A History of English Language (final)
ID No.2019315616
Name: Jo Yubin
A. Fill in the blanks with a proper expression.
1. For the role of English today as a world language, the single most important historical factor was surely the
coming of English to (America).
2. They learned from the natives how to grow a crop whose name had previously entered their language as maize.
In America, however, they called it (corn).
3. The United States became in fact ‘a veritable (cemetery) of foreign languages.’
4. The first cattle in America were put ashore in 1521 in Vera Cruz, so no doubt the first American cattle hand
actually spoke (Spanish).
5. In 1755 thousands of French-speaking settlers migrated from Acadia to southern territories, including Louisiana,
where their descendants came to be known as (Cajuns).
6. During the First World War (Aussie) became an informal short form for both the noun Australian and the
adjective.
7. In the Australian outback, a (billabong) generally retains water longer than the watercourse itself, so it may be
the only water for miles around.
8. The Dutch spoken by the early settlers (in South Africa) in the 17th century eventually evolved into a distinct
language—( Afrikaans).
9. In India, (Hindi) is the national language and the main language of 30% of the people.
10. Another characteristic of New Englishes is their speakers’ tendency to practice what linguists call (codeswitching)—changing from one language to another in the same utterance.
B. Discuss the followings with an appropriate example. (5x6)
1. Spanish influence in English; when it started and in what field?
An influence of Spanish in English is the legacy of Spanish in American which is the earlier history of
Spanish colonialization, particularly in the states of Texas, New Mexico and California. Spanish has been used
longer than English since the Spanish first settled in San Augustine, Florida in 1565, until today, extending from
New Mexico to California. The influence is prominent in the field of vocabulary. There are bunch of Spanish
loanwords which are familiar and widely used words in modern English. The words ‘armada, cargo, mosquito’
and ‘sombrero’ are early Spanish loanwords into English from the sixteenth century. Later loans from Spanish
were usually somewhat adapted when taken over by English. For example, potato comes from Spanish patata,
tobacco comes from Spanish tabaco, hurricane comes from Spanish huracán and cocoa is altered form of Spanish
cacao.
2. Why did India have to accept English as an official language with over 20 other languages?
India is a country where numerous races make up a country, and accordingly, diversity such as culture,
ideology, language, and customs are accepted. India's two most influential languages are Hindi and English, and
there are more than 20 official languages. Although India is the country with the largest number of languages in
the world, it coexists with minimal conflict between different language groups. However, Indian often cannot
communicate between different region people because there are various languages in each region. Thus, English
is used as a way to relieve the inconvenience caused by communication problem. In India, English began to be
used after the mid-18th century when the British came in, and during the colonization of British, English gained
a superior position as an official language. Even after independence, English has been emphasized in terms of
business, technology and education, and its importance is now increasing in globalization era.
3. How come American/Canadian English has fewer dialects while British English a lot?
The history of British English dates back as far as the 5th Century, when the Anglo-Saxons arrived at
the end of Roman rule. Britain is a country with a history of more than thousand years. The history of England is
the same as the history of British English. Britain has interacted with numerous countries and has been isolated
by civil war. Against this backdrop of history, British English has numerous dialects because historically, dialects
developed in the environment that language users live in relatively isolated, without regular contact with other
language speakers. In particular, British English includes not only England but also all English spoken in Scotland,
Northern Ireland, and Wales, so each dialect becomes enormous when combined. Since the United States and
Canada are independent countries from the United Kingdom, it is not possible to accurately say when their
language history started. What is certain is that their language has a different history from Britain because they
have built a new path to culture as a whole, including language, since they became independent from Britain.
4. How can you distinguish Australian from New Zealand English speakers from their accent
Australian often pronounce RP vowels /i:/ and /u:/ as diphthongs, so that see and do resemble /səɪ/ and
/dəʊ/. Some vowels are also pronounced with the tongue higher than in RP; so that ham sounds rather like /hɛm/,
and pen sounds rather like /pɪn/. In words like happy, the final -y is pronounced /i/ in RP, but has a more sali- ent
pronunciation in Australian English – more like a long vowel: /ˈhɛpi:/. The most common vowel in English, the
unstressed schwa vowel /ə/, is more generally used than in RP. For example, chatted in RP is pronounced with a
‘short i vowel’, /ˈʧætɪd/, whereas in Australian English it is pronounced with a schwa: /ˈʧætəd/ so chatted and
chattered sound alike.
In contrast, New Zealand English speakers pronounce /pɪn/ for pen, leads to joky tales of a New Zealander asking
for an igg for brickfast, and the like. In addition, short i-sounds as in pin resemble the neutral schwa sound /ə/ of
/pən/, as if it were spelled ‘pun’. For the British meal fish and chips, an old joke says that people in Australia eat
feesh and cheeps with something like a close /i/ vowel and in New Zealand fush and chups with /ə/. This vowel
shift, combined with the three listed above, suggests that a kind of chain shift has affected a number of short
vowels in New Zealand English. The diphthong in words like air, chair and hair is also closer and sounds like /ɪə/
rather than RP /eə/. So, pairs such as air and ear, bear and beer, chair and cheer, hair and here, rarely and really,
often sound alike.
