September 16, 2007
THE MAJORITY GETS TO DICTATE TERMS:
The rise of Indian English (Amrit Dhillon, 16/09/2007, Daily Telegraph)
It has taken decades of struggle, but more than half a century after the British departed from India, standard English has finally followed.Posted by Orrin Judd at September 16, 2007 8:59 AMYoung and educated Indians regard the desire to speak English as it is spoken in England as a silly hang-up from a bygone era. Homegrown idiosyncrasies have worked their way into the mainstream to such an extent that only fanatical purists question their usage.
Now Penguin, the quintessentially British publishing house, has put the nearest thing to an official imprimatur on the result by producing a collection of some of the most colourful phrases in use - in effect a dictionary of what might be called "Indlish".
Comments
You mean they're gonna stop spelling "color" with a "u"? Even the servile Canadans didn't go that far.
You're a cruel man, Mr. Ortega.
Posted by: erp at September 16, 2007 12:59 PM