World Englishes

263 Pages·2011·2.485 MB·The English Language Series

by  Gunnel Melchers, Philip Shaw

WORLD
ENGLISHES
An Introduction
GUNNEL MELCHERS
& PHILIP SHAW
Department of English, Stockholm University, Sweden
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978 1 444 135 37 4
First Published 2003. This second edition published in 2011 by Hodder Education, an Hachette UK company.
Impression number 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Year 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011
Copyright © 2011 Gunnel Melchers, Philip Shaw
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
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by CPI Antony Rowe.
ii
Contents C
o
n
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Preface v
Acknowledgements vii
IPAchart viii
1 The roots of English  1
2 The spread of English  6
3 Variation in English  11
3.1Linguisticdiversityanddiffusion 11
3.2Typesofvariationinform 14
3.3Variationinhistoricaloriginandevolution 31
3.4Dimensionsofclassification 32
4 The inner circle  44
4.1England 47
4.2Wales/Cymru 55
4.3Scotland 61
4.4Ireland 71
4.5TheUSA 79
4.6Canada 90
4.7Australia 100
4.8NewZealand/Aotearoa 107
4.9SouthAfrica 114
4.10Liberia 119
4.11TheCaribbean 120
4.12Some‘lesser-known’minorvarietiesofEnglish 127
5 The outer circle  134
5.1SocialandpoliticalissuessurroundingtheuseofEnglishintheoutercircle 134
5.2Somecommonfeaturesofthe‘NewEnglishes’ 137
5.3SouthAsia:India,Pakistan,Bangladesh,SriLanka,etc. 143
5.4Africa 152
5.5South-EastAsia 169
5.6Others 181
6 The expanding circle  186
6.1TheriseofEnglishintheexpandingcircle 186
6.2DomainsforEnglish 189
6.3Englishinlingua-francasituations 197
6.4Thepossibilityofexpanding-circleEnglishesandtwoexamples 202
6.5HowEnglishmightbeaffectingotherlanguages 208
6.6Implicationsforthechoiceofschoolvariety 211
iii
S 7Beyond the circles  213
E
H
7.1Cross-currentsinattitudestoEnglishintheworld 213
S
LI 7.2What’snext? 216
G
N
Glossaryoflinguisticterms 221
E
D
References 230
L
R
O Index 249
W
iv
Preface P
re
fa
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e
This book is intended for undergraduate students throughout the world, whether or
not they have English as their first language, use English as their medium of educa-
tion outside Europe, or are like most of our own students and use English as a foreign
or international language. The Englishes of all three types of user are covered within
this second edition, which aims to present and describe global variation and change in
the vocabulary, grammar, phonology, and pragmatics of English. We also try to set the
linguistic variation within its historical and social context. We have aimed to enrich
the presentation as much as possible with ‘language in use’ taken from fiction, popular
culture, newspapers, and electronic media.
This second edition comes eight years after the first, and in that period there
have been very many publications on World Englishes that have both added to our
knowledge of varieties and changed our perceptions of the nature of English in the
globalised world. In particular, the notion of English as a Lingua Franca has been
greatly developed and clarified. We should acknowledge the use we have made of ma-
jor handbooks like Kortmann, Schneider et al. (2004; 2008)), Kachru, Kachru, and
Nelson (2006) and Kirkpatrick (2010a), of complementary textbooks like Jenkins
