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India

English was introduced in India in 1600, when the British East India Company was established. The British then established regular trade with India. As India was part of the Commonwealth, English became its medium of administration and education, and English bilingualism started to spread. Today, India’s official language is Hindi; however, English acts as an “associate official language” and plays an important role as medium of higher education.

When English started to be taught in schools, the native model was not always directly available to the learners. As most teachers were Indians themselves, they also spoke English as an L2. Thus, some distinct features of Indian English could develop, which distinguish this variety from the British standard. Some of the most prominent characteristics of Indian English are rooted in the fact that Indian English has been strongly influenced by Hindi. In its extreme form, it has become so much mixed with Hindi that people often refer to this variety as “Hinglish”.

Indian English is characterized, for example, by a syllabic rhythm, an extensive range of loanwords from Hindi, the use of the progressive with static verbs (e.g. “I’m knowing it.”) and changes in word order (e.g. “Your all friends are there?”). Contributing to the distinct Indian accent, voiceless stops (p, t, k) are not aspirated in syllable-initial position, as opposed to the British standard.

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