Global Englishes Flashcards
how did English become a gloabal langauge
the military & economic power of the British Empire spread it, often by force, around the world
why did English maintain its primacy
Britain held economic & cultural power on the world stage, giving the language prestige
about how many total speakers of English are there
roughly 2 billion
what is a lingua franca
a common language
what did David Crytsal believe was developing
a situation of diaglossia: 2 languages are used under different conditions within a community, often by the same speakers
what are macrolanguages
multiple, closely related indidvidual languages that are considered in some usage contexts to be a single language
Kachru’s 3 circles of global Englishes- what is the inner circle
- English is used as a 1st language (L1) & these varieties are ‘norm-providing’
e. g) UK, USA, Canada, Autralia, New Zealand
Kachru’s 3 circles of global Englishes- what is the outer circle
- English is used as an offcial 2nd language (L2)
- Norm-developing (develop own variety of English)
e. g) India, Singapore, Nigeria
Kachru’s 3 circles of global Englishes- what is the expanding circle
- English is used to communicate w speakers of other languages as a lingua franca for business, education etc.
e. g) China, Japan, Egypt
Criticisms of Kachru’s model
1) useful but over-simplified
2) doesn’t consider varieties within each circle e.g) British English VS American English etc.
3) there’s an overlap between circles e.g) Singapore- government promotes use of ‘good English’ BUT many speak the non-standard Singlish
L1 example- Canadian English
- has strong cultural links w Britain so uses some British spellings e.g) traveller, colour
- culturally linked to America so shares American lexis e.g) diaper, candy, cell-phone
- has own specific lexis e.g) washroom, runners, eh (used as a tag ?)
L2 example- Indian English
- present continuous tense e.g) I am knowing that, she is understanding it etc.
- omission of prepositions & determiners e.g) I go temple
- compounds of English & Indian words e.g) congress-wallah
L3 case study- Singlish
- lexical borrowing from Malay & Mandarin e.g) ab noun ‘kiasu’ = fear of losing out
- elision & phonological simplification e.g) like that= ‘liddat’
- leh/lah used for multiple purposes e.g) tag ?
- heavily accented & fast paced
it’s an expression of identity & culture
what is pidgin English
a mixture of English & local languages which enables ppl who don’t share a common language to communicate
Case studty- West African Pidgin features
- simplified grammar e.g) I dey go (i am going), I no no (I don’t know)
- omission of final consonants & prepositions e.g) I wan chop (I want to eat)
- onomatopoeia, gesture & facial expression help communication
