08/31/2006 | Navigator

мовою?
Вирішив порівняти мовну ситуацію в Україні з ситуацією в Індії.
Почитайте - індійська англійська проста, а дослідження надзвичайно цікаве. Видно, в хінді історичних шансів витіснити англійську небагато... Ситуація там значно ускладнюється тим, що на відміну від
України, де тільки російськомовні регіони погрожують вийти зі складу держави при проведенні українізації, в Індії така загроза вже походить від 75% населення, що вважає мову хінді нічим не кращою за рідну. На відміну від англійської, що дає, на думку переважної більшості жителів всіх регіонів Індії, і суттєві кар"єрні переваги і насолоду. Зі всіх газет в Індії 18.7 % виходять по-англійськи, на хінді -27.8.
З незнайомими людьми індус скоріше за все теж заговорить по-англійськи (40%; Local 33%, Hindi 6%)
Можна подивитись на цю проблему ще і так, що для українця також російська (як і хінді) нічим не краща за українську, а тому англійська...
Словом, почитайте.

http://www.languageinindia.com/may2003

ENGLISH IS VIRTUALLY THE FIRST LANGUAGE FOR MANY IN INDIA
In terms of numbers of English speakers, the Indian subcontinent ranks third in the world, after the USA and UK. An estimated 4% of the Indian population use English; although the number might seem small, out of the total population that is about 35 million people (in 1994)(Crystal 1995:101). Although the number of speakers of English in India is somewhat limited (as compared to the total population), that small segment of the population controls domains that have professional prestige . Over half of all personal letters are written in English (62%). People are also introduced to each other most often in English (29%, Hindi:6%). People who have not met before, too, prefer English as the common language of conversation (40%; Local 33%, Hindi 6%). In case the mother tongues of the neighbours differ, English serves as the link language most of the time (67%). Hindi and H/E are reported second most common languages (13% both).
English is virtually the first language for many educated Indians, and for many, who speak more than one language, English is the second one. 80% of the informants like speaking English; 20% report not to. Those 20% seem to consider speaking English not as a matter of option or willingness; it is just plain reality.

Аt present there are 3,582 Indian newspapers in English. English-language newspapers are published in practically all states of the Republic. Of a total of 19,144 newspapers registered in India in 1982, those in English accounted for 18.7 percent, whereas the newspapers in Hindi accounted for 27.8 percent. India is the third largest English book-producing country after the United States and the United Kingdom, and the largest number of books are published in English. Creative writing in English is considered an integral part of the literary traditions in South Asia.


Only a minimal fraction of the English-using Indian population has any interaction with native speakers of English. According to Kachru's survey (the population of which was graduate faculty of English in the universities and colleges), only 65.64 percent had occasional interaction with native speakers of English; 11.79 percent had no interaction and 5.12 percent claimed to have daily interaction with native speakers of English

Most of the people do not know any other Indian language than their own. English is most widely spoken second language , followed by Hindi. English is more useful as a "lingua franca"; the usefulness of Hindi as a lingua franca is regionally limited.

In 1971, it was estimated that the rate of bilingualism in India was 13%. 99% of English speakers are second-language speakers, whereas in many other languages there are no non-native speakers at all (although there are large numbers of native speakers) (Mahapatra 1990: 7).
There were, however, several problems with selecting Hindi, and since the protests were often violent (e.g. the riots in Tamil Nadu in May 1963, protesting against the imposition of Hindi), the government wanted to adapt a policy which would help to maintain the status quo. Firstly, Hindi is not evenly distributed throughout the country; e.g. in Tamil Nadu, in the south, only 0.0002 per cent of the people claimed knowledge of Hindi or Urdu, whereas in the northern states this figure can rise up to 96.7 per cent. Secondly, it was thought that the speakers of other languages would be offended by its selection; other Indian languages, for example Tamil and Bengali, had as much right to be national languages as Hindi. The other Indian communities felt they would be professionally, politically and socially disadvantaged were Hindi given the central role. Thirdly, Hindi was thought to need vocabulary development before it could be used efficiently as a language of government. In spite of these problems, Hindi was chosen as the national language in the constitution, and English was to be replaced by Hindi in fifteen years' time. However, due to the continuous opposition in the south, this replacement was not politically possible. In 1967 a law was passed which allowed the use of both Hindi and English for all official purposes - and that situation still exists (Fasold 1984: 24).
The controversy between Hindi, Urdu and Hindustani made the case for Hindi even worse. Support for Hindustani almost ended with independence; Hindi's supporters' enthusiasm was not, also, channeled in a constructive direction. As a result, English continues to be a language of both power and prestige (Kachru 1986a: 8).

