On the other hand, it is just as often pointed out that those who promote the cause of language change are underestimating the massive unifying forces at work in the world. Sociologists and economists affirm that progress of any kind today depends as never before on a network of international relations – in particular, those mediated by the United Nations and the World Bank. Communications analysts point out that the existence of the world media – especially satellite television and the Internet – introduces an element into the situation which has never existed before. New varieties, when they emerge, no longer develop in isolation over long periods of time, as happened to Old French or Old English. Speakers of Australian, Indian, Jamaican or other Englishes can be heard at almost any time, simply by turning on the radio or television, or by going to the cinema. There is inevitably a ‘levelling’ which takes place in such circumstances. There is a greater interchange of words, and an enhancing of the levels of mutual comprehension. Whatever the features of regional English are, they are tiny compared with the mass of vocabulary and structure of ‘world standard’ English, which is within easy reach of all.
But no one wants to lose their identity in a world melting-pot. It therefore seems likely that, in the course of this century, we will see the emergence of a more universal ‘bidialectism’ on the part of those who play a role in the international community. People will use one variety of the language at home, and slip into another variety when they communicate with those from different communities. It already happens, of course, when people with different regional dialect backgrounds meet. I was part of a conversation recently where someone from Scotland and someone from Wales were discussing a point. Although both speakers have strongly dialectal speech patterns when they are at home, the conversation was remarkably free of regional vocabulary or idiom; and when the speakers did introduce local phrases, they were often accompanied by a comment which acknowledged that the other might not follow – such as ‘as we say’, or ‘are you with me?’. I recall a similar conversation with an American. There is no real difference between intra-national and inter-national varieties of English, in this respect.
So maybe in a century or so we shall all be bilingual in our own language, with our home variety of English co-existing with an English international lingua franca. And in the course of time, maybe ‘bilingual’ will not be too strong a word; for it is likely that the home varieties will develop along different lines from those followed by this lingua franca. There could well come a day, indeed, when the home languages of Indians, Americans, Jamaicans, and others are mutually unintelligible, but the whole community is bound together by the continuing existence of the lingua franca. Such a situation is not fantasy: there is an analogy today in China, where the several spoken Chinese ‘dialects’ are mutually unintelligible, but written Chinese is understood by all.
Indeed, when we listen to the street dialects of English spoken around the world, it is evident that varying levels of unintelligibility already exist, with variations in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation being introduced which cumulatively can make a local form of English impenetrable to the outsider. It is far more than the difficulty people from one part of a country sometimes have in understanding people from another. A Liverpudlian might have difficulty following a Glaswegian who is speaking rapidly, and vice versa; but if the speakers were to slow down, comprehension would increase – and if that didn’t work, the two speakers could write down what they were saying in standard English and thereby succeed in communicating. But this would not be possible in Malaysia, for example, if we were to hear a speaker of Malenglish (‘Malayan English’), which is in fact an admixture of English and Malay. Even if this were written down, there would be difficulty, as these two sentences illustrate:
You wanted to beli some barang-barang [i.e. buy… things]
I tengok you tengah famished [i.e. see… half]
And Malenglish is not alone. Many other new varieties have emerged in recent decades, often given a similar ‘mixed name’ label, such as Japlish, Singlish, Spanglish, Chinglish, Taglish (English with Tagalog, spoken in the Philippines), Denglish (Deutsch + English), Frenglish, and so on. Often these varieties are condemned by speakers of the community’s standard languages as ‘neither one thing or the other’, ‘broken English’, ‘bastardized English’, and so on; but the evidence is clear that these are new varieties of the language, just as complex and efficient as the standard varieties, though lacking the latter’s prestige. Indeed, because they tap into two language resources, it could be argued that these new varieties are actually more expressive than either of the standard forms. A standard English speaker can make jokes in English; a standard Chinese speaker in Chinese; but a speaker of Chinglish can do much more – playing one language off against the other to devise language play of a whole new order.
These new varieties have grown up because they are needed by regional communities to express their sense of local identity, in the face of the standard languages which have evolved to meet the demand for pan-national and international intelligibility. Standard languages are important, because they foster outward-looking communication between a local community and the rest of the world; but they cannot replace non-standard varieties of language, which have evolved to meet the needs of group identity. Nations which can achieve a balance between standard and non-standard, promoting both intelligibility and identity in their curricula and media, have the best of both worlds. Unfortunately, such balances are difficult to establish, because traditional attitudes of contempt for non-standard varieties are hard to eradicate, and the different role of these varieties often fails to be understood, even by people in high places. In Singapore, for example, prime minister Goh spent several minutes in his National Day speech in 1999 warning his country against the growth of Singlish, which he said would make Singaporeans unintelligible to the outside world. He illustrated this part of the speech with some Singlish expressions, then focused his anxiety on the influence of the media, and in particular the leading character from the country’s highly popular television sitcom, Phua Chu Kang (‘PCK’), known for his rapid, fluent Singlish. The prime minister approached the Television Corporation of Singapore, and asked them to do something about it; and they agreed to enrol PCK in some basic English classes so that he could improve his standard English. The action was widely reported both within the country and abroad, and not without scepticism. As the Independent put it (17 October 1999), the chastising of Phua Chu Kang ‘was something like the Queen rebuking Del Boy during the opening of parliament’. Later in his speech, the prime minister also made a strong plea for Singaporeans to retain their local identity in the face of external cultural steamrollers. The irony, of course, is that it is precisely through a local language variety – such as Singlish – that a community can foster its sense of identity.
