Lingua inglese - English varieties

NEW ZELAND ENGLISH

New Zeland English is greatly influenced by British, American but above all Australian English and

Maori.

It is rather uniform within the country ad it has more or less the same features of the Australian one.

In addition:

 The diphthong /eə/ is pronounced /ɪə/.

For example: air, chair

 The short /ɪ/ is pronounced as /ə/ (schwa)

ənd ʧəps/

For example: fish and chips /fəsh

 Short vowels chain shift.

 Non-rhotic language. The /r/ is not pronounced.

 Declarative utterances sometimes have a rising instead of a falling intonation.

In terms of vocabulary, New Zealand English stands its ground against Australian English.

ENGLISH GOES TO AFRICA

 –

INNER CIRCLE SOUTH AFRICA

Million of slaves from all Africa were trasported by European colonist in America, but in South

Africa the situation was different: the first settlers were the Ducth, who, since the 17th century,

brought the Dutch language to the southern tip of Africa.

In the 19th century many English people, the majority of them coming from the South-East rural

areas of England, began to settle here. Then, a second large group of English-speaking immigrants

arrived here, but they were of a higher social status.

Nowadays this difference is still noticeable in the language and there are three main varieties:

-The Cape English -The Natal English -The General South-African English

In the Republic of South Africa there are now 11 official languages.

The language spoken by the first Dutch settlers evolved into a language called Afrikaans and today it

is spoken by 9/10 people (Nine out of ten people).

English is dominant in government, institutions, media and technology and used as lingua franca. Ther

eare amny reasons for the succes story of Englosh in South Africa: one reason is that there has been a

positive shift among Afrikaners in their attitude towards English, and the other reason is that using

English avoids the potential divisiveness of using any particular African languages; it’s a neutral

option.

SOUTH AFRICAN ENGLISH

The main features are:

 Some vowels are pronounced in a higher position than in British English for example: pen /pɪn/.

 The short /ɪ/ is pronounced as in Australia or as in New Zeland for example: fish and chips /fish

ənd ʧips/ ənd ʧəps/.

or /fəsh

 The consonant /t/ is often realized as /d/ as in American English for example: matter-madder

 Some diphthongs become a single long vowel: for example: fine /faɪn/---/fa:n/phone /fəʊn/---/fə:n/

 OUTER CIRCLE

At the end of the 18th century the Cape Colony was the only permanent European settlement in Africa,

but by 1914, only Ethiopia and Liberia remained indipendent. After the Secon World War the

European colonial powers were physically and psyichologically weakened; and, one after another

African colonies won their indipendence.

The English spoken in Africa can be divided into three categories:

-West African English (Ghana, Nigeria…)

African English (Kenia, Uganda…)

-East African English (Malawi, Zimbawe…)

-Southern

Then, in each country, spoken English, can differ on a scale running from the acrolet (found in

national newspaper and broadcasting), mesolect (middle dialect) and basilect (local varieties).

a

RP pronounciation is stressed-timed (there’s big difference between stressed and unstressed

an

syllables). On the other hand African English pronounciation tends to be syllable-timed (there’s

equal value of all the syllables)

The main difference from Standard English (RP) is the absence of /ə/ (Schwa) and the fact that it is a

syllable-timed language.

ENGLISH GOES TO ASIA

English is spoken in South Asia in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan where it can be the national

or it can be used as a “lingua franca” but, however, it is very important.

language

Words from South Asia such as bungalow, nirvana, yoga…have invaded English lexis.

In 1819 Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles acquired Singapore for the East India Company and founded a

there, which later became the governmental centre of “the Straits Settlements” , which also

settlement

comprised Malaya and other islands.

English is also spoken in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines as a National language, a second

language or as a “lingua franca”.

-Bangladesh: Bengali is the official language, but English is the language used in education

Pakistan: Urdu and English are the official languages, but English is used for officiali purposes and

Urdu for everyday speech.

Singapore: four official languages: Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil). English is the language of

instruction, government, business…but many Singaporeans use Singlish (a mix between Standard

English and popular variety)

Malaysia: the only official language is Malay, but English is larged used in education and as lingua

franca

Philippines: the two official languages are English and Tagalog. English is used in administration, law

courts…and in the media both the languages are used.

With the exception of Philippines, which came under American influence, the English spoken in

Southest Asia had its origin in British English.

20 years ago the new term New Englishes was coined to describe the language spoken by these

countries, influenced by local languages. These “vernauclar Englishes”

This phenomenon show English adapting to new cultures and societies.

are valued for their role in mainteining local identities, but they are scarcely intelligible to the rest of

the world. In fact for official purposes and business, they use Standard English.

