Classical language dynamics explain language shift as a process in which speakers adopt a higher status language in lieu of a lower status language. This is well documented with English having out-competed languages such as Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Mandarin. The 1961–1991 Indian censuses report a sharper increase in Hindi/English Bilinguals compared to Monolingual Hindi speakers, suggesting that English is on the rise in India — and is out-competing Hindi. However, the 1991–2011 data show that Bilingual numbers have saturated, while Monolingual Hindi speakers continue to rise exponentially. To capture this counter-intuitive dynamic, we propose a novel language dynamics model of interaction between Monolingual Hindi speakers and Hindi/English Bilinguals, which captures the Indian census data of the last 50 years with greater accuracy, than other well-known language dynamics models. We thus provide a first example of a lower status language having out competed English, a higher status language.

中文翻译：

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“更高”地位的语言并不总是获胜：英语在印度的衰落和印地语的兴起

古典语言动力学将语言转变解释为说话者采用较高地位语言代替较低地位语言的过程。这一点在英语的竞争中胜过苏格兰盖尔语、威尔士语和普通话等语言。1961 年至 1991 年的印度人口普查报告显示，与单语印地语使用者相比，印地语/英语双语者的增长幅度更大，这表明英语在印度正在上升——并且在竞争中超过了印地语。然而，1991-2011 年的数据显示，双语人数已经饱和，而单语印地语使用者继续呈指数增长。为了捕捉这种反直觉的动态，我们提出了一种新的语言动态模型，用于单语印地语使用者和印地语/英语双语者之间的交互，该模型更准确地捕获了过去 50 年的印度人口普查数据，比其他著名的语言动力学模型。因此，我们提供了地位较低的语言胜过英语、地位较高的语言的第一个例子。