There need be no conflict: it is perfectly possible for a country to maintain the place of standard English in its schools and social structure without denigrating the local accents and dialects which comprise its constituent group identities. This scenario – of mutual respect for all language varieties – is one of the most important features of the National Curriculum in English which was introduced into UK schools during the 1990s. The days seem now to be largely gone when local dialects were ridiculed or banned; instead, teachers are fostering in students a genuine interest in language variety and change which, in due course, should spread fresh and positive attitudes throughout society. At an international level, however, such attitudes are still few and far between.
It is no more than common sense for those who have invested a childhood, or adult time and money, in successfully acquiring the English language to maintain an active interest in the language’s progress. The more we learn about where the language has been, how it is structured, how it is used, and how it is changing, the more we will be able to judge its present course and help to plan its future. For many people, this will indeed mean a conscious altering of attitude. L
anguage variation and language change – the two aspects of English which are at the centre of its identity, and which are most in the public eye – are too often blindly condemned. If just a fraction of the nervous energy which is currently devoted to the criticism of split infinitives and the intrusive r were devoted to the constructive promotion of forward-looking language activities, what might not be achieved?
It is easy to forget the many areas where the language, and those who are professionally involved with it, need the active support of the general public. Adult literacy programmes, plain English campaigns, immigrant teaching, the BBC World Service, provision for the language handicapped, library and information services, the language arts: domains such as these need public support, in the form of money, time, and resources, if they are to succeed in their operation. The history, structure, and use of the English language is a fascinating topic in its own right; but the story does not end there. Rather, it should lead us to consider the unfulfilled linguistic needs of communities at home and abroad, and in particular the plight of the millions who are handicapped by their inadequate command of English, whether in speaking, listening, reading, or writing. For them, the story is only beginning.
Appendix A
Some Events in English Language History
449 Invasion by Angles, Saxons, and Jutes
450–80 Earliest runic inscriptions in Old English
597 Augustine brings Christianity to Kent
680 Approximate earliest date for the composition of Beowulf
700 Approximate dating of earliest Old English manuscripts
735 Death of the Venerable Bede
787 Viking raids begin
871 Alfred becomes King of Wessex
886 Danelaw boundaries settled
950–1000 Approximate dates of the main Old English poetry collections
1016–42 Cnut and his sons reign
1066 Norman Conquest
1150–1200 Earliest texts in Middle English
1171 Henry II’s invasion of Ireland
1204 France reconquers Normandy
1250–1300 Edward I’s campaigns against the Welsh and Scots
1362 English first used at the opening of Parliament
1375–1400 Chaucer’s main works written
1384 Wyclif’s translation of the Bible
1400–1450 The Great Vowel Shift
1400–1600 Main period of older Scots literature
1476 Introduction of printing
1475–1650 Renaissance loan words into English
1549 Book of Common Prayer written
1560–1620 English plantation settlements in Ireland
1584 Roanoke settlement in America
1590–1616 Shakespeare’s main works written
1600 East India Company established trading posts in India
1603 Act of Union of the crowns of England and Scotland
1604 Publication of Robert Cawdrey’s A Table Alphabeticall
1607 First permanent English settlement in America
1609 First English settlement in the Caribbean
1611 Authorized Version of the Bible
1619 Arrival of first African slaves in North America
1620 Arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers in America
1623 First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays published
1627 British established in Barbados
1655 British acquire Jamaica from Spain
1707 Union of the Parliaments of England and Scotland
1712 Jonathan Swift’s proposal for an English Academy
1713 British control in eastern Canada recognized
1721 Publication of Nathaniel Bailey’s Universal Etymological English Dictionary
1755 Publication of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language
1762 Publication of Robert Lowth’s Short Introduction to English Grammar
1765–1947 British Raj in India
1776 American independence declared
1780–1800 First wave of emigration to Canada from the USA
1783 Loss of American colonies of Britain
1788 Establishment of first penal colony in Australia
1791 Establishment of Upper and Lower Canada
1794 Publication of Lindley Murray’s English Grammar
1800–1910 Main period of European emigration to the USA
1802 Ceylon and Trinidad ceded to Britain
1803 Act of Union between Britain and Ireland
1806 British control established in South Africa
1808 Sierra Leone made colony
1814 Tobago, Mauritius, St Lucia and Malta ceded to Britain
