Hybridity in Nepalese English

Abstract

With its unprecedented spread globally, English has been diversified, nativized, and hybridized in different countries. In Nepal, English is code-mixed or hybridized as a result of its contact with the local languages, the bilinguals’ creativity, and the nativization by Nepalese English speakers. This qualitative content analysis paper attempts to describe hybridity in Nepalese English by bringing the linguistic examples from two anthologies of stories, two novels, five essays and two articles written in English by Nepalese writers, one news story published in the English newspaper, advertisements/banners, and diary entries, which were sampled purposively. The present study showed that hybridity is found in affixation, reduplication, compounding, blending, neologisms, and calques. Pedagogically, speakers of Nepalese English can utilize linguistic hybridization as a powerful tool to nativize English in the local contexts, exhibit hybrid identities and linguistic co-existence, exercise their bilingual linguistic creativity, reduce their linguistic anxiety, and maximize the linguistic economy.

English in Nepal: Attitudes Towards Nepali English or Other Varieties of English

“…Although there are some qualitative studies on NE focusing on phonological, lexical, grammatical, and discourse features of NE (Adhikari, 2018;Brett, 1999;Dewan, 2021;Dewan & Laksamba, 2020;Jora, 2019;Karn, 2012;Koirala, 2021;Rai, 2006), none of the study has been conducted on English teachers and students' attitudes towards NE and other varieties of English in terms of intelligibility, identity, nature of standard, practicability, and acceptability, the five theoretical constructs used by Ferguson (2006) to describe the debates between the Standard BE or AE and other varieties of English. Therefore, the researcher finds a wider lacuna in the earlier research and the present research and claims that it is a unique area of research in Nepal.…”

“…Achebe and India's Raja Rao, Khushwant Singh, and Mulk Raj Anand knowingly deviated English from the so-called native norms of English. Such culture of appropriating English can also be experienced in the creative writings of Nepal (see Adhikari, 2020;Dewan, 2021;Dewan & Laksamba, 2020;Karn, 2012;Rai, 2006). Because of the practicality of NE, most teachers in Adhikari's (2020) study also agreed that NE should be institutionally recognized and given enough room in university course books.…”

“…However, the colonization of British rulers over India had direct and indirect influence on Nepal and it is claimed that English spread and flourished more in Nepal during the colonial era in India. After Nepali, English occupies the second position in terms of its extensive Hartford, 1993;Kachru, 2011;Shrestha, 1983;Subedi, 2019), Nepalese English (Crystal, 2003;Dewan & Laksamba, 2020;Jora, 2019;Karn, 2011;McArthur, 1987), Nepali variety of English (Verma, 2006, cited in Karn, 2011), Nepanglish (Kamali, 2010), and Nepenglish (Sharma et al, 2015). The study conducted by Lambert (2018) revealed that the hybrid term was created after the two-word compound term.…”

“…As a matter of fact, some kind of Nepaliness has been added to the English spoken here." This has been justified by some scholars from home and abroad through their research based articles (Adhikari, 2018;Brett, 1999;Dewan, 2021;Dewan & Laksamba, 2020;Karn, 2012;Koirala, 2021;Sharma et al, 2015;Rai 2006).…”

Semantic Volte Face of English Words in Nepal

“…With globalization and the unprecedented spread of English worldwide, bilinguals' creativity and nativization, a different variety of English has emerged in Nepal. The localized variety of English spoken and written in Nepal is known by different names such as Nepalese English (Crystal, 2003;Dewan & Laksamba, 2020;Karn, 2011;McArthur, 1987), Nepali English (Adhikari, 2018;Brett, 1999;Dewan, 2021;Giri, 2020;Hartford, 1993;Kachru, 2011), Nenglish (Daniloff-Merrill, 2010, as cited in Karn, 2011;Duwadi, 2010;Koirala, 2021;Paudyal, 2019;Rai, 2006), Neplish (Homes, 2007), Nepanglish (Kamali, 2010), and Nepenglish (Sharma et al, 2015). All these studies describe NE and its different features.…”