South Asian English is the
English accent of
South Asia, inherited from
British English dialect. Also known as British-Indian English in the
British Raj, the English language was introduced to the
Indian subcontinent in the early 17th century and reinforced by the long rule of the
British Empire. Today it is spoken as a
second language by about 350 million people, 20% of the total population.
Although it is fairly homogeneous across the region, sharing "linguistic features and tendencies at virtually all linguistic levels", there are also differences based on various factors.
[Marco Schilk, Tobias Bernaisch, Joybrato Mukherjee, "Mapping unity and diversity in South Asian English lexicogrammar: Verb-complementational preferences across varieties", in Marianne Hundt, Ulrike Gut, ''Mapping Unity and Diversity World-Wide: Corpus-Based Studies of New Englishes'', 2012, ]
p. 140''f''
/ref>
South Asian English is sometimes called "Indian English", as British India included most of the region, but today, the varieties of English are officially divided according to the modern states:
*Afghan English
Afghan may refer to:
*Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia
*Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity
**Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pash ...
* Bangladeshi English
*Bhutanese English
Bhutanese may refer to:
* Something of, or related to Bhutan
* Dzongkha, the official national language of Bhutan (sometimes called "Bhutanese")
* A person from Bhutan, or of Bhutanese descent, see Demographics of Bhutan
* Bhutanese culture
* Bhuta ...
*Indian English
Indian English (IE) is a group of English dialects spoken in the republic of India and among the Indian diaspora. English is used by the Indian government for communication, along with Hindi, as enshrined in the Constitution of India. E ...
*Maldivian English
Maldivian English is an English dialect spoken in the Maldives
Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, trans ...
*Nepali English
Nepalese English ( ne, अङ्ग्रेजी) refers to a variety of the English language principally used in Nepal and is heavily influenced by the Indo-Aryan languages of Nepal.
Many Nepalese speak English as a second or foreign languag ...
* Pakistani English
*Sri Lankan English
Sri Lankan English (SLE) is the English language as it is used in Sri Lanka, a term dating from 1972. Sri Lankan English is principally categorised as the Standard Variety and the Nonstandard Variety, which is called as "Not Pot English". The c ...
Notes
References
* .
* Braj Kachru, Yamuna Kachru, Cecil Nelson, ''The Handbook of World Englishes'', 2009, .
Languages of South Asia
Dialects of English
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