Varieties of English

English as a global language

Reasons for English as an international language

A complex range of reasons why English has reached an international status:

• Linguistic
• Historical - Legacy with British and American Imperialism, international bodies using English
• Socio-economic
• Internal political - Official role, LF role, symbol of emerging nationhood
• External economic - International trade, business, tourism
• Practical - Academic conferences, international air traffic control, maritime, policing and emergency services
• Intellectual - Most scientific, technological, academic information is in English, 80% of the information stored on the Internet
• Entertainment - Main language of pop music, advertising, videogames, drugs and pornography
• Personal advantage/prestige - Better job, education

The I diaspora (brought English to Canada, Australia, South Africa) and II diaspora (Africa and Asia) are connected to colonization: over the last decades English has spread all over the world (globalization → processes SUPERDIVERSITY, the increasing presence of English and other languages in media and urban linguistic landscapes) through media and increased physical and virtual mobility.

Speakers of English

• Early 17^th century: 5-7 million speakers
• Beginning 21^st century: 1.5-2 billion speakers

350-400 million of these are natives (ENS) and speak older varieties (ENL). There are 75 territories in which English is spoken as an L1 or used as an official L2.

• American English: 230 million
• British English: 57 million
• BBC English: 1 million
• Indian English: 200 million
• Native speakers of English: 400 million
• Non-native speakers of English: 1200 million

English has a recognized special role as an official language (L1, L2), and it is the compulsory FL in education not for its intrinsic characteristics, but because of the "power of its speakers" and because it was "in the right place at the right time":

• Language of the British Empire
• Language of the industrial revolution and of technological innovation
• Language of the leading force in globalization and superpower, the US

It is perceived from developing countries as the primary gateway to better jobs and a better life. In many countries, it has important internal functions as an L2, being used in politics, business, education, technology, and media. In fulfilling local functions, it has developed local forms and characteristics, so that people enjoy using it in their own way: in many places, it is used to express regional pride, a sense of belonging to a place which finds expressions through local culture, including language forms.

The need for a global language

Since the 1950s, the need for a global language increases (a lingua franca, a common working language) → globalization - the widening, deepening, and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness in all aspects of contemporary social life. Increased communication (travel, technology, internet) impacts all levels of social life, language included.

Global Englishes

This term comprises varieties of English (WE), their identification and codification, and ELF, which examines English use within and across borders. It also extends to issues associated with English, such as globalization, linguistic imperialism, education, and language policy and planning.

World Englishes

World Englishes denotes any of the varieties spoken around the world, with different identities and properties, and not ONE language. These varieties are adopted and adapted to the local circumstances and local settings. The perspective is usually a national one.

New Englishes

Restricted to the newly grown L2 varieties, especially of Africa and Asia, like Tanzanian or Indian English.

Postcolonial Englishes

Unites all the varieties which have shared origins in mostly British colonization activities. It excludes BrEng but includes AmEng or AusEng, the New Englishes, and English-related creoles. The spread of English in the world:

• 17^th - 18^th century: Language of the leading colonial nation (GB)
• 18^th - 19^th century: Language of the leading industrial revolution (GB)
• Late 19^th - early 20^th century: Language of leading economic power (USA)

Its colonial past, and its status after the colonies gained independence, is what made English a global language.

Speakers of English: Groups of users by function

• Native speakers (L1, ENL): Language of those born and raised in one of the countries where English is historically the first language to be spoken (UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand)
• Second language (L2, ESL): Language spoken in a large number of territories once colonized by the English (India, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa). Product of the II diaspora, English is learned within a wider multilingual repertoire of acquisition (Indian English, Nigerian English, Singaporean English)
• Foreign language (EFL): Language of those countries that were never colonized by the British, and for whom it serves no official purposes within their own countries. Increasingly present in education since nursery/primary school.
• Lingua franca (ELF): Global language of communication among speakers of different L1s. It is NOT a variety. It is a functional use.

