Indian English (IndE,[4]IE) orEnglish (India) is a group ofEnglishdialects spoken in theRepublic of India and among theIndian diaspora and is native to India.[5] English is used by theGovernment of India for communication, and is enshrined in theConstitution of India.[6] English is also anofficial language in eight states and sevenunion territories of India, and the additional official language in five other states and one union territory. India has one of the world’s largest English-speaking communities.[7] Furthermore, English is the sole official language of theJudiciary of India, unless the stategovernor or legislature mandates the use of a regional language, or if thePresident of India has given approval for the use of regional languages in courts.[8]
In the 21st century, only a few hundred thousand Indians, or less than 0.1% of the total population, report English as their first language,[9][10][11][12] and around 30% of theIndian population can speak English to some extent.[13]
According to the2001 Census, 12.18% of Indians knew English at that time. Of those, approximately 200,000 reported that it was their first language, 86 million reported that it was their second, and 39 million reported that it was their third.[14]
According to the 2005India Human Development Survey,[15] of 41,554 surveyed, households reported that 72% of men (29,918) spoke no English, 28% of them (11,635) spoke at least some English, and 5% of them (2,077, roughly 17.9% of those who spoke at least some English) spoke fluent English. Among women, 83% (34,489) spoke no English, 17% (7,064) spoke at least some English, and 3% (1,246, roughly 17.6% of those who spoke at least some English) spoke English fluently.[16] According to statistics from the District Information System for Education (DISE) of theNational University of Educational Planning and Administration under theMinistry of Human Resource Development,Government of India, enrollment in English-medium schools increased by 50% between 2008–09 and 2013–14. The number of English-medium school students in India increased from over 15 million in 2008–09 to 29 million by 2013–14.[17]
According to the2011 Census, 129 million Indians (10.6%) spoke English. 259,678 (0.02%) Indians reported English as their first language.[1] It concluded that approximately 83 million Indians (6.8%) reported English as their second language, and 46 million (3.8%) reported it as their third language, making English the second-most spoken language in India.[2]
India ranks 52 out of 111 countries in the 2022EF English Proficiency Index published by theEF Education First. The index gives the country a score of 496 indicating "moderate proficiency". India ranks 6th out of 24 Asian countries included in the index.[18]
As amultilingual country, English is thelingua franca among different regions of India.[19] Writing forThe New York Times, journalistManu Joseph stated in 2011 that, due to the prominence and usage of the language and the desire for English-language education, "English is thede facto national language of India. It is a bitter truth."[20] In his book,In Search of Indian English: History, Politics and Indigenisation, Ranjan Kumar Auddy shows that the history of the rise ofIndian nationalism and the history of the emergence of Indian English are deeply inter-related.[21]Purdue University stated due to the prevalence of the language in business operations in India, it is "uncommon to find a business enterprise using non-English documents".[22]
The first occurrence of the termIndian English dates from 1696,[26] though the term did not become common until the 19th century. In the colonial era, the most common terms in use wereAnglo-Indian English, or simplyAnglo-Indian, both dating from 1860. Other less common terms in use wereIndo-Anglian (dating from 1897) andIndo-English (1912).[27] An item of Anglo-Indian English was known as anAnglo-Indianism from 1851.[27]
In the modern era, a range of colloquialportmanteau words for Indian English have been used. The earliest of these isIndlish (recorded from 1962), and others includeIndiglish (1974),Indenglish (1979),Indglish (1984),Indish (1984),Inglish (1985) andIndianlish (2007).[28] Sometimes, Indian English is also referred to as Macaulay's English afterThomas Babington Macaulay.[29]
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Indian English generally uses theIndian numbering system. Idiomatic forms derived from Indian literary languages and vernaculars have been absorbed into Indian English. Nevertheless, there remains general homogeneity in phonetics, vocabulary, and phraseology among various dialects of Indian English.[30][31][32][33]
Formal written publications in English in India tend to uselakh/crore forIndian currency and Western numbering for foreign currencies likedollars andpounds,[34] although lakh and crore are also used to refer to other large numbers such as population sizes. These terms are not used by other English-speakers, who have to learn what they mean in order to read Indian English news articles.[citation needed]
The English language established a foothold on theIndian subcontinent with the granting of theEast India Company charter byQueen Elizabeth I in 1600 and the subsequent establishment of trading ports in coastal cities such asSurat,Mumbai (called Bombay before 1995),Chennai (called Madras before 1996), andKolkata (called Calcutta before 2001).
