UNIT 1

English speaking nations

1. English has spread around the world geographically and among various speakers

2. First by British colonization and empire-building, and more recently by the prominence of America in
world affairs

1/ The first permanent English settlement in America (1607)

English spread rapidly from the eastern part of America where the English first settles, to the whole
country

2/ British colonization

• The foundations for the expansion of English were laid as the BritishEmpire itself expanded (roughly
between 1600-1900)

• English and English language teaching served as a tool to strengthenBritish rule

• The result of colonial education policy

3/The occurrence of the World War

• Physical force or power as a driving force to influence the spread of English

• American English, a symbol of liberty and freedom to the Europeans who underwent the war

• The headquarter of the United Nations in New York

The most influential dialect of the language

• The political military and economic influence of the US on the globe since the late 19th to the present
day

Capitalism:

• A major international financial center of multinational corporations

• Globalization in an Americanized way

• Preference for American accent

English is the International language for the airlines, of the sea and shipping, ofcomputer technology, of
science, and indeed of communication generally

• World English: English has diversified by adapting to local circumstances and cultures,resulting in
different varieties of English in every countryEg: Konglish, Singlish, Spanglish

• A simpler version of English called “globish”. Globish is a form of simplified 'globalEnglish'. It was
developed to help learners of English as a second language, andcontains 1500 common words and
phrases
UNIT 2

About AD 450, when Britain was largely inhabited by Celtic peoples– fair-sized groups of Germanic
settlers began coming into the country.

These invaders probably came from Northern Germany and Denmark, represented three main tribes of
people known as: Angles, Saxons, Jutes

This may have been due to:

• differences in the Germanic varieties spoken in their original homelands on the Continent

• reflects the distinct communities formed by the groups in various parts of England.

Some of these early ‘tribal’ differences can even be traced inrural dialects today;

e.g: /f/ and /s/ correspond to/v/and/z/in the southwest of England

“Cider from Somerset” ->“Zider vrom Zummerzet”

Reason for linguistic variation and change => degree of contact with speakers of other languages/dialects

However, contacts with the indigenous Celtic population have not resulted in many borrowings in English

In contrast to the limited evidence of Celticinfluence on English, that of Latiniscertainly pervasive. Some
of theLatinloanwords may actually have been adopted

Christianity in AD. 597 => Latin became more noticeable

1st , all words related to the Church were introduced: altar, angel, candle;

2nd , words connected with everyday life: clothing and household utensils were introduced sock, chest

3rd, new names for trees, plants, and herbs often replaced the Anglo-Saxon words pine, lily, fennel.

The Latin element has been integrated into theEnglish system. This integration includes affixessuch as
re-, in-, inter-, -fy

(e.g. reshuffle, incapacitate, interdisciplinary, rectify).

8th century , English speakers began to come into contact with speakers of another variety, namely the
Viking invaders from Denmark and Norway

=> Many individuals became permanent settlers, their language mixed with those of local varieties

Old Norse (Viking’s language)= quite closeto the Anglo-Saxondialects spoken by theEnglish (both were
Germanic languages andshared a common stock of vocabulary)=>The 2 tongues intermingledand
becameone, with dialects being influenced by both tosome degrees.

However, marked differences in thegrammatical systems => A need to simplify the two languages.e.g:
dropping quite a few inflectional endings –ed, -es, -ing

=>formally reinstated in 1362, when the King’s speechat the opening of Parliament was delivered in
English, anAct was passed making English instead of French theofficial language of the law courts.
During its heyday in Britain, however, French had an enormous impact on the linguistic repertoire and on
the English language itself. -> considered as prestigious language unless a man knows French, people
think little of him French was the language of law, administration, business and sophisticated life

William Caxton- English merchant,diplomat and writer.

He introducedprintingpress toEngland in 1476.

initiate thestandardization of English

Up until this point in time, English hadalways been a language with lots of dialects and many different
rules.

