World Englishes
Nov 5, 2008
Activity 1
Listen to the following speakers and rate them on
the characteristics provided on the handout
What does “World Englishes” mean?
The Expanding Circle
China, Egypt, Indonesia,
Israel, Japan, Korea,
Nepal, Saudi Arabia,
Taiwan, Russia,
Zimbabwe, South Africa,
Caribbean Islands
(EFL)
The Outer Circle
Bangladesh, India
Ghana, Kenya,
Nigeria, Malaysia,
Pakistan, Philippines,
Singapore, Sri Lanka,
Tanzania, Zambia
(ESL)
Krachu’s Three Concentric Circles
The Inner
Circle
USA
UK
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
how many Englishes are there?
MacArthur’s
circle of
English
If we include pidgins and creoles .
. .
Is this English?
• Orayt, mif la i go go lang
salwater, lukawtim fish,
naw win i kem, naw mif la i
go alebawt long kinu, naw
bigf la win i kem naw,
mif la go, no kachim ni
ples i kwaytf la.
• Very well. We kept going
on the sea, hunting fish,
and a wind arose; now we
were going in canoes, and
an immense wind arose,
and we were thrown
around and ran very fast
(before the wind).
Neo-Solomonic (Solomon Islands)
The Lord’s Prayer (from Hawaiian
Pidgin Bible)
God, you our Fadda. You stay inside da sky. We like all
da peopo know fo shua how you stay, An dat you stay
good an spesho, An we like dem give you plenny
respeck. We like you come King fo everybody now. We
like everybody make jalike you like, Ova hea inside da
world, Jalike da angel guys up inside da sky make jalike
you like. Give us da food we need fo today an every day.
Hemmo our shame, an let us go Fo all da kine bad stuff
we do to you, Jalike us guys let da odda guys go
awready, And we no stay huhu wit dem Fo all da kine
bad stuff dey do to us. No let us get chance fo do bad
kine stuff, But take us outa dea, so da Bad Guy no can
hurt us. Cuz you our King. You get da real power, An you
stay awesome foeva. Dass it!”
what kinds of questions do researchers
ask about world Englishes?
1. how are different world Englishes (socially)
perceived?
2. how recognizable are different world Englishes? what
factors influence this recognition?
3. how is English used in the world? how should it be
used? (in part, code-switching and language policy)
4. how do world Englishes differ from each other or
how are they similar (pidgins and creoles)?
1. how are different world Englishes
(socially) perceived?
a. Matched Guise Test
Lambert, et al. (1960): Asked native English and French speakers to listen to people
speaking French and English and to judge the people on various personality
characteristics:
1
2
Friendly
Dependable
Stupid
3
4
5
6
Cold
Lazy
Intelligent
In reality the exact same speaker spoke in English and French
Findings? Both English and French speakers gave more positive characteristics to
English than French speakers
b. Real world applications
Listener response survey
Looked at British listeners’ perceptions of 3 British (RP, West
Yorkshire, Birmingham) and 3 American (Network, Alabama,
NYC) varieties in terms of status and solidarity characteristics
Hiraga (2005)
Looked at British listeners’ perceptions of 3 British (RP, West
Yorkshire, Birmingham) and 3 American (Network, Alabama,
NYC) varieties in terms of status and solidarity characteristics
British attitudes vs. American attitudes
British (Hiraga, 2005)
American
Solidarity
Status
Overall
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
RP
Network
Birmingham
West Yorkshire
New York
Alabama
RP
Alabama
West Yorkshire
Birmingham
Network American
New York
RP
Birmingham
Network
NYC
West Yorkshire
Alabama
2. how recognizable are different world
Englishes? what factors influence this
recognition?
• audio clips were taken from the speech accent archive
created by Steven H. Weinberger of George Mason
University. http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent/
1.
3.
2.
4.
• 9 tracks
(Australia,
England, India, Ireland, Kenya, New York, Scotland, South Africa, Southern U.S.)
