Born On A Cusp

(With apologies to Rene Descartes.)

This may be what they call ‘soft power’: conquering the globe without designing to do so, and without the ‘hard’ power of warfare or colonisation — but rather with ‘soft’ tools as in culture.

One of the world’s leading language experts says a new kind of Standard English, which will be understood globally, will soon evolve. And, says Prof. David Crystal, this new Standard English will have pronounced Indian characteristics. Crystal is author of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.

Thus for example, instead of the British, “I think it’s going to rain”, future users of this global Standard English might commonly say, “I am thinking it’s going to rain.”

“In language, numbers count,” says Crystal. “There are more people speaking English in India than in the rest of the native English-speaking world.”

And since Indians tend to say, ‘I am thinking, I am feeling, I am seeing’ — rather than, ‘I think, I feel, I see’ — this way of speaking, says Crystal, “could easily become sexy.”

I am sure that even Indians did not see this coming. It’s just really how they speak English, translating from native-tongue linguistic mechanisms while utilising the second (or third, fourth) language.

Take this thing about using the word ‘only.’ You would think they can simply say, “I live in Delhi.” But what they will say is, “I live in Delhi only.” Or if I ask FrenchBeard for instance, “Where is this bookshop?” and he’ll reply, “It’s in Khan Market only.”

A widely read columnist on popular culture, Vir Sanghvi, not long ago wrote that he thinks this is simply the result of translating the Hindi, ‘hai’ (a nasal intonation like heh), which normally ends a declarative or inquisitive sentence — the use depending on tone — into ‘only.’

And language never ceases to amaze.