Difficulties with these categorizations

• ENL is NOT a single variety of English
• Pidgins and creoles do not fit into the categorization
• There are large groups of ENL speakers in ESL territories, and vice versa
• There are large numbers of ESL speakers living in ENL settings
• Based on monolingualism, which isn’t the norm anymore, people speak two or more languages (English is also spoken within a framework of code-mixing and code-switching)
• Based on the distinction between native speakers and non-native speakers, with the first group being considered superior regardless of the quality of their language

Main models of categorization

• Kachru (1985, 1992): Developed the Three Circles model of WE. The most useful and influential model. English belongs to those who use it, NOT to native speakers. WE are divided into three concentric circles:
  • Inner Circle (ENL countries, “norm providing”)
  • Outer Circle (ESL countries, “norm developing” for their own variety)
  • Expanding Circle (EFL countries, “norm dependent”)
  In 1992 he notices that these circles were intersected. Limitations to the model include:
  • Is based on geography and history, rather than the speakers’ use of English (some in the Outer circle speak English as their L1)
  • There is a grey area between Inner and Outer circles, as well as Outer and Expanding circles (countries in transition)
  • Bilingual/multilingual speakers are not taken into consideration
  • Difficulties 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
• Stevens (1980): A sort of family tree, an upside-down diagram demonstrating the way in which all Englishes have affinities with either BrEng or AmEng.
• McArthur (1987): Three circles, in the middle there’s an inner circle (World Standard English), then the different varieties, then the regional varieties. WSE is an abstract variety, with undefined characteristics, not a real language with real speakers.
• Schneider (2003, 2007): Dynamic Model useful for post-colonial Englishes, not for the Expanding circle. He identifies a uniform evolutionary process that emerges from a social dynamic between the two parties involved (colonizers and colonized). The steps are:
  • The foundation stage (English is brought to a new territory, language contact phenomena)
  • Exonormative stabilization (English is gradually used in administration, education, and the norms are defined by the colonizers – exonormative)
  • Nativization (after independence, nation-building needs: new linguistic needs, a new variety starts to be forged)
  • Endonormative stabilization (local variety and norms become part of the identity of English, this appropriation begins to be codified and accepted in society, Nigerian English, Indian English)
  • Differentiation (internal social group linguistic variation start to develop as group identity)
  This model has a socio-historical view: looks at the political history of countries, language identity issues, and sociolinguistic conditions of language contact. Not all stages may develop.
• Modiano (1999): Model based on what is mutually comprehensible to the majority of proficient speakers of International English (standard), who are as likely to be NNSs as NSs. EIL (English as an International Language), to acknowledge the use of English not for intranational purposes. Circles:
  • Inner circle comprises people proficient in International English
  • The next one comprises native and foreign language proficiency
  • The last one comprises Learners
  On the outside, people who do not know English. Second model: EIL at the center, the Common Core immediately after it, and all the other varieties on the outside.
• Pennycook (2009): 3D transtextual model 3 planes:–Inter/linguistic – the language resources that the speakers use. ELF is placed here, all uses of English. Context, co-linguistic – “who says what to whom and where”, use of English in space and time, registers actual contextual use. Location, audolinguistic – “what gets taken from what language use”, outtake of meaning, listeners come with language histories and means of interpretation. How English is used depends on the intersection between these three planes.
• Mahboob (2015): Language variation framework, three parts on a continuum:
  • Users of English – defines social-geographical distance (local/global) between interlocutors
  • Uses of English – the aim according to which English is used in that context, the purpose (everyday/specialized discourse)
  • Mode of communication – spoken, written, or combination of both
  Not mutually exclusive; combination of 8 possible kinds of language variation.

Differentiation by:

• Function:
  • ESL
  • EFL
  • EAL
  • EIL
  • ELF
  • International English
  • WSSE
• History:
  • Colonial standards
  • Indigenised Englishes
  • Language-shift Englishes
• Ecology:
  • Inner circle varieties
  • Outer circle varieties
  • Expanding circle varieties
  • World Englishes
  • New Englishes
• Structure:
  • Pidgin English
  • Creole English
  • Hybrid English (Spanglish, Frenglish)
• Multiplex: (plurilithic perspective)
  • World English
  • English language complex
• Community:
  • Metropolitan standards (MS) - prestige varieties (BrEng, AmEng), model in education and broadcasting
  • Regional dialects
  • Social dialects
  • Immigrant Englishes
  • Native/non-native varieties
  • Global Englishes LF, tied to its global role

World Englishes studies

"Approach oriented to certain key issues related to the legitimacy of local or translocal varieties and language practices, and the relation between language and cultural identity". It is a broad and developing discipline, with shared fundamental concerns, acceptance of New Englishes as legitimate varieties and globally set enquiry.

