London: 'Hinglish', the variety of English spoken in India, may soon become the most common spoken form of the language, as the number of Indian speakers exceeds that in UK and America, a leading British expert has said.

Professor David Crystal, the author of more than 50 books on English, says 350 million Indians speak it as a second language in India, exceeding the number of native English speakers in Britain and America.

Professor Crystal argues that the growing popularity of Indian culture around the world, including Bollywood movies, means that Hinglish will soon become more widely spoken outside the continent.

Some of the Hinglish words in vogue include airdash (travel by air), chaddis (underpants), chai (Indian tea), crore (10 million), dacoit (thief), desi (local), dicky (boot), gora (white person), jungli (uncouth), lakh (100,000), lumpen (thug), optical (spectacles), prepone (bring forward), stepney (spare tyre) and would-be (fianci or fiancee).

Indian expertise in writing computer software also means that Hinglish will spread via the Internet, said Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Wales.

"Certain phrases are bound to become global with so many Indians working in information technology. As more Indians talk in chat rooms and send e-mails, the phrases and words they use to describe their lives will be picked up by others on the Internet," he said.

'Hinglish' contains many words and phrases that Britons or Americans might not easily understand, The Sunday Times said in a report today (Oct 17, 2004). Some are archaic, relics of the Raj, such as "pukka".

Others were newly coined, such as "time-pass", meaning an activity that is not very interesting but passes the time.

India's success in attracting business has recently produced a new verb. Those whose jobs are outsourced to India are said to have been "Bangalored".

Even the largest international companies have been forced to bow before the power of Hinglish. Ford sells the Ikon by calling it the "Josh Car" - Josh is Hindi for exciting and powerful.

English has long enjoyed a special status in India because of the country's colonial history.

It is still the language of the Government, the elite and the media. It is also the only language that unites Indians in a country that has 14 official ones and more than 1,600 dialects.