IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v449y2016icp375-389.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What is India speaking? Exploring the “Hinglish” invasion

Author

Listed:
  • Parshad, Rana D.
  • Bhowmick, Suman
  • Chand, Vineeta
  • Kumari, Nitu
  • Sinha, Neha

Abstract

Language competition models help understand language shift dynamics, and have effectively captured how English has outcompeted various local languages, such as Scottish Gaelic in Scotland, and Mandarin in Singapore. India, with a 125 million English speakers boasts the second largest number of English speakers in the world, after the United States. The 1961–2001 Indian censuses report a sharp increase in Hindi/English Bilinguals, suggesting that English is on the rise in India. To the contrary, we claim supported by field evidence, that these statistics are inaccurate, ignoring an emerging class who do not have full bilingual competence and switch between Hindi and English, communicating via a code popularly known as “Hinglish”. Since current language competition models occlude hybrid practices and detailed local ecological factors, they are inappropriate to capture the current language dynamics in India. Expanding predator–prey and sociolinguistic theories, we draw on local Indian ecological factors to develop a novel three-species model of interaction between Monolingual Hindi speakers, Hindi/English Bilinguals and Hinglish speakers, and explore the long time dynamics it predicts. The model also exhibits Turing instability, which is the first pattern formation result in language dynamics. These results challenge traditional assumptions of English encroachment in India. More broadly, the three-species model introduced here is a first step towards modeling the dynamics of hybrid language scenarios in other settings across the world.

Suggested Citation

  • Parshad, Rana D. & Bhowmick, Suman & Chand, Vineeta & Kumari, Nitu & Sinha, Neha, 2016. "What is India speaking? Exploring the “Hinglish” invasion," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 449(C), pages 375-389.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:449:y:2016:i:c:p:375-389
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2016.01.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437116000236
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.physa.2016.01.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nie, Lin-Fei & Teng, Zhi-Dong & Nieto, Juan J. & Jung, Il Hyo, 2015. "State impulsive control strategies for a two-languages competitive model with bilingualism and interlinguistic similarity," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 430(C), pages 136-147.
    2. An, Zhecheng & Pan, Qiuhui & Yu, Guangying & Wang, Zhen, 2012. "The spatial distribution of clusters and the formation of mixed languages in bilingual competition," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(20), pages 4943-4952.
    3. Mehtabul Azam & Aimee Chin & Nishith Prakash, 2013. "The Returns to English-Language Skills in India," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(2), pages 335-367.
    4. Bakalis, Evangelos & Galani, Alexandra, 2012. "Modeling language evolution: Aromanian, an endangered language in Greece," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(20), pages 4963-4969.
    5. Erez Lieberman & Jean-Baptiste Michel & Joe Jackson & Tina Tang & Martin A. Nowak, 2007. "Quantifying the evolutionary dynamics of language," Nature, Nature, vol. 449(7163), pages 713-716, October.
    6. David Clingingsmith, 2014. "Industrialization and Bilingualism in India," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 49(1), pages 73-109.
    7. Martin A. Nowak & Natalia L. Komarova & Partha Niyogi, 2002. "Computational and evolutionary aspects of language," Nature, Nature, vol. 417(6889), pages 611-617, June.
    8. Schulze, Christian & Stauffer, Dietrich, 2007. "Competition of languages in the presence of a barrier," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 379(2), pages 661-664.
    9. Patriarca, Marco & Heinsalu, Els, 2009. "Influence of geography on language competition," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(2), pages 174-186.
    10. Daniel M. Abrams & Steven H. Strogatz, 2003. "Modelling the dynamics of language death," Nature, Nature, vol. 424(6951), pages 900-900, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nie, Lin-Fei & Teng, Zhi-Dong & Nieto, Juan J. & Jung, Il Hyo, 2015. "State impulsive control strategies for a two-languages competitive model with bilingualism and interlinguistic similarity," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 430(C), pages 136-147.
    2. Michael Boissonneault & Paul Vogt, 2021. "A systematic and interdisciplinary review of mathematical models of language competition," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Patriarca, Marco & Heinsalu, Els, 2009. "Influence of geography on language competition," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(2), pages 174-186.
    4. Wyburn, John & Hayward, John, 2019. "An application of an analogue of the partition function to the evolution of diglossia," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 516(C), pages 447-463.
    5. Bakalis, Evangelos & Galani, Alexandra, 2012. "Modeling language evolution: Aromanian, an endangered language in Greece," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(20), pages 4963-4969.
    6. Gauri Kartini Shastry, 2012. "Human Capital Response to Globalization: Education and Information Technology in India," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 47(2), pages 287-330.
    7. Karthik Muralidharan & Venkatesh Sundararaman, 2013. "The Aggregate Effect of School Choice: Evidence from a Two-stage Experiment in India," NBER Working Papers 19441, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Templin, Torsten & Seidl, Andrea & Wickström, Bengt-Arne & Feichtinger, Gustav, 2016. "Optimal language policy for the preservation of a minority language," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 8-21.
    9. David Bodoff & Ron Bekkerman & Julie Dai, 2017. "Evolution of language: An empirical study at eBay Big Data Lab," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(12), pages 1-17, December.
    10. Caridi, Inés & Nemiña, Francisco & Pinasco, Juan P. & Schiaffino, Pablo, 2013. "Schelling-voter model: An application to language competition," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 216-221.
    11. Saavedra, Martín & Mira, Jorge & Muñuzuri, Alberto P. & Seoane, Luís F., 2023. "A spectrum of complexity uncovers Dunbar’s number and other leaps in social structure," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    12. Luís F. Seoane & Xaquín Loredo & Henrique Monteagudo & Jorge Mira, 2019. "Is the coexistence of Catalan and Spanish possible in Catalonia?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-9, December.
    13. Owolabi, Kolade M. & Gómez-Aguilar, J.F., 2018. "Numerical simulations of multilingual competition dynamics with nonlocal derivative," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 175-182.
    14. Torsten Templin, 2019. "A language competition model for new minorities," Rationality and Society, , vol. 31(1), pages 40-69, February.
    15. de la Fuente Stevens, Diego & Pelkonen, Panu, 2023. "Economics of minority groups: Labour-market returns and transmission of indigenous languages in Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    16. Sahoo, Soham & Klasen, Stephan, 2018. "Gender Segregation in Education and Its Implications for Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from India," IZA Discussion Papers 11660, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Safarzynska, Karolina & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2011. "Beyond replicator dynamics: Innovation-selection dynamics and optimal diversity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(3), pages 229-245, May.
    18. Michael J Weir & Catherine M Ashcraft & Natallia Leuchanka Diessner & Bridie McGreavy & Emily Vogler & Todd Guilfoos, 2020. "Language effects on bargaining," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-20, March.
    19. Antonio Paolo & Aysit Tansel, 2019. "English skills, labour market status and earnings of Turkish women," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 46(4), pages 669-690, November.
    20. Antonio Di Paolo & Aysit Tansel, 2015. "Returns to Foreign Language Skills in a Developing Country: The Case of Turkey," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 407-421, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:449:y:2016:i:c:p:375-389. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.