Language Change - Globalisation

Question 1

English around the world - GLOSSARY

Answer 1

World Englishes - varieties of English that have been around for a long time

Global English: The idea that English is a worldwide language.

International English: the idea that English is used in a range of international contexts.

Lingua franca - a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different –> the main lingua franca is English

Diaspora - spread of people from their homeland to elsewhere

Question 2

Kachru’s 3 Circles of English

Answer 2

Inner Circle –> where English originally took shape and is the native language of most people e.g. in USA and UK

Outer Circle –> English produced by the diaspora, e.g. used in India or Nigeria

Expanding Circle –> English plays no big role but is used as international communication e.g. in China or Russia

Question 3

Other Theories

Answer 3

Kandiah said that the reason for the spread of English was due to colonisation,

David Crystal said the reason for the spread of English wasn’t just colonisation, but rather because of power.

Question 4

American English

Answer 4

Collective nouns are singular within American English —> E.g. ‘staff’ refers to a group of employees

Past Tense –> Americans tend to use the -ed ending while Brits used -t ending —> E.g. Americans will say learned while Brits say learnt

Orthography –> Noah Webster wanted to spell words they way they actually sound e.g. color instead of colour

Accent –> American english is rhotic, therefore they will pronounce the ‘r’ e.g. in butter WHILE brits will use an ‘uh’ sound instead

Question 5

Japanese English - Features and theory

Answer 5

1) absence of articles ‘a’ and ‘the’ –> these don’t exist as part of Japanese

2) use of nouns instead of adjectives

Stanlaw (2004) –> describes Japanese english as a ‘created-in-Japan variety for use by Japanese regardless of how they might appear to native English speakers