Which English do we use in India, American or British?

印度使用的是英式英语还是美式英语？

Quora读者的评论：

Lynette VanWagner, MA Linguistics; American university English grammar teacher; native speaker

I would answer C) none of the above; Indian English speakers speak Indian English, but that would imply there was just one variety of Indian English. The linguistic background of Indian English is much richer than that. It draws from its long historical contact with British English, its current contact with American English, and from the Dravidic or Indic languages of each region in which it is spoken. Each regional variety of English in India reflects the pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and thought patterns of all of these sources, which makes it considerably more complex than even the speakers themselves realize.

Fortunately, all of these Indian English varieties preserve a wealth of structural and cognitive forms from a wide array of languages. Unfortunately, in my experience, most speakers of Indian English varieties don't know that. I teach English to university students from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. More than any other national group, Indian students are susceptible to a kind of psychic shock when they hear that they need to enter an English as a Second Language program. They've been speaking English for years and never expected English, of all things, to be one of their biggest barriers to American higher education. And it gets worse.

For many Indian students, their very familiarity with English makes it harder for them to learn American English than for students from Far East Asia or Africa.  speakers are learning a set of patterns and rules for English that is wildly different from the patterns and rules of their first language and face the clash of structures without the shock of Indian students, who already have a set of patterns and rules for English that feels natural and logical for them. It isn't until they get outside of the community of speakers of their variety of English and into a community of American English speakers that they find out how different American English is. An article, verb tense, plural form, or vocabulary word may be used one way by an American and a different way by an Indian because the American is using it to express a Germanic, Latin, or Greek language concept and the Indian is using that same word or construction to express a Dravidic or Indic language concept. The similarity of the surface forms make it difficult or nearly impossible for speakers to see the difference in meaning below the surface.

我的回答是：C)以上两者都不是；印度说英语的人说的是印度英语，但这也意味着印度英语有许多种类。印度英语的语言背景要丰富得多。它从历史上与英国英语的长期接触，到现在与美国英语的接触，再到与个地区的德拉维迪语或印度语相互融合。在印度，每个地区的英语都反映了所有这些来源的发音、语法、词汇和思维模式，这使得印度英语比说话人自己意识到的还要复杂得多。

幸运的是，所有这些印度英语变体都保存了大量来自各种语言的结构和认知形式。不幸的是，以我的经验，大多数讲印度英语的人都不知道这一点。我教授来自亚洲、非洲、欧洲和拉丁美洲的大学生学习英语。当印度学生听到他们需要把英语作为第二语言来学习时，他们比其他任何国家的学生都更容易受到精神上的冲击。他们说英语已经很多年了，从来没有想过英语会成为他们接受美国高等教育的最大障碍之一。而更糟糕的是。

对于许多印度学生来说，因为他们对英语非常熟悉，使得他们学习美式英语时比远东或非洲的学生更加困难。通过学习一系列模式、规则学习英语，这完全不同于他们的第一语言，他们面对的是结构的冲击，而印度学生已经掌握了英语的模式和规则，对他们而言很自然，顺理成章。直到他们走出他们说着各式英语的人的圈子，进入说美国英语的人的圈子时，他们才会发现美国英语是多么地不同。对于一篇文章、动词时态、复数形式或单词词汇，美国人可能会用一种方式来表达，而印度人会用截然不同的方式，因为美国人用英语表达了日耳曼语，拉丁语或希腊语的概念，而印度使用同样的词或结构来表达德拉威人或印度语系语言的概念。这种表面形式的相似性让使用者很难或几乎不可能发现表面之下的意义差异。

Some Indian English speakers manage to make the changes necessary to study in an environment that demands Standard American English. One such student said, "I had to learn things WRONG just to be understood." She did learn a very competent (but, to her, wrong-feeling) second variety of English and is now successfully employed by an American University. Other students never overcome the shock of being told their English isn't adequate for the university, and spend their time in an ESL classroom heroically refusing to allow any American patterns to corrupt their English. Some of them have moved from educational institution to educational institution trying to find one that will validate their English as adequate, acceptable, real English. The tragedy is that their English is adequate, acceptable, and real. It's just not Standard American English.