5. Compare and contrast Singaporean and Hong Kong English.
Today the island nation of Singapore is a multilingual society with four official languages: Mandarin
Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. English is the language of instruction in schools and an important language
in government administration, the law courts, education and business. Many Singaporeans shift easily between
standard English and the popular variety familiarly known as Singlish, but the political leaders of Singapore stress
that Singaporeans should speak ‘internationally accepted English’ to avoid finding themselves in a ‘cultural
backwater’. In Singapore, the link between English and imperialism seems to have been broken. More generally,
the argument that sees English as the vehicle of Western imperialism, particularly US imperialism, ignores the
trend we have observed many times in this book: English, when exported to new territories and peoples, has soon
become ‘nativized’, acquiring the ability to represent the cultures of its adopted speakers, or at least to act as a gobetween, binding those cultures to the international world. However, yet another factor on the negative side of the
balance sheet is that English is tending to create elites, to draw a line between the haves and have-nots. In those
L2 countries where English brings empowerment, lack of English can also spell deprivation for those who have
not had the opportunity to learn it. In a city like Singapore, the contrast is enormous between the clean, efficient,
unemotive design of the international airport and the hotels, and the homely, pungent, lively atmosphere of the
local markets. The difference between Singaporean international English and the vernacular ‘Singlish’ of the food
halls is very much like this.
In 1842, after a disreputable colonial episode known as ‘the First Opium War’, Britain acquired from
China the island of Hong Kong, and later also part of the mainland, Kowloon Peninsula. Later, China leased the
adjoining New Territories to Britain for 99 years. On 1 July 1997 the whole colony of Hong Kong was returned
to Chinese sovereignty. In spite of 150 years of British rule, English has always played a secondary role in Hong
Kong. The Cantonese dialect of Chinese is the first language of more than 98 per cent of the population and, with
Hong Kong as a through- port between China and the world, Mandarin Chinese (or Putonghua, to use the Chinese
name), the standard language of the People’s Republic of China, is becoming increasingly important. After the
transfer of power there has been uncertainty about the future role of English. Reports have claimed ‘Hong Kong
is unlearning English’, and tourists have voiced growing frustration at not being understood. An educated guess,
though, is that the English language will continue to be important in Hong Kong’s role as an international center
of trade, business and finance. In short, English in Hong Kong remains primarily a second language which makes
weaken the status of international center, in contrast to Singapore where English has been shifting toward being a
first language.
6. What does ‘New Englishes’ mean?
The term ‘New Englishes’ has been in use since the 1980s to describe the varieties of English emerging,
typically in Outer Circle countries like India, Pakistan, Kenya, Nigeria, the Philippines, Fiji, Malaysia and
Singapore. The use of this term invites controversy. It seems to claim that the English language is becoming plural:
that instead of one standard international English extending all over the world, English is fragmenting into
competing and possibly mutually incomprehensible ‘languages’. What has happened is actually more subtle. In
the decades since independence, such countries have, for various reasons, maintained the educational,
administrative and political functions of English. But the British or other mother- tongue-speakers of the language
no longer hold sway. As a result, regional varieties of the language, sharing some characteristics with the local
languages, tend to develop their own prestige values, and some kind of standardization – or convergence of local
varieties – begins to take place. At this stage there is a fear that the speakers of the regional variety, however well
educated in their own regional English, will no longer be able to use English for purposes of international
communication. Broadly, there are three main levels of English to consider. At the ‘top level’, the international
standard (whether colored by American or British English) is retained for leading newspapers and for other public
media, as well as for ‘official’ purposes. This international English is also typically regarded as the ultimate aim
of English language education. At the middle level, there is a regional, ‘standardizing’ variety, which is used as a
general lingua franca within the region – for example, between speakers of different languages in India. At the
‘bottom’ level, there are local varieties, which mix English more strongly with characteristics of native languages.
These ‘vernacular Englishes’ are valued for their role in maintaining local identities and allegiances, but are
scarcely intelligible to the rest of the world. In a city like Singapore, the contrast is enormous between the clean,
efficient, unemotive design of the international airport and the hotels, and the homely, pungent, lively atmosphere
of the local markets.
Another characteristic of New Englishes is their speakers’ tendency to practice what
linguists call code-switching – changing from one language to another in the same utterance – for example,
switching from English to Malay and vice versa. The following comes from the spoken English of Malaysia, very
close to that of Singapore. The New Englishes show English adapting to new cultures, societies and linguistic
environments. The emerging varieties are in a state of flux and variation, but are beginning to be codified – for
example, there is a dictionary of Singaporean and Malaysian English, the Times-Chambers Essential English
Dictionary, produced by a partnership including the National University of Singapore. But the New Englishes are
caught in a magnetic field, attracted, on the one hand, towards the international pole – the need to promote
intelligibility – and, on the other hand, towards the indigenous pole – the need to promote identity. It is difficult
to say which of these poles of attraction will prove stronger, but the signs are that speakers are seeing the value of
both, and are learning to manage two major varieties of English in their linguistic repertoire, switching from one
to the other as occasion demands. In this respect, English seems to be becoming a language like Arabic or German,
in which a recognized ‘high’ variety coexists with a recognized ‘low’ variety – a situation that linguists refer to as
diglossia.