Inner circleFirst language

UK USAAustralia CanadaNew Zealand South Africa West Indies

375 m

Outer circleSecond language

Africa Asia

375 m

Expanding circleForeign language

750 m

Kachru, Brai. 1985. InQuirk and Widdowson, English in the Word, CUP

Inner circleFirst language

UK USAAustralia CanadaNew Zealand South Africa West Indies

320-380 m

Outer circleSecond language

Africa Asia

300-500 m

Expanding circleForeign language

500-1,000 m

Crystal's figures, 2003

Taxonomy!

PK 2004, English as a Dead Language

John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org> wrote to me Thu, 08 Nov 2007 about the ration of L1-L2 speakers in English, well worth quoting: . .However, I must take issue with your claim that the position ofEnglish today is comparable uniquely with that of Latin.  If there wasa period when Latin had more L2 than L1 speakers, it was surely duringImperial times, when Latin was by no means dead but had not yet fullydifferentiated into the Romance languages.  There may well have been moreL2 speakers in Gaul, Britain, Africa, and the other western provincesthan native speakers throughout the empire. But this was commonplace in pre-modern empires of every sort.  It wasvery likely true of Alexander's empire as well, and provably true of thePersian Empire, which after abandoning dead Akkadian went on to adoptAramaic as the standard language of record-keeping and communicationthroughout the empire, for if educated men were rare, actual Arameanswere even rarer. 

In modern times, there are quite a few languages with more L2 thanL1 speakers: a googling of Ethnologue comes up with Afrikaans, Bulu(Cameroon), Indonesian, Sango (Central African Republic), Sranan(Surinam), Swahili, and Thai; there are undoubtedly more.  Swahili isparticularly notable, with an L2/L1 ratio of almost forty to one.Creoles that have become national languages also have this property:almost everyone in Vanuatu speaks Bislama, but less than one in twentyare native speakers.  Admittedly none of these has the worldwide reachof English, being confined to particular nations, as indeed were theimperial languages, including Latin, listed above. So I don't think any claim for Latin and English "cross[ing] anextraordinary threshold" can be sustained.

English

Home Englishes New Englishes

BritishAmericanAustralianetc.

Colonial International

AsiaEuropeetc.

Homedeveloping

Internationalstable

IndiaAfricaetc.

Homedeveloping

Internationalstable

English

L1

• Increasing tension between pronunciation and spelling

• Increasing diversity

L2

• Spelling pronunciation– simplification of sound

system and adjustment towards spelling forms

– rhotic

• simplification of grammar

Increasing tension between pronunciation and spelling.

sight site cite

use

food good blood

bend friend bread

read read reed red lead led

sun son sum some money honey funny

important - evident

Homedeveloping:

(return if time)

Increasing tension between pronunciation and spelling.

right - rite

Homedeveloping:

Increasing diversity

THOUGHT

Los Angeles

London

Homedeveloping:

Homedeveloping:

GOOSEFLEECE

• International English is stable in that it is not a "living language" or L1, but an L2 which is taught in schools and spreads only among adults.

Internationalstable

• Its medium is writing, which leads to "spelling pronunciation" -

• STRUT word spelt with "o" –– ton, love, come mother ....– sun son

• said paid

• man many

Internationalstable

• Its medium is writing, which leads to "spelling pronunciation" -

• Firmly rhotic: farmer, figure, iron

• No weak forms:

normally

usually

correction

Internationalstable

• International English undergoes simplification:

GOOSEFLEECE

KIT FOOT

Internationalstable – but simplified

• International English undergoes grammatical simplification:– You come tomorrow, isn't it?– They signed without read it first.– I look forward to see you tomorrow.– You must control that she do it.– Please not to walk on grass.

Internationalstable – but simplified

• "Incorrect" use of articles and non-count nouns– Please send us informations.– We take suitcases with us in car.– The replies may be sent by the e-mail.

Internationalstable – but simplified

• Changes in the Home Englishes not only mean that they are moving apart from each other, but they are also moving apart from International English.

• Prophesy for the next 2-300 years: "English" refers to International English with simplified grammar and spelling pronunciations;

• "Australian", "American", "Estuary" become separate languages.

Internationalstable

Homedeveloping

Increasing tension between pronunciation and spelling.

Homedeveloping:

reprise:

Go to: English Spelling reform

English

Home Englishes New Englishes

BritishAmericanAustralianetc.

Colonial International

AsiaEuropeetc.

Homedeveloping

Internationalstable

IndiaAfricaetc.

Homedeveloping

Internationalstable

English

BritishAmericanAustralianetc.

IndiaAfricaetc.

AsiaEuropeetc.