译文来源：三泰虎  http://www.santaihu.com/47853.html  译者：Joyceliu

一些讲印度英语的人努力做出必要的改变，以便在要求使用标准美式英语的环境中学习。一名学生说：“我为了被人礼节，必须学习我原先认为错的东西。”她确实很好地掌握了英语，现在也被美国一所大学录取了(但对她来说，她觉得所学的并不正确)。其他学生从未克服过被告知自己的英语水平不足以进入大学的震惊，他们在ESL课堂上决然地拒绝让美式英语影响他们的印度英语。他们中的一些人从一个教育机构转到另一个教育机构，试图找到一个能够证明他们的英语水平足够好、他们能接受的、真正的英语机构。但悲剧就在于，他们的英语水平还不错，可以接受，而且是真实的。只是并不是标准的美式英语。

Partha Misra, Studied English, taught English, trained English teachers and love English

The question “Which English do we use in India, American or British?” does not make any sense to me. We speak neither the American English nor the British English, we speak ENGLISH, pure and simple, English that is our passport to the whole world, you may call it Global English, I don’t mind.

The English text books and the English grammar that we studied during our school days were imported from the United Kingdom and our bookish knowledge of English and our proficiency in English were modelled after the British tradition. Yes, during the pre- Google era ( BG: Before Google), we were comfortable with the so-called “British English”, but during the post-Google era (AG: After Google), we are more comfortable with the s0-called American English. It’s cool.

“印度使用的是美式英语还是英式英语?”这对我来说毫无意义。我们既不讲美式英语也不讲英式英语，我们讲的就是英语，简单明了，英语是我们走向世界的通行证，你可以称之为全球英语，我不介意。

我们在学校学习的英语课本和语法都是从英国引进的，我们的书本知识和英语水平都是仿照英国的传统。是的，在前谷歌时代，我们对所谓的“英式英语”感到很熟悉，但在后谷歌时代，我们对所谓的美式英语更熟悉了。美式英语很酷。

Though I studied in the United Kingdom for a year and travelled extensively in the USA for months, I did not face any problem of communication in English. My English words may have different connotations, my English syntax may have patterns which are not used by the American or the Britons, but I do speak in English, communicate in English while interacting with my American or the British friends.

The so-called American variety of English is popular among the younger generation of Indian speakers of English. “Hi” is preferred to “hello”, “scheduled is pronounced as “skeduled” and “ flats” are being replaced by “apartments”.

The de ocratization of English that started in the USA has reached the Indian shore and together with the American speakers of English, we are sha the future of the Global English which is neither the British nor the American.

If you think that I am making a tall claim, please listen to the speech given by David Crystal on the first day of the IATEFL conference held at Birmingham in April 2016.

虽然我在英国学习了一年，也在美国各地旅行过几个月，但我没有遇到任何英语交流的问题。我的英语单词可能有不同的含义，我的英语语法可能美国人或英国人并不会这么用，但我确实说的是英语，在与我的美国或英国朋友交流时确实用的是英语。

所谓的美式英语在印度年轻一代中很受欢迎。“Hi”比“hello”更受欢迎，“scheduled”的发音为“skeduled”，“flats”被“apartments”取代。