In the 15th century, English was firmly stated as the language of power, standardized language was
developed (London-based, language of prosperous middle-class businessmen )

Earlier, writing had been clearly dialectal and extremely varied with regard to spelling, vocabulary and
grammar

The influential University of Cambridgeplayed an important role here.

In the 18thcentury, English spelling andgrammar codified in a standard form.

This happened when the legendaryDr. Samuel Johnson published his famousdictionary in 1755.

ENGLISH TODAY: - NEW ZEALAND - AUSTRALIA - AFRICA - ASIA - AMERICA - EUROPE - ISLANDS (of
the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Ocean )

FIRST LANGUAGE and SECOND LANGUAGE spoken by 320/370 million people

--17th and 18th century with the British settlement of North America, The Caribbean, Australia and
Asia.

--19th century English became important internationally. (Britain was one of the world´s leading
industrial nation)

--20th century the use of English spread with the growth in international business.

--21st century continues with the growth, internet, English is the working language for the European
Central Bank (in Germany), shopping, making travel arrangement,…

INVADERS

CELTS  They were the first group of Indo-European speakers to move across Europe. Their homeland
was in central Europe, north of the Alps. They reached the Black Sea, south-west Spain and central Italy,
and the whole Britain and Ireland.

ROMANS  INVADED BRITAIN  STAYED FOUR HUNDRED YEARS (Introduced new way of life and new
language. Some British Celts learnt to speak and write Latin)

GERMANS TRIBES ATTACKED  ROMANS LEFT BRITAIN IN AD 410

THE SAXONS, THE ANGLES AND JUTES CAME FROM GERMANY AND DENMARK IN THE MIDDLE OF 5TH
CENTURY  All these people spoke dialects of a language they called ENGLISC .

By the end of 5th c. the English language began to develop with the contribution of GERMANIC AND THE
ANGLO-SAXONS TRIBES

OTHER INVADERS

Other invaders were THE VIKINGS (called DANES by Anglo-Saxons). They came from Denmark and
Norway. Influence in language: words beginning with sk-: skin, skirt, sky. Some pronouns and adjectives:
they, their, them.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST - French invaders (1066). French became the language for two hundred
years, until 13th century. Used mainly by the upper class, ordinary people used English.

In 15th c. English once again completely replaced French at home, in education and in government.

OLD ENGLISH

The dialects of the first Anglo-Saxons became what we now call Old English (OE). There were four main
dialects: West Saxon, Kentish, Mercian, Northumbrian. Old English was almost completed Germanic. The
dialects had very few Celtic words. However, they borrowed some Celtic words, for example, some
English cities and and rivers: London, Leeds and Thames

Monks from Rome to teach the Anglo-Saxons about Christianity,left Latin words in education and some
connected to the Church.

85% of the OE vocabulary has been replaced in Modern English (ME) with words from Latin and Greek.

MIDDLE ENGLISH

In the 400 years that followed the Norman Conquest, the English language changed more than in any
other time in history. Thousands of words from French came into the language, and many Old English
ones left.

At the same time Middle English changed grammatically, mainly by becoming simpler.

OE: climb  past tense  clomb

ME: climb  past tense  climbed

Between 1100 and 1500, about 10,000 French words were taken into English. French words came into
every part of life. For example: chair, city, crime, fashion, fruit,…

EARLY MODERN ENGLISH

The 16th c. full of changes in Europe (explore America, Africa, Asia, and learning in all areas flowered)

W. Shakespeare

The University of Cambridge

The standardization of English

Geographical-historical:

English came to England in the 5th century and began to spread around the British Isles.

It entered parts of Wales, Cornwall, Cumbria, and southern Scotland, traditionally the strongholds of the
Celtic language.

After the Norman invasion of 1066, many nobles from England fled north to Scotland, where they were
made welcome, and eventually the language (in a distinctive Scots variety) spread throughout the
Scottish lowlands. From the 12th century, Anglo-Norman knights were sent across the Irish Sea, and
Ireland gradually fell under English rule.

Three hundred years later, the progress of English towards its status as a global language took place.

