Indian English

Indian English refers to the dialects or varieties of English spoken primarily in the Republic of India (8% of Indians speak English, according to the 1991 Census of India, although other estimates range as high as 15%), and also by Indian diaspora elsewhere in the world. The dialect is also known as South Asian English due to its similarity to the English spoken in other parts of South Asia. Due to British colonialism that saw an English-speaking presence in India for over two hundred years, a distinctly Indian brand of English was born. English is the co-official language of the Union of India.

Variations in the pronunciation of several phonemes are affected by the regional tongues (see Languages of India) across the Indian subcontinent, the greatest distinction being that between South India and Sri Lanka on the one hand and the north of the subcontinent (including Pakistan and North India) on the other. Several idiomatic forms crossing over from Indian literary and vernacular language also have made their way into the English of the masses. In spite of India's diversity, however, there is indeed a general homogeneity in syntax and vocabulary that can be found among speakers across South Asia. It will be found that excellent English bearing fewer regional grammatical peculiarities is spoken in upper-class families (commonly referred to, in India, as 'Westernised'), though even among them hints of a uniquely Indian flavour (particularly in a so-called 'Indianised' British accent) are typically retained.

Influences: British and American

The form of English that Indians (and other subcontinentals) are taught in schools is essentially British English, especially Scottish English, which influenced Indian dialects with rhoticity and trilled r.

The Indian government though, accepts both forms of spellings as 'correct' English and makes no distinction. However, for most, it is desirable to emulate the brand of English that is linguistically known as Received Pronunciation or, more commonly, BBC English. In particular, Indian spellings follow British conventions to the point at which American English variations are considered untenable. However, even during the time of British imperialism (before the creation of a separate Pakistan and Bangladesh), Indian English had established itself as an audibly distinct dialect with its own quirks and specific phrases.

Following the departure of the British from India in 1947, Indian English took on a divergent evolution and many phrases that the British may consider antiquated are still popular in India. Official letters continue to include phrases like "please do the needful" and "you will be intimated shortly". This difference in style, though, is not as marked a difference as between British and American English (and unlike Canadian or Australian English there is no variation in spelling whatsoever.) Older British writers who made creative (and comical) use of now obsolete forms of colloquial English, like P. G. Wodehouse, and others who were en vogue fifty years ago, like Thomas Hardy, are immensely popular in India. British writer, journalist and wit Malcolm Muggeridge once joked that the last Englishman would be an Indian.

American English, due to the burgeoning influence of American pop culture on the rest of the world, has begun challenging traditional British English as the premier brand of English spoken in the Indian subcontinent, though this is largely limited to the youth in the last decade or two. The proliferation of "MTV culture," especially through pop and hip hop, and the increasing desire of Indians to attend US, as opposed to British, collegiate institutions for higher education, is leading to the spread of more emulation of American English among Indian youth. Also, the economic and political puissance of the U.S. often leads to heated debates as to whether or not British English or American English is the more practical accent for emigré Indians to adopt. It must be stressed, however, that British English retains its hold on the majority of Indians, particularly those of the older generation.

American English spellings are also widely prevalent in scientific and technical publications while British English spellings are used in other media. American spellings such as fiber, meter, skillful, and program are considered to be acceptable in the science streams. The -ize and the -ise verb forms are both popular.

In a survey ( [1]), it was found that "the majority of the informants (70%) felt that RP (Received Pronunciation: BBC English; Standard English in Britain) would serve as the best model for Indian English, 10% thought General American English (ed. standard American English) would be better, and 17% preferred the Indian variety of English." Plenty of Indians with Received Pronunciation accent still have rhoticity.

Indian English literature

Spoken Indian English is often the butt of jokes by "educated" British, American and Indian English-speakers alike as is evidenced by such characters as Peter Sellers' Indian party-goer in the movie The Party and the Simpsons' convenience-store owner Apu Nahasapeemapetilon; there is also no dearth of jokes among Indians 'riffing' the pronunciation and idiomatic inconsistencies of Indian English (see External Links at bottom).

