Do they just speak faster? Do the Indian words/pronunciation flow better/faster than English does? And they are simply trying to match the cadence?

  • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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    8 months ago

    The key here is that you’ll probably find the exact same “oddity” among speakers of other languages, even outside India.

    I think British English put more and longer emphasis on vowels. It’s almost like they speak in vowels only. Compared to Canadian English, Indian accents are still fast.

    I feel like you might have unearthed something interesting here.

    The English varieties spoken in those countries like Canada, Belize, USA, Jamaica, etc. had plenty recent interaction with multiple other languages; specially Canada with French and Belize with Spanish. On the other hand, what people usually call “British English” is mostly Standard Southern British (up/middle class, around London), a bit too far away from any meaningful linguistic influence.

    So I’m wondering if the two patterns aren’t actually the same pattern. I’m just hypothesising though, this might be incorrect.

    • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 months ago

      Well British English is soft like many European languages. I remember listening to a video on sounds of different languages and was surprised that British English sounded so similarly soft as other European languages.