Chapter 3: A colonial language

Question 1

Colonisation*

Answer 1

Central to the expansion ot the language.
Process involving the establishment often by force, of communities of English seakers in territories around the world.
Communities positioned themselves in a relation of power to the indigenous or pre-existing populations., while maintaining economic and cultural links with England.

Question 2

Colonisation withing the British Isles

Answer 2

When Eng. became established as the main language of Celtic-speaking territories of Iseland, Scontland and Wales, tje spread of English has benn closely associated with a colonial process.

Question 3

colonialism*

Answer 3

pejoratively (abwertend) associated. racial difference theories. “White Europeans were at a higher stage of cultural and intellectual development so the colonial service was some kind of duty.

Question 4

Stage 1: Colonisation within the british Isles.

Answer 4

Celtic languages continued to be spoken in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Eng. was extended to these areas as well but it was not a matter of one nation state setting up a colony in another.

The motives of this colonisation which affected all the Celtic territories were political and religious, involving the subjugation of population and reinforcement of Christianity.
The linguistic consequence was the introduction of varieties of English, alsong with other languages such as French and Flemish).

Question 5

3 Motives of colonisation beyond the British Isles in the 16th century.

Answer 5

Economic: Companies run by capitalist entrepeneurs wre granted a monopoly over a commodity by the monard, who gained by taxing.

Social: In England, economic problems such as unemployment and inflation comined with population growth created a class of dipossessed vagrants and political dissident.

Political: Rivalries among European states.

Question 6

3 types of English colonisation beyon the British Isles.

Answer 6

Displacement. A settlement by fist-language speakers displaced the precolonial population (North America, Australia).

Subjection: Sparser colonial settlemts kept the precolonial population in subjection, allowing fome of them access to learning English as a secont language (Nigeria, Cameroon, India).
This is called “indirect rule”

Replacement: Precolonial population was replaced by new labour from elsewhere, principally Werst Africa (Barbados and Jamica).

Question 7

Stage 2: Political incorporation

Answer 7

As colonies developed and became of greater strategic imporance, government took greater responsibility for their administration.
Originally colonists were subjects of the English monarchy , economically dependent and controlled by the mother country.
It was not until the nineteenth centruy that the government, rather than trading companies assumed the administration of the remaining colonies, creating the British Empire.

Question 8

Stage 3: Nationalist reaction

Answer 8

Nationalist activity characterised political life in many of the areas colonised by the English.
Overseas nationalist reaction began with North America in 1776. Motivated by concerns over taxation and parliamentary representation, political independence from the USA was achieved by armed force and the state declared itself a republic.
The Brits offerd a form of self-government to Canada.
The dominion status was similarly granted to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

In dominions, nationalis sentiment has tended to take a cultural rather than political form. The language of these movements was English, even tough it was a second language.

Question 9

Lingiostic consequences of colonisation

Answer 9

Appeance of new varieties.

Question 10

Stages of development for new varieties of English (by Edgar Schneider) in the context of contact between speech cummunities brought about by colonialism.

Answer 10

Foundation
Exonormative stabilisation 
nativisation
endonormative stabilisation
differentiation

Question 11

Foundation stage*

Answer 11

Engl. is brought to a territory where it had not been spoken. Settlers and indigenous community were distincts groups. Some language contagt but it confies to certain members of the communities.

Question 12

Exonormative Stabilisation stage*

Answer 12

Eng. is regularly spoken in the territory in context such as administration, education and legal system. Variety is modelled on norms from the settlers home.

Question 13

Nativisation stage*

Answer 13

Earlier cultural and political allegiances are beginning to be seen as no longer relevant for the realities of the new situation and are being replaced by a new sense of cultural and linguistic norms for the language. Often follows a political independence for the territory and a key role in the establishment of a distingt political identity.

Question 14

Differentiation stage*

Answer 14

The local variety is well established and a process of internal linuistic variation takes place within the terrotory as sectors of society establish thei own usage patterns of English which can be considered separate dialects of the variety now spoken.

Question 15

Dialect levelling and internal variation: Why did it happen

Answer 15

Many settlers came from lowly social positions in England but found themselves in a position of power in relation to the original, percolonial populations.

Question 16

Dialect levelling*

Answer 16

Differences between speakers become eroded and a more uniform variety emerged.
Cane create tension over the legimtimaycy of any local variet.

Question 17

Internal variation*

Answer 17

Different areas and groups usually developed a sense of local cultural and linguistic identity. Might be reinfored by contact with local languages. .

Question 18

substrate (language)*

Answer 18

When a language is imposed on a community as part of a colonial process, local speaker tend to incorporate many linguistic features from their first language when speaking th new impost one.

