A resource book for students

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World EnglishesJennifer Jenkins

• A resource book for students

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A. Introduction

• Key topics in World Englishes

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A1 The historical, social and political context

• English as a first language (L1)
• - 329,140,800 speakers (cf. Crystal 2003a)
• English as an institutionalised second language
  (L2)
• - 430,614,500 speakers (cf. Crystal 2003a)
• English as a foreign language (EFL)
• English as a lingua franca (ELF)

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The two diasporas of English

• First diaspora
• Migrations to North America, Australia, New
  Zealand, South Africa
• L1 varieties of English new Englishes
• Second diaspora
• Colonialisation of Asia and Africa
• L2 varieties of English New Englishes

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A2 The origins of pidgin and creole languages

• Definition pidgin
• A pidgin is a language with no native speakers
  it is no ones first language but is a contact
  language.
• (Wardhaugh 2006 613)
• Definition creole
• In contrast to a pidgin, a creole is often
  defined as a pidgin that has become the first
  language of a new generation of speakers.
• 
  (Wardhaugh 2006 613)

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Pidgins

• Stigmatisation as inferior, bad languages
• European expansion into Africa and Asia during
  colonial period
• Contact languages between dominant European
  language speakers and speakers of mutually
  unintelligible indigenous African and American
  languages
• Fulfils restricted communicative needs between
  people who do not share a common language
• Little need for grammatical redundancy

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Creoles

• Creolisation development of a pidgin into a
  creole
• A children of pidgin speakers use their parents
  pidgin language as a mother tongue ? creole
• B pidgin is used as a lingua franca in
  multilingual areas and develops to be used for an
  increasing number of functions ? creole
• Vocabulary expands and grammar increases in
  complexity
• Decreolisation through extensive contact with
  the dominant language develops towards standard
  dominant language

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Theories of origins

• Three groups of theories
• 1 Monogenesis pidgins have a single origin
• 2 Polygenesis pidgins have an independent origin
• 3 Universal pidgins derive from universal
  strategies

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Monogenesis

• The theory of monogenesis and relexification
• All European-based pidgins and creoles derive
  ultimately from one proto-pidgin source, a
  Portuguese pidgin that was used in the worlds
  trade routes during the fifteenth and sixteenth
  centuries
• Evidence for this theory many linguistic
  similarities between present-day Portuguese
  pidgins and creoles, and pidgins and creoles
  related to other European languages

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Polygenesis

• The independent parallel development theory
• Pidgins and creoles arose and developed
  independently, but in similar ways because they
  shared a common linguistic ancestor
• Pidgins and creoles were formed in similar social
  and physical conditions

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Polygenesis

• The nautical jargon theory
• A nautical jargon, i.e. the European sailors
  lingua franca, formed a nucleus for the various
  pidgins, which were expanded in line with their
  learners mother tongues
• Evidence for this theory nautical element in all
  pidgins and creoles with European lexicons

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Universal

• The baby talk theory
• Based on similarities between certain pidgins and
  early speech of children
• Also because speakers of the dominant language
  use foreigner talk (simplified speech) with L2
  speakers

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Universal

• A synthesis
• Based on universal patterns of linguistic
  behaviour in contact situations
• Inherent universal constraints on language
• Evidence for this theory proficient as well as
  less proficient speakers from different L1s and
  speech communities simplify their language in
  very similar ways children go through the same
  stages in the mastery of speech

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A3 Who speaks English today?

• Three groups of users
• Those who speak English respectively as
• a native language ENL
• a second language ESL
• a foreign language EFL
• ? Neat classifications become increasingly
  difficult

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Who speaks English today?

• English as a Native Language (ENL)
• Language of those born and raised in one of the
  countries where English is historically the first
  language to be spoken (i.e. mainly the UK, USA,
  Canada, Australia and New Zealand)
• 350 million speakers
• English as a Second Language (ESL)
• Language spoken in a large number of territories
  which were once colonised by the English (e.g.,
  India, Nigeria, Singapore)
• 350 million speakers

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Who speaks English today?

