A Forensic Phonetic Study of Indian English: Phonetic Features as an Indexical Marker

Abstract

Several researchers have documented the marked similarities and differences in both segmental and suprasegmental features across varieties of Indian English (IE). There also exists a body of literature on how these differences can be justified by the fact that the speech of a non-native English speaker carries the burden of one’s mother tongue, commonly known as mother-tongue influence, or MTI. This paper aims to establish that such segmental properties can be employed to arrive at indexical information about the speakers, like their geographical and linguistic background. This has relevance to forensic speaker identification as it assists in speaker profiling. The phonetic analysis included in this study observes the similarities and differences in segmental features of varieties of IE spoken across 6 different zones of India (East, North-East, West, Central, North and South). The study also includes a perceptual test with 10 naive listeners to identify the most distinguishable zones on the basis of their spoken IE. Finally, a comparison between the phonetic analysis and the results from the perceptual test was carried out to verify if these segmental differences resonated with their perceptual outcome. Results indicate that segmental properties can be employed as carriers of indexical information like one’s linguistic and geographical background, to a moderate precision.