Question 19

Pidgins and creoles*

Answer 19

Most extreme consequence of language contact, where only vocabulary appears to be English an grammar is derived from elsewhere. Pidgins and creoles have appeard in many parts of the world. Language share very little.
Languages began as simplified forms of English that werre originally devolped as a means of cumminication between communities which share not a common language.
Many are legacy of the slave trade which nrought speakers of African languages to America.

Pidgins are learnt by people who already have a first language. As a pidgin is then passed on to the children of a community, and used by them as a first language, it becomes a creole (creolisation*)

Question 20

English in North America: Example of displacement

Answer 20

main questions:

1) How and when did American English become differentiated from British English and recognised as an independent variety? (At what point did exonormative stabilisation take place?)
2) How did internal dialect differences in American English arise?

Some colonial territories in the East have maintained close cultural and trade links with England and the British model of speech remained a powerful model of social correctness while other, more inland communities seem not to have maintained such close ties with England.

The influence of indigenous languages has been relatively slight. Only some place names and borrowings were included in the variety.
As English settlements became more established, a tendency towards internal differentiation arose between the southern and the northern area. These local economies developed and conflicts of economic interests with England grew. When the territory became independent the distinct linguistic identity became a key issue when founding the new republic.
In 1783, America wasn’t a colony anymore but wasn’t a nation either. Linguistic uniformity was the main goal of a guy called Noah Webster. That’s why he wrote the American Dictionary. A dictionary is often used to symbolise the distinct cultural identity of a community and thus has a political as well as a linguistic rationale (Gründe). He thought that a national language is a “band of national union”.
Several dictionaries for the new Englishes were published in different nations such as Australia (1980) or Canada.

nationalst ideal of linguistic uniformity in A.E. has not been completely achieved.
→ Civil war (North (political centralisation) vs. South (regional autonomy)
→ diversity in the American population since the late 18th century (millions of immigrants from various parts of Europe)

Several varieties were established such as Irish American or Italian American or the Spanish influence from Mexico (Chicago English) or African-American English.

Question 21

English in West Africa: Example of subjection

Answer 21

Example of subjection (Unterwerfung), where sparser (wenige) colonial settlements maintained (führen) the pro-colonial population in subjection.

New English colonies were established in Africa after 1880. During this time, Africa was seized (beschlagnahmt) and shared out among European powers. In West Africa, there were no English settlements but the new colonies were administered by a small number of British officials. Some selected indigenuous people received education in English from missionaries.
→ pidgins and creols (see glossar)

Pan-Negroism: African people felt solidarity with American black slaves. → shared ethnic identity.
Pan-Africanism: anti-colonial struggle for black is Africa
The language of both these movements was English.
Difference from French colonies:
- Africans were considered citizens of France so many of them viewed the French language with affection.
- in the British colonies, attitudes to English seem to have been more pragmatic
For promoters of independence, tribalism needs to be replaced by the concept of nationalism in order to have territorial boundaries that represent the interests of its people. In this view, learning English helps Africans to modernise themselves by introducing them to the English language and to a new culture with concepts such as freedom and national identity.
problem of this view:
- English can not represent the African way of thinking authentically.

Question 22

English in Jamaica: Replacement

Answer 22

Pre-colonial population is replaced by new labour from elsewhere, principally West Africa.
slave trade:
English people sailed to West Africa, captured Africans as slaves and brought them to the Caribbean. Then, they filled their ships with goods and returned to England.

Slaves from different countries were brought together and they established several pidgins. Pidgin was the only form of communication available to slaves on the new plantations, and over the generations the African languages they spoke were abandoned. The pidgins needed extending and adapting to communicate properly as they had only been used for simple kinds of interaction and grammar would have been limited. The process of extension and adaptation is called creolisation.
Creolisation happened in many parts of the English-speaking Caribbean, including Jamaica.
→ Jamaican Creole (words from Spanish, Portuguese, French, Hindi, Chinese)
Decreolisation: teaching of standard English.
In many other parts of the Caribbean, use of creole is firmly linked to a sense of local identity.

Question 23

Language education policies and colonialist agendas

Answer 23

In the context of the slave trade the lack of a common language was used as a means of political control.

Question 24

Conclusion

Answer 24

In other words, the diversity in the language around the world is in part a result of the various patterns of contact with other languages and cultures, but is also a product of the linguistic diversity that existed across the British isles and was exported abroad by those embarking on colonial expansion.
While the idea of the standard was being enforced in England, the native diversity of English was spreading around the globe.