British colonization had made many regions their colonies. Three types of colonies:

Settlement colonies

Trading colonies

Exploitation colonies

The movement of English around the world:

 America (1st settlement, 1607)

 The Caribbean islands (circa 1658)

 Canada (circa 1700s)

 Australia and New Zealand (James Cook, 1770)

 Africa (1820) and the South Pacific.

All these colonies, later became countries, spoke English as their first language

English also spread to other regions such as India, West Africa, and Asia:

India: 1600, British East India Company was formed

West Africa: Early 17th century, first contact was made. By 1800, English was well-established in this
region and other trading colonies

Asia: In Penang (1786), in Singapore (1819), and Malacca (1824). Thomas Macaulay (1835) proposed an
English educational system.

In the postcolonial era, these countries speak English as a second language

GLOBAL

You hear it on TV, spoken by politicians from all over the world.

You see English signs and advertisements.

Hotel receptionists and waiters in a foreign city understand you when you speak English.
WHAT IS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE

1. A language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops aspecial role (with many facets) that is
recognized in every country.

2. Such a role will be most evident where a large number of people speak the language as a mother
tongue (the USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, several Caribbean
countries, etc

WHAT MAKE?

The speakers: nothing to do with the number of speakers but who those speakers are

Power: e.g. Latin during the Roman Empire (when the Roman military power declines, Latin remain as
the international language due to a different sort of power: the ecclesiastical power of Roman
Catholicism.

Political and military, economic, technological, and cultural power.

A WORLD VIEW

The present status of English is primarily the result of two factors:

The expansion of British colonial power, which peaked towards the endof the 19th century;

And the emergence of the United States as the leading economic powerof the 2oth century (70% of all
English-mother tongue speakers in theworld).

Braj Kachru came with three concentric circles: the inner circle, the outercircle, and the expanding circle.

NEW ENGLISH

These varieties of English, especially those with official status, are often referred to as the New Englishes
(however Mufwene, who argues that the term ‘new English’ should apply to all varieties identifiable as
English today, ‘since every spoken language is adapted by its speakers to current communicative needs
and contexts’).

Whereas a number of English varieties fit extremely nicely into one of the three categories, others are
characterised by shifting status, for example due to the increasing use of English as the medium of
instruction in EFL countries, or tend to be viewed differently in the literature

FUTURE OF ENGLISH

Not surprisingly, then, the overall statistics for English worldwide appear to be somewhat variable and
should be taken with a pinch of salt

The following figures are quoted from The Future of English? (Graddol 1997):

First-language speakers: 375 million

Second-language speakers: 375 million

Foreign-language speakers: 750 million

Numbers and the predominance of foreign-language speakers have increased since that estimate was
made, and ‘foreignlanguage’ has become inappropriate.

In 2006 Graddol suggested that knowledge of English could become universal among educated people

In other words: the fact that English is now an influential world language is not due to its superiority as a
language, but is a result of the activities of its speakers over the centuries.

Unit 3:

GEOGRAPHICAL-HISTORICAL:

 English came to England in the 5th century and began to spread around the British Isles.

 It entered parts of Wales, Cornwall, Cumbria, and southern Scotland, traditionally the strongholds of
the Celtic language.

 After the Norman invasion of 1066, many nobles from England fled north to Scotland, where they were
made welcome, and eventually the language (in a distinctive Scots variety) spread throughout the
Scottish lowlands. From the 12th century, Anglo-Norman knights were sent across the Irish Sea, and
Ireland gradually fell under English rule.

 Three hundred years later, the progress of English towards its status as a global language took place.

 British colonization had made many regions their colonies. Three types of colonies:

1. Settlement colonies

2. Trading colonies

3. Exploitation colonies

 The movement of English around the world:

 America (1st settlement, 1607)

 The Caribbean islands (circa 1658)

 Canada (circa 1700s)

 Australia and New Zealand (James Cook, 1770)

 Africa (1820) and the South Pacific.

