The ‘New’ Englishes

For use with Chapter 5 of:

Galloway, N. and Rose, H. (2015). Introducing Global Englishes. Routledge.

© Dr. Heath Rose and Dr. Nicola Galloway

Review of Lecture 4• The ‘native’ Englishes were developed from Englishes

transported from the British Isles, and developed through creolization and koineization.

• Contact with other languages and accents in each region gave birth to new varieties of English.

• Power of class-based divisions in the UK manifested in a geographically unbound RP accent.

• The Englishes of Canada, the USA, Australia, and New Zealand are the result of koineization process.

• Plantation colonies in Jamaica, Bermuda, and other parts of the Caribbean resulted in the development of new L1 varieties of English through creolization.

• Politics, power, and language is very complex in these regions.

Overview

South Asia

South-East Asia

Africa

The status of ‘New’ Englishes – recognition, invisibility, and acceptability

Introductory activitiesLook at the map (Figure 5.1) in the introduction to Chapter 5, then discuss the questions below.1. Figure 5.1 shows how English has adapted to its surroundings in various

contexts around the world. Are you familiar with any other ways in which the ‘New’ Englishes vary in terms of pronunciation, lexis, syntax, and pragmatics?

2. Ansaldo (2010, p. 499) notes that ‘if we want to look at English in contact with Asian typologies, there is no better place to look than Singlish’. In what ways do you think language contact has been influential in the development of the ‘New’ Englishes? Are you familiar with the English spoken in Singapore?

3. In the matrimonial advertisement shown in Research task 2, Convt. = convent educated, prof. Qlfd. = professionally qualified, bful = beautiful, KKB = Kanya Kubja Brahmin, BHP = biodata, horoscope, and photograph (Gargesh, 2006). What does this usage of English tell us about English in South Asia?

South AsiaPart 1

The problem with codifying Englishes

• In is impossible to put language into neat categories (see issues with Kachru’s Three Circles in Chapter 1).

• Some ‘New’ Englishes are older than ‘Native’ Englishes (e.g. Indian English versus NZ English).

• Many ‘New’ Englishes are ‘Native’ Englishes for many speakers.• Population mobility has meant geography does not equate to

language use (e.g. a Chinese learner who has picked up an ‘American’ accent through exposure, an Australian who has adopted UK English features due to years spent living there).

• Nevertheless, WE is an important area of research in the Global Englishes paradigm, and thus we need to understand the contributions WE research has made to the process of codifying and legitimatizing the Englishes used around the globe.

What are ‘New’ Englishes?

• According to Platt et al. (1984, p. 2-3), a ‘New’ English is one which fulfils the following criteria:– It has developed through the education system.– It has developed where a native variety of English

was not the language spoken by most of the population.

– It is used for a range of functions among those who can speak or write it in the region where it is used (e.g. in literature, the government, and the media).

– It has become ‘localized’ or ‘nativized’ by adopting some language features of its own.

South Asia• The ‘use of the term South Asian English is not to be understood as

indicative of linguistic homogeneity in this variety nor of a uniform linguistic competence’ (Kachru, 1986, p. 36).

• English introduced from 1579 and grew through missionaries and trade English medium schools and universities established.

• After independence in 1947, English had already established a dominant role in the emerging nations of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh:– In India, Hindi declared official but non-Hindi speaking population rioted,

causing English to be a co-equal official language.– In Pakistan, its role the position of Urdu has strengthened.– In Sri Lanka, a three language policy (English, Sinhalese, and Tamil exists).

• Today, Indian English is the third largest variety (35 to 50 million speakers).

• English assumes a dominant role in education, science, politics, culture, media, and literature.

History of English in South Asia

1579 1964

Arrival of Father

Thomas Stephens in

India

Three English-medium universities

in Bombay/Mumbai, Calcutta/Kolkata

and Madras/Chennai

Dominant role in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh

1950 constitution: Hindi official

language

Germanic languages arrive. These new languages and migrant communities pushed “the indigenous population into ‘corners’ such as Wales and

Cornwall” (Melchers & Shaw 2011, p. 1) where remnants of the

ancient Celtic languages remain today in local Celtic languages, including Cornish and Welsh.

Three Language Formula: requires that Hindi, English, and a regional language be taught in every state

British rule; East

India Company

Germanic languages arrive. These new languages and migrant communities pushed “the indigenous population into ‘corners’ such as Wales and Cornwall” (Melchers & Shaw

2011, p. 1) where remnants of the ancient Celtic languages remain today in local Celtic languages, including Cornish and Welsh.

