> One thing Indians do subconsciously is adapt to using a mix of words and grammatical structure understandable to the group they are speaking to, for example when speaking to a well educated person who understands Hindi and English, I will frequently speak neither but rather Hinglish, mixing idioms and words from both languages in the same sentence, choosing words and idioms that most closely convey my thought. If I'm speaking to someone who also speaks Punjabi, I'll frequently throw in some Punjabi as well.
I have personally observed it happening between Spanish and English in ethnically Mexican communities in the Southwestern US, and ethnically Puerto Rican and Dominican communities in New York. Also between French and English on the streets of Montreal.
> Also note that there are dialects even of Hindi. If you record Hindi spoken by someone from Bihar when speaking to someone else who also understands that dialect natively and only understands Hindi at the speed it's spoken may take someone from Punjab who also speaks Hindi some amount of focus to understand. However if you throw the person from Punjab into the mix of people speaking, the dialect and accent will adjust.
This is true even in English, which is often considered (incorrectly) "not to have any dialects".
I'm a native American English speaker, and I would have quite a bit of difficulty understanding a recording of a conversation between two people from rural Scotland or Northern England.
But me and someone from those places would be able to communicate face-to-face just fine, slowing things down a bit and avoiding slang.
This is called "code switching", a universal human phenomenon (not just in India) which I find extremely fascinating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching
I have personally observed it happening between Spanish and English in ethnically Mexican communities in the Southwestern US, and ethnically Puerto Rican and Dominican communities in New York. Also between French and English on the streets of Montreal.
> Also note that there are dialects even of Hindi. If you record Hindi spoken by someone from Bihar when speaking to someone else who also understands that dialect natively and only understands Hindi at the speed it's spoken may take someone from Punjab who also speaks Hindi some amount of focus to understand. However if you throw the person from Punjab into the mix of people speaking, the dialect and accent will adjust.
This is true even in English, which is often considered (incorrectly) "not to have any dialects".
I'm a native American English speaker, and I would have quite a bit of difficulty understanding a recording of a conversation between two people from rural Scotland or Northern England.
But me and someone from those places would be able to communicate face-to-face just fine, slowing things down a bit and avoiding slang.