Handout: Diasporas & Stages of English Evolution (PDF)

The Two Diasporas of English ✓ The English language has two noteworthy diasporas or dispersals – the first diaspora and the second diaspora (Jenkins, 2009). The two dispersals of English are best summarized in the following figures: ✓ First Diaspora: It took place becaus...

The Two Diasporas of English ✓ The English language has two noteworthy diasporas or dispersals – the first diaspora and the second diaspora (Jenkins, 2009). The two dispersals of English are best summarized in the following figures: ✓ First Diaspora: It took place because of the more or less 25,000 South and East England, Scotland, and Ireland people who migrated to the United States of America (North America), New Zealand and Australia. This instance yields new English native tongue varieties. ✓ Second Diaspora: It is attributed to the colonization of Asia and Africa back in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This diaspora recapitulates the history of English in Colonial Africa (West or East Africa) which is associated to the slave trade and progress of pidgin and creole languages. The second half of the 18th century marked the primer of English in South Asian terrains like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. The English language, along with Hindi, was even proposed to be used as medium in the field of education in India. In the late 18th century, the waves of the British Empire were also grasped in South East Asia, East Asia and South Pacific to contain the lands of Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines. The influences of these foreign, colonial masters to these grounds brought about the evolution of second language varieties branded as “New Englishes or the flourishing phenomenon ‘World Englishes’ as how we label it in our time. C. Stages or Periods of the Development of English The historical development of the English language has had FOUR stages/ periods: Stage 1 OLD ENGLISH (450-1150 AD) Stage 2 MIDDLE ENGLISH (1150-1450 AD) Stage 3 EARLY MODERN ENGLISH (1450-1750 AD) Stage 4 LATE MODERN ENGLISH (1750 onwards) ✓ The first stage is recorded as the earliest form of English identified as Old English or Anglo- Saxon. The Jutes, Angles, and Saxons are groups of West Germanic people who conquered and arrived in Great Britain/ England from around the middle of the fifth century AD. ✓ The second stage is called the Middle English, the period wherein the impact of Old French is profoundly evident. This is due to the supremacy in England of the Normans (people from France) which transpired in the late 11th century (1066). Middle English is the period where variation was at its greatest. It is the dialect phase par excellence of English (Stang, 1970). English, in this period, gained ascendancy over French language as the language of the English court (Richardson, 1984). One prominent contribution of the natal of Middle English is the amalgamation of French and Latin words with the Old English words. Slight changes in word meanings existed. Changes in spellings are also observed because people count on much on their Norman French background. Thus, they wrote down English words as they sounded. ✓ The third stage is the Early Modern English instigated in the late 15th century when Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in London. King James Bible printing, the works of William Shakespeare, the beginning of the Great Vowel Shift and ascendancy of a novel Standard English also occurred in this age. Even the standardization of pronunciation brought into being in 1600 but the completion was done in 1800. ✓ The global expansion of English significantly perceived from the seventeenth century onwards which gave birth to the fourth stage (Late Modern English). It is no doubt accredited to the colossal influence of both the UK and the USA as English happened to be the language of the British Empire in 17th and 18th centuries and the language of the USA in the 20th century. English functioned also as the language of colonial expansion and the industrial revolution when America’s superpower governed the world. English eventually serves as the lingua franca of international discourse, of many areas, and in formal contexts. Further, the grammar of Modern English shows great reforms in comparison to the Old English grammar in terms of inflectional morphology, free word order, and subject- verb-object word order. The reliance to auxiliary verbs and word order is also apparent to convey complex aspect, tenses, and mood. Passive constructions, interrogatives, and negation are by now part and parcel of the 21st century English. All told, English growth is characterized by variation and change. Variations normally arose in pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax which is chiefly because of the contact of English languages with other tongues. From considering change over time, linguistic differences between and among the four stages or periods are obvious. At present, English is recognized as the leading global language. D. The Spread of English During the course of history, the topographical extent of the English language is inimitable in contrast to the rest of the world’s languages. At this part, we are to look at its range through the lenses of former British colonies, other first- language countries, and second- language countries. 