从美国开始的英语民*化已经到达了印度的海岸，我们和说英语的美国人一起，正在塑造既不是英国人也不是美国人的全球英语的未来。

如果你认为我说的有些夸张，请听一听2016年4月David Crystal在伯明翰举行的IATEFL大会的第一天发表的演讲。

Ramesh Chadalawada, Management Consultant

The British had ruled us for over 200 years. Thanks to Macaulay reforms, English was made compulsory subject in schools and colleges. Only those who knew English were getting jobs in the government. Therefore, we had learnt English perforce -- the British English with British accent. The Queen's English as it is called today, has royalty about it. An Indian who could speak King's English as it was called those days, was supposed to be a gentleman to the core in the matter of etiquette, behaviour, style of walking, talking etc. American English is polluted. It doesn't accept passive voice expressions that the British English is rich with. 'Hi...' is common in American English. British consider it as an American slang! They expect you to address them as 'Sir' or Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. etc. and conclude with Sincerely, Obediently, I beg to remain, etc., which are considered archaic today and not in tune with the present day English that we speak. The English we speak to day is adulterated to the maxmum extent. So, we should say that the English we speak is Indian English accepted in America and Britain equally with a pinch of salt.

英国人统治了我们200多年。由于麦考利的改革，英语在中小学和大学成为必修课。只有懂英语的人才能在政府找到工作。因此，我们学到了地道的英语——带有英国口音的英式英语。今天被称为“女王英语”，它带有皇室色彩。当时的印度人如果会说皇室英语，外加得体的礼仪、行为举止、走路方式、说话方式等，才会被认为是真正的绅士。美式英语被污染了。它去掉了英式英语中丰富的被动语态。“Hi”…在美式英语中很常见。英国人认为这是美国俚语！他们希望你称呼他们为“先生”、“夫人”或“女士”等，并在结尾处署上真诚地、顺从地、请求等字眼，我们现在觉得这些字词都是老古董，与我们现时使用的英语不一致。我们今天说的英语在很大程度上是掺假的。所以，我们应该说，我们说的英语是印度英语，在美国和英国同样被接受，同时受到了两者的影响。

Neeraj Patralekh, Another Engineer, Quora lover

There are two major aspect of this.

First from where we adopted this language and second from where this language become so much popular.

If we look at the former one then obviously we adopted this from British.

When Lord Macaulay became the member of Governor general's assembly he came to India and publicly critised the Indian language Sanskrit, Arabic, Urdu etc.. And declared them useless before English. He proposed that Indian should be taught English even if they show no interest.

From there English has become the official language of India. We started to learn English as a subject from school, college and even English universites were also set up. We started to read various English poem, stories Novels. We became aware of English culture and shown interest in western music, food, dressing style everything what we could adopt.

This is the story of British English.

这有两个主要方面。

首先是我们从哪里吸收了这种语言，其次是这种语言何时变得如此普及。

针对第一个问题，很明显我们是从英国人那里学来的。

当麦考利勋爵成为总督大会成员时，他来到印度，公开批评印度的语言：梵语、阿拉伯语、乌尔都语等。并宣称他们在英语面前毫无用处。他提议应该教印度人英语，即使他们对此并不感兴趣。

从此，英语成为印度的官方语言。我们开始在学校、大学里把英语作为一门学科来学习，甚至还建起了用英语授课的大学。我们开始读各种各样的英语诗歌、故事和小说。我们开始了解英国文化，对西方的音乐、食物、穿着风格都表现出了兴趣。

这就是英式英语的部分。

Now where does American come from.

Hollywood plays a major role into it. And Not only movies but American TV shows, Video games, Advertisements, Novels, Magazines everything also influenced Indian a lot to speak in American English.

American Inc also brought a different culture that has attracted us.

So to conclude this I would say British gave us English which we use on paper as a non verbal communication.

And American gave us English for Verbal communication.

