Times of India - Oct 10,2004
"Hinglish" will soon become the most commonly spoken form of the
language globally
"Already, a third of Indians are speaking the language, a percentage
expected to rise in coming years. With the Internet spreading English
like no other tool ever, and Indians at the forefront of the IT
revolution, Indian English will reach around the globe and take over
from British and American forms," said Prof David Crystal, one of the
world's leading linguists and author of several books on the English
language.
But the professor also sees the future bright for other variations of
English spoken as a second language.
"I believe the mother tongue countries have had their day. It is now
the turn of countries where English is spoken as a second language to
take the lead," he said in his lecture 'The Future of English' at the
British Council on Saturday evening.
Some 400 million people, mostly in former British colonies, speak
variations of English as their second language, about the same number
as those speaking it as their mother tongue.
Unlike the situation earlier, many overseas clients now understand the
way we speak, but the idea of it becoming the most widely spoken
language worldwide in a few years' time is a little far-fetched,” says
Aarti Rao, a corporate communications executive with a telecom
company.
One of the main reasons for the basis of this prediction is that the
Indian populace is spread all over the world.
But travelers are of the opinion that the language cannot sustain
itself unless a conscious effort is made to do so. Frequent traveler
and entrepreneur Mukesh Raj feels that the language has became popular
in India for two main reasons — “As a means of accessing political
power and for the power of information, as all media and information
is based in English.”
Movies like Bend it Like Beckham and now Bride and Prejudice do give
the audience an insight as to how Indian English is used, but hearing
the world say, “I too am coming,” seems a long way off.
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