English-language public instruction began in the subcontinent in the 1830s during therule of the British East India Company. In 1835, EnglishreplacedPersian as the official language of the East India Company.Lord Macaulay played a major role in introducing English and Western concepts into educational institutions in British-India. He supported the replacement of Persian by English as the official language, the use of English as the medium of instruction in all schools, and the training of English-speaking Indians as teachers.[35] Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, primary, middle, and high schools were opened in many districts ofBritish India, with most high schools offering English language instruction in some subjects. In 1857, just before the end of East India Company rule, universities that were modeled on theUniversity of London and used English as the medium of instruction were established in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. During theBritish Raj (1858 to 1947), English-language penetration increased throughout the subcontinent. This was driven in part by the gradually increasing hiring of Indians in thecivil services. At the time ofIndian independence in 1947, English was the only functionallingua franca in the region.
After the independence andPartition of British India,Modern Standard Hindi was declared the first official language in the new Indian Republic, and attempts were made to declare Hindi the sole national language. Due toprotests from Tamil Nadu and other non-Hindi-speaking states, it was decided to temporarily retain English for official purposes until at least 1965. By the end of this period, however, opposition from non-Hindi states was still too strong to have Hindi declared the sole language. With this in mind, the English Language Amendment Bill declared English to be an associate language "until such time as all non-Hindi States had agreed to its being dropped."[36] This has not yet occurred, and English is still widely used. For instance, it is the only reliable means of day-to-day communication between the central government and the non-Hindi states.
The view of theEnglish language among many Indians has changed over time. It used to be associated primarily with colonialism; it is now primarily associated with economic progress, and English continues to be an official language of India.[37] Indian men who speak fluent English have been found to earn 34% higher hourly salaries than men who don't speak English.[38]
While there is an assumption that English is readily available in India, studies show that its usage is actually restricted to the elite,[39] because of inadequateeducation to large parts of the Indian population. It has been suggested that Indian English, rather than British English, should be taught in schools, to allow for international cooperation while valuing local cultural features "due to a set of unique lexical, grammatical, phonological and discourse features that would allow it to act as both a lingua franca within the country and on the international stage".[40] The use of outdated teaching methods and the poor grasp of English exhibited by the authors of many guidebooks disadvantage students who rely on these books, giving India only a moderate proficiency in English.[41]
In addition, many features of Indian English were imported intoBhutan due to the dominance of Indian-style education and teachers in the country after it withdrew from its isolation in the 1960s.[42][43]
The termHinglish is aportmanteau of the languagesEnglish andHindi. This typically refers to themacaronic hybrid use ofHindustani and English. It is often the growing preferred language of the urban and semi-urban educated Indian youth, as well as the Indian diaspora abroad.[44] The Hindi film industry, more popularly known asBollywood, incorporates considerable amounts of Hinglish as well.[45] Many internet platforms and voice commands on Google also recognise Hinglish.[44] WhenHindi–Urdu is viewed as a single language calledHindustani, theportmanteaus Hinglish andUrdish mean the samecode-mixed tongue, where the former term is used predominantly in modern India and the latter term predominantly inPakistan.
In general, Indian English has fewer peculiarities in its vowel sounds than the consonants, especially as spoken by native speakers of languages like Hindi, the vowelphoneme system having some similarities with that of English. Among the distinctive features of the vowel-sounds employed by some Indian English speakers:
North Indians, especially a minority of English students and teachers along with some people in various professions like telephone customer service agents, often speak with anon-rhotic accent. Examples of this includeflower pronounced as[flaʊ.ə],never as[nevə],water as[ʋɒtə], etc. Some South Indians, such as native Telugu speakers, speak with a rhotic accent, but the final/ə/ becomes an[a], and analveolar tap[ɾ] is used for /r/, resulting inwater andnever as[wɒtaɾ] or[ʋɒʈaɾ] and[nevaɾ] respectively.
Features characteristic ofNorth American English, such as rhoticity andr-coloured vowels, have been gaining influence on Indian English in recent years as cultural and economic ties increase between India and the United States.[50]
Indian English speakers do not necessarily make a clear distinction between/ɒ/ and/ɔː/ unlikeReceived Pronunciation (RP), i.e. they may have thecot-caught merger, with the target vowel ranging between either option.
