Reflections on… English language

By Prof. K.C. Belliappa

When we speak of Standard English, the technical phrase that comes to one’s mind is R.P., or Received Pronunciation. This term is credited to Daniel Jones and it refers to the standard accent of Standard English in Great Britain.

R.P. is defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary as the “standard accent of English as spoken in the South of England” or has also been argued to be spoken all over England.

Generally, R.P. is concerned with pronunciation, while Standard English is more to do with grammar, vocabulary and style. Interestingly, only 4 percent of the population in the UK speak English with a standard accent, that is, use R.P.

To strike a personal note, I have a problem with some of those who put on an accent when they speak English. On the contrary, there are many who carry their accent with supreme ease without striking a single false note. But a large number of others struggle very hard to appear natural and it is a strain on both the speaker and the listener.

As a matter of fact, we find a bewildering variety of English accents in India since our English accent is to a great extent determined by our mother tongue.

I used to remark jocularly that English has given us a sense of identity since the moment we listen to an Indian speaking in English, we can, in nine cases out of ten, identify the State to which the speaker belongs.

There are some English sounds which do not exist in our languages and so we hear education pronounced as ‘educasion’ and very as ‘bery’ by some of us.

Undoubtedly, many of us cannot pronounce English words correctly because of the overwhelming influence and interference from our mother tongue.

But we need to respect the real character of the English language. I would say that the secret of good English pronunciation is to get the sounds right as far as possible, seem natural and aim for clarity. This makes for successful communication, which is the basic function of any language.

However, we should remember that the English language has borrowed heavily from other languages. This accounts for its resilience and its reach far and wide.

In the 60s, it was speculated that either French or German would take over as the leading language of the world.

Thanks to the willingness to accept words from different sources, especially from India and Africa, English has grown in strength and character. Hence, we hear of Indian English and African English. There is also American English.

Among Indians, writers such as the earlier Raja Rao and Mulk Raj Anand and the recent Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth have successfully created a distinctive, recognisable and identifiable Indian English. Writers like Amos Tutuola, Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka have done the same for African English.

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English in its 1996 edition included a supplement of Indian English words at the end. It runs to well over two thousand Indian words. This was an official acknowledgement of the lasting influence of Indian languages on English.

J.B. Priestley said, “Standard English, like standard anything else, is poor, tasteless stuff.” 

English has gone far beyond its standard usage and by absorbing such diverse influences, has become more colourful, lively and vigorous. Two striking examples come to my mind: A word like “chutneyfication” coined by Rushdie and “drinkard” coined by Tutuola.

English is now the most widely spoken language in the world with 1.49 billion speakers, followed by Mandarin Chinese with 1.18 billion speakers.

The renowned Professor David Crystal calculates that non-native speakers of English outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. Among natives where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers.

David Crystal claims that combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world.

It is no wonder that English has replaced German as the language of science and French as the language of diplomacy.

[Prof. K.C. Belliappa is the former Vice-Chancellor, Central University, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. He is the Founder-President of Mysore  Literary Association.]