1816 Colony of Bathurst (Gambia) established
1819 British established Singapore
1828 Publication of Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language
1840 Official colony established in New Zealand
1842 Hong Kong ceded to Britain
1861 Lagos (Nigeria) established as colony
1865–1900 Movement of blacks to northern parts of the USA after the American Civil War
1867 Independence of Canada
1874 Gold Coast (Ghana) established as colony
1884–1928 Publication of the Oxford English Dictionary
1888–94 British protectorates established in Kenya, Zanzibar, Uganda
1901 Independence of Australia
1907 Independence of New Zealand
1910 Union of South Africa established
1919 Tanganyika ceded to Britain
1922 Partition of Northern Ireland and Eire
1922 Establishment of the BBC
1925 Afrikaans given official status in South Africa
1931 British Commonwealth recognized
1947 Independence of India
1948 Independence of Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
1957 Independence of Ghana
1957–63 Independence of Malaysia
1960 Independence of Nigeria
1940–75 Main period of immigration to Britain from Europe, Caribbean and Asia
1961 Independence of Sierra Leone and Cyprus
1962 Independence of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda
1963 Independence of Kenya
1964 Independence of Tanzania, Malawi, Malta, Zambia
1965 Independence of The Gambia, Singapore
1966 Independence of Guyana, Botswana, Lesotho, Barbados
1968 Independence of Mauritius, Swaziland, Nauru
1970–84 Independence of possessions in Caribbean and Pacific
1972 Independence of Bangladesh
1972 First network e-mail sent
1975 Independence of Papua New Guinea
1977 Voyager spacecraft leaves with English message
1984 Independence of Brunei
1986 Independence of Marshall Islands
1988 CD-ROM of the Oxford English Dictionary
1990 Independence of Namibia
1991 Independence of the Federated States of Micronesia
1991 Implementation of the World Wide Web
1994 Independence of Palau
2000 Oxford English Dictionary goes online
Appendix B
A Guide to the Guides
In recent years there have been many accounts written of the language. Here is a selection of them, with an indication of their coverage and emphasis.
Richard W. Bailey and Manfred Görlach (ed.), English as a World Language (University of Michigan Press, 1982, Cambridge University Press, 1984,496 pp.). A collection of essays, aimed at the serious student, outlining the political and social history of English language development around the world, and illustrating the variations which have taken place in each region.
Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable, A History of the English Language (Prentice-Hall, and Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1993, 4th edition, 444 pp.). The standard textbook on the history of the language, giving copious illustration of each stage of development, and a thorough discussion of the social and political histo
ry; particularly strong on American English.
W. F. Bolton, A Living Language: The History and Structure of English (Random House, 1982, 461 pp.). A scholarly treatment paying particular attention to the nature of English linguistic change, and to the history of ideas in English language studies; there are several illustrations from the texts of each period, and the account incorporates an explanation of relevant concepts from linguistics.
Whitney F. Bolton and David Crystal (ed.), The English Language (Sphere History of the English Language, Vol. 10, 2nd edition 1987, 362 pp.). A collection of essays introducing what is involved in the study of English sounds, grammar, vocabulary, and style, and providing a historical account from both linguistic and sociolinguistic points of view.
Bill Bryson, Mother Tongue: the English Language (Penguin, 1990, 270 pp.). A popular account of the history and present-day use of the language, with an eye to some of the language’s more entertaining idiosyncrasies.
Robert Burchfield, The English Language (Oxford University Press, 1985, 194 pp.). A largely historically organized account from the former editor of the Oxford English Dictionary; particular attention paid to the development of vocabulary, and to the history of dictionaries and grammars.
David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (Cambridge University Press, 1995, 489 pp.). A wide-ranging account of the history, structure, and use of the language, distinctive for its full-colour maps and illustrations.
David Crystal, English as a Global Language (Cambridge University Press, 1997, 150 pp.). An account of the reasons for the present-day position of English as a world lingua franca, with some discussion of current trends and future possibilities.
Sidney Greenbaum (ed.), The English Language Today (Pergamon Press, 1985, 345 pp.). A collection of scholarly essays on the social contexts which have given rise to changes in the language, with particular reference to past and present-day beliefs and attitudes about all aspects of English structure and use.
Richard M. Hogg (ed.), The Cambridge History of the English Language (Cambridge University Press, from 1992, 6 vols). A major series of collections of articles, covering (1) pre-1066, (2), 1066–1476, (3) 1476–1776, (4) 1776–Present Day, (5) English in Britain and overseas, and (6) English in North America.
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