Accented: I Became a Linguistic Chameleon

A very good and a thought-provoking article! The writer has pointed out a serious issue: mocking at trivial things like the way people pronounce English words and their English having accents or an accent. In the present post-colonial world, there is the need to ignore such things because all the varieties of English,whether Pakistani, Indian or African or any other, are wholly acceptable. Even the study of Linguistics and of Dialectology lead us to forget these minor differences(in the sense of using them for mocking) and just enjoy having their presence.

A very good and a thought-provoking article! The writer has pointed out a serious issue: mocking at trivial things like the way people pronounce English words and their English having accents or an accent. In the present post-colonial world, there is the need to ignore such things because all the varieties of English,whether Pakistani, Indian or African or any other, are wholly acceptable. Even the study of Linguistics and of Dialectology lead us to forget these minor differences(in the sense of using them for mocking) and just enjoy having their presence.

Aruna,Well written.

My first language is English but for the life of me I can`t understand why these firangs make such a big deal over the ``v`` and ``w``. Vot`s vith these people?

But this piece brought back some memories- like how I could never manage to pronounce ``shone`` as ``shawn`` and stuck to the phonetic pronunciation for years after Mrs. Koshy, my third standard teacher first used it that way... and how my posher friends even today mock my hard ``r``s, which they attribute to my Bambaiyya upbringing.

Like I said, sounds the same to me!

Very interesting and a very well written piece. Certainly will invite some introspection from most of the readers at Chowk.

Enjoyed this article. I`ve written one on the same topic, on www.chillibreeze.com. Do read it when you can, Aruna.

Hi Aruna, you don`t KNOW me but I guess you DO. I share the same dilemma, Born in bahrain of India-born parents, lived in Karachi for some while, my English vocabulary was going 100 mph but Urdu was well below 10. I was taught by Mr. R.L. Thriparti, lived among Brits; now living in United States. American Defense is with ``s`` and Indian/Pak is with ``c``. When a black lady in Chicago asked me for a ``Peeeyaan``, and when after the usual tug-of-war, I gotta know that she is in need of a PEN, I almost fainted. You have pieced together a very beautiful (see beautiful is still with one L, Brit style), So God Bless ya, keep writting and be good.

Hi,
Good article, but dont we all know that already?
It was a long time ago that i gave up ``on english``.
If you have noticed, most indians ..from anywhere in india..pronounce the word ``pronunciation`` as ``pro-noun-ciation``! (Including myself...didnt i say i have given up?)
Chalta hai, one has to understand it is not an indian language and just a link language..that is being fast replaced by 2 other..the hilarious ``bambaiyya hindi`` and the pompous ``panju hindi`` of the serials.
``mai apka wait kartee hoon``..etc.
Ihad a pompous professor correct me once saying ``adjective`` is pronounced as ``ajictive``!
6 months later i got hold of ``oxford talking dictionary`` and lo and behold! That damned word is pronounced either way..with and without the ``d``!!
equally strange is the case of ``often``.
In my ``propah`` convent, we would snigger if anyone pronounced the ``t``.
Imagine my shock when in Nottingham, i came across locals not only clearly pronouncing the ``t``, but pronouncing ``bus`` almost like ``boos``!! (somewhere between a u and a oo).
Same was the case with ``blood``, with ``blood`` being pronounced like ``bluud``, almost as `u` in the hindi ``ooper``.

In Singapore my son had a hilarious experience in a swimming pool. A chinese boy he was convering with got stuck on a sentence. ``cano e`` he went 4 or 5 times. My son thought he was describing a canoe. It was only after a time it dawned on him that the fellow was say ``can not eat``! The chinese simply wilfully ``kill`` all ``t``s and ``L`` from their speech!
so a ``file`` becomes a ``fie``! ``can not`` becomes ``can no`` or simply ``cano``!

While over there, i was interviewed for a job and rejected. the chinese interviewer saying ``we could have hired you..but you have a terrible ``accent``!! And half the time she had been meticulously and piously killing all the Ts and Ls!!
But that is another story!

Anywaw english is the MOST un-phonetic OF ALL languages. So no point in saying this should be pronounced in this way only etc.
It is the language of barbarians who got civilised, powerful much after we had got civilised, come up with a classical ``processed`` (sanskaran ki hui) language called sanskrit, and already forgotten it and using its corrupt versions, the prakrit languages of india.
So much for the power of the barbarians!!
Jayen