Notes for English Language Unit 2 by Kaleb Malanin

Unit 2 Area of Study Two Englishes in Contact

Introduction to World English:

At the end of 18th century, British population ~15 million with 1/3
speaking a Celtic language or little to no English
~one billion people speak English to a level of competence
Over the next few years around two billion will be learning English

How did English become so widespread and what fuels its spread?

During the course of the 18th and 19th centuries Britain had become the
worlds leading industrial and trading nation
Imperialism during the 19th century
Independent nations began to choose English as a national or seminational language
Handy lingua franca between populations of different linguistic
backgrounds
Knowledge is increasingly created and disseminated in English, this
provides incentive to learn.
Is a medium for higher education
Academics wont be up to date with the latest research if they dont
know English
Language of Economic development
Global businesses usually use English as a lingua franca
It is the language of e-money
Common language on the internet
Used in travel situations such as in airports and is on most tourist signs
Meetings, conferences and sporting events that are international are
often held in English
Official role in the UN
New technology enabled the promotion of English through the cinema
and pop culture
Dominance in the pop music scene
International language of safety, i.e. English occurs on most safety
signs or important info signs such as first aid or on ATM machines.
It is an important medium for the press

Englishes Galore

The spread of English has formed many hybrids, dialects, nativised

varieties, pidgins and creoles

Five categories to better understand linguistic labelling:

Notes for English Language Unit 2 by Kaleb Malanin

Location: the setting of the speech community

Ethnicity: what varieties are associated with which ethnic group
Occupation: is it associated with a specific job (e.g. legal English)
Location and Occupation: A combination of the above (e.g. Australian
medical English)
Contact: The label of the new English (e.g. Chinglish)

Kachrus Circles

Created by Braj Kachru

Describes different users of English

The inner circle refers to English as a Native Language (ENL)

The outer circle refers to English as a Second Language (ESL), English
is a remnant from colonial times and still plays a significant role in
society
The expanding circle to English as a Foreign Language (EFL), English
here is used in certain settings, it doesnt have roots on colonial times
or official language.

New Englishes Indian English

Notes for English Language Unit 2 by Kaleb Malanin

New Englishes may be labelled as such because they have distinct

grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and conventions compared to
native English
Usually L2 or ESL speakers of English
English came to India as early as 1600A.D. with the establishment
of the east India company
India received independence from Britain in 1947A.D.
English enjoys associate official language status and continues to
play an important role in government, the courts, higher education
and the media.
Indian English shows quite distinct characteristics in its sound
system, including unaspirated voiceless stops /p t k/ and a series of
retroflex consonants (sounds made with the tip of the tongue curled
away from the alveolar ridge
Has unique stress, intonation and rhythm
Substantial lexical borrowing from Indian languages

Grammatical Highlights of Indian English

Verbs Extended use of the progressive beyond the standard contexts

of use. E.g. You must be knowing him.
An understudied variation in the use of articles. E.g. Lets go to city;
Women can prove to be a great help to the humanity.
Difference in count and mass nouns. E.g. furnitures, apparels,
deadwoods.
Pronouns often left out in subject and object position. E.g. You got the
tickets? No, sold already; Is clear that he will not come; Rained
yesterday only.
Invariant tag questions. E.g. you are going home, isnt it?
Focus structures. All sorts of elements can appear at the start of
sentences.

Other English Pidgins

Creoles and Pidgins may be referred to as contact languages

Pidgins are a makeshift language
Pidgins involve to or more languages and are somewhat in between
The socially dominant language is the starting point for lexicon
Pidgins arent anybodys first language
Used in limited contexts
Lack the range of stylistic variation characteristics of a normal
language
Make do with reduced vocabularies

Notes for English Language Unit 2 by Kaleb Malanin

Require far less complex and flexible structures

When the pidgin stabilises it becomes a creole
When a pidgin is spoken as a first language it becomes a creole

Other English Creoles (study of Bislama (Vanuatu), Pijin (Solomon Is.),

Tok Pisin (PNG))

There are 3 main creole groups; the Caribbean, West African and West
Pacific
Example creoles are; Bislama, Tok Pisin, Krio, Gullah, Costa Rican
Creole, Jamaican Creole and Kriol.
Have their own distinctive grammars
Not mutually intelligible with Native Englishes
All have a connection with English but the speakers of them would not
say that was a variety of English
1. Feature of verbs and verb phrases
Limited morphology for nouns and verbs, calamitous inflections
Usually add a Vm ending (V=vowel) to most transitive verbs (verbs
that take an object). Eg. dring (to drink), dringim (to drink
something)
-Vm commonly appears at the end of borrowed words.
-I is a predicate marker, it cannot be translated to English
Verbs dont usually carry any tense marking and depend on context
Sentence modifiers such as bin or bae can be added to indicate past
or future tense
Reduplication is widespread as a lively feature of verb morphology
It is usually a partial reduplication, involving the repetition of the
first syllable or first two syllables of the verb root
Reduplication usually indicates intensity or duration/repetition of an
action
E.g. kra/karae to cry versus kakarae, to cry continuosly
Creoles have a range of negative markers that generally appear in
front of the verb and any tense markers.
E.g. no, you no save kam (you cannot come)
2. Features of Nouns and Noun Phrases
Pronouns are more simple and yet more complex in creoles
Forms are not distinguished for case or gender
Creoles distinguish singular, dual, trial and plural pronouns
Pronouns can include or exclude you
1

st

Singular
Mi (i)

Dual
Mitupela

Trial
Pural
Mitrepela (I + Mipela (I+all

Notes for English Language Unit 2 by Kaleb Malanin

Exclusive

1st
Inclusive
2nd

3rd

Em
(he/she)

Yu (thou)

(i+he/she) I plus both

of
someone
makes them)
two fellas
Yumitepela (I+you) Yumitripela
(I+you both)
Yutupela
Yutripela
you two fellas
you
three
fellas
(em)tupelo
(they two)

Emtripela
(they 3)

of them) me
and fellas
Yumipela
(I+all of you)
Yupela
(you 4 or
more)
you
fellas
Ol
(they 4 or
more)

3. Complex Sentences
These contact Englishes share characteristically paratactic
structure
Clauses are strung together, either without any linking item at all
or are linked by some sort if coordinating element, such as
Bislama mo (and) or be (but).
Subordinate clauses are indicated by a range of markers that
have emerged from prepositions such as for/fo and blong/blo.
se originally used at the start of clauses introducing indirect
speech has now become a general clause linker such as that.
Clauses can be linked with no marker at all
Markers such as we/wea and husat can be used optionally

Australian Creoles and Aboriginal English

Pidgins appeared in Australia not long after the arrival of Europeans

In areas where these pidgins stabilised they became creoles. Eg. the
Kimberley region, the Rope River area and Northern Queensland.
Each show regional differences despite similarities
Aboriginal English is an ethnolect (a variety that identifies its speakers
by ethnicity and is usually influenced by their L1 language)
There is a spectrum of Creolisation. On one end something near
identical to standard English and on the other a creole which is
mutually unintelligible.
Along the spectrum are pidgins, aboriginal English and a variety of
other forms of English
Speakers are able to move along the spectrum or continuum
depending on their situation and time in life

Notes for English Language Unit 2 by Kaleb Malanin

Aboriginal English differs from Australian English on all levels including

pragmatics.
There is a continuum from heavy to light accent in Ab. English
Lexical differences include the borrowing words form their native Ab.
Language. Eg. gubba white man.
English words can have different meanings. Eg. gotta means sorry
business, that is a ceremony associated with death.
Archaic English words are used. Eg. gammon, joking, pretending.
Cultural use of language differs in Aboriginal English; information
eliciting is far more indirect. Silence also plays a big role.