Most Indians have thetrap–bath split of Received Pronunciation, affecting words such asclass,staff andlast (/klɑːs/,/stɑːf/ and/lɑːst/ respectively). Though the trap-bath split is prevalent in Indian English, it varies greatly. Many younger Indians who read and listen toAmerican English do not have this split.[citation needed] Similar toAustralian English, variability is especially present when the split occurs before nasal clusters in words such asdance,Francis, andanswer.[51]
The following are the standard variations in Indian English:
The voicelessplosives/p/,/t/,/k/ are always unaspirated in Indian English, (aspirated in cultivated form) whereas in RP, General American and most other English accents they are aspirated in word-initial or stressed syllables. Thus "pin" is pronounced[pɪn] in Indian English but[pʰɪn] in most other dialects. In native Indo-Aryan languages, a predominant language family in India, the distinction between aspirated and unaspirated plosives is phonemic, and the English stops are equated with the unaspirated rather than the aspirated phonemes of the local languages.[52] The same is true of the voiceless postalveolar affricate/tʃ/. The local unvoiced aspirated plosives are instead equated with English fricatives, namely/f/ and/θ/.
Thealveolar stops English/d/,/t/ are oftenretroflex[ɖ],[ʈ], especially in the north of India.[53] In Indian languages, there are two entirely distinct sets of coronal plosives: onedental and the other retroflex. Native speakers of Indian languages prefer to pronounce the English alveolar plosives sound as more retroflex than dental,[54] and the use of retroflex consonants is a common feature of Indian English.[55][56] In theDevanagari script of Hindi, all alveolar plosives of English are transcribed as their retroflex counterparts. One good reason for this is that unlike most other native Indian languages, Hindi does not havetrue retroflex plosives (Tiwari, [1955] 2001). The so-called retroflexes in Hindi are actually articulated as apicalpost-alveolar plosives, sometimes even with a tendency to come down to the alveolar region. So a Hindi speaker normally cannot distinguish the difference between their own apical post-alveolar plosives and English's alveolar plosives. Languages such asTamil havetrue retroflex plosives, however, wherein the articulation is done with the tongue curved upwards and backwards at theroof of the mouth. This also causes (in parts ofUttar Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh andBihar) the/s/ preceding alveolar/t/ to allophonically change to[ʃ] (⟨stop⟩,/stɒp/ →/ʃʈap/). Mostly in north India, some speakers allophonically further change the voiced retroflex plosives to voicedretroflex flap[ɽ], and the nasal/n/ to a nasalised retroflex flap.
Most major native languages of India lack the dental fricatives/θ/ and/ð/ (spelled withth), although [ð] occurs variably asintervocalic allophones inGujarati[57] andTamil. Usually, theaspiratedvoiceless dental plosive[t̪ʰ] is substituted for/θ/ in the north (it would be unaspirated in the south) and the unaspiratedvoiced dental plosive[d̪], or possibly the aspirated version[d̪ʱ], is substituted for/ð/.[58] For example, "thin" would be realised as[t̪ʰɪn] instead of/θɪn/ for North Indian speakers, whereas it would be pronounced unaspirated in the south.
Indian English is variably rhotic; with pronunciations either being non-rhotic due to the traditional influence of RP, or generally rhotic due to the underlyingphonotactics of the nativeIndo-Aryan andDravidian languages.[61][58]
In recent years, rhoticity has been increasing.[58] Generally,American English is seen as having a large influence on the English language in India recently.[50]
Many Indians with rhotic accents prefer to pronounce words with[aʊə] as[aː(r)], such as⟨flower⟩ as[flaː(r)] and⟨our⟩ as[aː(r)], as opposed to[flaʊ.ə] and[aʊ.ə] in more non-rhotic varieties. Speakers with rhotic accents, especially some south Indians, may also pronounce word-final/ər/ as/ar/, resulting inwater andnever as/wɔːtar/ and/nevar/ respectively.
South Indians tend to curl the tongue (retroflex accentuation) less for/l/ and/n/.
Sometimes, Indian speakers interchange/s/ and/z/, especially when plurals are being formed, unlike speakers of other varieties of English, who use[s] for the pluralisation of words ending in a voiceless consonant,[z] for words ending in a voiced consonant or vowel, and[ɨz] for words ending in a sibilant.