And during this phase we have also invented our own Language which Hinglish

美式英语又是从哪儿开始的？

好莱坞在其中扮演了重要角色。不仅是电影，还有美国电视节目、电子游戏、广告、小说、杂志，所有这些都对印度人说美式英语产生了很大的影响。

美国公司也带来了不同的文化，吸引了我们。

所以为了总结这一点，我想说英国人教会了我们英语，我们在纸上用英语作为非语言交流。

美国人又给我们带来了用于口头交流的英语。

在这个阶段，我们还发明了自己的语言，即印度英语。

Rohit D M S

Indian English is actually and essentially a variety and a progeny of British English. The spellings, vocabulary and usage patterns in our constitution and in the books of the libraries in our supreme court and high courts are all in British Indian English and so it still is. Therefore British English is the standard for Indian English. Probably that is why there is no recognition for Indian English because British English and standard Indian English are one and the same. American English has been invading India and the whole world by the mass media, Hollywood, technology etc. Teachers and lecturers in India are themselves unable to differentiate British from American English. Many Britons themselves use Americanisms these days. New Delhi encourages Hindi and each of the states promote their languages. Indian English is neglected in India and outside! Why would uneducated politicians who are voted into power ever support English. India (Hindi vs Tamil) would have divided us long before this, but thanks to English that links us we did not. Pakistan, Lanka and would be happy to see India break up into bits and tatters.

印度英语实际上是英国英语的一个变种，也是英国英语的后代。美国宪法以及最高法院和高等法院图书馆的书籍中的拼写、词汇和使用模式都是英属印度英语，现在仍然如此。因此，英式英语是印度英语的标准。也许这就是为什么印度英语没有得到认可的原因，因为英式英语和标准印度英语是一回事。美式英语已经通过大众传媒、好莱坞、科技等手段入侵印度乃至全世界。印度的老师和讲师们自己也无法区分英式英语和美式英语。如今，许多英国人自己也在使用美式英语。新德里鼓励印度语，而每个邦都在推广自己的语言。印度英语在印度内外都被忽视了！为什么那些没有受过教育的当选的政客会支持英语呢？在此之前，印度语(印地语、泰米尔语的对抗)早就将我们分裂了，但好在英语将我们联系在一起，我们没有真的分裂。巴基斯坦、斯里兰卡和会很乐于看见印度分崩离析。

English is no birthright, it is the lingua franca of the world now, but if it were so, then India has more right on English than any other nation because we are the largest English speaking nation in the world though non native. Due to our uncontrolled population in slums and villages.

The Indians who brag about their English being American or British and disdain Indian English are either American wannabes or British wannabes. They think they are born in Ozzie land not India. The only positive side of this: it keeps the quality of English here from becoming substandard and mixng with vernacular. As for me I am a proud of my mother tongue Konkani but with a great liking for British Indian ENGLISH. I relate with English nationalistically and patriotically as well, because our first laws were passed in English, we were first ruled as one nation in English and our freedom fighters and founding fathers all argued for our independence with the colonisers in ENGLISH.

英语是当今世界的通用语言，印度在英语方面比其他任何国家都更有权利，因为我们是世界上最大的说英语的国家，虽然不是土生土长的。

那些吹嘘自己的英语是美式英语或英式英语、鄙弃印度英语是四不像的人，要么是美国崇拜者，要么是英国崇拜者。他们认为自己出生在奥兹国，而非印度。这样做唯一的好处是：它使这里的英语质量不至于不达标，也不会与本土语言混在一起。至于我，我对我的母语孔卡尼语很自豪，但我非常喜欢英属印度英语。我以民族主义和爱国主义的眼光看待英国，因为我们的第一部法律是用英语通过的，在英语中我们第一次作为一个国家被统治，我们的自由战士和开国元勋都用英语为我们的独立而与殖民者斗争。

Ashish Sharma, A tech geek, a web designing noob, blogger and a TBBT buff.

English is one of the two official languages of the Union Government of India.

Indian English generally uses the same British English Spelling as Commonwealth nations such as Pakistan, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Similarly, in common with most of the Commonwealth, the final letter of the alphabet, Z is pronounced “zed”. In addition, the punctuation mark at the end of a sentence is referred to as a "full stop" rather than "period".