However, in spite of banter regarding colloquial English, India has a consistent and long record of pre- and post-Independence thinkers and writers whose writings and speeches are attestations to many Indians' mastery of the language. Among others, Swami Vivekananda, Nobel prize winner Rabindranath Tagore, C Rajagopalachari, Shri Aurobindo Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru, the world-famous novelist R K Narayan, Ruskin Bond, and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan come to mind as prominent figures whose English, often though not always written, was of the highest quality in any country. Many more contemporary Indians, such as Vikram Seth and Salman Rushdie, are acknowledged masters of English literary style. Indian English writers and English writers of Indian origin – notably Booker Prize winners Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy, Pulitzer Prize Winner Jhumpa Lahiri and Nobel prize winner V. S. Naipaul – have in addition made creative use of more stereotypical Indian English through the mouths of characters in their works.

"An Indian English Grammar"

Standard English in India is prized and found plentifully in educated circles and higher Indian writing in English. Middle and upper-class Indians, especially those with greater exposure to the West through books, electronic media (such as television or movies) and travel, tend to speak more grammatically-standard English. British English is an official language of central and state governments in India. What is characterised as Indian English is not considered "correct usage" by either government-related institutions (such as offices and schools) or educated Indians who prize 'proper' English. Indian schools still teach grammar from (frequently older) British textbooks like Wren & Martin or J. C. Nesfield (1898): the grammar of higher British English is considered the only correct one. Efforts by the Oxford University Press to publish a dictionary of Indian English were an abject failure since customers in India preferred the 'proper' British dictionary. Spoken and written English in India has not explicitly "forked" away from British English because the labelling of English as a "foreign language" is part of many people's political attitudes: its explicit indigenisation would devalue efforts to discontinue the widespread use of English in India.

The distinct evolution of regional variations in contemporary usage has led to terms such as Hinglish (Hindi + English) and Tanglish (Tamil + English). These terminologies are often referred to in a humorous way, but at times they also have a derogatory connotation, with each region or stratum of society having fun at the expense of others. Hinglish, Tanglish, Benglish (Bengali + English) and other unnamed variations are particularly capitalised and made popular in the field of advertising. Here, the aim of reaching a large cross-section of society is fulfilled by such double-coding. There are thus many borrowed words from Indian languages that do find their way into popular writing, ads and newspapers, not to mention TV spots and shows.

Phonology of Indian English

In spite of the great stress on good English in higher circles, the layman's spoken variety, Indian English, is widespread and well-known for its many eccentricities. For this reason, "grammar of Indian English" must be taken with a grain of salt. Indian accents vary greatly from those leaning more towards a purist British to those leaning more towards a more 'vernacular' (Indian language) -tinted speech (one of the reasons for this is that in Indian schools, almost no attention is given to the "Received Pronunciation", but rather to written English). The most ubiquitous instance of modified sounds is the morphing of alveolar English 'd', 't' and 'r' sounds to more retroflex variants. South Indians tend to curl the tongue more for 'l' and 'n' sounds, while Bengalis (from both India and Bangladesh) and Biharis often substitute 'j' for 'z' (as in 'jero' instead of 'zero'). Subcontinentals, especially those from the Sindh (of both India and Pakistan), have the habit of changing 'w' sounds to 'v' (as in 'ven' instead of 'when') and vice versa ("I will pay with Weeza" for "...Visa").

Note that many Indian English speakers don't even know that their pronunciation scheme is actually incorrect as compared to RP. In general, the important features of phonological differences between Indian English and Received Pronunciation of the London region (and even with most other dialects of Standard English) are given below:

