Schneider’s ‘Dynamic Model’ of post-colonial Englishes (2007)
Foundation
English is brought to a
new territory, leading
to an emerging
bilingualism
Exonormative
stabilisation
An ‘elite’ bilingualism
spreads, led by the
politically dominant
country
Nativisation
Bilingual speakers forge
a new variety of English
as ties with settlers’
country of origin
weaken
Endonormative
stabilisation
After independence and
inspired by the need for
‘nation’building’ a new
linguistic norm is established
and codified
Differentiation
This may follow, with
internal social group
identities gaining
importance and thus
reflected in the growth
of dialectal varieties
Kachru’s Three Circles Model
McArthur’s Model of Global English
- The diffusion of English is captured in terms of 3 concentric
circles of language
Inner Circle:
Refers to English as it originally took shape and was spread
across the world in the 1st diaspora. It thus represents the
traditional historical bases of English.
Outer Circle:
Produced by the 2nd diaspora of English, which spread the
language through imperial expansion by the British into Asia
and Africa. English is not the native tongue, but serves as a
lingua franca. Higher education and legislature may be
predominantly in English
Expanding Circle:
Encompasses countries where English plays no historical or
governmental role, but is widely used as a medium of
international communication
- McArthur invented this model in 1987
- The model contains an idealised central variety called
‘World Standard English’, which is best represented as
written international English
- The next circle is made of regional varieties, including
those that are standard or standardising
- The outer circle consists of localised varieties which may
have similarities with the regional standards or emerging
standards
Limitations
- The 3 types of English (ENL, ESL and EFL) are conflated in
the second circle
- The outer circle contains pidgins creoles and ESL Englishes,
which many linguists believe do not belong in the same
family
South African English
Chinglish
- South African English (SAE) dates from the arrival of the British at the Cape of Good Hope
in 1795
- English was the language of power during the 19th century, and was imposed in 1822 as
the official language of Cape Colony, replacing Dutch
- In the mid-20th century English was replaced by Afrikaans in government, administration,
the police and the armed forces
- However, English remained a major influence in business and education
- There are now 3 million 1st-language SAE speakers, but they are outnumbered by 2ndand 3rd-language speakers
- English is perceived both as the language of communication and aspiration, and as an
oppressive juggernaut because of its global power
- English is far from neutral as a lingua franca, but is more neutral that Afrikaans, which
was tainted by its use in enforcing apartheid
Vocabulary
- Initial borrowings were introduced by (mainly Dutch) explorers, e.g. ‘quagga’ means a
type of zebra
- Many SAE words have been borrowed from the African languages of the region, e.g.
‘impala’ comes from the Nguni languages
- British words have taken on a new meaning, e.g. ‘robot’ = traffic light
Features
- Pronounce vowels further forward in mouth, e.g. ‘penny’ = ‘pinny’
- Glottal stops are uncommon
Kitchen English
- District 6 is an area in Cape Town that has its own unique language, ‘Kitchen English’
- Mixed vernacular: grammar base is Afrikaans, vocabulary mostly English
- Survived the linguistic oppression of the apartheid and is now valued positively, symbol
of identity
- English first arrived in China in 1637
- In the 17th century, Chinese Pidgin English originated as a lingua franca for trade
between British people and mostly Cantonese-speaking Chinese people
- In 1982, the People's Republic of China made English the main foreign language in
education
- Current estimates for the number of English learners in China range from 300 to 500
million
- In the late 20th century, English was seen as a symbol of imperialism, associated with
America and Britain
- Due to western culture, technology and developments, English is now perceived as an
opportunity that is vital to success
- Arrival of multinational companies increased use of English, e.g. Intel
- It’s an expectation that professionals can speak English
- Parents with aspirations for their children to attend Harvard University or Oxbridge push
them to learn English
- As America is seen to dominate trade and business, there has been a shift towards
learning American English
Concerns
- English seen as many as a threat to Chinese identity; danger of ‘thinking like a foreigner’
- Simplicity of English seen as a bad influence
Features
- Variation from Standard English occurs mainly at a syntactic level
- Temporal prepositions positioned at irregular place in sentence, e.g. John yesterday
went to the shops
- Different positioning of interrogatives, e.g. Do you think when will he come?
Global English