Attitudinal Alignment and Meta-linguistic Awareness in Indian English Migrant Varieties

The paper considers the complex interplay of sociolinguistic variables and developing dialectal features in a transient community of Indian university students located in Heidelberg, Germany. Embracing a sociolinguistically- oriented approach for the description of Indian English migrant varieties, the paper investigates language complexity along with the concomitant emergence of speakers’ linguistic consciousness. Through semi-structured recorded interviews, language attitudes of Indian English speakers were analysed in regard to stereotypical local variants. Reported results demonstrate that the transient aspect of the community is a valuable sociolinguistic factor in the fostering of in-group affiliations and distances and that a held folk belief in the community affects the social identities and linguistic performances of a specific in-group.