All native languages of India lack the voiced palatal or post-alveolar sibilant /ʒ/. Consequently, /z/ or /dʒ/ is substituted, e.g. treasure /trɛ zə:r/.
Standard Hindi, most other vernaculars and hence General Indian English lack the difference between /v/ (voiced labio-dental fricative) and /w/ (bilabio-velar semi-vowel). Instead, most Indians use a frictionless labio-dental approximant, close to /v/, for both v and w graphemes. So wine is pronounced like vine.
All consonants are distinctly doubled in General Indian English wherever the spelling suggests so. e.g., drilling /dril liŋg/.
Inability to pronounce certain (especially word-initial) consonant clusters by people of rural background, and hence modification. e.g., school /is ku:l/.
All native languages of India, and hence General Indian English, lack the phonemes /θ/ (voiceless dental fricative) and /ð/ (voiced dental fricative). Hence, the aspirated voiceless dental plosive /tʰ/ is substituted for /θ/ and the unaspirated voiced dental plosive /d/ is substituted for /ð/. This can create confusions like themselves being heard by native English speakers as damsels!
In RP, word-initial and syllable initial p, t and k are slightly aspirated, but in native Indian languages, the distinction between aspirated and unaspirated plosives is very stark. So General Indian English uses the corresponding unaspirated voiceless plosive—/p/, /t/ and /k/ instead of /pʰ/, /tʰ/ and /kʰ/.
A very stark feature of General Indian English is the use of retroflex plosives (/ʈ/, /ɖ/) instead of the corresponding alveolar plosives of English (/t/ and /d/). In Indian languages there are two entirely distinct sets of coronal plosives: one dental and the other retroflex. To the Indian ears, the English alveolar plosives sound more like retroflex than dental. In devanagari script of Hindi, all alveolar plosives of English are transcribed as their retroflex counterparts. This also causes (in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar) the /s/ preceding alveolar /t/ to allophonically change to /ʃ/ (/stop/ → /ʃʈop/). Mostly in south India, some speakers allophinically further change the voiced retroflex plosive to voiced retroflex flap, and the nasal /n/ to a nasalized retroflex flap.
Most Indians don't know that English is a stress-timed language, and word stress is an important feature of English pronunciation. Consequently, Indian-English speakers either put the stress accents at the wrong syllables, or worse, accentuate ALL the syllables of a long English word. Also, Indian English speakers speak English with a peculiar pitch-accent, which makes Indian-English sound like a sing-song voice to native English speakers. Indians also have problems with other supra-segmental features of English.
Sometimes, Indian speakers interchange /s/ and /z/, especially when plurals are being formed. It suffices to note that in Hindi (but not Urdu) and Sanskrit, /z/ does not exist (as also any other voiced sibilant). So /z/ may even be pronounced as /dʒ/ by people of rural backgrounds. Again, in dialects like Bhojpuri, all /ʃ/'s are spoken like /s/'s, a phenomenon which is also visible in their English. Exactly the opposite is seen for many Bengalis.
In native Indian languages, there are no affricates. So Indians pronounce RP affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ as corresponding palatal plosives, without any following friction.
While retaining /ŋ/ in the final position, Indian speakers usually add a /g/ after it. Hence /riŋ iŋ/ → /riŋ giŋg/ (ringing).
Syllabic /l/, /m/ and /n/ are usually replaced by the VC clusters /əl/, /əm/ and /ən/ (as in button /buʈ ʈən/), or if a high vowel precedes, by /il/ (as in little /liʈ ʈil). The syllabic retroflex /r/ of Standard American English is again pronounced as a VC cluster. e.g., meter, Am.: /mi:t ’ʀ/, Ind.: /mi: ʈər/.
General Indian English has long monophthongs /e:/ and /o:/ instead of R.P. glided diphthongs /ei/ and /ou/ (or /əu/); this variation is quite valid in Standard American English.
Many Indian English speakers fail to make a clear distinction between /e/ and /æ/ and between /ɒ/ and /ɔ:/. (cot-caught merger).
As against R.P. /ʌ/, /ə/ and /ə:/, General Indian English has only one vowel /ə/ (schwa).
In R.P., /r/ occurs only before a vowel. But in much of General Indian English, being a Scottish-influenced rhotic accent, uses a sharp alveolar trill /r/ in almost all positions in words as dictated by the spellings. Indian speakers do not use the retroflex approximant for r, as opposed to many American speakers.
Indian speakers convert gh digraphs to aspirated voiced velar plosive /gʰ/. eg., ghost /gʰo:st/. But rough, dough, etc. are pronounced correctly.
Educated native speakers of English pronounce words in their vocabulary borrowed from French with a proper French pronunciation, but in India, such words are sometimes incorrectly pronounced according to the rules of English pronunciation. e.g., bouquet /bu kɛt/ or /bau kwɛt/.
Many Indian speakers always pronounce the as /δi:/, irrespective of the fact whether the definite article comes before a vowel or a consonant, or whether it is stressed or not. Similarly, they pronounce a as /e:/ (always) rather than as /ə/.