 All these colonies, later became countries, spoke English as their first language

TIMELINE – MOVEMENT OF ENGLISH

1607 North America: The first settlement of the British empire established. Subsequent immigrants then
learnt English no matter where they came from.

Circa 1658 The Caribbean islands: Jamaica, Trinidad and other islands. Mostly because of sugar
plantation and slaves. Also spoke Spanish , French, Dutch.
Circa 1700s Canada: Called Newfoundland. Spoke little English since 17th century. After the American
War, immigrants who fled to Canada made the country largely English- speaking.

1770 Australia and New Zealand: First arrivals in Australia were mostly prisoners. This was not the case
for New Zealand. 1840 a Treaty was signed with Maori chiefs to officiate New Zealand.

1820 South Africa: First group of settlers arrived in Cape Province, South Africa. Then Britain expanded
their colonies to other parts of South Africa

English also spread to other regions such as India, West Africa, and Asia:

 India: 1600, British East India Company was formed

 West Africa: Early 17th century, first contact was made. By 1800, English was well-established in this
region and other trading colonies

 Asia: In Penang (1786), in Singapore (1819), and Malacca (1824). Thomas Macaulay (1835) proposed
an English educational system.

 In the postcolonial era, these countries speak English as a second Language

ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE

You hear it on TV, spoken by politicians from all over the world.

 You see English signs and advertisements.

 Hotel receptionists and waiters in a foreign city understand you

when you speak English.

WHAT IS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE?

1. A language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role (with many facets) that is
recognized in every country.

2. Such a role will be most evident where a large number of people speak the language as a mother
tongue (the USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, several Caribbean
countries, etc

WHAT MAKES A GLOBAL LANGUAGE?

1. The speakers: nothing to do with the number of speakers but whothose speakers are.

2. Power: e.g. Latin during the Roman Empire (when the Roman

military power declines, Latin remain as the international languagen due to a different sort of power: the
ecclesiastical power of Roman Catholicism.

3. Political and military, economic, technological, and cultural power.

WHAT MAKES A GLOBAL LANGUAGE? A WORLD VIEW

The present status of English is primarily the result of two factors:

 The expansion of British colonial power, which peaked towards the endof the 19th century;

 And the emergence of the United States as the leading economic power

of the 2oth century (70% of all English-mother tongue speakers in theworld).

Braj Kachru came with three concentric circles: the inner circle, the outercircle, and the expanding circle

 Braj Kachru (1932-2016): Indian-American linguist

KACHRU’S MODEL- THE THREE “CIRCLES” OF ENGLISH

 Inner circle
– norm providing
 Outer circle
– norm developing
 Expanding circle
– norm depending
NEW ENGLISHES

 These varieties of English, especially those with official status, are often referredto as the New
Englishes (however Mufwene, who argues that the term ‘newEnglish’ should apply to all varieties
identifiable as English today, ‘since everyspoken language is adapted by its speakers to current
communicative needs andcontexts’).

 Whereas a number of English varieties fit extremely nicely into one of the threecategories, others are
characterised by shifting status, for example due to theincreasing use of English as the medium of
instruction in EFL countries, or tend tobe viewed differently in the literature

THE FUTURE OF ENGLISH

 Not surprisingly, then, the overall statistics for English worldwide appear to be somewhat variable and
should be taken with a pinch of salt

 The following figures are quoted from The Future of English?

(Graddol 1997):

 First-language speakers: 375 million

 Second-language speakers: 375 million

 Foreign-language speakers: 750 million

 Numbers and the predominance of foreign-language speakers have increased since that estimate was
made, and ‘foreignlanguage’ has become inappropriate.

 In 2006 Graddol suggested that knowledge of English could become universal among educated people

 In other words: the fact that English is now an influential world language is not due to its superiority as
a language, but is a result of the activities of its speakers over the centuries.

