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Unit 20: Difference in R.P. and Indian English

3. General Indian English turns the fricative categories / θ / into additional stops or dental plosives. Notes
h
/θ / is replaced by [t ] or [t] and / ð / is replaced by [d]. Dr. Bansal cites the examples of
themselves with an initial [d] being misunderstood as damsels and they being misunderstood
as day.
h
4. Speakers of General Indian English many a time use unaspirated [p], [t], [k] for aspirated [p ] ,
h
h
[t ] , [k ] at the beginning of accented syllables. Aspiration is an important feature of native
English. Of the two /p/ sounds in the word paper the first /p/ is aspirated and the second is
1h
unaspirated. So the word is pronounced [p eip] by an English man, whereas it is pronounced
1
[pe:p ] by most Indians.
5. Sometimes some Indian speakers substitute /s/ for /z/. House has /s/ as the final sound whereas
noise has /z/, though the spelling is identical. The letter s is pronounced /s/ in hopes but /z/
in dogs. The letter x is /ks/ in expect but [gz] in exact. Indian speakers and students are used to
a “spelling pronunciation.” They go by the spelling and use the sound suggested by the spelling.
Hence the confusion between sounds like /s/ and /z/ or / ð / and /d/.
6. Most Indian speakers find the suprasegmental features of English very difficult. Their accentual
patterns are often faulty. Very often they place the accent on the wrong syllable of a word with
disastrous results, (see lesson 6).
7. They also commit mistakes of intonation. They fail to divide a long utterance into tone groups
and often misplace the nucleus or the tonic syllable. They are also not exact in the choice of an
appropriate tone.
8. The sounds /t ∫ ,dz/ are made more with the blade than the tip of the tongue, and also lack the
lip-rounding associated with the R.P. sounds. As a result, they give a less sharp acoustic impression
than their R.P. counterparts.
9. /t,d/ are generally replaced by the retroflex /t,d/.
10. While retaining /ŋ/ in the final position, Indian speakers usually add a/g/ in the medial
positions, and therefore pronounce reading /ri:diŋ/as/ri:ding/
11. “Syllabic” /l,m,n,/are usually replaced by the sequences / I, m, n/ (as in button, apple), or
if a high front vowel precedes, by /il/ (as in little).
e
e
e
12. Many Indian speakers fail to make clear distinction between /e/ and /ae:/, and between / ,/
and / :/ as in men and man, cot and caught.
13. Against R.P. / / and / :/, GIE has only vowel / / as shown below:
R.P. GIE
cot /k t/ /k t/
caught /k : t/ /k t/
court /k : t/ /ko:rt/
coat /kout/ //ko:t/
14. As against R.P. / ∧ /,/e/ and / :/ General Indian English has only the phoneme/e/as shown
below:
e
R.P. GIE
hut /h ∧ t/ /h t/
e
hurt /h :t/ /h rt/
e
e
account / ’kaunt/ / ’kaunt/
e
e
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