(2003, second edition 2009), Kirkpatrick (2007), and Mesthrie and Bhatt (2008),
and of significant theoretical contributions like Schneider (2007).
There have also been real-world developments that have shifted the centre of Eng-
lish somewhat away from first-language users, like the increasing importance of India
and China, and the accession of new countries to the EU. The continuing rise of
computer-mediated social networking has increased the range of forms of English vis-
ible to outsiders and made clear the nature of many of the form features we focus on
here as resources to be drawn on rather than features of fixed varieties.
We have extended Chapter 3 with more discussion of lingua-franca English and
computer-mediated communication and an introduction of Schneider’s Dynamic
Model. There is a new section about smaller communities which use English as their
native tongue in Chapter 4. We have extensively re-written Chapter 6 to take greater
account of lingua-franca uses, China English, and a potential Euro-English, and added
discussion of cross-currents in approaches to English world-wide in Chapter 7. To
make the book easier for you to use we have added a glossary of linguistic terms in
alphabetical order. Also, to help you progress through the text confidently, we have
provided focus questions at the beginning of each section and review questions at the
end. Suggested answers to all the review questions are provided online free of charge via
www.hodderplus/linguistics/worldenglishes, where you can also hear a range of online
recordings of English speakers from different backgrounds.
Gunnel Melchers
Philip Shaw
University of Stockholm
v
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Acknowledgements A
c
k
n
o
w
le
d
g
We would like to express our gratitude to the 25 speakers of World Englishes who e
m
have lent their voices to the recordings available on www.hodderplus/linguistics/ en
ts
worldenglishes, and to the anonymous bloggers and chat-site contributors whom we
quote throughout the book.
We are grateful for comments and suggestions from Beyza Björkman, David Brit-
ain, Jack Chambers, Rebecca Clift, Östen Dahl, Stanley Ellis, Gregory Garretson,
Elizabeth Gordon, Elisabeth Gustawsson, Albin Hillert, Nils-Lennart Johannesson,
Dorte Lønsmann, Robert Lawson, Magnus Ljung, Biljana Markovi´c, Derrick McClure,
David Minugh, Margareta Olofsson, Reidunn and Joke Palmkvist, Mikael Parkvall,
Caryl Phillips, Chris Robinson, Shi Hui, Peter Sundkvist, Peter Trudgill, John Wells,
and Annelie Ädel.
We are grateful to Bianca Knights and Lavinia Porter for their careful and patient editing.
We are also grateful to our students for many vital insights and for helpful com-
ments on the manuscripts.
Finally, we would like to thank Matt T. Rosenberg and Graphic Maps and World
Atlas for permission to use many of their maps, Professor J. K. Chambers for permission
to use his map of Canada, which shows the most recent boundary changes of Canadian
provinces, and Haruna Attah of the Ghana mail for the use of the article in 5.4.4.3.
vii
THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET (revised to 2005)
CONSONANTS (PULMONIC) © 2005 IPA
Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
p b t d Ê (cid:152) c Ô k g q G /
Plosive
m µ n = (cid:143) N –
Nasal
 r R
Trill
Tap or Flap v | «

