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It seems that native speakers of Hindi and related languages speak English with a certain lilt. Is this representative of a semantic feature of Hindi or is it just the way it's done?
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Is this representative of a semantic feature of Hindi or is it just the way it's done?
I always assumed (1) that it is an artifact of some phonological features of their first or native language, and (2) it also resulted from their mainly learning English from other non-native speakers and that the lilt was simply a new accent for a regional type of English.
On reconsideration of your question, I take it that you mean some phonological features, such as phonological tone in English can be used for syntactic purposes, e.g., turning a statement into a question by a rising tone on the final word or syllable. Or, affected a quality of voice, as in the sarcastic answer to somebody's question: "Yeah, right."
Also, I have not noticed any great difference in accents amongst speakers in the north, who in the main speak Indo-Aryan languages (such as Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujerati, etc.) and those in the south who speak Dravidian ones. They are really quite different groups of languages, genetically, phonologically, and syntactically.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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stranger
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stranger
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One characteristic of India is a number of consonants pronounced with the tongue in the roof of the mouth - a t, a d, an s and an n. (They also have what we consider the standard versions of t, d, s, and n.) They are called "cerebral" consonants if I remember aright. When Sanskrit (at least) is transcribed into English, those cerebral consonants are written with a dot underneath. My Sanskrit teacher guessed that they came into Sanskrit from the Dravidian languages.
--------- My Novels and Poetry (Romance! Theology! Tantra! and an occasional recipe) http://btwreviews.com
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They are called "cerebral" consonants if I remember aright.Yes, the Sanskrit term is mūrdhanya 'cerebral' (< mūrdhan 'head', cf. Old English molda 'top of the head' link). They are called retroflex consonants in Western phonology, because the tip of the tongue is turned back a bit to touch the palate or just behind the alveolar ridge. The dental (in Sanskrit called dantya) series is more like Romance dentals, with the tongue touching the back of the upper row of teeth, while the English dentals (e.g., t, d) are really alveolar consonants with the tongue touching the alveolar ridge above the teeth. It's interesting that most English loanwords in Hindi (and other north Indian languages) use retroflex phones to transliterate English alveolars rather than dental ones (e.g., इसटेषन isṭeshan 'station').
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Thank you, latishya--those were great. (I did take your suggestion of listening only.) The first time I recall hearing English spoken that way was by the really cute guy in Short Circuit.
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enthusiast
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Thank you, latishya--those were great. (I did take your suggestion of listening only.) Now that you have heard the links, you might enjoy seeing the Indians in question. 
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stranger
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stranger
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So the word Tamil has a retroflex T? Still hard for me to hear with certainty even after two years of Sanskrit...
--------- My Novels and Poetry (Romance! Theology! Tantra! and an occasional recipe) http://btwreviews.com
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enthusiast
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So the word Tamil has a retroflex T? Still hard for me to hear with certainty even after two years of Sanskrit... In Hindi the word for Tamil is spelled with an unaspirated dental "t" त not a retroflex either aspirated ठ or not ट. I dont know about what the tamilians use but Kalki was expressing a view ive often heard from southie friends, an awareness of difficulty with some Hindi sounds. its really more about the superiority complex hindi has about its primacy in indian languages. after all hindi has no sound like the "l" in Tamil which should be really more 'zh' and sounds like this
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