World Englishes Flashcards
What is it meant by world englishes?
This refers to the differences in the english language that emerge as it is used in various contexts across the world
How many languages are there across the globe?
7097 known living languages
Is the number of these languages increasing or decreasing?
Even though the population is increasing, the number of langugaes is decreasing
What are the 10 most widely spoken languages in the world?
- Chinese
- Spanish
- English
- Arabic
- Hindi
- Portugese
- Bengali
- Russian
- Japanese
- Lahnda
What is monolingual?
This is when you only speak one language and britain is essentially this
What is bilingual?
When you have the ability to speak 2 languages competently, this is common for the rest of the world
What is an official language?
This is basically a language of the government, law, media and education
English is a second or third language in a countless number of countries
Which countries have english as its dominant language?
Australia, england and america
How did the 19th century contribute towards english becoming a global language?
Collonisation
English being taken to america
Why was it considered advantageous to speak english?
For trade, its association to power and wealth
How do other countries’ speakers adapt english for their own use?
There are lexical and phonological differences
What are the benefits of having global languages?
Communication is increased
Research and science
What are the drawbacks of having global languages?
Languages dying out
Not as much diversity
What percentage of languages in the world are dying out?
40%
What is the difference between the term global english and world english?
Global english suggests just one form of english that is known all around the world but world englishes is more about the different forms of english
What are some differences in language around the world?
America = trash/garbage instead of rubbish, pants instead of trousers
South africa use ‘robots’ instead of traffic lights
Altered vowel sounds
In australia they use rising intonation (making sentences sound like questions)
Different paces of language
How does charles dickens view american english?
That the americans corrupted the english language
Who designed the three circles model and when?
Braj kachru in 1985
What does this model look like/show?
It has an inner, outer and expanding label for three circles around each ohter. In the inner circle english is a mother tongue/L1 and in the outer circle L2 and in the expanding circle it is only used for communication in business, politics and education.
Why was it criticised?
It was criticised for not addressing the diversity of englishes within their circles. It also fails to adress the ‘grey’ areas between the three labels. In addition, the labels applied by kachru have also come in for criticism as some have suggested that the inner or outer imply judgements of which english is the better usage and suugests a privelidge of being in the inner circle
Did kachru change this?
Yes, because of these criticisms he broke apart the circles and presented them as overlapping rings in 1992
Who created the world map of english and when?
Peter strevens in1980
How does this model look and what are the advantages of it?
It is a map with labels on each country of the english they speak. It is well layed out so easy to understand, it captures the history, it is much more detailed han kachru’s and maps out english with places once again unlike kachru’s
What are the disadvantages of this model?
It is a bit generalised and is 40 years old so a bit outdated (due to modern travel and the internet
Who made the circle of world english and when?
Tom macarthur in 1987
What does it look like?
It is a circle with segments coming out from it and then many variation of english coming out of it like rays from a sun
What are its advantages?
It is detailed and specific
It takes away heirarchy
It shows us that language is changing
What are its disadvantages?
It is difficult to read
It misses out the history behind english (the british empire, the slave trade)
There is no clarification of what each circle means (is it L1/L2/L3? Is it expanding/norm-developing?)
Who made the centripetal circles of international english and when?
Modiano in 1999
What are the advantages of this model?
It is much more recent so takes into account the modern world
It doesnt label a standard english, rather a common core
The overlapping captures different variations of language
There is an equal status of each circle on the outside
What are the disadvantages of this model?
There is no clarification of who is in the common core or what the other varieties are
It is vague and hard to read
What are the 2 patterns of phonology linked to intonation?
Stress-timed and syllable-based
What does stress-timed mean?
Syllables are stressed at regular intervals
What does syllable-based mean?
Intonation is spread evenly across all syllables
What pattern of phonology does english follow?
English has a stress-timed intonation therefore, when speakers with a mother-tongue that is syllable-based, they will emphasise different syllables in their speech (e.g french)
What did kim and elder find linked to vocabulary?
That idioms between korean pilots, air traffic staff and americans led to miscommunication because idioms rely on a shared cultural background and pragmatic understanding, which they didnt have. E.g ‘take a rain check’ and ‘i was gutted’
What was crystals view on how english is developing?
That the momentum is so great, nothing can stop it from becoming a lingua franca
What is the implication of this?
Everyone in the world would be a ble to know english
It may eventually die out like latin
What was Graddol’s view on how english is developing?
The current global spread of english may lose momentum
What are the possible implications of this?
What will english be replaced with?
What is Mcarthur’s view on how english is developing?
That english is going throough a radical change around the world and is fragmenting into a family of languages (links to his world englishes model)
What are the possible implications of this?
We wouldnt be able to use the englishes as a lingua franca
What s Ostler’s view on how english is developing?
That english will die out, just like other powerful languages, because of power england and america will lose as countries
He also thinks that there won’t be a new lingua franca because tech is able to translate anyway
What are the possible implications of this?
When and how will this tech become available to everyone?
What about sign language?
What is Saraceni’s view about how english is developing?
It is a relocation, not a spread
He wants to de-anglicise english (cutting the phycological umbilical chord)
What are the possible implications?
How will you seperate english with england?
What is jennifer jenkins attitude towards english in the world?
She suggests that english teaching should focus on the aspects which affect mutual intelligibility and thinks some aspects of UK english like stress timing aren’t needed by native speakers. Then, over time, mispronounciations may become more widely accepted
What is panglish?
One form of english with minor variations