In case of the postalveolar affricates/tʃ//dʒ/, native languages like Hindi have corresponding affricates articulated from the palatal region, rather than postalveolar, and they have more of a stop component than fricative; this is reflected in their English.
Syllabic/l/,/m/ and/n/ are usually replaced by the VC clusters[əl],[əm] and[ən] (as inbutton/ˈbəʈən/), or if ahigh vowel precedes, by[il] (as inlittle/ˈliʈil/). Syllable nuclei in words with the spellinger/re (aschwa in RP and an r-coloured schwa inGA) are also replaced by VC clusters. e.g.,metre,/ˈmiːtər/ →/ˈmiːʈər/.[citation needed]
Indian English uses clear[l] in all instances likeIrish English whereas other varieties use clear[l] in syllable-initial positions anddark l[ɫ] (velarised-L) in coda and syllabic positions.
The following are variations in Indian English due tolanguage contact with Indian languages:
Most Indian languages (exceptAssamese,Kashmiri,Marathi,Tamil andUrdu; and conscious pronunciation byHindi,Punjabi,Dogri, etc. speakers) lack thevoiced alveolar fricative/z/. A significant portion of Indians thus, even though their native languages do have its nearest equivalent: the unvoiced/s/, often use the voiced palatal affricate (or postalveolar)/dʒ/. This makes words such as⟨zero⟩ and⟨rosy⟩ sound as[ˈdʒiːro] and[ˈroːdʒiː] (the latter, especially in the North). This replacement is equally true forPersian andArabic loanwords into Hindi. The probable reason is the confusion created by the use of the Devanagari grapheme⟨ज⟩ (for/dʒ/) with theNuqta to represent/z/ (as⟨ज़⟩). A similar thing happens in other Indian languages likeBengali, with the letters for/dʒ/ (except Indian varieties ofNepali andMarathi where⟨ज⟩ represents /dz/) usually being used to represent/z/. This is common among people without formal English education. InTelugu (plus even inHindi andPunjabi to some extent)/z/ and/dʒ/ are allophones in some cases, so the words such asfridge/fɹɪdʒ/ become/friz/.
InAssamese,/tʃ/ and/ʃ/ are pronounced as/s/; and/dʒ/ and/ʒ/ are pronounced as/z/. Retroflex and dental consonants are not present and only alveolar consonants are used unlike other Indian languages. Similar toBengali andOdia,/v/ is pronounced as/bʱ/ and/β/ inAssamese. For example; change is pronounced as[sɛɪnz], vote is pronounced as[bʱot] and English is pronounced as[iŋlis].[63]
Inability to pronounce certain (especially word-initial)consonant clusters by people of rural backgrounds (as with someSpanish,Portuguese andPersian speakers). This is usually dealt with byepenthesis. e.g.,⟨school⟩/isˈkuːl/.
Many Indians with lower exposure to English also may pronounce/f/ as an aspiratedvoiceless bilabial plosive[pʰ]. Again in Hindi Devanagari the loaned/f/ fromPersian andArabic is written by putting a dot beneath the grapheme for native[pʰ]⟨फ⟩:⟨फ़⟩. This substitution is rarer than that for[z], and in fact in manyHindi andPunjabi words/f/ is used by native speakers instead of/pʰ/, or the two are used interchangeably.
Many speakers of Indian English (with the exception ofUrdu speakers), unless conscious; do not use thevoiced postalveolar fricative (/ʒ/). Some Indians use/z/ (especially byHindi andPunjabi speakers) or/dʒ/ (basically by most of the Indians, who do not even have[z] phoneme) instead, e.g.⟨treasure⟩/ˈtrɛzəːr/,[53] and in some south Indian variants, with/ʃ/ as in⟨shore⟩, e.g.⟨treasure⟩/ˈtrɛʃər/.[citation needed]
A number of distinctive features of Indian English are due to "the vagaries of English spelling".[58] Most Indian languages, unlike English, have a nearlyphonetic spelling, so the spelling of a word is a highly reliable guide to its modern pronunciation. Indians' tendency to pronounce English phonetically as well can cause divergence from British English. This phenomenon is known asspelling pronunciation.
