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[v]at is going on? Local and global ideologies about Indian English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2009

VINEETA CHAND
VINEETA CHAND*
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of California, Davis, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, vchand@ucdavis.edu.
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Abstract

This article examines local and global language ideologies surrounding a particular phonetic feature in Indian English, the pronunciation of /v/ as [w]. By focusing on how local and global participants – both individuals and institutions – imagine language variation through disparate framings of “neutral” and “standard,” it highlights how processes of globalization and localization are interconnected, dialogic, and symbiotic. Compared are (i) sociolinguistic constructions of Indian cartoon characters, (ii) American “accent training” institutes, (iii) Indian call center and language improvement books, (iv) American speakers’ interpretations of merged IE speech, and, (v) IE speakers’ attitudes about IE, “neutral,” and ”standard” language. The relative social capital of these populations mediates both how each constructs its respective ideology about language variation, and how these ideologies dialogically interact with each other. (Language variation, language ideologies, dialogic, standard language)1

Type
Research Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , September 2009 , pp. 393 - 419
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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