Official Language Act:　 English co-equal with Hindi

The role of English today in South Asia• More English speakers than there are in IC countries, although numbers are

difficult to estimate and proficiency varies: – Speakers of the educated variety of Standard Indian English are estimated to be

around 35 to 50 million, making Indian English the third largest ‘variety’ of English worldwide, after British and American English speakers (Mukherjee, 2010, p. 167), if such linguistic lines can be drawn.

• The Indian constitution recognizes 22 official languages, including English.• Hindi is the major language in India, and in Sri Lanka Sinhala and Tamil are

the main local languages. However, many continue to use English on a daily basis and code-mix with local languages. It is also the language of choice by many ‘to show off or as a mark of their age or position’, and some upper class urban families may have adopted English almost entirely (Melchers and Shaw, 2011, p. 146).

• In India, English has become the language of administration, politics, education, and academia: – Creative writing in English has become an integral part of South Asian culture.

Features of South Asian English: phonemic variation

• Diphthongs are realized as monophthongs/simple vowels – this results in many dipthongs reduced to monopthongs, as in the examples of: /eɪ/ becoming /e:/ (e.g. day becomes /de:/), /əʊ/ becoming /o:/ (coat becomes /ko:t/).

• Initial front vowels are sometimes preceded by a glide – in India, inner is pronounced as (yinnər) (Kachru and Nelson, 2006) and in southern India a /j/ may be inserted, as in the example of eight /je:t/ (Trudgill and Hannah, 2008).

• Rhoticity – Englishes linking to South Asia are rhotic, meaning the /r/ is pronounced in Indian English (e.g. the ‘r’ in part and in poor is sounded) (Kirkpatrick, 2007). This differentiates them from many accents found in former British colonies, which are non-rhotic.

• Retroflexed /t/ and /d/ – the alveolar /t/ and /d/ tend to be retroflexed, meaning the underside of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge or palate, producing a slightly different sound of /ʈ/ and /ɖ/. Such sounds are typical of Indo-Aryan and Davidian languages, but uncommon in most English accents. This feature gives Indian English a distinctively recognizable quality.

Lexical variation• Coinages – co-brother (one’s wife’s sister’s husband),

cousin-brother (as opposed to a sibling), eve-teasing (sexual harassment of women), to half-fry (to fry an egg on one side), inskirt (petticoat), love marriage (marrying someone of one’s own choice as opposed to someone chosen by the family).

• Borrowing – goonda (hooligan), mela (crowd), durzi (tailor), lathi (bamboo stick used by the police), channa (chick peas).

• Hyrbid forms – lathi-charge (an attack by the police using lathis), congresswallah (member of congress).

• Compounding/specialized meaning – pen-down-strike (workers present at work, but refusing to work).

Attitudes towards English inSouth Asia: India

• Despite the wealth of research on the ‘New’ Englishes of South Asia, they continue to be viewed as ‘illegitimate’ and ‘inferior’.

• Call-centre workers train to imitate a British or American accent.

• Identity with ‘Hinglish’ has become popularized in India through Bollywood, where film titles increasingly blend Hindi and English, indicating a move away from ‘standard’ norms. – Such moves also indicate the resistance to linguistic imperialism

outlined by Canagarajah (1999b) in the previous lecture.

South-East AsiaPart 2

History of English in South-East Asia

1786 today

Acquisition of Penang

(Malaysia) by the East India

Company

Straights Settlements

(the East India Company),

consisting of Singapore,

Malacca, and Penang

British colonial rule

English education in Straights Settlements

migrant communities pushed “the indigenous population into ‘corners’ such as Wales and Cornwall” (Melchers &

Shaw 2011, p. 1) where remnants of the ancient Celtic

languages remain today in local Celtic languages,

including Cornish and Welsh.

Malay has taken over as main language of

education in Malaysia and Brunei

Trading settlement

in Singapore

English became main language of

education in Singapore, Malaysia,

and Brunei

Variation in South-East Asian English: phonemic variation

• Vowel mergers – [ε] and [æ] (both pronounced as /e/) result in homophonous words sets of set–sat and man–men. It is also noted that /ɑ:/ and /ʌ/, /ɔ:/ and /ɒ/ are very similar (Kirkpatrick, 2007).