In words where the digraph⟨gh⟩ represents avoiced velar plosive (/ɡ/) in other accents, some Indian English speakers supply a murmured version[ɡʱ], for example⟨ghost⟩[ɡʱoːst]. No other accent of English admits this voiced aspiration.[53]
Similarly, especially with Hindi speakers, the digraph⟨wh⟩ may be aspirated as[ʋʱ] or[wʱ], resulting in realisations such as⟨which⟩[ʋʱɪtʃ], found in no other English accent (although some Scottish accents come close).[64] This is somewhat similar to the traditional distinction between⟨wh⟩ and⟨w⟩ present in English, however, wherein the former is/ʍ/, whilst the latter is/w/.
In unstressed syllables, which speakers of American English would realise as aschwa, speakers of Indian English would use the spelling vowel, making⟨sanity⟩ sound as[ˈsæniti] instead of[ˈsænəti]. This trait is also present in other South Asian dialects (Pakistani andSri Lankan English), and common for many second-language European speakers of English.
The word "of" is usually pronounced with a/f/ instead of a/v/ as in most other accents.[58]
Use of[d] instead of[t] for the "-ed" ending of the past tense after voiceless consonants, for example "developed" may be[ˈdɛʋləpd] instead of RP/dɪˈvɛləpt/.[53]
Use of[s] instead of[z] for the⟨-s⟩ ending of the plural after voiced consonants, for example⟨dogs⟩ may be[daɡs] instead of[dɒɡz].[58]
Pronunciation of⟨house⟩ as[haʊz] in both the noun and the verb, instead of[haʊs] as a noun and[haʊz] as a verb.
Silent letters may be pronounced. For example, 'salmon' is usually pronounced with a distinct/l/.
English is astress-timed language. Both syllable stress andword stress (where only certain words in a sentence or phrase are stressed) are important features of Received Pronunciation. Indian native languages are actuallysyllable-timed languages, like French. Indian-English speakers usually speak with a syllabic rhythm.[65] Further, in some Indian languages, stress is associated with a low pitch,[66] whereas in most English dialects, stressed syllables are generally pronounced with a higher pitch. Thus, when some Indian speakers speak, they appear to put the stress accents at the wrong syllables, or accentuate all the syllables of a long English word. Certain Indian accents possess a "sing-song" quality, a feature seen in a few English dialects of Britain, such asScouse andWelsh English.[67]
TheIndian numbering system is preferred for digit grouping.[68] When written in words, or when spoken, numbers less than 100,000 are expressed just as they are in Standard English. Numbers including and beyond 100,000 are expressed in a subset of the Indian numbering system. Thus, the following scale is used:
Indian English, like some otherWorld Englishes, is notable for its treatment of Englishmass andcount nouns. Words that are treated as mass nouns in native forms of English, such asevidence,equipment, ortraining, are frequently treated as count nouns in Indian English.[73]
Some examples of words and phrases unique to, or chiefly used in, standard written Indian English include:
chain-snatching (verb): To snatch a gold chain (or sometimes silver chain) from someone and run away, usually perpetrated by two or more criminals on amotorbike/moped/scooter.
e.g. "Women are avoiding wearing gold chains due to the concerning rise in number ofchain-snatching cases in many parts of the city."
communalism: The creation of hatred between different religions and ethnicities which causecommunal violence between them. The term is usually used to describe the hatred spread by religious leaders and politicians which causeHindu–Muslim riots.
do the needful: To do that which is necessary or required, with the respectful implication that the other party is trusted to understand what needs doing without being given detailed instructions.
e.g. "When asked if theUP government could reduceValue Added Tax (VAT) on petro-products to bring down prices, theCM said that thestate government was aware of the situation and willdo the needful." (2018The Pioneer)[76]
English-knowing (adjective): Of a person or group of people that uses or speaks English.
e.g. "Two permanentfreeships, each tenable for one year and one of which is for the second and the other for the third year class." (The Medical Reporter (Calcutta) 57/1, 1 February 1893)
e.g. "Private institutions can only develop if they are allowed to charge reasonable fees, while also providing need basedfreeships and scholarships for a certain percentage of students." (The Economic Times (Nexis), 12 October 2006)[80]
e.g. "A group of four friends had gone to have dinner at a roadsidehotel." (Statesman (Calcutta), 10 February 1999 (Midweek section) 4/3)[81]
is it so: Oh really?
it will be:This is how much it is (quantifying something)[dubious –discuss].