In total, such discrepencies exist in General Indian English because firstly, Indians tend to look up to their own rich phonology for the nearest approximations of English phonemes, and secondly, because they by and large tend to follow English pronunciation as it appears through the English spelling. This is because all Indian scripts are highly phonemic alpha-syllabic scripts, and English (in Roman script) seems to be a horrible example of how non-phonemic a script can be. However, most "foreigners" still consider Indians to be much, much better speakers of good English than most other peoples including Chinese, Japanese, Italian and French.

Reference: Varshney, R.L., "An Introductory Textbook of Linguistics and Phonetics", 15th Ed. (2005), Student Store, Bareilly.

Grammar, idiom and usage in Indian English

Grammar tweaks

For those aware of the grammar of Indian tongues like Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam, and Tamil, the logic behind quirks of Indian English is quite transparent and readily explicable. However, observation by the perspicacious, in spite of ignorance of Indian languages, will reveal much that is characterisable in 'rules' and 'tendencies.' John Lawler of the University of Michigan observes the following anomalies in the grammar of Indian English:

The progressive tense in stative verbs: I am understanding it. She is knowing the answer.; an influence of traditional Hindi grammar, it is more common in northern states.
Variations in noun number and determiners: He performed many charities. She loves to pull your legs.
Prepositions: pay attention on, discuss about, convey him my greetings. Most prepositions of English are direct mental translations of the approximate postpositions of Hindi, but the Hindi- speakers fail to note that there isn't always a one-to-one correspondence.
Tag questions: The use of "isn't it?" and "no?" as general question tags, as in You're going, isn't it? instead of You're going, aren't you?, and He's here, no? ('na' often replaces 'no': another influence of Hindi, this time colloquial, common all across the North, West, and East--the South replaces it with the 'ah' sound, as in Ready, ah?, an influence of colloquial Tamil and Kannada.)
Word order: Who you have come for? They're late always. My all friends are waiting.
Yes and no agreeing to the form of a question, not just its content -- A: You didn't come on the bus? B: Yes, I didn't."
Use of the indefinite article a before words starting with vowels (usually a slip of the tongue).

In addition to Lawler's observations, other unique patterns are also standard and will frequently be encountered in Indian English:

The past perfect tense used in verbs where international English speakers would use the past simple. I had gone for I went.
Use of the words but or only as intensifiers such as in: "I was just joking but." or "It was she only who cooked this rice." (Influenced by Hindi syntax)
Anglicization of Indian words especially in Chennai by adding "ify" to a local Tamil word.
Use of yaar, machaa, abey, arey in an English conversation, mainly by people of native Hindi-speaking origin; 'da' is more frequently used in the South.
Use of the word ki (Hindi) to mean, loosely, that, such as in "What I mean is ki we should adopt this plan instead." (Seen mainly in the North and West of the country.)
Idiomatic English for quantification in use of preposition "of", as in "There is so much of happiness in being honest."
Use of the plural ladies for a single lady or a woman of respect, as in "There was a ladies at the phone."
Use of "open" and "close" instead of switch/turn on/off, as in "Open the air conditioner" instead of "Turn on the air conditioner."
Use of "hope" where there is no implication of desire but merely expectation: "We don't want rain today but I hope it will rain."
Use of "off it" and "on it" instead of "switch it off" and "switch it on."
Use of "current went" and "current came" for "The power went out" and "The power came back"
Use of "y'all" for "you all" or "all of you", as used in Southern American English, especially by Anglo-Indians.
Swapping around the meanings of "slow" and "soft" as in "I shall speak slower for you" (actually means I will speak softly) or "make the fan softer" (actually means make the fan go slower/ reduce its speed)
Creation of nonsensical, rhyming double-words to denote generality of idea or act, a 'totality' of the word's denotation, as in "No more ice-cream-fice-cream for you!", "Let's go have some chai-vai (tea, "tea and stuff")." or "There's a lot of this fighting-witing going on in the neighbourhood." (Prevalent mainly in Hindi- and Punjabi-speaking states.)
Use of "baazi"/"baaji" or "-giri" for the same purpose, as in "business-baazi" or "cheating-giri." (Also prevalent mainly in Hindi-speaking states.)
Use of word "wallah" to denote occupation or 'doing of/involvement in doing' something, as in "The taxi-wallah overcharged me.", "The grocery-wallah sells fresh fruit." or "He's a real music-wallah: his CD collection is huge."
Use of the word maane (Bengali) , "Yani" (Urdu) and matlab (Hindi/Urdu) to mean, loosely, "meaning" ("What I mean is..."), as in "The problem with your idea, maane, what I feel is missing, is ki it does not address the problem of overstaffing." or "Your explanation, matlab, your feeble attempt at one, was sorely lacking in cohesiveness."
Overuse of the words "Generally"/"Actually"/"Obviously"/"Basically" in the beginning of a sentence.e.g "Actually I am not feeling well."
Use of the word "since" instead of "for" in conjunction with periods of time, as in "I have been working since four years" instead of "I have been working for four years" or "I have been working since four years ago". This usage is more common among speakers of North Indian languages such as Hindi where the words for both "since" and "for" are the same.
Use of the word "gift" as a verb : You are gifting me a new cell phone?
Use of other nouns as verbs, such as "Does it pain?" instead of "Does it hurt?"
Use of "I can able to cook" instead of "I can cook" - a widespread grammatical error in India.
Omission of the definite article: e.g. "Let's go to city" instead of "Let's go to the city"
Usage of "out of hundred" instead of percent: "He got hundred out of hundred" instead of "He got a hundred" or "He got a one hundred percent".
Pronunciation of h and z as "hech" and "ized" respectively
Use of the Latin word "cum", meaning "with", as in "Welcome to the gymnasium cum swimming pool building." This was common in the past in British English.
In South India, phrases such as "that and all", or "this and all" are used roughly to convey the meaning "all of that (stuff)" or "regarding that". e.g: A: "Can I pay you back later? I don't have my wallet." B: "That and all I don't know. I need the money now."
Use of "the same" instead of "it", as in "I heard that you have written a document on xyz. Could you send me the same?"

Idioms and Popular Phrases

"Your good name please?": "What is your name?", carryover from Hindi expression.
"That is besides the point"
"Deadly", "hi-fi", "sexy" are used in idiomatic ways as adjectives. Deadly means intense, "hi-fi" stylish and "sexy" excellent or extremely cool. Examples are "That movie was deadly, yaar; what an action scene!", "Your shoes are hi-fi. Where'd you get them?" and "That's a sexy car, man!"
"Hello, What do you want?": used by some when answering a phone call, not perceived as impolite by most Indians
"What a nonsense/silly you are!" or "Don't be doing such nonsense anymore.": occasional - idiomatic use of nonsense/silly as nouns (although this is not uncommon in British English).
"pindrop silence" literally means that such a silence should be maintained that even a pindrop can be heard.
"back" replacing "ago" when talking about elapsed time, as in "I met him five years back" rather than "I met him five years ago." (Though this too is not uncommon in British English)
"freak out" is meant to have fun, as in "let's go to the party and freak out."
"pass out" is meant to graduate, as in "I passed out of the university in 1995."
"funny" is meant to replace not only "odd"/"strange" but "rude"/"precocious"/"impolite" as well. "That man was acting really funny with me, so I gave him a piece of my mind"

Titles (of respect; formal)

