Cover not available

In:Ugandan English: Its sociolinguistics, structure and uses in a globalising post-protectorate
Edited by Christiane Meierkord, Bebwa Isingoma and Saudah Namyalo
[Varieties of English Around the World G59] 2016
► pp. 251–274

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Indian English in Uganda

The historical sociolinguistics of a migrant community

Published online: 20 October 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g59.11rat
The Indian community in Uganda represents a special case of migration. During the colonial period, there were several major immigration waves that were sociologically and sociolinguistically heterogeneous. In Uganda, Indian migrants were mostly endocentric and concentrated, often with very little interaction with the British elite and the local African populations, and came to represent ‘a society within a society’, economically successful and socially mobile. Their situation changed dramatically, however, when Idi Amin expelled the community in 1972. In this chapter, we look into the social and socio-demographic history of Indian migrants in Uganda and outline its sociolinguistic consequences. We argue that due to their status, they maintained Indian English features and did not accommodate to British or East African varieties.
References (20)
References
Brown, J.M. 2006. Global South Asians: Introducing the Modern Diaspora. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clarke, C., Peach, C. & Vertovec, S. 1990. Introduction: Themes in the study of the South Asian diaspora. In South Asians Overseas: Migration and Ethnicity, C. Clarke, C. Peach & S. Vertovec (eds), 1–29. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Devadas, V. 2006. The kangani and maistry systems. In The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora, B.V. Lal, P. Reeves & R. Rai (eds), 53–57. Honolulu HI: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gargesh, R. 2004. Indian English: Phonology. In A Handbook of Varieties of English, Vol 1: Phonology, E.W. Schneider, K. Burridge, B. Kortmann, R. Mesthrie & C. Upton (eds), 992–1002. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gregory, R.G. 1993. South Asians in East Africa: An Economic and Social History, 1890–1980. Boulder CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hancock, I.F. & Angogo, R. 1982. English in East Africa. In English as a World Language, R.W. Bailey & M. Görlach (eds), 306–323. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huxley, E. 1956. White Man’s Country: Lord Delamere and the Making of Kenya, Vol. 2. London: Chatto and Windus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kalra, V.S. 2006. United Kingdom. In The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora, B.V. Lal, P. Reeves & R. Rai (eds), 336–345. Honolulu HI: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Khadria, B. 2006. Post-war migration. In The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora, B.V. Lal, P. Reeves & R. Rai (eds), 66–70. Honolulu HI: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lal, B. 2006. The indenture system. In The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora, B.V. Lal, P. Reeves & R. Rai (eds), 46–53. Honolulu HI: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marett, V. 1989. Immigrants Settling in the City. London: Leicester University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mesthrie, R. 1992. English in Language Shift: The History, Structure and Sociolinguistics of South African Indian English. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Indian South African English: Phonology. In A Handbook of Varieties of English, Vol 1: Phonology, E.W. Schneider, K. Burridge, B. Kortmann, R. Mesthrie & C. Upton (eds), 953–63. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oonk, G. 2006. East Africa. In The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora, B.V. Lal, P. Reeves & R. Rai (eds), 254–262. Honolulu HI: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rathore-Nigsch, C. 2014. East African Indian twice migrants in Britain: Phonological variation across generations. In English in the Indian Diaspora [Varieties of English in the World G50], M. Hundt & D. Sharma (eds), 55–83. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. Dialect Variation and Change among Twice Migrants: A Sociophonetic Study of the East African Indian Community in Leicester, UK. PhD dissertation, University of Zurich. <[URL]> (28 February 2016).
Rathore-Nigsch, C. & Schreier, D. 2016. Our heart is still in Africa: ‘Twice migration’ and its sociolinguistic consequences. Language in Society 45(2): 1–29. .Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Robinson, V. 1993. Marching into the middle classes? The long-term resettlement of East African Asians in the UK. Journal of Refugee Studies 6(3): 230–247.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmied, J. 2004. East African English (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania): Phonology. In A Handbook of Varieties of English, Vol 1: Phonology, E.W. Schneider, K. Burridge, B. Kortmann, R. Mesthrie & C. Upton (eds), 918–930. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Twaddle, M. 1990. East African Asians through a hundred years. In South Asians Overseas: Migration and Ethnicity, C. Clarke, C. Peach & S. Vertovec (eds), 149–163. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Meierkord, Christiane
2022. Post‐protectorate Uganda and current models of influence across Englishes. World Englishes 41:3 ► pp. 429 ff. DOI logo
Meierkord, Christiane & Bebwa Isingoma
2022. Between first language influence, exonormative orientation and migration. English World-Wide. A Journal of Varieties of English 43:2 ► pp. 220 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2023. References. In Sounds of English Worldwide, ► pp. 354 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue