Chapter 1:

An English-Speaking World (9-45)



 


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rhe Story of English

By Don L. F. Nilsen

Based on rhe Story of English

By Robert McCrum, Robert MacNeil
and William Cran (Penguin, 2003)

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 English, ESL or EFL is Spoken by about ½ of the
People in the World ( about 2 Billion People) (McCrum
24/50)

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English as a Global Language
 ¾ of the World¶s Mail
 ½ of the World¶s technical & scientific journals
 ½ of all newspapers
 80 % of the information in computers
 All International Air Pilots
 All International Sea Captains
 Many movies, songs, and much business
 ½ of European business deals
 7 of the Largest r Broadcasters (CBS, NBC, ABC,
BBC, CBC, CNN, C-Span)
 r relevangelism of Christianity (McCrum 10)

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 arieties of Global English, each
with its Own Peculiar Flavor
 Deutschlish
 Franglish (la langue du Coca-Cola)
 Indian English
 Japlish (man-shon vs. mai-homu,
basaburo, aisu-kurimu, mai-com [my
computer])
 Russlish
 Spanglish (McNeal 10, 38-39)
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 La Langue du Coca-Cola
 In France,
 hot money Ë capitaux fébariles
 Jumbo jet Ë gros porteur
 Fast food Ë prêt-à-manger
 In Canada, Loi 101 :
 English billboards, posters and storefronts
are banned. Many students are not
allowed to attend English-language
schools. (McCrum 39-40)

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Competing Global Languages
 Arabic
 Russian (before the breakup of the
Soviet Union in Eastern Europe)
 Mandarin
 Spanish
 French

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 Education Act of 1870: RP
 Cockney (Cock¶s Egg)
 RP (Received Pronunciation)
 Posh (Portside Out Starboard Home)
 (McCrum 13-21)

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 World War II (McCrum 23)
 GI Bases in Black Nylons
England, Italy, Market Pin-Up
France, Germany Blitz R&R
 GI Language was Flak Snafu
vivid, profane &
abbreviated: Yank

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 Pin-Ups and Yank Magazine
 Every issue of Yank Magazine featured
a pin-up to remind soldiers of the girls
back home.
 A pin-up of Rita Hayworth is said to
have been taped to Fat Boy, the atomic
bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
 Compare this with the movie Dr.
Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop
Worrying and Love the Bomb.
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 Atomic-Bomb Words (McCrum
24)
Atomic Holocaust
Chain Reaction (cf. Mushroom Cloud
onnegut¶s ³Ice Nine´) rest Site
Fallout (NOrE: rhe possibility
Fireball of nuclear proliferation
Fission was one of the causes
Fusion of Postmodernism &
Deconstructionism)

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 Coca-Colonialism (McCrum
24)
Budweiser Kodak
Coca Cola Maxwell House Coffee
Gillette Schlitz
Kellogg¶s Cornflakes Lucky Strike
Kellogg¶s Rice Marlboro
Krispies
(³Snap Crackle and
Pop´ has to be
translated into various
languages)
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 Korean and ietnam Wars (McCrum 25-
26)

Korean: ietnam: ietnam:

Brainwashing Defoliate Moratorium
Chopper Domino Napalm
(Helicopter) rheory Pacification
Escalation Search and
Firefight Destroy
Friendly Fire rhe Silent
Hawks & Majority (ct.
Doves the ocal
| Minority) |
 David Ofgor, Attaché to the US
Embassy in Phnom Penh:
 ralking to journalists:

 ³You always write it¶s bombing,

bombing, bombing. It¶s not bombing.
It¶s air support.´ (McCrum 27)

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 Regional Dialects (McCrum 27-
29)
 Franklin D. Roosevelt (Eastern Money)
 Harry rruman (rwangy Missouran)
 Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon & Gerald
Ford (American Midwest)
 Lyndon Johnson (Southern)
 Ronald Reagan & Dan Rather (Network
Standard)
 Kennedy Family (New England)
 George W. Bush (rexas)

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 alley-Girl/Surfer- Gay Speech:
Dude: Gay
Bitchin Out of the closet
Dude Queer
For sure Queen
Goady
Rad Women¶s Speech:
ro the max Ms.
rotally Letter carrier
rubular JOKE: Mannheim
Germany Ë
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Personheim
Gerpersony
 Silicon alley Words (California) (McCrum 30)

Artificial Intelligence Interface

CD (Compact Disk) Jump Drive
D D (Digital ideo Modem
Disk) On-Line
Data Processing ROM (Read-Only
Disk(ette) Memory)
Flash Drive Software, Hardware,
Hacker Wetware
Input Word Processor
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 British vs. American Global
English
 bird, bobby, bonnet, boot, drawing pins, flat,
lift, lorry, mate, nappy, petrol, pram, sweets,
torch, trunk call
 girl, cop, hood, trunk, thumb tacks,
apartment, elevator, truck, buddy, diaper,
gas, stroller, candy, flashlight, long-distance
call
 colour/color, theater/theatre, tyre/tire
 advertisement, laboratory, secretary
 (McCrum 32)
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 öDisadvantages of English as a Global
Language

 /š/ Ë shoe, sugar, issue, mansion, mission,

nation, suspicion, ocean, conscious,
chaperon, schist, fuchsia, pshaw (spelled 13
ways).
 $sh> $ch> $ph> $th> $gh>
 Full, reduced, zero grades of consonants
 Long, Short, -r, schwa, and zero grades of
vowels
 15 different vowel phonemes
 $c> $g> $ > $s> (/s/ /š/ /z/ /ž/) $x>
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 (McCrum 42)
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 ööAdvantages of English as a Global
Language
 Natural Gender, not Grammatical
Gender
 Simplified Word Endings resulting in
greater flexibility (N Ë , etc.)
 reeming ocabulary (80 % is not
Anglo-Saxon) but rather: Arabic, Celtic,
Chinese, Dutch, French, German,
Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Latin,
Scandinavian, Spanish, etc.
(McCrum 43) | 
 öööNilsen PowerPoints
 ³Foreign Words in English´

 ³Global English´

 Romance and Germanic Words in

English´

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References:

Kachru, Braj B. Models of English for the rhird World: White Man¶s
Linguistic Burden or Language Pragmatics?. New York, NY: Routledge,
raylor and Francis Group, 1991.

Kachru, Braj B. rhe Other rongue: rhe Spread of English and Issues of
Intelligibility. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1982.

McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil. rhe Story of English.
New York, NY: Penguin, 1986. (source of map citations)

McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil. rhe Story of English:
rhird Revised Edition. New York, NY: Penguin, 2003. (source of text
citations)

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