# Language in India **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 12, 2012, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300 "2012-01-12T16:53:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/41 "2012-01-13T15:09:06Z")
I didn’t say that you said that there was one Commonwealth dialect. I said that I thought you were incorrect in dividing all the various dialects of English up into two groups, American and Commonwealth, as if that was the major division. I’m talking about spoken English mostly, because that’s what’s important mostly. People without some training in linguistics tend to get the impression that writing is more important than speaking in determining how languages work. It’s also not true that school is more important than one’s exposure to popular culture. Speaking is more important than writing and popular culture is more important than school in determine how one’s language works. Yes, if you look at spelling, it’s probably true that more people learn British spelling than American spelling in school. They are also more influenced by American popular culture than British popular culture. That’s why I think there’s no single division like American/Commonwealth that’s particularly useful in describing the dialects of English. This doesn’t mean that I think American English is any better than other dialects of English, although it may be more influential at the moment. Furthermore, as I said, I suspect that in the future Indian English will be the most influential dialect. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/42 "2012-01-13T15:13:39Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > At those schools they are taught, among other things, that Z is pronounced “zed” and that aluminium is spelled the way I just spelled it. That’s true in Canada, India, Australia, and everywhere else in the Commonwealth. > > There is only one place/culture on Earth where that’s not true: the USA. Absolutely not true. The Philippines, previously mentioned in the thread, writes and speaks English in the American style. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/43 "2012-01-13T15:15:02Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > This happens in a few other conversations in the movie. A quick transition to English and then back to Hindi. > > My question is…what’s up with that? In real life, people in a truly multi-lingual tend to speak all the languages they know all at once. When I visit my relatives in India, I am at a considerable disadvantage, because I speak only two languages (English and Bengali). My relatives habitually use English, Bengali, and Hindi all together, switching back and forth even mid-sentence. And three is not the limit. If I’m in Bombay, there will be some Gujarati and maybe some Marathi sprinkled in. In Bihar or Jharkhand, a dash of Bhojpuri. The more formal or professional the situation, the more likely it is they will stick to one language. For example, when talking with a boss, or, say, a judge, the tendency will be to stick to English. When speaking to an elderly relative, stick to Bengali. But with peers and in casual situations, all the languages all at once. The more casual or vulgar the speech, the more likely it is to use a local dialect – Bhojpuri, Bambaiya, Marathi, etc. More than once, I have been frustrated when someone is telling a story or a joke and the whole setup is in English or Bengali, but the punchline is in local dialect. When I ask for a translation, I’m told, “Well, it’s not funny if you translate it.” ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/44 "2012-01-13T15:15:43Z")
The first part is true. The Philippines are not part of the Commonwealth of Nations. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/45 "2012-01-13T15:17:39Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Well, yeah, but the Spanish have been in North America for 400 years and you don’t hear _us_ peppering our conversation with Spanish terms. Are you serious or just blissfully unaware? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/46 "2012-01-13T15:20:27Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > Absolutely not true. The Philippines, previously mentioned in the thread, writes and speaks English in the American style. English-speaking Koreans too. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/47 "2012-01-13T15:20:29Z")
Both. I mean that most Americans don’t speak Spanish. I’m quite aware that there are a million Spanish loanwords in American English, but that’s not the same phenomenon the OP describes. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/48 "2012-01-13T15:23:46Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Well I’d probably get mocked in other threads if I suggested that most people speak English (according to **Shakester** , they do) and told I lived an insular life for not knowing there are hundreds of other languages out there. But you probably don’t own any baseball cards and I have boxes full. So I guess we’ve all got a different idea of “normal.” I’m sorry. 🙂 I really didn’t mean to be snarky. I was just expressing my surprise. You see, I’ve lived with this all my life, so I occasionally get taken aback. I tried to soften my words but I guess they still stung. And no, I don’t know a darn thing about baseball and probably couldn’t pick a famous ball player out in the street. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/49 "2012-01-13T15:26:18Z")
