( builders of Mumbai) Seuna dynasty Chalukya dynasty Rastrakoota dynasty Kadamba dynasty even Vijaynagar dynasty heavily influenced what is now present day Maharastra Not acknowledged by general Marathis for some unknown reason
@joseymathiassj39947 ай бұрын
The interviewee is presenting one variety on Indian English. And he does it well by presenting it with his L1 influence. But this IS not all about Indian English. The proffessor is very pleasant and shrarp in understanding.
@ashutoshnanda6838 ай бұрын
Amaging discussion
@vians.90617 ай бұрын
This video interview/conversation has been very enriching for me. Thank you both for sharing!
@nHans9 ай бұрын
Small correction to the slide at 1:18 - India has *52* official languages, including *23* (i.e. 22 + English) at the Central (Federal) level plus those legislated by the States and Union Territories.
@LetThemTalkTV9 ай бұрын
OK thanks for that correction.
@ankitamandal53017 ай бұрын
28:48 Well here in India 🇮🇳 We say ( not everyone) " what is your good name? " Cause of our native language influence on English . Like, in my mother tongue Bengali , when we say " What is your good name?"/{ Tomar valo(good) naam ki? } it means ,"What is your name on government papers" , I mean the real offical one. Cause we also has our nick names. So people ask like this.
@vatsalj75358 ай бұрын
Biharis, Nepali, Bengali,odia and Assamese in india do differentiate between W and V but they approximate V to 'Bh'
@drunkmonk_editz8 ай бұрын
im Assamese and we don't usually differentiate between w and V 🤪
@train_xc8 ай бұрын
@@drunkmonk_editz We Assamese differentiate W and V. We say vulture or value not wulture or walue
@mtarkes7 ай бұрын
Like he said, depends on your mother tongue. In Eastern India the pronunciations are vastly different from the Marathi one.
@krishnajam8 ай бұрын
Good name comes from "Shubh naam".
@PVempati6 ай бұрын
Tiffin in the noeth refers to the contents of your lunch box and hence the boxes are also called tffins box something. In south we use tiffin to refer to a light meal - So Breakfast, or more accurately Breakfast foods.