Lakhasly

The development of a new variety of English in the Indian context is in many regards a
prototypical example of the emergence of what Kachru (1985a) has labelled institutionalized
second-language varieties, i.e. varieties of English in postcolonial settings which
are based on educated speakers’ use of English as an additional language for a wide
range of institutionalized contexts (e.g. in administration, in the education system, in
newspapers). In the following, the process of institutionalization will therefore be
described along the lines of Schneider’s (2003, 2007) dynamic model of the evolution
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of postcolonial Englishes – a model that is intended to capture the essentially uniform
pattern of variety formation world-wide. The model is, in essence, based on two interrelated
factors: (1) changing identity-constructions, and (2) changing interactions between
two strands of population, namely the settlers (STL) and the indigenous population (IDG).
The fundamental idea that combines the two factors is the following one: the more
intense the contact and interaction between the local population and the colonizers
becomes, the stronger is the effect on the sociocultural identity-construction of the two
groups, which ultimately leads to the establishment of a new hybrid identity manifesting
itself in a new variety of English: the IDG and STL ‘“strands” of development …
are interwoven like twisted threads’ (Schneider 2003: 242). The two factors are held
responsible for a universal evolutionary pattern in the formation of New Englishes
consisting of five identifiable (but overlapping) stages (cf. Schneider, this volume):
Phase I – Foundation: In this initial phase, the English language is transported to a
new (colonial) territory.
Phase II – Exonormative stabilization: There is a growing number of English settlers/
speakers in the new territory, but the language standards and norms are still determined
by the input variety and are, thus, usually oriented towards British English.
Phase III – Nativization: The English language becomes an integral part of the local
linguistic repertoire as there is a steady increase in the number of competent bilingual
L2 speakers of English from the indigenous population.
Phase IV – Endonormative stabilization: After independence, English may be retained
as a/an (co-)official language and a medium of communication for a more or less
wide range of intra-national contexts (e.g. administration and the press, academia and
education); in this phase a new variety of English emerges with generally accepted
local standards and norms.
Phase V – Differentiation: Once a New English variety has become endonormatively
stabilized, it may develop a wide range of regional and social dialects.
It has been shown in several applications of the model to the Indian context (cf.
Mukherjee 2007; Schneider 2007) that the story of English in India over the past four
centuries can indeed be told along the lines of phases I to IV, as will be shown in the
following sections.