English as a global language

1. A language taken up by other countries around the world

2. A special role within communities, even few (or no) mother-tongue speakers

3. English as an offificial language

4. English as a priority in a country’s foreign-language teaching, even though

English has no offificial status

--> English is now the language most widely taught as a foreign language – in over

100 countries

Reasons: historical tradition, political expediency, and the desire for commercial, cultural or
technological contact.
Distinctions such as those between ‘first’, ‘second’ and ‘foreign’ language status are useful,

but not a simplistic interpretation

--> In particular, avoid interpreting the distinction as a difference in fluency or ability

--> Native speakers vs. non-native speakers (dialects and accent)

Currently, approximately 67 territories where English spoken either as a first language (L1),

or as an official (i.e. institutionalized) second language (L2) in fields such as government,

law, and education. About a quarter of the world’s population already fluent or competent

in English as 1st or 2nd language (around 1.5 billion people).

WHO SPEAKS ENGLISH TODAY

ENL, ESL, EFL and ELF

❑ a native language (ENL)

❑ a second language (ESL)

❑ a foreign language (EFL)

❑ a lingua franca (ELF)-English for intercultural communication

Proficiency levels range from reasonable to bilingual competence

--> (EFL) vs. (ESL).

ELF: English as a Lingua Franca refers to the teaching, learning, and use of English as a common means of
communication (or contact language) between two or more people who do not have the same first
language.

E.g: speakers of different countries: mainland Europe, China, and Brazil

EFL: English as a Foreign Language refers to the study of English by non-native speakers in countries
where English is not the dominant language. It is used by nonnative speakers to communicate with
native speakers

Proficiency levels range from reasonable to bilingual competence

--> (EFL) vs. (ESL).

ESL: English as a Second Language refers to the use or study of the English language by non-native
speakers in an English-speaking environment. That environment may be a country in which English has
an established role (colonization) and where the language is part of the country's leading institutions and
in a multilingual society.

E.g. Singapore, India, Nigeria

➔ “approximately one in three of the world’s population are now capable of communicating to a useful
level in English”.
WHAT IS STANDARD ENGLISH?

1. The dialect spoken by educated people throughout the British Isles. It is the dialect normally used in
writing, for teaching in schools and universities, and heard on radio and television. → The term Standard
English refers to grammar and vocabulary (dialect) but not to pronunciation (accent).

2. A set of grammatical and lexical forms typically used in speech and writing by educated native
speakers. It includes the use of colloquial and slang vocabulary as well as swear-words and taboo
expressions.

3. The kind of English in which all native speakers learn to read and write although most do not actually
speak it

4. Traditionally the accent used by the upper and (especially professional) middle class and most of the
educated since the 1920s that has been called Received Pronunciation (RP), and with the phrases the
Queen’s English, the King’s English, Oxford English, and BBC English

• An inevitable consequence of these developments is that English will become open to the winds of
linguistic change in unpredictable ways.

• New Englishes = The emergence of new varieties of English in the different territories where the
language has taken root.

E.g: Nigerian English, Singapore English, and Indian English

--> The different dialects of British and American English provide the most familiar example

NEW ENGLISHES

1. These New Englishes are somewhat like the dialects (the case with rural or urban regional dialects),
except that they are on an international scale, applying to whole countries or regions.

2. Instead of affecting mere thousands of speakers, they apply to millions.

3. Most adaptation in a New English relates to vocabulary, in the form of new words, word-formations,
word meanings, collocations and idiomatic phrases -> to meet new communicative needs

AMERICA

• The first permanent English settlement dates from 1607, in Chesapeake Bay. The colonists called their
settlement Jamestown (after James I) and the area Virginia (after the ‘Virgin Queen’, Elizabeth).

• In 1620, the first group of Puritans arrived on the Mayflower in and established a settlement at what is
now Plymouth, Massachusetts.

• --> a land for a new religious kingdom, free from persecution and ‘purified’ from the church practices.
By 1640 about 25,000 immigrants

• The two settlements – one in Virginia, to the south, the other to the north, in present-day New England
– had different linguistic backgrounds.
• Although the southern colony brought settlers from several parts of England, many of them came from
England’s ‘West Country’ and brought with them its characteristic accent, with its ‘Zummerzet ’voicing of
s sounds, and the r strongly pronounced after vowels.