e.g. Q: "How much is this?" A: "It will be two hundred and seventy rupees."
kindly adjust: Used to acknowledge and apologise for something that causes problems or difficulties and ask people to accept and adapt to the situation, or used to apologise for causing inconvenience.
e.g. "The store will be closed this afternoon due to staffing shortages.Kindly adjust."
e.g.: When asking someone to move along so you can sit down."I would like to sit down, sir.Kindly adjust."[82]
matrimonial (noun):Advertisements in anewspaper for the purpose of finding a marriageable partner.
e.g. "When I have a job I'll have to begin a whole new search for my better half ... Back to the newspapermatrimonials on Sundays." (Statesman (Calcutta), 10 February 1999 (Midweek section) 4/3)[83]
office boy: Usually a person employed to do less important and menial jobs in a business office (such as a messenger, copier maintenance,Chaiwala, etc.). Often resides or spends their working time in a special service space in the office, behind the front desk or in the pantry.
out of station: used for saying that someone is away.[84] This phrase has its origins in the posting of army officers to particular "stations" during the days of theEast India Company.
pass(ing)out (phrase): Graduate from school/college or complete a course at an institution.[85]
e.g. "There is an urgent need for setting up an independent authority forredressal of telecom consumer complaints." (Statesman (India) (Nexis), 2 April 1998)
e.g. "Where does he go for theredressal of his genuine grievances?" (Sunday Times of India, 15 September 2002 8/4)[88]
Spelling practices in Indian English generally follow theBritish style, e.g., usingtravelling,litre,practise (as a verb),anaesthesia,fulfil,catalogue,realise andcolour, rather than the American style.[90]
The most famous dictionary of Indian English isYule andBrunell'sHobson-Jobson, originally published in 1886 with an expanded edition edited byWilliam Crooke in 1903, widely available in reprint since the 1960s.
Numerous other dictionaries ostensibly covering Indian English, though for the most part being merely collections of administratively-useful words from local languages, include (chronologically):RousseauA Dictionary of Words used in the East Indies (1804),WilkinsGlossary to the Fifth Report (1813),StocquelerThe Oriental Interpreter and Treasury of East Indian Knowledge (1844),ElliotA Supplement to the Glossary of Indian Terms: A–J (1845),BrownThe Zillah Dictionary in the Roman Character (1852),CarnegyKutcherry Technicalities (1853) and its second editionKachahri Technicalities (1877),WilsonGlossary of Judicial and Revenue Terms (1855),GilesA Glossary of Reference, on Subjects connected with the Far East (1878),WhitworthAnglo-Indian Dictionary (1885),TempleA Glossary of Indian Terms relating to Religion, Customs, Government, Land (1897), andCrookeThings India: Being Discursive Notes on Various Subjects connected with India (1906).
The first dictionary of Indian English to be published after independence was HawkinsCommon Indian Words in English (1984). Other efforts include (chronologically): LewisSahibs, Nabobs and Boxwallahs (1991), MuthiahWords in Indian English (1991), Sengupta's Indian English supplement to theOxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (1996) andHankinHanklyn-Janklin (2003). Nihalani et al.Indian and British English: A Handbook of Usage and Pronunciation (2004) delineates how Indian English differs from British English for a large number of specific lexical items. TheMacmillan publishing company also produced a range of synchronic general dictionaries for the Indian market, such as theMacmillan Comprehensive Dictionary (2006).
The most recent dictionary is CarlsA Dictionary of Indian English, with a Supplement on Word-formation Patterns (2017).[needs update]
^The Constitution of India(PDF). Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India. 1 December 2007. pp. 212–267. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 9 September 2014. Retrieved30 May 2019.
^For the distinction between "English Speakers" and "English Users", see TESOL-India (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages),"India is World's Second Largest English-Speaking Country".Archived 4 December 2010 at theWayback Machine. The article explains the difference between the 350 million number mentioned in a previous version of this Wikipedia article and the current number:
Wikipedia's India estimate of 350 million includes two categories – 'English speakers' and 'English users'. The distinction between speakers and users is that Users only know how to read English words, while Speakers know how to read English, understand spoken English and form their own sentences to converse in English. The distinction becomes clear when you consider China's numbers. China has over 200 million people who can read English words but by this definition only a few million are English speakers.
