Indian Englishes in the Twenty-First Century

This Element challenges the assumed intra-national homogeneity of Indian English via case studies of lexical and morphosyntactic variation.

This Element uses sophisticated corpus-linguistic and statistical methods to explore the unity and diversity of IndE by providing studies of selected lexical and morphosyntactic features that characterise Indian English(es) in the 21st century.English fulfils important intra- and international functions in 21st century India. However, the country's size in terms of area, population, and linguistic diversity means that completely uniform developments in Indian English (IndE) are unlikely. Using sophisticated corpus-linguistic and statistical methods, this Element explores the unity and diversity of IndE by providing studies of selected lexical and morphosyntactic features that characterise Indian English(es) in the 21st century. The findings indicate a degree of incipient 'supralocalisation', i.e. a spread of features beyond their place of origin, cutting through the typological Indo-Aryan vs. Dravidian divide.