Two main poles:

• Indigenised varieties
• International English – Territorialised and deterritorialised

Two tendencies of WE:

• Grammaticalization – Lexical items get formally weakened and ultimately become function words (e.g., in Singlish "know" is the reduced form for the English discourse-marker "you know")
• Exaptation – A form available is "recycled" and adopted with a new function

Standard English ideology

Standard language is a term used for that variety of a language which is considered to be the norm. Generally, it is a prestige variety (spoken by a minority of people occupying positions of power within the society) and also a yardstick against which other varieties of the language are measured.

We have to keep in mind that conventions (what is good/bad? Acceptable/non-acceptable? true/false?) are related to the standard language. The standard/prestige variety is held up as the optimum, as a reference point for educational purposes.

Language standards are those prescriptive language rules which constitute the standard to which all members of a language community are exposed and urged to conform during education. They are the 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 an error by promoters of standard language ideology.

4 stages of this process

1. Selection (of the variety as a potential standard, usually the one that already has political/economic currency)
2. Codification (development of the rules, fixed in grammar books and dictionaries)
3. Elaboration of function (the variety has to be capable of performing a wide range of functions, in particular institutional and literary functions in government, law, education, science, and literature)
4. Acceptance (Implementation)

Stages may overlap: codification and elaboration. Users’ new needs (vocabulary > technology), new words are continuously added to dictionaries.

What isn’t Standard British English?

• A language: It is only one variety of a given English
• An accent: In Britain, it is spoken by 12-15% of the population, of whom 9-12% speak it with a regional accent
• A style: It can be spoken in formal, neutral, and informal styles respectively
• A register: Given that a register is largely a matter of lexis in relation to subject matter (the register of medicine, cricket, knitting), there is no necessary connection between register and SE
• 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.

Standard British English is a dialect/variety that differs from other dialects in that it has greater prestige, does not “have” an accent (but is often associated with RP), and that doesn’t form part of a geographical continuum. It is a purely social dialect (Trudgill, 1999), not superior or better than any regional dialect. STANDARD is a prestige variety. Socially it is the “correct” form of language, the reference point. NON-STANDARD is whatever differs from standard (most regional and social dialects, Irish, Scottish English). Evaluative meaning of “incorrect”, “bad usage”. Standard is also an idealization. RP is a social accent, associated with educated people and the upper middle class. In common usage, a dialect is a substandard, low-status, often rustic form of language, generally associated with peasantry, the working class.

Standards are different across space: three main standard native varieties: British, North American, Australian/New Zealand. There are differences and similarities across standard varieties and across varieties of English within the British Isles and North America. Vocabulary is the most noticeable level of divergence.

NAmE and BrE

Took place through language contact, and adapting the language by introducing new words via:

• Extending the meaning of existing English words (corn, robin)
• Creating new words for new things (butte, an isolated hill with a flat top)
• Borrowing from indigenous languages (moccasin, squaw)

Developments since independence of the US (technological innovation NAmE: windshield, hood, trunk VS BrE: windscreen, bonnet, boot)

Categories of lexical differences in EngEng and USEng (Trudgill and Hannah, 2002)

• Same word, different meaning (homely, pants, pavement)
• Same word, additional meaning in one variety (bathroom, regular, school)
• Same word, difference in style, connotation, frequency of use (autumn, to fancy, quite)
• Same concept or item, different word (tap/facet, queue/line, pavement/sidewalk)

Australian English

Similar process:

• Borrowing from aboriginal languages (kangaroo, boomerang)
• Words with different meanings (footpath (pavement), sedan (estate car), paddock (field))
• Different slang words and phrases (a chine mate, a drongo fool)
• Many abbreviations, clipping (diminutive suffixes, -ie, -y, -o)

Differences in Grammar USeng and EngEng

• Verbs morphology, differences in past & participle endings, and auxiliaries → must not/can’t
• Nouns endings (-ee, -ster, candidature/candidacy), verbs as nouns (to run down the rundown)
• Adjectives and adverbs (different than/from, I didn’t buy one yet/I haven’t bought one yet)
• Prepositions (some differ in use)

Non-standard English(es) attitudes

Standard “English English” is seen as the most prestigious. Non-standard native English varieties are marked as “deviations”, “incorrect” “non-/sub-standard (definient, fossilized, interlanguage). Implicit belief that New Englishes (Outer Circle) are the result of fossilization. Differences between speech and writing:

Three approaches (Baron 2000)

• Opposition view (writing is opposed to speech)
• Continuum view (between “typical speech” and “typical writing”, traditional writing face to face speech)
• Cross-over view (features of both speech and writing)