^Ovington, J. (1696).A Voyage to Suratt, in the Year 1689, p. 326.
^abLambert, James (2012). "BeyondHobson-Jobson: Towards a new lexicography for Indian English",English World-Wide 33(3): 294.
^Lambert, James.2018. A multitude of 'lishes': The nomenclature of hybridity.English World-wide, 39(1): 26.doi:10.1075/eww.38.3.04lam
^Through The Ages 8. Badarpur, New Delhi: Vishv Books Private Ltd. p. 68.ISBN978-93-5065-251-0.
^Mukesh Ranjan Verma and Krishna Autar Agrawal:Reflections on Indian English literature (2002), page 163: "Some of the words in American English have spelling pronunciation and also pronunciation spelling. These are also characteristic features of Indian English as well. The novels of Mulk Raj Anand, in particular, are full of examples of ..."
^Pingali Sailaja:Indian English (2009), page 116: "So what was Cauvery is now Kaveri. Some residual spellings left by the British do exist such as the use of ee for /i:/ as in Mukherjee. Also, some place names such as Cuddapah and Punjab"
^Edward Carney:Survey of English Spelling (2012), page 56: "Not all distributional differences, however, have important consequences for spelling. For instance, the ... Naturally enough, Indian English is heavily influenced by the native language of the area in which it is spoken."
^Indian English Literature (2002), page 300: "The use of Indian words with English spellings: e.g. 'Mundus,' 'raksha'; 'Ed Cherukka,' 'Chacko Saar Vannu'"
^Chelliah, Shobhana L. (July 2001). "Constructs of Indian English in language 'guidebooks'".World Englishes.20 (2):161–178.doi:10.1111/1467-971X.00207.
^Ball & Muller 2014: The comments on retroflex consonants also apply to northern Indian languages such as Hindi,Bengali,Gujarati. andMarathi. Speakers of these languages tend to use their own retroflex consonants in place of English alveolar /t, d, n/. Although these languages do have non-retroflex stops, these are dental, and it seems that English alveolar stops are perceived as closer to the retroflex stops than to the dental ones.
^Ball & Muller 2014, p. 289b: This use of retroflex consonants is very characteristic of Indian English, and the retroflex resonance is very pervasive ...
^Sailaja 2007, p. 252: 1.4Indian (Telugu) English: All the adults who participated in this study spoke a Telugu variety of Indian English. Telugu pronunciation of English is heavily influenced by the spelling. Two identical letters in a word are articulated as geminates. The articulation is also mostly rhotic ... In place of the alveolar stops, retroflex sounds are used. Some speakers would also use a retroflex nasal in place of the alveolar nasal, and a retroflex lateral in place of the alveolar lateral.
^Spitzbardt, Harry (1976).English in India. p. 31. Retrieved2 September 2019.
^"Indian English Phonologics"(PDF).Phonologics. Linda J. Ferrier-Reid, Robert MacAuslan and Joel MacAuslan. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 7 November 2019. Retrieved7 November 2019.
^Varshney, R.L., "An Introductory Textbook of Linguistics and Phonetics", 15th Ed. (2005), Student Store, Bareilly.
^Bellos, Alex (5 April 2010).Alex's Adventures in Numberland: Dispatches from the Wonderful World of Mathematics.A&C Black. p. 114.ISBN9781408811146.Indian English has different words for high numbers than British or America English.[...]Note that above a thousand, Indians introduce a comma after every two digits,[...]
^James Lambert (2014). Indian "English slang". In Julie Coleman (ed.)Global English Slang: Methodologies and Perspectives (pp. 126–134). London: Routledge.
^Lambert, James (2018). "Anglo-Indian slang in dictionaries on historical principles".World Englishes 37(2): 248–260.doi:10.1111/weng.12291
Sailaja, Pingali (2007)."Writing Systems and Phonological Awareness". In Bayer, Josef; Bhattacharya, Tanmoy; Babu, M. T. Hany (eds.).Linguistic Theory and South Asian Languages: Essays in honour of K. A. Jayaseelan. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 249–267.ISBN978-90-272-9245-2.
Crystal, David (1990).The English Language. London & New York: Penguin. p. 10.
Whitworth, George Clifford (1885).An Anglo-Indian dictionary: a glossary of Indian terms used in English, and of such English or other non-Indian terms as have obtained special meanings in India. K. Paul, Trench.
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