• By contrast, many of the Plymouth colonists came from counties in the east of England (Lincolnshire,
Nottinghamshire, Essex, Kent and London) --> These eastern accents were rather different – notably,
lacking an r after vowels – and not to pronounce the r’ is still a feature of the speech of people from New
England.

● The later population movements across America largely preserved the dialect distinctions.

● The New England people moved west into the region of the Great Lakes; the southerners moved along
the Gulf Coast and into Texas; and the Midlanders spread through out the whole of the vast, mid-
western area (Westward).

● The dialect picture with the main divisions of north, midland, and south are still found throughout
America today

• During the 17th century, new immigrants brought an increasing variety of linguistic backgrounds into
the country. Pennsylvania, for example, by Quakers mostly from the Midlands and the north of England.

• In the 18th century, a vast wave of immigration from northern Ireland with Irish and Scots-Irish
immigrants. By the time independence (1776) in USA, about one in seven of the colonial population was
Scots-Irish

Not only England which influenced English in USA.

➔The Spanish in the west and south-west.

➔The French in the northern territories, around the St Lawrence River, and throughout the middle
regions (French Louisiana) as far as the Gulf of Mexico.

➔The Dutch in New York (originally New Amsterdam) and the surrounding area.

➔ Large numbers of Germans began to arrive at the end of the 17th century, settling mainly in
Pennsylvania and its hinterland.

➔Increasing numbers of Africans entering the south, as a result of the slave trade in the 18th century:

➔According to the 1990 census, the number of people (over five years of age) who spoke only English at
home had grown to over 198million–86 percent of the population. This figure increased to 215 million in
the 2000 census (though representing a fall to 82 per cent of the population)

BRINGING ENGLISH TO AMERICA

• Early 1600's: The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrive in North America as part of the British
colonization movement. They bring English, now an "emigrant language" to native North Americans;

• In addition, the settlers and their families continue to speak their own native tongue

OVER THE NEXT 400 YEARS…

• Between the end of the 17th century and the 21st century, many gradual changes to the form of the
English language have taken place under this process

• The process caused the Americans and the British to diverge so drastically in terms of the forms of
their languages that they are now considered two separate English language dialects.

• 1806 - Noah Webster publishes his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language.

LANGUAGES INFLUENCED ENGLISH IN USA

Not only England which influenced English in USA.

• The Spanish in the west and south-west.

• The French in the northern territories, around the St Lawrence River, and throughout the middle
regions (French Louisiana)

• The Dutch in New York (originally New Amsterdam) and the surrounding area.

• Large numbers of Germans began to arrive at the end of the 17th century, settling mainly in
Pennsylvania

BRITISH ENGLISH HISTORY

•West-Germanic

•A "borrowing language" - enriched by Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, and Norman influences

•Evolved over many centuries; experienced many shifts/changes

• Spread of British English is attributed to trade and commerce throughout the established British
Empire

WHICH IS CORRECT?

• American and British English are taught in English as a foreign language programs

• No one version is "correct"

• RULE: be consistent in your usage

• The largest difference is probably in the choice of vocabulary and pronunciation

BRITISH V AMERICAN ENGLISH

American English (AmE) is the form of English used in the United States. It includes all English dialects
used within the United States of America.

• General American (GA) is considered to be "standard" or "accentless"

• British English (BrE) is the form of English used in the United Kingdom. It includes all English dialects
used within the United Kingdom.

• In the United Kingdom, Received Pronunciation (RP) is considered "standard"

• Also called the Oueen's English and BBC English

There are 3 major differences between American and British English: PRONUNCIATION, VOCAB,
SPELLING

PRONUCIATION

• Pronunciation between types of English is very dissimilar. In American English the “r” at the end of the
word almost always affects its pronunciation whereas in British English the “r” is often, silent.

• Also, the emphasis placed on the syllables of the word varies from British and' American English. E.g:
the world adult has the emphasis on the first syllable, whereas in America it is placed on the second half
of the word.

SPELLING