Grammar

Has many creole features

Omission of prepositions where they are normally required
Different negative constructions
never, not and nomore commonly appear in front of the verb for
general negation.
Widespread use of simplified tag questions. Eg. He can walk, eh?
Thats a bird, init?
Substitution of relative what for that. Eg. I got one what eats
witchetty grubs.
Possession marked by juxtaposition, eg. that my daddy car
Some varieties the possessor follows the possessed
Unmarked verb is frequently used for both main verb and auxiliary
be. Eg. I be cold.
Irregular strong verb forms such as brang and brung
Doubly marked past tense forms such as camed and didnt stayed.
Remote varieties show creolisation of the transitive suffix using im
and em
An array of non-standard adverb-forming suffixes. Eg. long-way,
long-time
Inconsistent marking for number. Eg. two man, childrens and
mob meaning lots
Little in the way of subordination

Variations in Native Englishes

Pronouns can vary quite a bit between native Englishes

Dialects such as in South-West England and Newfoundland have
subject pronouns in object position and vice versa. Eg. give it to he, her
dont need it.

Notes for English Language Unit 2 by Kaleb Malanin

Some dialects show gender assignment systems, there is a dialect in

Tasmania that does this a bit.
Some dialects show unusual verbal systems.
Modal constructions such as the double and triple. In the south of the
USA and Scotland these may be used. Eg. He might could do it. Hell
might could do it for you.

Language and Culture

Vocabulary is linked to the culture of its speakers

Words often open a window into the values and attitudes of a
community
AusEng has words that are untranslatable to any other English
There are Anglo-AusEng words that provide expression. Eg. battler,
whinge, bludger, no worries etc.
Cultural preoccupations have a tendency to generate specialised
structures, grammatical structures that are made-to-measure and
tailored with respect to societal ethos.
Anglo-English has derived polite terms such as could you shut the
window and do you mind if I shut the window so as not to offend the
other by saying something such as shut the window. i.e. not using
imperatives.
Language works as a kind of filter on reality
People who speak different languages have different worldviews
Language is both the expression of a culture but also the enforcer of a
culture
There is no such thing as a neutral language that just echoes reality,
language always suggests and influences

Language Shift, Maintenance and Reclamation

Language death = The disappearance of all speakers and usage

Most common cause for language death is language shift
Language shift = occurs when a community becomes bilingual and
gradually shifts to one of those languages
Language Reclamation = trying to reinstate the use of a language and
stop it from dying out, then further reinitiating its original use
Languages are dying at an unprecedented rate, the main groups are
American Indian, Celtic, Austronesian and Australian Aboriginal
languages.
Language endangerment and language management are the most
urgent challenges in modern linguistics.
This century will see more than half the worlds 6000 languages
disappear

Notes for English Language Unit 2 by Kaleb Malanin

One language dies every two weeks

English is note solely to blame, languages such as French, German,
Chinese, Indonesian and Spanish are largely to blame too.
Before Settlers arrived in Australia this was the status of Aboriginal
languages: 26-29 Families, 200-250 Languages, 500-700 dialects.
145 of the original languages remain today, 19 have more than 500
speakers, 45 between 10 and 50 speakers and 67 less than ten
speakers.

Why we should save languages

Identity: language is the primary symbol of identity, be it personal,
cultural, national, regional, occupational or other.
Cognitive: Language is inextricably from thought; we need language
to process concepts & perform cognitive functions.
Culture: We express our culture through language; music, movies, TV,
dance, stories, myths and legends etc.
History: Language encapsulates a cultures history through its
formation, in stories handed down and in its mere sound and origins.
Diversity: Each language provides new and interesting characteristics
Knowledge: May contain information about agriculture, medicine,
botany and the landscape as well as history.
Linguistic: With each language lost is lost information on the way our
brain works and thinks.
Worldview: Each language provides a unique worldview.
Relativism and Determinism

These are two philosophical ideas or theories as to way though

and language influence each other.
Relativism: Language simply influences our thinking
Determinism: Language determines/organises the way we
think