• Diphthongs are realized as monophthongs/simple vowels – resulting in /eɪ/ becoming /e:/ (e.g. day as /de:/) and /əʊ/ becoming /o:/ (e.g. coat as /ko:t/).

• Rhoticity – Singaporean English is non-rhotic, but neighbouring Englishes in the Philippines and Malaysia are rhotic.

• The vocalization of /l/ – Singaporeans vocalize dark /l/ to [ʊ] or it is lost altogether, meaning milk is pronounced as /miʊk/, well as /weʊ/, and tall as /tɔ:/.

• Less distinction between some voiced and voiceless consonants – creating homophonous word pairs such as knees–niece, leaf–leave, rope–robe, bad–bad, pick–pig. These sounds might also be similar: /tʃ/ and /dʒ/; /f/ and /v/; /s/ and /z/; /s/ and /ʒ/;/r/ and /l/.

Grammar-syntactic variation• Plurality – speakers do not always mark nouns for plurality (e.g. I

like to read storybook). Also, many uncountable nouns often become countable (e.g. informations, staffs, furnitures, chalks).

• Perfective instead of the simple past – e.g. I have been in Italy twenty years ago (I was in Italy twenty years ago).

• Omission of conjunctions – e.g. I have three dogs, one cat.• Question formation – can or not formation is common (e.g. She

wants to go, can or not? [Can she go or not?]). • Reduplication – Ansaldo (2013, p. 514) notes four patterns:

– N-N for intimacy, e.g. this my girl-girl (this is my little girl) (affectionate, not very productive)

– V-V for attenuation, e.g. just eat-eat lah (eat a little [or pick some])– Pred.Adj-Pred.Adj for ‘intensification’, e.g. his face red-red (his face is

really quite red)– V-V-V for durative, e.g. we all eat-eat-eat (keep eating/eat a lot).

Status of English in South-East Asia:The Singaporean Speak Good English Movement

• Many Singaporeans speak English as a first language, and it is an integral part of society and culture:– Unlike South Asia where there is debate of whether to speak English, in

Singapore there is debate on what kind of English should be used. • The ‘Speak Good English Movement’ started in 2000 to promote the use

of ‘standard’ English due to fears that Singlish, seen as inferior, is unintelligible to outsiders: – This campaign aims to ‘encourage Singaporeans to speak grammatically

correct English that is universally understood’ (SGEM, 2011). – Seargeant (2012, p. 110) points out: ‘the logic behind the policy is flawed to

the extent that people are able to switch between Singlish and Standard English and to use different varieties in different domains and for different purposes. In other words, Singlish and Standard English are not mutually exclusive but are part of the multilingual and multidialectal repertoires that Singaporeans daily employ.’

AfricaPart 3

History of English in Africa

• The history of English in both East and West Africa is rooted in colonialism, with the exception of Liberia, a settler colony of free slaves.

• English contact can be traced to the 1500s when it was used in trading and the slave trade.

• Formal British colonialism was widespread in West and Central Africa and encompassed almost all of East and Southern Africa, resulting in the creation of colonies and protectorates.

English today (1)

• Today, English is used as a second language in most of Britain’s former colonies

• West Africa – in Nigeria, pidgin English is prevalent but, with more than 500 languages, English acts as a lingua franca (it is the ‘official’ language on the constitution, but Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa are also mentioned as national languages). In Ghana, English is an official language and the medium of instruction in most schools, although a local language is often used for younger levels.

English today (2)

• East Africa – in Kenya and Tanzania, Swahili has official language status. However, English plays a strong role in Kenya, although Kiswahili is spoken by nearly 95% of the population (De Swaan, 2001, p. 119). Tanzania has adopted English as the medium of instruction in secondary schools, although English is not widely used, questioning its categorization as an Outer Circle country.

• Southern Africa – in Namibia, English is the official language, but is used by only 7% of the population (World Fact book, cited in Kachru and Nelson, 2006, p. 198). In Botswana, the national language is Setswana, but English plays an important role, albeit spoken by about 2.2% of the population.

Variation in African Englishes

• Despite widespread variation, as well as whether one is speaking the basilectal or acrolectal variety, for example, there are some similarities among the varieties of English, particularly in Englishes that have developed from related substrate languages.