F B f v T D s (cid:172)(cid:172)z S Z ß (cid:159) ç J x V X Â © ? h H
Fricative

Lateral Ò L
fricative
(cid:165) ® ’ j ˜
Approximant

Lateral l (cid:210) ¥ K
approximant
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.
CONSONANTS (NON-PULMONIC) VOWELS
Front Central Back
Clicks Voiced implosives Ejectives
i y È Ë ¨ u
> (cid:156) ’ Close
Bilabial Bilabial Examples:
 Î p’ I Y U
Dental Dental/alveolar Bilabial
!  t’ Close-mid e P e (cid:154) Ø o
(Post)alveolar Palatal Dental/alveolar
¯ ƒ k’ ´
Palatoalveolar Velar Velar
(cid:148) Alveolar lateral Ï Uvular s’ Alveolar fricative Open-mid E { ‰ ò ø O
œ å
OTHER SYMBOLS
a ” A Å
(cid:153) Ç Û Open
Voiceless labial-velar fricative Alveolo-palatal fricatives Where symbols appear in pairs, the one

w » to the right represents a rounded vowel.
(cid:172) Voiced labial-velar approximant Voiced alveolar lateral flap
Á Í S x
Voiced labial-palatal approximant Simultaneous and SUPRASEGMENTALS
Ì Voiceless epiglottal fricative " Primary stress
(cid:172)¿ (cid:172)Voiced epiglottal fricative Acafnfr bicea rteesp raensde ndtoedu bblye atwrtoic suylamtiboonlss k(p ts Æ SecondaÆrfyo sUtrenss´"tIS´n
(cid:172)÷ joined by a tie bar if necessary. (
(cid:172) Epiglottal plosive … Long e…
N( Ú eÚ
DIACRITICS Diacritics may be placed above a symbol with a descender, e.g. Half-long
* e*
9 n9 d9 ª bª aª 1 t(cid:172)1 d1 Extra-short
Voiceless Breathy voiced Dental
(cid:219) Minor (foot) group
3 s3 t(cid:172)3 0 b0 a0 ¡ t(cid:172)¡ d¡
Voiced Creaky voiced Apical (cid:148)
Major (intonation) group
Ó tÓ dÓ £ t(cid:172)£ (cid:172)d£ 4 t(cid:172)4 d4
Aspirated Linguolabial Laminal . Syllable break ®i.œkt
7 O7 W tW dW ) e)
More rounded Labialized Nasalized (cid:167)
Linking (absence of a break)
¶ O¶ (cid:168) t(cid:168) d(cid:168) ˆ dˆ
Less rounded Palatalized Nasal release
™ u™ (cid:185) t(cid:185) (cid:172)d(cid:185) ¬ d¬ TONES AND WORD ACCENTS
Advanced Velarized Lateral release LEVEL ˆ CONTOUR
2 e2 (cid:149) t(cid:149) (cid:172)(cid:172)d(cid:149) } d} e(cid:172)_ â Extra e ä
Retracted Pharyngealized No audible release or high or Rising
(cid:172) · e· ù : e! ê High e$ ë Falling
(cid:172) Centralized Velarized or pharyngealized
+ e+ 6 e6 ®6 e@ î Mid e% ü Hrisiginhg
` Mid-centralizedn` § Raised e§ (cid:172)(B § = voiced alveolar fricative) e~ ô Low e ï Lriosiwng
Syllabic Lowered ( = voiced bilabial approximant) e— û Extra e& ñ$ Rising-
8 Non-syllabic e8 5 Advanced Tongue Root e5 Õ Dowlnoswtep ã Globafla rlliisneg
± ´± a± (cid:146) e(cid:146) õ Ã
Rhoticity Retracted Tongue Root Upstep Global fall
viii
1
The roots of English
And certaynly our langage now vsed varyeth ferre from that whiche
was vsed and spoken whan I was borne. ... Certaynly it is harde to playse
euery man by cause of dyuersite & chaunge of langage.
(William Caxton, Preface to Eneydos (1490))
Focus questions
●● What is the origin of the English language?
●● What language(s) is it most closely related to?
The above view on the state of English, expressed by the legendary printer, editor and
translator who introduced printing in England in 1476 and had considerable influ-
ence on the emergence of a standard language, might just as well have been voiced by a
contemporary observer of the language. The present-day observer might, for example,
react to the sentence Everyone in the street was shocked when they heard the news, having learnt
that everyone should be followed by he/she, or be utterly confused by the different vowel
qualities in accents of English: the word pen, as pronounced by a New Zealander, is
easily perceived as pin by British speakers.
For a deeper understanding of today’s English with its infinite variation, it
is, in fact, worthwhile travelling even further back in history than Caxton’s time.
In this chapter, we would like to outline the early history of the English language
in England, that is from its first appearance up to the emergence of a standard
language. About ad 450, when Britain was largely inhabited by Celtic peoples
– the last Roman legions having left some 40 years earlier – fair-sized groups of
Germanic settlers began coming into the country, driving the indigenous population
into ‘corners’ such as Wales and Cornwall. The invaders, who probably came from
Northern Germany and Denmark, represented three main tribes of people known as
Angles, Saxons and Jutes. The Angles, from whose name the word English is derived,
settled in the north, the Saxons in the south – their name living on in today’s
Sussex, Essex and Middlesex – and the Jutes in a small area in the south-east,
including Kent and the Isle of Wight. These settlers were later referred to as Anglo-
Saxons, and their language, although not documented substantially until about 300
years later, constitutes the roots of English.
On the basis of later evidence and of our knowledge of the mechanisms of lan-
guage change and diffusion in general, it can be assumed that the distinct groups of
settlers produced a dialectally varied language. To some extent this may have been
due to differences in the Germanic varieties spoken in their original homelands on
1