Due to effects of British colonisation we use 're', 'ise', and 'our' spellings in words like 'metre', 'realise', and 'endeavour' , respectively, which Americans would spell as 'meter', realize' and 'endeavor'.

Indian accents vary greatly. Most Indians lean toward a more vernacular, native-tinted accent for their English speech.

英语是印度联邦政府的两种官方语言之一。

印度英语通常使用的是英式拼写，与英联邦国家如巴基斯坦、澳大利亚、英国、新西兰和南非等相同。

同样，与大多数英联邦国家一样，Z是字母表的最后一个字母，发音为“zed”。此外，句末的标点符号被称为“full stop”，而不是“period”。

由于英国殖民的影响，我们在单词'metre', 'realise', and 'endeavour'中的拼写是 ' re '、 ' ise '和 ' our '，而美国人把'metre', 'realise', and 'endeavour'拼成“meter”、“realize”和“endeavor”。

印度口音差别很大。大多数印度人倾向于使用更土话的、带有本土口音的英语。

Aditya Rajagopal, studied MBA in Marketing

It goes without saying that the English spoken in India is undoubtedly the British version. The English language in India is a vestige of the British colonial empire and continues to flourish even post independence. The first reason to support this is the Indian English lexcon which is based on British English. A common example is Indians saying Brinjal; few Indians would understand what is an eggplant or an aubergine, similarly it is Capsicum in India, never a bell pepper. Academic and Industrial terminology are all British, In India one finds Trams in Calcutta, not streetcars and cars are fueled with Petrol not gasoline. There are innumerable such examples to suggest that Indian English is British English. Further, Spellings in India tend to follow British forms - Colour, behaviour, calibre, spectre, anaemia to name a few. However, there seems to be a gradual drift towards the American forms. In modern times, an unfortunate trend is youngsters adopting a feigned American accent and a lingo to appear cool.

不用说，印度人说的英语无疑是英式英语。印度的英语是英国殖民帝国的残留，甚至在独立后仍继续蓬勃发展。支持这一观点的第一个原因是基于英式英语的印度英语词典。一个常见的例子是印度人把茄子称为Brinjal；很少有印度人会理解这就是茄子，类似地，印度说的辣椒不是灯笼椒。学术和工业术语都是英式英语，在印度，你会发现加尔各答的有轨电车和汽车烧的是汽油（Petrol）而不是gasoline。有无数这样的例子表明印度英语就是英式英语。此外，印度的拼写往往遵循英式英语的规则——Colour, behaviour, calibre, spectre, anaemia等等。但现在也有逐渐向美式转变的趋势。年轻人为了显得装酷而模仿美国的口音和方言。

Bobi Lloyd

There are many more versions of English than the two you referenced.

In India they would typically speak Indian English,

Just as in Jamaica Jamaican English is spoken,

So in South Africa South African English is standard,

Also Australians speak Australian English,

Can Canadians speak Canadian English? Most of them can,

How about Hong Kong, where Hong Kong English is heard,

Since we’re in Asia, in Singapore they’ll speak … you get the picture,

Nearly forgot New Zealand, where they also speak their own version.

See also Belizean, Caribbean, Falkland Islands, Irish, Kenyan, Malaysian, Philippino, Scots, Sri Lankan, Trinidadian, Ugandan, and Zimbabwean English.

英语的版本比你提到的两个版本多得多。

在印度，他们通常会说印度英语，

就像牙买加人说牙买加英语一样，

南非也一样，南非英语是标准因故，

澳大利亚人也说澳大利亚英语，

加拿大人会说加拿大英语吗？大多数人都会。

香港呢，在香港也会听到香港英语，

鉴于我们在亚洲，在新加坡，他们会说....你懂的

差点忘了新西兰，他们说的英语也是自成体系。

还有伯利兹、加勒比、福克兰群岛、爱尔兰、肯尼亚、马来西亚、菲律宾、苏格兰、斯里兰卡、特立尼达、乌干达和津巴布韦等不同英语版本。

Ravish Rawat, Graphic Designer at Langma International (2017-present)

In the government sector, we use British English. In the private sector, we use American English. Education falls under government sector and that’s where British English is taught. If you work for private companies, then you’ll have to go with American English. I personally prefer American English. It sounds cool and is much simpler. Even the American accent is simple to comprehend.