He’ll be the guy in tight pants and spiked shoes carrying a baseball bat. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/50 "2012-01-13T15:33:14Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > I just c&Ped this from her wall re her visiting me (hope I’m not compromising her privacy): Thanks Bhai, yeah had a good trip but abhi main apni pics daali nahi hai bas mere fren ne upload kari hai apni. Wait for more :). Anyhow, how are you doing? Yes, on my Facebook wall are a lot of status updates that I can only half understand because they’re peppered with romanized Hindi and Bambaiya. Moreover, there is quite extensive usage of slang that I wouldn’t have access to even if I did understand Hindi. Another thing Indians do in casual speech is take a word from one language and modify it using syntax and grammar rules (including declension, conjugation, and inflections) from another language. So you get things like “Arre, yaar, don’t maro-fy my tiffin.” – Hindi “mara” (to “strike”, but colloquially used to mean “swipe”) – plus the English suffix “-fy.” (“Tiffin” is an Anglo-Indian word meaning a snack.) Imagine the permutations of combining vocabulary and syntax/grammar of three or more languages. > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > It’s possible for an American to get the idea that bilingualism is rare and that changing languages in mid-conversation is extremely rare. It’s possible for an American to get the idea that learning more than one language in childhood takes a particularly intelligent child. Far from it. I’ve seen an estimate that more than half of the world’s population speaks more than one language natively (i.e., since childhood). Changing languages in mid-sentence is quite common. Bilingualism and trilingualism just aren’t that big a deal. Exactly. Multi-lingualism is inborn. It’s only because of America’s almost unique monolingualism that we are surprised by this. > [@jjimm](#): > > Well yeah it’s only my cod theory, but “fren” does seem unique to Indians I have observed on Facebook as opposed to any other nationality. I’ve never seen “fren.” All the Indians I know use “yaar” for friend. > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Well, yeah, but the Spanish have been in North America for 400 years and you don’t hear _us_ peppering our conversation with Spanish terms. I don’t think she’s surprised that Indians commonly speak English, just that they switch between languages during a conversation. People who are bilingual in English and Spanish certainly do, even right here in the United States. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/51 "2012-01-13T15:48:21Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I’ve never seen “fren.” All the Indians I know use “yaar” for friend. But you are old, Father William. 😉 My fren and her frens are ~24. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/52 "2012-01-13T15:51:31Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > People who are bilingual in English and Spanish certainly do, even right here in the United States. I don’t really see Spanglish as quite the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/53 "2012-01-13T15:55:54Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I don’t really see Spanglish as quite the same thing. I’d say it’s pretty much _exactly_ the same phenomenon that the OP is talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/54 "2012-01-13T16:00:53Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I don’t really see Spanglish as quite the same thing. > [@jjimm](#): > > I’d say it’s pretty much _exactly_ the same phenomenon that the OP is talking about. Not just “pretty much.” It’s _completely_ exactly the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/55 "2012-01-13T16:28:25Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > At those schools they are taught, among other things, that Z is pronounced “zed” and that aluminium is spelled the way I just spelled it. That’s true in Canada, India, Australia, and everywhere else in the Commonwealth. > > There is only one place/culture on Earth where that’s not true: the USA. The Philippines. Try again? ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/56 "2012-01-13T16:50:10Z")
OP, I live in Mumbai and can vouch this is very common among youth in metro and tier 2 cities. I tend to think high school students cannot speak normally now. It is getting accepted as the new norm. Even elders are now doing it. I was in a mall an hour ago, and could here 40ish people conversing like this. I speak 3 languages fluently, and manage reasonably well to converse in another 3. Sometimes I too do this mid-sentence switching, when other person does the same. Initially I found it very odd, but I am getting used to it now.😃 [Hinglish](http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/hinglish) in Oxford dictionary. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/57 "2012-01-13T17:52:58Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Wow that’s awesome! Can’t believe I’ve never heard of this before. Language is so fascinating 🙂 time to pull out the old joke: a person who speaks three languages is called:…trilingual a person who speaks two languages is called:…bilingual and a person who speaks one language is called…an American. 🙂 ( chappachula…an American who speaks 2 languages ) ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/58 "2012-01-13T17:56:31Z")
You guys are confusing me as to whether I’m supposed to feel bad for only speaking English or feel bad that I didn’t assume everyone else speaks English (because they do). I’ll stick to American rom-coms from now on, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/59 "2012-01-13T17:58:35Z")
Perhaps you should just feel bad about watching romantic comedies. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300/60 "2012-01-13T18:02:11Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Perhaps you should just feel bad about watching romantic comedies. 😉 It wasn’t a romantic comedy, Indian or American. It was about sports. Just seems like all of a sudden I am a jerk for being fascinated by cultures other than my own and not having some sort of great knowledge of the entire world and the customs therein. I’ll try to appreciate diversity a little less from now on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-in-india/609300.md?page=4)