Originally, 15 national languages were recognized by the Indian government. At present 18 languages are included in the Constitution of India (See Languages According to the 1991 Census of India.). Linguistic diversity -- multilingualism -- is, according to Mahapatra, found in most present-day nations (Mahapatra 1990: 1). In the Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language (1996: 940), a multilingual person is defined as one "able to speak more than two languages with approximately equal facility". Kachru describes the same phenomenon as the "linguistic behavior of the members of a speech community which alternately uses two, three or more languages depending on the situation and function".
English is not classified as one of the 15 national languages of India (NEB:286). Although Hindi is the Official Language of the Union, provision was made in the Constitution that English would be used in official work until 1965, after which Hindi would replace it. Because of the opposition of the Dravidian south against Hindi, the Indian Government decided to further extend the role of English as an additional language with Hindi to be used for purposes of the Union and in Parliament.


Pandit (1979) has given an example of how a multilingual speaker might use the different codes in his repertoire. He describes an Indian businessman living in a suburb of Bombay. His mother tongue and home language is a dialect of Gujarati; in the market he uses a familiar variety of Marathi, the state language; at the railway station he speaks the pan-Indian lingua franca, Hindustani; the language of work is Kachi, the code of the spice trade; in the evening he will watch a film in Hindi or in English and listen to a cricket-match commentary on the radio in English. One can ask: what roles does each of these different languages and varieties perform in the community and the individual

All the informants speak at least three languages (English included); some claim to speak even up to six languages.
In education, English is the most common medium (87% of all the situations). At school, friends who spoke the same language usually talked in L1 (45%), although English comes next (25%), and Hindi third (14%). English was considered the best medium of communication in the instances in which the languages of the parties in question differed (75%; Hindi 14%).
English dominates in the domain of government, both when it comes to writing letters (93% are written in English) and also as a general language of the domain (70%; Hindi 7%). But, when meeting government officials, there is more division: English is still the most common language (37%), but L1 is also used quite often (23%), as well as Hindi (10%) and a regional language (10%).
As well as job interviews are without exception carried out in English (100%), so are also business letters written in English. If one's and one's boss's languages differ, the common language will most often (97%) be English. E/H comes second (3%). When it comes to talking to one's colleagues who come from different parts of India, 67% of the time one would resort to English (Hindi 17%, E/H 17%, H/L1/E 3%).
80% of the informants like speaking English; 20% report not to. Those 20% seem to consider speaking English not as a matter of option or willingness; it is just plain reality.
The informants do not identify themselves with British and Anglo-American culture (83%); only one reports that he/she identifies him/herself strongly with the culture, and 13% said that they somewhat identified themselves with it. Indian values seem to be still important to the informants; 73% of the informants do not identify themselves with western values (only two people say they identify themselves with western values).
Speaking English is considered an advantage by 93% of the informants (with 60% strongly agree). Most of the people admitted (93%) that it is useful to know English when looking for a job.

People are, too, fairly convinced that without the knowledge of English their job opportunities would be relatively limited; 76% thinks that without the knowledge of English they could not get a job at all (53% strongly agreeing). However, still 23% of the informants, almost one fourth, disagreed with the statement (13% strongly).

87% of the informants think of English as one way of securing one's chances to get a good job (although, as one informant put it, "It depends on what kind of job"). Hindi is, in general, too, perceived as "less useful to know than English" (57%). 41% disagree with this.

The great majority (97%) of the informants think that even if they did not know Hindi, they still would get a job. Most (94%) of the informants think all children should learn English at school (however, some acknowledged the illusion of that statement:"Wish, but I don't think it's possible".