Referring to elders, strangers or anyone meriting respect as "'jee'"/"'ji'" (suffix) as in "Please call a taxi for Gupta-ji".
Use of prefixes "Shree"/"Shri" (Mr.) or "Shreemati"/"Shrimati" (Ms./Mrs.): Shri Ravi Shankar or Shreemati Das Gupta.
As with Shree/Shreemati, use of suffixes "Saahib/Sāhab" (Mr.) and "Begum" (Mrs.)(Urdu) as in "Welcome to India, Smith-saahib." or "Begum Sahib would like some tea."
Use of "Mr" and "Mrs" as common nouns. For example, "Jyoti's Mr. stopped by yesterday" or "My Mrs. is not feeling well".
Use of the English words 'uncle' and 'aunty' when addressing people such as distant relatives, neighbours, acquaintances, even total strangers (like shopkeepers) who are significantly older than oneself. In fact, in Indian culture, children or teenagers addressing their friend's parents as Mr. Patel or Mrs. Patel (etc.) is considered offensive—a substitution of Sir/ Ma'am is also not suitable except for teachers. On the contrary, if a person is really one's uncle ot aunt, he/she will usually not be adressed as "uncle"/"aunty", but with the name of the relation in the vernacular Indian language, even while conversing in English. For example, if a woman is one's mother's sister, she would not be addressed (by a Hindi speaker) as "aunty" but as Mausi (Hindi: मौसी).
Use of Respected Sir while starting a formal letter instead of Dear Sir.

Interjections and casual references

Casual use of words yaar (friend, buddy, dude, man), bhai (brother) and bhaiyya (very informal for brother) much as with the American English 'man' or 'dude', as in " Arey! C'mon, yaar! Don't be such a killjoy!", "Long time no see, bhai." or "Ay, bhaiyya! Over here!" Yaar is the equivalent of mate in Australian and British English. The word boss is also sometimes used in this way, among friends but also to male strangers, as in "How much to go to the train station, boss?", or "Good to see you, boss."
Use of interjections Arey! and acchha! to express a wide range of emotions, usually positive though occasionally not, as in "Arey! What a good job you did!", "Accha, so that's your plan." or "Arey, what bad luck, yaar!"
Use of T-K in place of O.K. when answering a question, as in "Would you like to come to the movie?" -- "T-K, I'll meet you there later." ("theek hai", literally; actually meaning okay)
Use of oof! to show distress or frustration, as in "Oof! The baby's crying again!"
Along with "oof!", there is also "oh foe!" which is in a more whining voice which kind of means "oh shit". Not many Indians will say this, but it is used widely in Hindi movies or soap operas.
Use of "Waah" to express admiration, especially in musical settings, as in "Waah! Waah! You play the sitar so well!"
Use of "just" and "simply" in a seemingly arbitrary manner in southern India, especially Kerala. e.g. Q:"Why did you do it?" A:"Simply!" or "Just I was telling to [sic] him.
"Lady's finger" means "Okra" (as in some other English-speaking countries).
"Hotel" means "restaurant" (as well as specifically "big hotel") in India: "I ate in the hotel". "Lodge" is used to refer to small hotels. Some times Lodge refers to Place where you stay (in rooms) and Hotel refers to a place where you eat.
"stepney" or "stepaney" refers to a car's spare tyre.
"specs" means spectacles (as in colloquial UK English).
"cent percent" means "100 percent" as in "He got cent percent in maths."
"centum" is also frequently used to refer to 100.
Use of the verb "sit" in place of "live., e.g. "Where are you sitting?" for "Where do you live?"
High-End : (Supposedly) of very high quality (used sarcastically for work and people)
n - Many (He takes n troubles to stay neat)

