“CHITTI, PUT THE TV” OR “CHITTI, SWITCH ON THE TV”? : THE PRAGMATICS RELEVANCE OF THE SUBCONTINENT ENGLISHES FROM TWO INDIAN MOVIES “I AM” AND “ROBOT”

Abstract

On a bright day in July last year, an Indian lady from Yemen named Nisha Kelunair Vasudeevan came to South Carolina, which is commonly categorized as one of USA states that belong to SAE or Southern American English known as one of American English varieties. Nisha did not have problem communicating with South Carolina people when she asked for direction every time she got lost although her English dialectically sounds much different with the Carolinians. She fluently speaks English and was easily understood by her interlocutors. That was her first time coming to America. In other words, previously she only got exposure of English when she was living in both countries India and Yemen. Regarding the English that Nisha speaks, it must be mostly influenced by her other languages as she admitted that beside English she also can speak Hindi and Urdu. Although this multilingual ability is undoubtedly might interfere among the languages, she still can speak intelligible English for communication.