world englishes Flashcards
american english
seen as a threat to british english by same
usa has gained power through political/cultural/social influence, huge involvement in technological development = greater influence on global english development than any other regional variety
crystal, 2003
concern about ‘americanisms’
“its tone is largely pejorative; its style metaphorical and dramatic”
daily mail, 2010
worries expressed using metaphors of invasion/plague, discourses that present american english as threatening and dangerous outside influence
(can link to aitchison - infectious disease)
american influence
criminal argot (mugging, hijack)
showbiz talk (deadpan, slapstick)
psychiatrist language (schizoid, paranoia)
america develops first = new vocabulary comes with new invention
porter, 1995
range of immigrant influences add/distort english
jewish community (schmooz, kosher) + construction like ‘i should know already’
lynne murphy, 2016
500 word competition, children’s vocab influenced by american vocab + cultural influence (movies, politics, etc)
lancaster university
new british national corpus 2014, compared to data from 1990s
awesome gaines in popularity, marvellous diminished
fortnight diminished, two weeks increased
background of aave
use of british dialects + african languages in plantations in usa
contributed more to english lexicon than any other dialect - african-american music/popular culture
impact of aave
blues + jazz music (cool, hip, gig)
hip hop, rap + colloquial speech (chill, high five, soul)
one of most stigmatised dialects despite global appropriation - proxy for racism
bare nouns (aave)
singular generic noun omitting article (she gave me present), present in other english dialects (at church, on television)
auxiliary verb omission (aave)
adjectives (he crazy)
verbs (she runnin’)
not with past tense or first person subjects (i crazy, she cryin’ yesterday)
nonstandard negative form (aave)
ain’t
complex rules - ain’t nobody seen it, can’t nobody beat it
multiple negation (aave)
didn’t say nothing, can’t go nowhere
present in old english (beowulf), middle english (chaucer), early modern english (shakespeare)
prohibited through 18th century prescriptivist grammar
singlish
new dialect of english from singapore, country shifting towards native english use, government policy of promoting english in school
features of singlish
coded + colloquial speech - can be incomprehensible to outsiders when spoken fast
no rules in long/short vowels, follows rp pronunciation
pluralising + tenses are optional
kachru’s circles
coded + colloquial speech - can be incomprehensible to outsiders when spoken fast
no rules in long/short vowels, follows rp pronunciation
pluralising + tenses are optional
pidgin
blended versions of a language which takes rules from multiple languages
similiar to lingua franca except take elements from different languages
use grammatically simplified form of used languages
historically used for trade/communicatioon between slaves and owners
creole
first language of speech community of native speakers that arose from pidgin
have fully developed vocab and patterned grammar (unlike pidgins)
linguists believe creoles develop through process of ‘nativisation’ when children of pidgin speakers learn and use native language
kachru evaluation
problematic as inner circle suggests hierarchy
problematic as nordic countries often speak english just as well as native so they don’t fit in expanding category
streven world map of english, 1980
oldest map of spread of english
since american english became seperate variety from british, all subsequent englishes have affinities with one of other
shows american and england and mother and father of english
streven evaluation
australia depicted as child of english unlike america who is the father but australia was colonised - promotes colonialist ideas of hierarchy and western supremacy
mcarthur, circle of world english (+ evaluation)
expanding geographical change based around centered ‘world standard english’
evaluation - no standard english
jennifer jenkins, characteristics of ELF
- enables communication
- alternative to EFL not replacement, EFL worried about blending but ELF is just for communication
- not necessarily correct features
- speakers code switch to different LF when necessary
- those who use ELF establish rules for others
american grammar
regularised endings
z instead of s
gotten
american phonology
j dropping (duke, tuesday)
uptalk
pronouncing post-vocalic r
jenkins ELF pronunciation features
- consonant sounds necessary except voiced + unvoiced ‘th’ (mouth, those)
- constant clusters preserved, essential at start of words, users struggle with clusters in middle of word, can add short vowel schwa
- lengths of vowels differ (pill = peel)
- emphasis makes utterance clear (SHE stole my money, she STOLE my money)
schwa
central unstressed vowel, /ə/
syllable-based
intonation is spread across syllables evenly
stress-timed
intonation is based on applying stress at regular intervals
retroflex
way of pronouncing sounds /t/ and /d/ with tip of tongue curled back touching roof of mouth
exonormative
looking beyond immediate community for norms of language use
mesolect
middle style of language between standard and colloquial varieties
basilect
refers to most informal style that speakers use
acrolect
standard or official language variety in context where creole is spoken
mencken, 1921
argued american english has ‘outgunned’ british english as america has more citizens = speakers than britain
schneider, dynamic model
how new variety of english develops
foundation stage - english first appears in new territory
exonormative stabilisation - english begins to be used
nativisation - old and new languages become more closely linked
endonormative - country has gained independence and english being spoken there develops own sense of standards + norms
differentiation - new variety develops new standard and own regional/social differences
canagarajah
“there is no universal english language, nor a world standard english and functionality and pragmatics are more relevant”
canagarajah 2
“migration and modern technology have lead to the ‘leaking’ of kachru’s circles”
algeo
“americanisms are not ruining english, but expanding it”
kandiah, 1998
reason for spread of english was colonisation