• audio clips were taken from the speech accent archive
created by Steven H. Weinberger of George Mason
University. http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent/
1. South Africa
3. Scotland
2. Georgia
4. Ireland
correct dialect identification by
native English speakers
100
92
90
90
75
80
70
61
59
60
51
50
41
40
32
30
20
8
10
0
Southe rn
US
England
Ne w York
Aus tralia
Scotland
India
Ire land
Ke nya
South
African
type of incorrect answers given
• Southern US (11): Midwest US 3, Utah 3, West Coast US 2,
Rural US 2, England.
• England (14): Australia 3, South Africa 3, Northeastern US 2,
Canada, France, Scotland, United States, Caribbean, New
Zealand.
• New York (35) : Midwest US 11, West Coast US 9, Canada 6,
Northern US 5, Australia 2, Southwestern US 2.
• Australia (54): England 17, New Zealand 8, Northeastern US
8, South Africa 6, Ireland 5, Southern US 3, Nothing 2,
Canada 2, Midwest US 2, Northwestern US 2, United States
2, Wales 2, Scotland, Italy, Ukraine.
• Scotland (58): Ireland 38, Great Britain 6, Australia 4, New
Zealand 3, Wales 2, Southern US 2, Midwest US,
Scandinavia, West Indies.
• India (68): Africa 12, Caribbean 10, South Africa 9,
Singapore 3, Nothing 3, Southern US 3, Middle East 3,
Saudi Arabia 2, Asia 2, Zimbabwe 2, Brazil 2, Western
US 2, Spain, Australia, West Africa, Egypt, Canada,
Algeria, New Zealand, South America, Nigeria,
Philippines, Russia, Mexico, Fiji, Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan.
• Ireland (82): Scotland 29, Canada 15, England 10,
Eastern US 6, Australia 5, New Zealand 4, South Africa 2,
United States 2, Western US 2, Nothing, Argentina, India,
Mexico, Norway, Spain, Wales.
• Africa (Kenya) (95): South Africa 21, Caribbean 13,
India 9, Nothing 6, Middle East 5, Canada 4, Germany 3,
East Europe 2, France 2, Western US 2, Southern US 2,
New Zealand 2, Northeast US 2, Midwest US 2, Hawaii 2,
Hong Kong 2, Iraq 2, Ireland 2, Mexico 2, Netherlands,
Pakistan, Poland, Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, Spain,
United States, Wales, Australia, England.
• South Africa (129): Australia 44, Great Britain 36, New
Zealand 19, Northeastern US 6, Scotland 4, Ireland 3,
Wales 2, Africa 2, India 2, Nothing, Canada, China,
Denmark, France, Hawaii, Jamaica, Midwest US,
Northern Europe, Panama, Philippines.
type of incorrect responses
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
28
30
30
15
20
10
5
9
20
16
9
6
0
Southe rn
US
England
Ne w York
Aus tralia
Scotland
India
Ire land
Ke nya
South
African
correct dialect identification by nonnative speakers
100
90
80
65
70
60
48
50
40
30
22
15
17
13
20
4
6
10
0
0
Southe rn
US
England
Ne w York
Aus tralia
Scotland
India
Ire land
Ke nya
South
African
correct dialect identification by native
(blue) and non-native (light blue) speakers
100
92
90
90
75
80
65
70
60
61
59
48
51
50
41
40
32
22
30
15
20
17
13
10
6
8
4
0
0
Southe rn
US
England
Ne w York
Aus tralia
Scotland
India
Ire land
Ke nya
South
African
3. how is English used in the world?
English used to make something
look more fashionable,
modern, expensive
Example:
A is for Ambrella
The very best stationery
for people who get excited
when they see English
all over everything
Use of English between two speakers,
neither of whom speak English as a native
language
Examples
Examples
Example study: Advertising and
World Englishes
Example study: Advertising and
World Englishes
Example study: Advertising and
World Englishes
Example study: Codeswitching/mixing/nativized English
We, that is the Matsumoto family, live in a manshon, too. At this
moment, I am watching beisu-booru on terebi. My wife is out
shopping at a depaato, and later she will stop at a suupaa to get
pooku choppu, pan, bataa, jamu, and perhaps some sooseji for
breakfast. My daughter has gone to the byuuchii saron to get a
paama. Oh the terehon is ringing. We cannot live a day in Japan
today without these loan words.
