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As an American, I use the term this morning, but I’ve noticed some Asian Indian coworkers who always say today morning to mean what I mean by this morning.

Is this an Indian English “dialectism”? Is it common in local English dialects throughout India and other formerly British-dominated (South-)Asian countries, or just in certain parts?

Do any English dialects outside of South Asia use this phrase?

tchrist
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Spiff
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    Yup common in Indian english, so is "yesterday night" instead of "last night" – JoseK Apr 11 '11 at 08:24
  • Nice, I was actually thinking about this exact same thing the other day after encountering numerous foreign (mostly Indian) co-workers who use this phrasing. It kind of has a nice ring to it, IMHO, but it is not 'correct' (prescriptively speaking). – mattacular Apr 29 '13 at 16:35
  • My mother tongue is Russian and I noticed that because of the interference I can say today morning too, even knowing that it's wrong. We use both forms in Russian but today morning (сегодня утром) is more common. –  Jun 14 '13 at 09:20
  • When "yesterday morning" and "tomorrow morning" are acceptable, the non-acceptance of "today morning" is purely due to usage and has nothing to do with right or wrong. –  Mar 21 '14 at 17:39
  • Right or wrong is purely due to usage. Prescriptivism comes after all that. – hippietrail Oct 29 '18 at 07:06

3 Answers3

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While I have never spent any time in India, 'Today Morning' is common in Singapore, another Asian country once colonised by the British Empire and now claiming English as their Official/First language.

Also of interest:

I teach English as a foreign language in Indonesia. Here I teach many people whose first languages are either Mandarin, Indonesian or other local languages/dialects and a small number of European expats speaking various European languages.

This is quite a common error resulting from Mother Tongue Interference, whereby a student applies the rules from their own language to English and assumes a direct translation is correct.

Of course, direct translations are rarely valid due to the many unique nuances of a language.

"Today Morning" is a great example of this.

Another reason it happens is that learners over apply patterns they find in a language. This can happen with young native speakers just as much as second-language learners.

A learner sees that 'yesterday morning' and 'tomorrow morning' are both correct and so assumes that 'today morning' would be natural. Of course, we know that it is not. Another common example of this is forced '-ed' endings to past tense irregular verbs, such as 'drinked' where it should be 'drank'.

Hope that is of some use.

Karl
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    In essence: it may be common, but it isn't correct. – Orbling Apr 11 '11 at 07:35
  • Precisely. And only common really in countries where English, though maybe listed as a first/official/national language, is not the sole or even primary language spoken. – Karl Apr 11 '11 at 07:39
  • @Orbling @Karl Although if this genuinely is common in Singaporean English I would say it constitutes a valid form. I doubt it is very common though - gonna check it out now :) – jsj Apr 11 '11 at 08:54
  • http://www.topnews.com.sg/content/25980-singapore-exchange-trading-unaffected-despite-early-technical-faults NOTE: The writer has an Indian name - I suspect this may be an Indianism exported to Singapore. – jsj Apr 11 '11 at 08:58
  • @Orbling @Karl Okay a google search for "today morning site:.sg" returned very few results, the link in my comment above the only one from a "reputable" source. Most appearances were embedded in English that sounded very ESL. – jsj Apr 11 '11 at 09:02
  • @Orbling It's not correct in American English, but is it correct in Indian English? Is it correct in any other English dialects? – Spiff Apr 11 '11 at 14:53
  • @Spiff: There is such a thing as Indian English? ie. deliberately separate rules for it, compared to BrE or AmE? I mean, I've heard of Hinglish, but not of a deliberately constructed language branch. – Orbling Apr 11 '11 at 15:46
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    @Orbling: The differences in 'Indian English' are more about vocabulary than anything else. There are many words you would hear used in India that you would not in America or England, etc. For example, many words that we consider antiquated are still in regular usage. – Karl Apr 12 '11 at 01:24
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    @trideceth12 and @Orbling, You might want to check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_English – Karl Apr 12 '11 at 01:28
  • @Karl: Still seems to me to be more of a dialect; a combination of pronunciation difficulties and grammatical idiosyncrasies, not necessarily intended. Really, they follow BrE as closely as possible, for the most part, with a few dialectical differences. The Scottish differ more significantly. – Orbling Apr 12 '11 at 04:37
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    Well, of course it is a dialect. But consider that we talk of British English and American English in much the same way as we are now discussing Indian English. No one has claimed that it is a different language... It is a dialect of English. As a dialect, it has it's own characteristics though, and what Indian English speakers understand and accept amongst themselves might well be rejected by speakers of other dialects. There are phrases used by Americans that I as an Englishman would not use. – Karl Apr 12 '11 at 04:58
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    @Karl The developing English dialects (Singaporean, Indian, Nigerian, etc.) are going to make hell for English purists... personally I embrace new developments in the language :) – jsj Apr 12 '11 at 08:37
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    @trideceth12: I consider myself a bit of a mixed breed. Ultimately, I am quite purist but I do accept the concept of a 'living language'. I mean, I know how English came to be and it would be stupid to expect it to never change. In regards to the colonial dialects, I am happy for them to go the way they are but would probably consider it devolution if their traits wound up in everyday British/American English. :p – Karl Apr 12 '11 at 12:31
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    @Orbling: on what grounds do you boldly assert that it is "not correct" in Indian English? – Colin Fine Jun 14 '13 at 13:45
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    @ColinFine: (a) This thread is over two years old - odd to pick it out just for a criticism of a comment. (b) I assume you reference my first comment, I'm sure the rest of the commons explain things. The answer makes no mention of "Indian English" directly, only the sixth comment brings it up as a concept, which was then discussed. So the original "not correct" was referring to British English (also called International English) which is generally the primary form of the language. – Orbling Jun 14 '13 at 16:25
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    @Orbling: Sorry, I didn't notice it was an old thread. Somebody commented on the original question a couple of days ago, and that brought it to the current list again. – Colin Fine Jun 16 '13 at 16:34
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I am from India, and I don't use today morning or yesterday night. No one told me, but it is quite clear that it is wrong.

Moti Lalwani
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Indians tend to use TODAY MORNING in place of THIS MORNING on account of mother tongue interference. In my native tongue, Malayalam, the word for this morning is innu raavile - innu means today and raavile means morning. When an Indian says TODAY MORNING, any native BrE or AmE speaker can easily understand what he or she (Indian) means. Then what is wrong with using TODAY MORNING instead of THIS MORNING? Likewise, Indians use TODAY NIGHT in place of TONIGHT and YESTERDAY NIGHT instead of LAST NIGHT. Such Indian usages are quite pardonable as long as they do not give a native BrE or AmE speaker any confusion about meaning, right?

Spiff
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O.Abootty
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    There is nothing 'wrong' with saying 'today morning' in that it transfers information successfully. It is 'wrong' in BrE and AmE in the sense that it is never heard. – Mitch Apr 29 '13 at 18:22
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    It conveys the meaning successfully, but it's non-idiomatic at the very least, and makes the speaker "sound like a foreigner" to native AmE speakers. – Spiff Apr 29 '13 at 18:41
  • It is right when one says that TODAY MORNING, TODAY NIGHT and YESTERDAY NIGHT are unidiomatic and are not heard in the US and the UK. But India has her own style of English, which is commonly known as Indian English. In this style the three expressions have taken deep roots, I think. – O.Abootty Jun 03 '13 at 05:35