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