Another tendency of New Englishes’s speakers is to practise what linguistcs call code-switching:

change from one language to another in the same utterance.

INDIA

Indian history: In 1757 the British India Company established his commercial power in India for spice

trade. The Company became so powerful that, in 1773, the British governement had to get directly

involved and made the East India Company its semi-official agency. In 1858 the administration of

India was transferred from the East India Company to the British Crown. Indigenous industry was

destroyed and Indian economy was transferred into colonial economy. English was the medium of

government. It wasnt’ a well-considered

education and the official language of the language, because

it was the instrument of colonial control, but, however, his importance has increased rather than

declined, even after the non-violent resistance led by Gandhi and the independence.

Population: 1 billion

English speakers: 40 million

English isn’t the official language (which is Hindi) but it’s considered an “associate language”: it is

used in business and economy and it’s the medium of higher education. Then it’s used in the media

and in literature: India is the largest English publisher after US and UK.

this period is called “the Raj”

This country has been under the British rule since 1765 to 1947, and

INDIAN ENGLISH

Syntax:

 Omission of articles

 Present tense for past (“Yesterday I go”)

 of progressive tense (“She’s liking the music”)

Unnecessary use

Pronunciation:

 Lack a distinction between /v/ and /w/

 Replace /th/ sound with /t/ and /d/

 Rhotic accent

 Tapped /r/

 Unaspirated /t/ and /d/

 Lenghtened final /i:/ instead of /I/

CARIBBEAN ENGLISH, CREOLES AND PIDGINS

Caribbean is a sea located between North, Central and South America.

In addition the term applies to the islands which enclose this sea but also to Guyana and Belize.

Caribbean irelands belong to the inner circle (it’s the only part of the inner circle that has a largely

black population).

Throughout the centuries many cultures and languages mixed here and this gave rise to mixed

languages known as “Pidgins” and “Creoles”.

 A PIDGIN is a reduced and simplified language used to comunicate among people who do not

share a common language. This language probably comes from the jargon used by seamen from

different backgrounds.

 A CREOLE is a pidgin language which has become the mother tongue of a community. In other

words a pidgin has no native speakers while a creole has become the native language of some

speakers.

In many caribbean countries both English and creoles are spoken.

If a variety is closer to English is an ACROLECT, then we have a MESOLECT or a BASILECT

which is closer to the creole language.

Grammar and pronounciation features are simplified, these are the common features:

 There are less vowels and less diphthongs

 No schwa sound

 Th-consonants are pronounced as a /d/ or a /t/

 –h

Initial is dropped.

 The language can be rhotic or non-rhotic (Barbados=rhotic, Trinidad and Bahamas=non rhotic)

 Questions made without the invertion subject/verb or putting the auxiliary “do”

 No verbs and nouns desinences

 The verb BE is ometted

 Adjectives are used instead of adverbs

 No distinction between I, me, my and we, us, our

 Adjectives are often repeated. Es. small-small (tiny), big-big (huge)

 It’s syllabled-timed

The vocabulary is rich, inventive and diversified.

called “patois”)

JAMAICAN CREOLE(ofetn

Jamaican creole is the most important one because it is the most widespread in the Caribbean.

It is used in commercials and entertainment programs on the radio and tv although English dominates

in news programs, newspapers and education.

Recently many people have shown their wish to recognize it as a distinct language.

SURINAME CREOLE

Suriname (also called Dutch Guiana) is a country which was previously an English colony, then a

Dutch colony and now an independent republic. Here there are many creoles but the most spoken is

SRANAN, a mixture of English and West African languages (for the slave trade)

ENGLISH-BASED CREOLES AROUND THE WORLD

1) CREOLIZATION: the process with which a makeshift trade language (the pidgin) becomes the

mother tongue of a new generation of speakers and then acquired the full range of communicative

functions.

2) DECREOLIZATION: it happens when the creole begins to lose its distinctive character, because

of the education and the national media reinforce the influence of national standard English

3) POST-CREOLE CONTINUUM: this means that, instead of two independent languages (standard

and creole) side by side, we find a continuum similar to that of the pyramid of standardization: at

the bottom the basilect (the creole), which is linked to the acrolect (standard English) through the

many variants of the mesolect.

English-based creoles are mixed languages made up of the English language and West African

are also other creoles, based on other languages: Spanish, French… this

substrate languages. There

languages on which the creole draw most of their