Linguistic Analysis of Regional English Accents in Indian Call Centers

Rohit Khurana

Independent Researcher

Delhi, India

Abstract
This study investigates the phonetic and phonological characteristics of regional Indian English accents as manifested in call center communication, a domain of critical socio-economic importance in India’s burgeoning service sector. Over the past two decades, India has emerged as a global leader in business process outsourcing (BPO), with call center agents serving as front-line representatives for multinational corporations. Given India’s linguistic diversity—with 22 constitutionally recognized languages and hundreds of dialects—call center employees bring a rich substrate of phonetic influences to English. Standardized accent-modification training programs strive to produce a neutral “BPO English,” yet evidence suggests that regional phonological features persist and influence intelligibility and listener perception.

Drawing on sociolinguistic theory and acoustic phonetic analysis, our mixed-methods design combines precise acoustic measurements (formant frequencies, voice-onset times, fundamental-frequency contours, rhythm metrics) with perceptual ratings (intelligibility, professionalism) and qualitative interviews. Forty agents—ten each from Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Bengali backgrounds—participated in scripted reading and spontaneous speech tasks. Thirty native American English listeners provided blind ratings on a five-point scale. Semi-structured interviews probed agents’ accent-training experiences, identity negotiation, and perceived efficacy. Results reveal significant segmental differences: Hindi speakers exhibit longer VOTs for aspirated stops; Tamil and Telugu speakers show greater vowel centralization; Bengali speakers approximate General American vowel spaces most closely.

Keywords
Regional English Accents, Indian Call Centers, Acoustic Phonetics, BPO English, Intelligibility

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