A Sociolinguistic Investigation of the English Spoken by the Anglo-Indians in Mysore City (An Old Book)

The spread of English as an international language, the social differentiation of English and the changing roles and functions of English in different parts of the world has been engaging the attention of scholars in recent times. Whether to treat English: as a single language with functional variation of its use, or treat it as many Englishes bound by network relationship ‘is another dimension of these concerns. Thanks to the colonial thrust of the English language there are more studies of English as second and further language rather than as. mother tongue. The present study is the first full length contribution in India to the study of English as mother tongue.

The Anglo-Indians are a linguistic, ethnic and religious minority in India who are defined by the use of English language. The changing roles and mores of English within the community over generation provide interesting insight for the study of maintenance of ethnic identity and standardisation of language.

Just as presence or absence of i can be marked feature for dialect differentiation similarly centralisation or peripheralization of vowels in relation to the standard could make dialect differentiation in English.

As presence or absence of ‘re within a single dialect area may pose problems, presence or absence of centralization in the English of a single. speech community can create’ similar problems in defining language.

The Anglo-Indian English of Mysore which is characterised by centralisation of vowels distinguishes itself from other varieties on this score It is not only the other varieties which may not have centralisation, even some features of Anglo-Indian English in Mysore itself do not show centralisation. This provides us with insight to view language in terms of a network coherence and degrees of binding.

The present study aimed at looking into mother tongue as an identity symbol and attitude of a minority towards the majority language. I am happy that on both counts we have received valuable insights. If scholars in the field of linguistics and sociolinguistics find the monograph useful, then the efforts of the Institute would have been rewarded congratulate the scholar and all those responsible for the production of this book.

**Contents and Sample Pages**