🚀 go-pugleaf

Two Indian correspondents to this newsgroup have now written
to complain about American English.  Much of what they say
is disturbing because it shows a profound ignorance of the
nature of language in general, and of English in particular.

One assumption they need to correct immediately is that the
English used in India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Australia, Canada,
New Zealand, or the US is not identical with British English.
If they are interested in how South Asian English has developed
as a legitimate variety of World English (or World Englishes, if
you prefer), one which is different from the English of their
former rulers, they should consult the many books of Braj 
Kachru, for example, _The Indianization of English_, or the
prize-winning _The Alchemy of English_.

Indian English differs from English English in phonology, syntax,
idiom, and much else besides.  Being England-returned does not
really make much of a difference, except perhaps allowing one
to put on airs.

By the way, the Indian community in the United States, a large
and growing one, adapts to American English in the second generation
as rapidly as all American immigrant groups have done.

Dennis (Denesh) (Roy) Baron


-- 
Dennis Baron                                         debaron@uiuc.edu 
University of Illinois at Urbana                     217-333-2392