政府部门使用的是英式英语。私下里我们使用美式英语。教育属于政府部门，所以用英式英语进行教学。如果你在私营公司工作，那么你就必须使用美式英语。我个人更喜欢美式英语。听起来比较酷，而且简单多了。就连美国口音也比较容易理解。

Bistappayya Nadiger, 30 years experience in graded teaching from KG to P G students.

The English we use in India is a heterogeneous mixture of British and American Styles. We follow most of the British styles since there is an influence of their English as they ruled us nearly more than 200 years. Old people in India are after British English. The new generation is inclined and rushes towards American style. Indian English is a hybrid of both styles.

我们印度使用的英语是英美风格的混合体。我们承袭的大部分是英式英语，他们统治了印度接近200年的时间，对我们产生了一定的影响。印度的老年人说的是英式英语。新一代的人更多说的是美式英语。印度英语是两种风格的混合体。

Bhavin Sinyal, studied Mechanical Engineering at Terna Engineering College

NONE OF THE ABOVE .

Indians speak a language very closely related to English (99.9%) but has no name. Lets call that language ‘Indian-English’.

Basically we were girst introduced to British English by Britishers. But then we have this craze for America, and of its media , which has a significant influence on us.

American English words : Counter-clockwise, cotton candy, Vacation, eraser, elevator, apartment, etc

British English words: Anticlockwise, candy floss, holiday, rubber, lift, flat, etc

Indians uses all of these words interchangeably and unknowingly that they use English of multiple countries + some of which they derived like

Loose motion. This word is unknown in America /Europe. Only Indians use it to say Diarrhoea ( British) or Diarrhea ( American)

两者都不是。

印度人说的语言与英语非常接近(99.9%)，我们称这种语言为“印度英语”。

基本上我们是经由英国人引入了英式英语的。但是我们对美国及其媒体的狂热，对我们产生了巨大的影响。

美式英语里的单词：Counter-clockwise, cotton candy, Vacation, eraser, elevator, apartment等

在英式英语里变成：Anticlockwise, candy floss, holiday, rubber, lift, flat等等

印度人把这些词交替使用，而且并不知晓他们将多个国家的英语混淆使用了。

Loose motion这个词在美洲/欧洲不为人知。只有印度人用它来表示Diarrhoea（英式英语的腹泻）或Diarrhea(美式英语的腹泻)。

Ian Shearer

In my experience most Indians use a version of British English. To my ears it sounds like a rather dated and formal version of British English and i would describe it as Indian English. Maybe its a remnant of the British Empire. Of course India is a massive place and i guess there must be many regional variations which are lost on my uncultured ear.

根据我的经验，大多数印度人使用的是英式英语。在我听来，像一个相当过时又正式的英式英语版本，我把其称为印度英语。也许这是大英帝国的残余。当然，印度是一个巨大的国家，一定有很多地区的差异，这些差异在我没有文化的耳朵里听不出来。

Anand Hariharan, Will write code for food

Our next generation is bombarded by american AND british tv programming.

So, id say our kids will be equally comfortable with both.

Not sure about what spellings they will adopt though (Colour vs color).

Coming back to the question, I think the world needs to recognize that there is such a thing called Indian English that comes with its own vocabulary of hinglish words and accents.

我们的下一代被美国和英国的电视节目轰炸。

所以，我想说，我们的孩子们对这两种方式都能适应。

不确定他们会采用什么拼写方式(Colour vs color)。

回到这个问题上，我认为世界需要了解实际上有一种叫做印度英语的东西，它有自己的印度英语词汇和口音。