• English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
• Language of those for whom it serves no purposes
  within their own countries
• Historically, EFL was learned to use the language
  with its native speakers in the US and UK
• 1 billion speakers with reasonable competence

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Difficulties with the three-way categorisation

• ENL is not a single variety of English
• Pidgins and creoles do not fit into the
  categorisation.
• There are large groups of ENL speakers in ESL
  territories and vice versa.
• It is based on the concept of monolingualism, but
  bi- or multilingualism is the norm.
• It is based on the basic distinction between
  native speakers and non-native speakers, with the
  first group being considered superior regardless
  of the quality of their language. (cf. McArthur
  1998)

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Models of the spread of English

• Strevens (1980) World map of English
• Kachru (1985/1988) Three-circle model of World
  Englishes
• McArthur (1987) Circle of World English
• Görlach (1988) Circle model of English
• Modiano (1999) The centripetal circles of
  international English

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Three circle model of World Englishes

• Kachru (1992 356)
• Most useful and influential model
• World Englishes divided into three concentric
  circles
• 1 Inner Circle
• ENL countries, norm-providing
• 2 Outer Circle
• ESL countries, norm-developing
• 3 Expanding Circle
• EFL countries, norm-dependent

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Limitations with Kachrus model

• Based on geography and history, rather than the
  speakers use of English.
• Grey area between Inner and Outer Circles as well
  as Outer and Expanding Circles.
• The worlds bilingual or multilingual speakers
  are not taken into account.
• Difficulty of using the model to define speakers
  in terms of their proficiency in English.
• Does not account for the linguistic diversity
  within and between countries of a particular
  circle.
• The term Inner Circle implies that speakers from
  ENL countries are central, and may thus be
  interpreted as superior.

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A4 Variation across Outer Circle Englishes

• New Englishes
• Four defining criteria by Platt, Weber and Ho
  (1984)
• It has developed through the education system.
• It has developed in an area where a native
  variety of English was not the language spoken by
  most of the population.
• It is used for a range of functions among those
  who speak or write it in the region where it is
  used.
• It has become localised or nativised by
  adopting some language features of its own (e.g.,
  sounds, intonation patterns, sentence structures,
  words, expressions).

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Innovation in English

• Five internal factors to decide the status of an
  innovation (Bamgbose 1998)
• 1 Demographic factor (how many speakers use it?)
• 2 Geographical factor (how widely dispersed is
  it?)
• 3 Authoritative factor (where is its use
  sanctioned?)
• 4 Codification (does it appear in reference
  books?)
• 5 Acceptability factor (what is the attitude
  towards it?)

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Levels of variation

• Main levels of variation pronunciation, grammar,
  vocabulary/idiom, discourse style
• Pronunciation
• Consonant sounds, e.g., dental fricatives /?/ and
  /ð/
• Vowel sounds vary across the New Englishes in
  terms of both quality and quantity

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Levels of variation

• Grammar
• a tendency not to mark nouns for plural
• a tendency to use a specific/non-specific system
  for nouns rather than a definite/indefinite
  system, or to use the two systems side by side
• a tendency to change the form of quantifiers
• a tendency not to make a distinction between the
  third person pronouns he and she
• a tendency to change the word order within the
  noun phrase
• (cf. Platt, Weber and Ho 1984)

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Levels of variation

• Grammar
• limited marking of the third person singular
  present tense form
• limited marking of verbs for the past tense
• a tendency to use an aspect system (which shows
  whether an action is finished or still going on)
  rather than tense system (which shows the time an
  action takes place)
• a tendency to extend the use of be verb ing
  constructions to stative verbs
• the formation of different phrasal and
  prepositional verb constructions
• (cf. Platt, Weber and Ho 1984)

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Levels of variation

• Vocabulary/Idiom
• Locally coined words/expressions
• Prefixation (e.g., enstool, destool)
• Suffixation (e.g., teacheress, spacy)
• Compounding (e.g., key-bunch, high hat)
• Borrowings from indigenous languages
• Idioms
• Direct translations from indigenous idioms
  (e.g., to shake legs)
• Variation on native speaker idioms (e.g., to eat
  your cake and have it)
• Combination of English and indigenous forms
  (e.g., to put sand in someones gari)

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Levels of variation

• Discourse style
• Formal character
• Complex vocabulary and grammatical structure
• Specific expressions of thanks, deferential
  vocabulary and the use of blessings
• Greeting and leave-taking

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A5 Standard language ideology in the Inner Circle

• Standard language
• Term used for that variety of a language which is
  considered to be the norm.
• Prestige variety spoken by a minority of those
  occupying positions of power within a society
• Yardstick against which other varieties of the
  language are measured
• Held up as optimum for educational purposes

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Standard language and language standards

• Language standards
• Prescriptive language rules which constitute the
  standard to which all members of a language
  community are exposed and urged to conform during
  education.
• Reverse side of the standard language coin
• Because natural languages are dynamic, these
  rules are subject to change over time.
• During earlier and transitional stages, language
  change is regarded as error by promoters of
  standard language ideology.

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Standard language and language standards

• standard languages are the result of a
  direct and deliberate intervention by society
  (Hudson 1996 32)
• Four stages of this process of intervention
• 1 Selection
• 2 Codification
• 3 Elaboration of function
• 4 Acceptance

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What is Standard English?