Hindi was not quite as popular: only 10% of the informants (all of whom actually speak Hindi as their L1) would like to speak Hindi whenever possible. 67% disagreed with the statement (17% strongly). Most (72%) of the people who disagreed with the statement come from either Tamil Nadu of West Bengal. One informant argued:"Hindi is someone else's regional language, it's not mine. Why should I use it? Why is Hindi special? Why not Bengali, or Tamil, or Malayalam, or any of the wonderful Indian languages?"
A little over half of the informants (60%) thought that creative writing can be done in a foreign language; the language does not matter, as long as the person is a skilled writer: "It depends on personal skills" and "You can be comfortable with many languages, it depends on the individual". Still, 40% of the people are of the opinion that creative writing should preferably be done in one's mother tongue, 17% were strongly agreeing (one informant wrote: "I feel so as I can not express my feelings as I want in English".)
A little more than half of the informants (60%) would like to see Hindi as the official language of India also in the future.
Most (67%) of the informants feel proud to speak the language and consider it a big part of their culture and identity (although 13% of them strongly disagreed with the statement: one informant added:"I assume "our" implies North India" and one Bengali commented:"It is a regional language. It is no greater or less than BENGALI". One person from Tamil Nadu explained the linguistic situation in the south as follows: "Hindi is not at all prevalent in the Southern states, especially Tamil Nadu...so in the Southern states, English is more often the common language if people of different languages meet").
The clear majority of the informants considers speaking both Hindi and English an advantage. Although both the languages are thus considered important, they are important in different domains and for different purposes. English is considered important to India as a whole. Only 10% disagreed somewhat with the statement (two Tamils and one West Bengali). Most informants do not feel the need for more TV and radio programs available in English. 44% of the informants, however, would like to have more broadcasting in English. The majority (80%) would like to see English always on public signs, notices and ads, although, as one informant adds: "along with regional languages". According to the majority of the informants (63%), English carries higher status than Hindi in India. English is perceived, on the whole, advantageous to the country. As much as 93% think this way, with the exception of one informant from Tamil Nadu and another from West Bengal. The belief that Indian people most often use English with other Indians is also confirmed in the study . One third uses English most often with foreigners.

People's motives for supporting English are mostly instrumental: the results of the study reveal that English is perceived as a useful language to know mostly because of job opportunities: English is considered necessary would one want to have a job. On the other hand, Hindi is not perceived important when it comes to getting a job: only one informant claimed he/she could not get a job without the knowledge of Hindi. The informants, too, support the role of English as an associate official language, for 62% of them require a person to be able to speak English to be admitted to a public post. Education is an important proof of the status of a language in a society, and if this is true, in the case of English its status seems quite secure: over 90% of the informants are of the opinion that all children should learn English at school.
Whereas English was considered important to India in most of the responses (90%), Hindi is perceived important for the development of the country only by 33% of them.
Integrative motivation seems to be very important for maintaining Hindi as the official language of India. It is, also, beneficial for the maintenance of a language to be associated with positive cultural values; especially when a less prestigious language is in question. Although, as mentioned earlier, English is clearly perceived as a more useful language to know, people on the other hand can identify themselves more easily with Hindi (only 17% said they identified themselves with British and Anglo-American culture, whereas about 67% of the informants feel proud to speak the language and consider it a big part of their culture and identity). Most of the informants would like the use of Hindi to be encouraged in India, as well as they would like to see it as the official language also in future. Most of them thought, too, that they would miss out on many enjoyable parts of culture could they not speak Hindi.
Consequently, the Three Language Formula was developed for the educational load to be more fair, to promote national integration, and, to provide wider language choice in the school curriculum (Srivastava 1990: 43). According to the formula, people from non-Hindi areas study their regional language, Hindi, and English. Hindi speakers, on the other hand, study Hindi, English and another language

Although the formula sounds fine in theory, Baldridge (ibid) states that the Three Language Formula has proved to be a failure in India as a whole, since it has not been followed in practice


The process of nativization is due both to transfer from local language as well as to the new cultural environment and communicative needs (Saghal 1991: 300). Because of deep social penetration and the extended range of functions of English in diverse sociolinguistic contexts there are several varieties, localized registers and genres for articulating local social, cultural and religious identities

the spread of English and its intercultural uses raise questions concerning diversification, codification, identities, cross-cultural intelligibility and power and ideology. The ultimate danger could be decay or even loss of international intelligibility