Language purists lament the fact. The nationalists would wipe out
all foreign-sounding words from our vocabulary. But where will they
be without terebi, rajio, tabako, biiru, and terehon?
Matsumoto, 1976
Over 10% of the words in Japanese are English borrowings
Examples of Code Mixing
1. Es un . . . uh. . .. factory worker
2. Conductor (shouting in Swahili): Fugueni madirisha! 'Open the windows!'
Passenger (well-dressed) :
That is your job.
3. Vena aca. (child doesn’t listen) Ven aca. (child doesn’t listen) Come here
now.
4. I went to Agra, to maine apne bhaiko bola ki (then I said to my brother that)
if you come to Delhi you must buy some lunch.
5. A: Well, I'm glad I met you.
B: Andale pues. And do come again, mmh?
6. We've got all . . . all these kids here right now. Los que estan ya criados
aqui, no los que estan recien venidos de Mexico (those that have been
born here, not the ones that have just arrived from Mexico). They all
understood English
Results
Table 1. Proportion of intra-sentential and inter-sentential mixes
identified in English and Spanish samples collected during years 1
and 2.
Inter-sentential
Year 1
Year 2
Intra-sentential
Year 1
Year 2
English
samples
Spanish
samples
Total
37%
13.5%
25.25%
.12%
22%
11.06%
3.68%
2.5%
3.09%
1.5%
5.88%
3.69%
4. how do world Englishes differ from each other
or how are they similar (pidgins and creoles)?
Hawaiian Pidgin
I. Phonological
a. Spelling
b. Simplification and reduction of consonant clusters and digraphs
ailan for island.
c. Simple vowels that cover a variety of shades of phoneme
arurut for arrowroot
orait for all right
d. A preference for CVCV or CVC spelling structures
bokis for box.
e. Loss of several sounds
1. /th/  /t/ and /d/
de for there, da for the
2. /l/ /o/ mental  mento; people  peepo.
3. No /r/ car  cah; letter  letta.
II. Words in Pidgins/Creoles
a. Compound words
bigman =important person
af dai (half + die) = difficult
krai dai (cry + die) = wake
daiman =corpse
drai ai (dry + eye) = courage
put han (put + hand) = help
b. Semantic shifts
agen
'any more'; as in "Ah noh lov ahn agen" 'I don't love him any more' (H2)
vex / bex
angry, the pronunciation with b- is generally found more often in rural
areas, etym. 17th century English vex meaning 'to be distressed in mind,
to fret' (A)
c. Archaic (to our ears) words
chinchi
tiny, a small amount; etym. possibly from Old English chinch 'a stingy
person' (C)
wine op
a vigorous dance, especially with swinging of the hips, etym. Old English
wind meaning 'to turn this way and that,
II. Semantics (cont)
d. Coinings
skylark to waste time
commess confusion/controversy
e. Reduplication
san =sun sansan =sand pis = fish pispis = to urinate
ben =bend benben= crooked
wakawaka (walk) = wander perpetually,
toktok = gossip
fain =cry fainfain= very lovely
f. Loanshifts
bush = unpolished person
dash = bribe
III. Morphology/Syntax
a. Double negatives
Hi neba get no buk
b. SVO word order
Hi get da hawaian waif
c. No morphological/inflectional markers
looked = bin look
looking = be look
d. No copula be
Shi craiin
e. No possessive marker Jan buk
hauli hous
f. Restricted prepositions
The guy gon’ lay the vinyl bin quote me price.
The man who was going to lay the vinyl had quoted me a price.
g. Formulaic expressions
there = get here = had
h. no plural
ma pikin 'my child/children'