• 1 The dialect of educated people throughout the
  British Isles. It is the dialect normally used in
  writing, for teaching in schools and
  universities, and heard on radio and television
  (Hughes and Trudgill 1979, repeated in the 2nd
  ed., 1996)
• 2 The variety of the English language which is
  normally employed in writing and normally spoken
  by educated speakers of the language. It is
  also, of course, the variety of the language that
  students of English as a Foreign or Second
  Language (EFL/ESL) are taught when receiving
  formal instruction. The term Standard English
  refers to grammar and vocabulary (dialect) but
  not to pronunciation (accent). (Trudgill and
  Hannah 1982, and repeated in the 4th ed., 2002).

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What is Standard English?

• 3 Standard English can be characterized by
  saying that it is that set of grammatical and
  lexical forms which is typically used in speech
  and writing by educated native speakers. It
  includes the use of colloquial and slang
  vocabulary as well as swear-words and taboo
  expressions (Trudgill 1984).
• 4 (The term) Standard English is potentially
  misleading for at least two reasons. First, in
  order to be self-explanatory, it really ought to
  be called the grammar and the core vocabulary of
  educated usage in English. That would make plain
  the fact that it is not the whole of English, and
  above all, it is not pronunciation that can in
  any way be labelled Standard, but only one part
  of English its grammar and vocabulary (Strevens
  1985).

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What is Standard English?

• 5 Since the 1980s, the notion of standard has
  come to the fore in public debate about the
  English language We may define the Standard
  English of an English-speaking country as a
  minority variety (identified chiefly by its
  vocabulary, grammar and orthography) which
  carries most prestige and is most widely
  understood. (Crystal 1995, repeated in the 2nd
  ed., 2003).
• 6 Traditionally the medium of the upper and
  (especially professional) middle class, and by
  and large of education Although not limited
  to one accent (most notably in recent decades),
  it has been associated since at least the 19th
  century with the accent that, since the 1920s,
  has been called Received Pronunciation (RP), and
  with the phrases the Queens English, the Kings
  English, Oxford English, and BBC English
  (McArthur 2002).

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Standard English what it isnt

• It is not a language it is only one variety of a
  given English.
• It is not an accent in Britain it is spoken by
  1215 of the population, of whom 912 speak it
  with a regional accent.
• It is not a style it can be spoken in formal,
  neutral and informal styles, respectively.
• It is not a register given that a register is
  largely a matter of lexis in relation to subject
  matter (e.g. the register of medicine, of
  cricket, or of knitting), there is no necessary
  connection between register and Standard English
• It is not a set of prescriptive rules it can
  tolerate certain features which, because many of
  their rules are grounded in Latin, prescriptive
  grammarians do not allow. (cf. Trudgill 1999)

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Standard English

• A dialect
• That differs from other dialects in that it has
  greater prestige
• That does not have an associated accent
• That does not form part of a geographical
  continuum.
• It is a purely social dialect.
• (Trudgill 1999)

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Non-standard Englishes

• Non-standard native English varieties
• New Englishes standard and non-standard
  varieties
• ? Implicit belief that New Englishes are result
  of fossilisation

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A6 The spread of English as an international
lingua franca

• Ambivalent attitude towards English as an
  international lingua franca
• Reasons for the international status of English
• Historical reasons
• Internal political reasons
• External economic reasons
• Practical reasons
• Intellectual reasons
• Entertainment reasons
• Personal advantage/prestige (Crystal 1997)

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Mutual intelligibility and group identity

• Intelligibility and identity two opposing forces
• Mutual intelligibility accent differences
  decrease
• Identity accent differences increase

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A7 The roles of English in Asia and Europe

• Europe Asia
• Expanding Circle Outer Circle
• Emerging Euro-English Asian Englishes
• Bi- and multilingual contexts
• Linguistic orphans (Kachru 1992)

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English as an Asian language

• Regional categorisation
• South Asian varieties
• Southeast Asian and Pacific varieties
• East Asian varieties
• Functional categorisation
• Institutionalised varieties (Outer Circle)
• Non-institutionalised varieties (Expanding
  Circle)

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English in Europe

• European Union (EU)
• 23 official languages
• 3 dominant languages English, French, German
• English the de facto European lingua franca
• Emerging features (Seidlhofer, Breiteneder, Pitzl
  2006)
• Nativisation processes

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A8 The future of World Englishes

• Language distribution vs. language spread
  (Widdowson 1997)
• Difficulties inherent in the English language
• Orthographic
• Phonological
• Grammatical
• Spanish as the principal world language
• Increasing influence in the EU and America
• Simpler pronunciation, spelling and verb system

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