India 16

Listen to India 16, a 34-year-old man from Kozhikode, Malabar, India. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 34

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/07/1983

PLACE OF BIRTH: Kozhikode, Malabar, India

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Indian

OCCUPATION: management donsultant

EDUCATION: bachelor of arts degree

AREA(S) OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The speaker spent roughly three years in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. At the time of this recording, the speaker was living in the capital of India’s Tamil Nadu state, Chennai. He spent his childhood in the Malabar region, an area of southern India, flanked by the Arabian Sea on the west and the Western Ghats on the east.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject has primarily resided in Southern India all of his life, except for spending a few months in Thailand rather recently and the aforementioned time in U.A.E. as a baby and a toddler. He prefers TV and other entertainment from the West. Therefore, he is exposed to a farraginous mixture of American, British, and European dialects of English. However, the distinct, melodious, South Indian, Malayali flavor is unmistakable in his dialect.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Asha Elizabeth Pramod

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 26/01/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I like watching football and playing football. I used to play with my friends a lot, um, while I was studying in college. And I also like to go out and spend time with my friends, um, in the evening time. Another thing I like is, uh, I like food a lot; I like to eat good food. My family: They always used to make good food, and we, uh, invite others to share food with us. Then I like watching movie. I started loving more, uh, English from my twelfth standard onwards, because I thought that would give me — that would give a boo- good boost to my career or it will make easy for me to get a good job. Also we used to think that the English is, is something like a luxury fo- and I was always fascinated by English language and Eng- Western’s, Western lifestyle. …

[The subject speaks the following in Malayalam, his mother tongue. It’s an excerpt from Indulekha, the very first Malayalam novel.]: അപ്പോളവൻ ഈ മഹാ പ്രപഞ്ചത്തിലേക്കു തന്റെ ഹൃദയം തുറക്കുന്നു. ശത്രുവില്നിന്നുള്ള ഓരോ പ്രഹരത്തെയും സ്വയം പ്രധിരോധത്തിനുള്ള ഒരു പാട്ടമാക്കിമാറ്റാനുള്ള പ്രചോദനം നൽകേണമേ എന്നവൻ ദൈവത്തോട് ചോദിക്കുന്നു.

അവന്റെ കൂട്ടുകാർ പറയും: ഇവനെത്ര അന്ധവിശാസയാണ്! പ്രാത്ഥിക്കാൻവേണ്ടി അവൻ പോരാട്ടം നിർത്തികളഞ്ഞു. എതിരാളികളുടെ സൂത്രംകളെയും അവൻ ബഹുമാനിക്കുന്നു. ….

[English translation: At that moment, he opens his heart to this awe-inspiring universe. He beseeches God to inspire him to turn every blow from the enemy into a lesson in self-defense. His friends say: How superstitious he is! To pray, he retreats from the battle. He even respects the modus operandi of his rivals.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Asha Elizabeth Pramod (original Malayalam translation also by Asha Elizabeth Pramod)

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 26/01/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

This recording is a very typical, featurely sample of South Indian English dialect, to say the least. It bears many of the hallmarks of General Indian English (G.I.E.). To cite a few examples: the use of the retroflex [ʈ ] instead of the alveolar [t], as in the word “tower”; [ɭ ] instead of [l] as in the word “liking” and the use of [ⱱ] in the place of [v] as in “work.”

On the other hand, accents from South India do employ some phonemes that are perspicuously different from those of the North. This sample pullulates with many of those phonemes. One consonant heard multiple times is [ɽ], as in “unsanitary,” which is often substituted with a more retroflex sound by the northerners. Such words can become objects of derision for someone from, say, Delhi (the capital of India), who may claim that their pronunciation is the “right one.” The opposite is also equally true. Such linguistic haughtiness is rampant in India (perhaps a relic of its turbulent past?).

Another intriguing aspect of the subject’s dialect is the influence of a Malayalam-based variant of Arabic taught in the “madrasahs” (colleges where the Islamic faith is taught) of Kerala. This could also be easily traced to the fact that he did spend three of his formative years in the Middle East. One example is the occasional use of uvular sounds.

COMMENTARY BY: Asha Elizabeth Pramod

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 26/01/2018

The archive provides:

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