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South Africa - Indian English

The first Indians who came to South Africa were migrant workers who were to make up for the lack of work force that had been caused by the abolition of slavery. As they were speakers of different Indic and Dravidian languages, a lingua franca was essential not only in order to communicate with their employees, but also among each other. Indian English, the variety that developed in the Indian community in South Africa, was originally spoken as second language. However, a shift from L2 to L1 has taken place. Most Indians in South Africa now use English as their first language.

The early input of South African Indian English was directly influenced by Indian languages which are the source of a wide range of loanwords. In the following generations, however, this direct influence ceased. Contact with other languages in South Africa also had an impact on Indian English, rendering it a clearly South African variety. Still, it also displays a range of characteristics which distinguish it from other South African English varieties.

Table Mountain (Cape Town, South Africa) © Heiko Schittek 2006

Those differences are mostly due to the ethnic segregation during the Apartheid era. In the social circumstances given then, features that were due to the processes of second language acquisition and substratum influences could stabilise in Indian English.Apart from loanwords, the most salient features of Indian English concern its syntax. For example, speakers often use reduplications, such as fast-fast and pronoun omissions, e.g. Where you bought?

Reviews of available literature on books dealing with this English variety can be found here