Friday, May 1, 2009

I was reading, In the Language of Our ancestors, It says that the first language of two-thirds of today's Indian youth is Indian English. Indian English is described as English dialects used by American Indians that do not conform in certain ways to standard English. In the way it is spoken it reflects linguistic competencies that must underlie all languages. Rules of grammar and discourse from that tradition provide the basis for grammar and discourse in these English codes even when the speaker is not fluent in their ancestral language. (Magda Costantino, Joe St. Charles, and Denny Hurtado)
Then they proceeded to say that Indian English serves as a language bridge between the past and the present. I thought this was interesting and perhaps a product of families that want to keep the language alive with the little ancestral language they know. That's admirable.