Phonological differences

West African vowels/i/ bid, bee/e/ bay/a/ bad, bard /ɔ/ pot, putt, paw/o/ boat/u/ boot, put/ai/ buy/ɔi/ boy

East African vowels/i/ bid, bee

/e/ bed, bay/a/ bad, bard, /o/ pot, boat

/u/ boot, put/ai/ buy/oi/ boy/au/ bout

The present and future ofEnglish in Africa

• The use of English as a lingua franca is favoured by some, although it has also resulted in a number of issues related to educational opportunities and identity due to its role as a gatekeeper in upward social mobility.

• With a history of apartheid, white Afrikaans may see English as a threat to their identity and culture, while South African Indians, as well as the black community, on the other hand, may view it positively.

The status of the ‘New’ Englishes – recognition, invisibility, and acceptability

Part 4

The status of ‘New’ Englishes

Rubdy et al. (2008, p. 44) note: ‘while there is a general acknowledgement of the emergence of Singapore English as a nativized variety that has evolved its own autonomous system, there is at the same time a reluctance to grant speakers of this variety the recognition and legitimacy they deserve.’

The Quirk/Kachru debate

Such Englishes are, in fact, distinct, rule-bound, and legitimate varieties that need to be classed in their own right. Quirk’s comments do not reflect the sociolinguistic uses of the language today. While they may differ from native English speakers’ intuitions, this does not make them inferior (Kachru, 1991).

These varieties were the result of ‘the increasing failure of the education system’ in OC countries, which is incapable of teaching students ‘correct’ English(Quirk, 1990, p. 8).

In 1984, a conference in London marking the founding of the British Council ended in an exchange of articles in English Today, written by Randolph Quirk (1990) and Kachru (1991), on the status of the New Englishes, and whether they should be considered as legitimate varieties in their own right and appropriate models for ELT.

The debate today

• That debate was 20 years ago. Since then, a lot of progress has been made in both the WE and ELF research paradigms, but the ‘New’ Englishes continue to battle for acceptance and legitimacy.

• Innovations continue to be viewed by some as errors, while many continue to recognize that such innovations often serve the purposes for which they are intended in their respective contexts.

Summary of Lecture 5 (1)• This lecture has described variation in countries where English is

spoken as a second language in what is traditionally known as the Outer Circle.

• WE research highlights the phonological, lexical, and grammatical variation in the use of English. However, the ‘New’ Englishes, despite some similarities, are far from homogenous, and the increasing use of ELF will be discussed in subsequent lectures.

• This lecture has revisited many of the issues discussed in Lecture 3, and it is clear that the spread of English is having both positive and negative impacts on the countries discussed here.– Many Singaporeans are moving away from their mother tongues and,

in Africa, while functioning as a neutral lingua franca for some, English use has also resulted in a number of issues related to educational opportunities and identity, and English acts as a gatekeeper in upward social mobility.

Summary of Lecture 5 (2)• We also revisited the topic of identity, introduced in

Lecture 2. – English has become an integral part of South Asian culture and

writers exploit the language, exemplifying the creative nature of South Asian English.

• The ‘New’ Englishes continue to face the battle of acceptance and their status has been a central theme here.– The Singaporean government continues to push the

instrumental value of English without fostering an integrative element, viewing the indigenized variety as inferior.

– In Hong Kong, the battle has more to do with recognition.• Two decades may have passed since the Quirk/Kachru

debate, but the status of the ‘New’ Englishes appears to be a continuing issue.

Key termsOuter Circle‘New’ Englishes VarietyNativizedWorld Englishes Legitimate Ownership Colonialism ExonormativeEndonormative Innovation Basilect, mesolect, acrolect

IllegitimateInferior(Un)intelligible Interlanguage Mother tongue CoinageBorrowing BilingualLocalized Institionalized Native speaker/non-native speaker

Further readingOn the ‘New’ Englishes: • Kachru, B., Kachru, Y., and Nelson, C. (eds.) 2006. The Handbook of World Englishes.

Oxford: Blackwell.• Kirkpatrick, A. (ed.) (2010). The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes, London:

Routledge. • Platt, J., Weber, H. and Liam, H. M. (1984). The New Englishes. London: Routledge &

Kegan Paul.

On Hong Kong: • Bolton, K. (ed.) (2002) Hong Kong English: Autonomy and Creativity. Hong Kong:

Hong Kong University Press.

On status of ‘New’ Englishes:• Quirk, R. (1990). ‘Language varieties and standard language.’ English Today, 6(01),

pp. 3–10. • Kachru, B. B. (1991). ‘Liberation linguistics and the Quirk concern.’ English Today,

7(01), pp. 3–13.