1. in Former British Colonies As already mentioned in the early part of the discussion, the take- off of the English language was documented when Britain began to conquer various territories back in the fifth century. The spread of English has had two waves. The first was within the British Isles while the second is related to the larger colonial expansion of England. ✓ The outset of invasion showed how native Britons were headed north and west and landed at the countries such Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. ✓ English reached Scotland as early as seventh century. The effect of English in word forms and spellings were grasped by the mid- 16th century. Natives of Scotland used Scottish English as the standard variety of English in their country. There were approximately 80,000 (Mesthrie & Bhatt, 2008) speakers of Scottish Gaelic which is a language restricted to the West Highlands and the Western Isles of the country yet, majority of them are bilinguals (Gaelic and English speakers). ✓ In the 12th century, however, English became known in the Republic of Ireland because of the invasion of Normans. Many of the Ireland natives adopted Irish (the Celtic language) however, French and English languages were used by Irish people settled in the eastern coastal region. English language was also used in Catholic education system in the 19th century. There is a relatively few numbers of Irish monolinguals because there were only more or less two percent of the Irish population utilize English in a regular basis. ✓ Finally, the start of the 14th century recorded the settlement of England in Wales being its first colony. Young speakers of Welsh language, whose age is above three (3), documented a rise in number. Most of them are bilinguals (Welsh and English speakers). 2. in other First- Language Countries Britain, years after, undertook additional colonization missions and occupied other lands. They carried the English language with them and introduced it to be utilized as the medium of the new colonies. The subsequent surge of British settlement outside the British Isles began in Africa (West Africa) in the 1530s, the United States in 1607, the Caribbean in the early 17th century, Canada (1763), Australia (1770), and New Zealand in 1792. (Mesthrie & Bhatt, 2008). In these places, the English language has changed over time. We refer to these Englishes as Inner Circle Englishes in the long term. ✓ English was caught in Africa as a form of Elizabethan English. The firm foundation of English was laid by the gradual expansion of British dominance in trade. A handful of West Africans were sent to Europe to receive interpreting training. The first contacts between English speakers and native speakers of African languages were casual and irregular, resulting in pidgins and 'broken English.' However, variants of Creole English (i.e., Krio) eventually established prominent variety in West Africa. In today's West Africa, there are four forms of English: a) pidgin, b) ESL, c) Standard West African English, and d) francophone West African English. ✓ In the United States of America, American English is the result of the British Empire. It is brought to North America in the 17th century. When America achieved independence from Britain in 1776, an American academic, Noah Webster, saw that political independence provided an opportunity for linguistic independence and compiled the famous Webster’s dictionary. Webster attempted to rationalize English and to make it more systematic. He proposed new spelling of which have become standard American spelling. He dropped what he felt was unnecessary vowels to give flavor, armor, smolder, anemic, catalog, and program as opposed to British flavour, armour, smoulder, anaemic, catalogue, and programme, spelling influenced by contact of the European language. Webster certainly made the stomach complaint diarrhoea, if not easier to cure, at least easier to spell. Kahane (1992) suggests four influences that caused American English to break from British English: 1) A decline in Angliphilia – in other words a decline in respect for things in English; 2) The standardization of informal speech – this is essentially the consequence of adopting democratic principles and a general levelling of society; 3) The levelling of social dialects – in other words, no single dialect was associated with prestige; and 4) The integration of foreign elements – in particular, influence from the languages of African and European immigrants. Hence, American English is the language spoken in the United States with its geographically, politically, and economically conditioned characteristics (Johnstone, 2003). The African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and the White American Vernacular English (WAVE) are two variations of American English. Two competing theories (Colonial Lag Theory and Language Contact Theory) elucidate these variations. According to the first theory, WAVE evolved by maintaining or incorporating characteristics from British English dialects. The second theory, on the other hand, claims that AAVE arose from the interaction of English with other languages, particularly African languages.  ✓ The bulk of the other countries where English is spoken as a first language are small islands in the Atlantic or Caribbean such as Bermuda and Grenada that were or now are British colonies. The residents are mostly of African descent, with ancestors who were brought in as slaves and adopted their masters' language. ✓ Canada was unencumbered from France in 1763 but was placed under the control of British. When the American War of Independence ended, a huge number of loyalists from the United States and the British Isles immigrated to Canada throughout the subsequent century. The province of Quebec features a sizable minority of monolingual French speakers, as well as an approximately equal ratio of bilingual speakers in French and English, which are Canada's shared official languages. Except for some rural indigenous or immigrant groups, almost everyone in Canada speaks English or French. ✓ The east coast of Australia was claimed by Captain James Cook for the United Kingdom in 1770. Immigration from Asian countries was restricted until after WWII, and most immigrants spoke English. A number from about 200,000 Aborigines (the indigenous population prior to British colonialism) speak only English. In the case of New Zealand, however, the British established their first settlement in 1792. New Zealand was initially a part of New South Wales, then a British colony in its own right from 1840. The majority of the settlers were English speakers. The Maori language, which is spoken by roughly 300,000 people, is officially used in courts. 3. in Second- Language Countries The history of the English language to second- language countries can be traced back by looking also at the following countries. ✓ Trade brought the English language to South Asia (the Indian subcontinent). The East India Company progressively gained control of most of India before being supplanted by direct British administration in 1859. English was first taught in Christian missionary schools, and Indian scholars who saw it as a means of obtaining access to Western culture and science pushed its study. Hindi was designated as India's official language, while English was designated as an associate official language for the entire country as well as an official language in selected states. ✓ English is an official language in Pakistan, alongside Urdu, the national language. ✓ Although English is not an official language in Bangladesh, which broke away from Pakistan in 1971, it continues to play a significant role in the country. ✓ Sri Lanka, as it is presently known, was founded in 1802 as a British colony known as Ceylon. Christian missionary schools were also the first to teach English. There have been significant initiatives in Sri Lanka to improve the status and use of English. The Sri Lankan government declared English to be a link between the two major communities in 1988 and is working to promote its use, especially in education. ✓ English is the predominant foreign language in the other three South Asian countries such as Nepal (was not colonized by British Empire), Maldives (a British protectorate from 1887-1965), and Bhutan (part of it was seized by the British from 1865 to 1907). ✓ Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore are three former British possessions or protectorates in Southeast Asia. Brunei as a colony of British lasted from 1888 to 1984, and English and Malay are still spoken as official languages. Although English, in Malaysia, is a required subject in elementary and secondary schools and is utilized in the media and higher education, English was dropped as an official language. In contrast, English, along with Mandarin Chinese, Malaya, and Tamil, is still an official language in Singapore, and it is widely used for business both intranational and international. ✓ In 1898, the Philippines, which are also in Southeast Asia, became an American colony, and in 1935, they became a self-governing commonwealth. In 1946, the republic declared independence from the United States. English, along with Filipino, is still an official language, but its capabilities are dwindling. ✓ English and Cantonese are the official languages of Hong Kong, a British colony in East Asia, albeit English is spoken by only a small percentage of the population. Although Hong Kong is set to revert to China in 1997, its position as a global trading hub is likely to assure English's survival in the corporate community in no time. ✓ In the Pacific, there are some island territories where English is spoken as a second language which were all British, Australian, or New Zealand colonies or protectorates. These include Cook Islands (with Polynesian languages), Fiji (with Fijan), Guam (with Chamorro), Papua New Guinea (with Hin Motu, an indigenous pidgin, and Tok Pisin, an English-based pidgin), Solomon Islands (with Hin Motu, an indigenous pidgin) (with Solomon Islands Pidgin). Except with Guam, which is currently a US territory (Greenbaum, 1996). References Jenkins, J. (2009). World Englishes: A Resource book for students. (2nd ed.). London, UK: Routledge. Johnstone, B. (2003). Features and uses of southern style. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mesthrie, R., & Bhatt, R. M. (2008). World Englishes: The study of new linguistic varieties. New York: Cambridge University Press. Neeley, T. (2012). Global business speaks English. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2012/05/global- business-speaks-english Richardson, M. (1984). The dictamen and its influence on 15th century prose. Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric, 2(3), 207-226.