Anomalous Usage

The verb "repair" in southern India is used as a noun for a broken object as in, "The TV became repair." The same word is used for saying when the broken object is fixed: "The TV is repaired and now it is working properly."
The word "stay" used for "live" or reside at": "Where are you staying?" meaning not "Where are you temporarily lodging" but "Where is your residence?" (though this is normal in Standard Scottish English)
The word "damn" used as an intensifier, especially a negative one, far more frequently and with far more emphatic effect, than in international English
The word "healthy" to refer to fat people, in North India in general and in Bihar in particular as in "His build is on the healthy side" to refer to a positively overweight person.
The expression "my dear", used as an adjective to refer a likeable person. as in "He is a my dear person." Very common in Bihar.
The word "dear" used as a term address of pleasant (male) companionability equivalent to "mate" in Australian English and presumably used as yaar would be in Hindi/Urdu.
The word "dress" is used to refer to clothes for men, women, and children alike: "She bought a new dress for her son."
The word "cloth" usually refers only to any clothes or fabrics that are not wearable, like "waste cloth": "Use that cloth for cleaning."
"Cloth" and "clothe" are used interchangeably. 'Clothe' is sometimes regarded as the singular form of 'clothes'.
"Shirtings and suitings" used for the process of making such garments
"saloon" instead of salon, as in "I will visit the hair saloon."
"Bath" and "bathe" are also used interchangeably. "Bath" is used as a verb sometimes, as in "He bath'd in the morning."
Greetings like "Happy Birthday" are used even to say that "Today is my happy birthday"
Intensifying adjectives by doubling them. This is an influence of the Hindi language. For example: "She has curly curly hair"; "You are showing your hairy hairy legs; "We went to different different places in the city in search of a good hotel; "You will get used to the humidity slowly-slowly"
Use of "color" to imply "colorful"; oftentimes doubled in usage as in the previous item. "Those are color-color flowers".

Commonly Misspelled Words

dairy (diary)
diary (dairy)
beleive (believe)
recieve (receive)
dias (dais)
habbit (habit)
continously (continuously)
pronounciation (pronunciation)
etiquette is some-what pronounced as "eddi-kaytes"!! and rarely spelled correctly
loose (lose)

Words unique to or originating in Indian English

Main articles: List of English words of Hindi origin, List of English words of Tamil origin, List of English words of Bengali origin, List of English words of Punjabi origin, List of English words of Sanskrit origin, List of English words of Urdu origin, and List of English words of Malayalam origin

Indians frequently inject words from Indian languages, such as Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Urdu into English. While the currency of such words usually remains restricted to Indians and other Indian subcontinentals, there are many which have been regularly entered into the Oxford English Dictionary as their popularity extended into worldwide mainstream English. Some of the more common examples are "jungle", "bungalow", "bandana", "pyjamas"; others were introduced via the transmission of Indian culture, examples of which are "pundit" and "guru".

Words unique to (i.e. not generally well-known outside South Asia) and/or popular in India include those in the following by no means exhaustive list:

batchmate or batch-mate (Not classmate, but of a schoolmate of the same grade)
cousin-brother (male first cousin) & cousin-sister (female first cousin); used conversely is one's own brother/sister (of one's parent, as opposed to uncle or aunt; English brother/sister): most Indians live in extended families and many do not differentiate even nominally between cousins and direct siblings.
crore (ten million) and lakh (one hundred thousand)
Dicky/dickey the boot of a car
eve teasing (catcalling - harassment of women)
funda short for fundamental
foot overbridge (bridge meant for pedestrians)
godown (warehouse)
godman somewhat pejorative word for a person who claims to be divine or who claims to have supernatural powers
Himalayan blunder (grave mistake)
nose-screw (woman's nose ornament)
opticals (eyeglasses)
pomfret (a popular turbot-like fish, derived from its local name, paplet)
prepone (the opposite of 'postpone')
scheduled caste (a socially/economically marginalised Hindu caste, given special privileges by the government)
scheduled tribe (a socially/economically marginalised Indian tribe, given special privileges by the government)
upgradation (commonly used in business communication instead of 'upgrade')
would-be (fiancé/fiancée)
arbit (short for arbitrary. Can be used to mean "vague", "random" or "bad". e.g.: "What an arbit ending that movie had!" Used primarily by college students in Delhi and Mumbai. It is pronouced either as "arbitt" or "arbid", usuall with equal stress on both syllables)
hardcore ("intense" - can either be positive or negative in connotation. e.g: "Amit was a hardcore rock music fan." or "He's a hardcore computer geek." Also used on college campuses.)

The book Hobson-Jobson by Henry Yule and A.C. Burnell, first published in 1886, gives a glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words.

External links

"Linguistic and Social Characteristics of Indian English" by James Baldridge : A rather thorough analysis of Indian language published by the "Language In India" magazine.
On the future of Indian English, by Gurcharan Das.
An exploration into linguistic majority-minority relations in India, by B. Mallikarjun.