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11 - English in South Asia

from Part II - World Englishes Old and New

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2019

By
Claudia Lange
Edited by
Daniel Schreier ,
Marianne Hundt  and
Edgar W. Schneider
Daniel Schreier
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
Marianne Hundt
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
Edgar W. Schneider
Affiliation:
Universität Regensburg, Germany
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Summary

From a bird’s-eye perspective, the English language in South Asia has developed from a contested colonial legacy into an asset within the linguistic ecology of the region, both intra-nationally and pan-regionally. With more and more speakers and contexts of use in a population of well over a billion, English has become a firmly entrenched South Asian language with distinctive characteristics, effectively the third-largest variety of English worldwide. This chapter outlines the sociohistorical background to the development of English in South Asia from the beginning of British colonialism in the area to the present day. The main focus is on English in India as the largest state to emerge out of the former British Raj and arguably the historical input variety to other South Asian Englishes. In presenting distinctive features of Indian English vis-à-vis other South Asian Englishes, the notion of Indian English as the regional epicenter is also taken into account.

Keywords

Postcolonial EnglishesSouth Asian EnglishesIndian EnglishSri Lankan Englishepicenter
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of World Englishes , pp. 236 - 262
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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