Lingua franca

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A lingua franca /lw frk/, also known as a bridge language, common

language, trade language or vehicular language, is a language or dialect systematically (as
opposed to occasionally, or casually) used to make communication possible between people
who do not share a native language or dialect, in particular when it is a third language, distinct
from both native languages.[2]
Lingua francas have developed around the world throughout human history, sometimes for
commercial reasons (so-called "trade languages") but also for cultural, religious, diplomatic and
administrative convenience, and as a means of exchanging information between scientists and
other scholars of different nationalities. The term originates with one such
language,Mediterranean Lingua Franca.

Characteristics
Lingua franca is a term defined functionally, independent of the linguistic history or structure of
the language: though pidginsand creoles often function as lingua francas, many such
languages are neither pidgins nor creoles.
Whereas a vernacular language is used as a native language in a community, a lingua
franca is used beyond the boundaries of its original community, and is used as a second
language for communication between groups. For example, English is a vernacular in the
United Kingdom, but is used as a vehicular language (i.e., a lingua franca) in
the Philippines and India. Russian and French serve a similar purpose as
industrial/educational lingua francas in many areas, but Mandarin Chinese is unlikely to
become a true lingua franca.[4]
International auxiliary languages such as Esperanto have not had a great degree of adoption
globally, so they cannot be described as global lingua francas.

Etymology
The term lingua franca originated as the name of a particular language that was used around
the eastern Mediterranean Seaas the main language of commerce and diplomacyfrom late
medieval times and especially during the Renaissance era, up to the 18th century. At that time,
Italian speakers dominated seaborne commerce in the port cities of the Ottoman Empire and a
simplified version of Italian, including many loan words from Greek, Old
French, Portuguese, Occitan, Spanish, as well asArabic and Turkish came to be widely used
as the "lingua franca" (in the generic sense used here) of the region.
In Lingua Franca itself, lingua means a language (as in Portuguese and Italian) - Franca is
related to Phrankoi in Greek andFaranji in Arabic, as well as the equivalent Italian: in all three

cases the literal sense is "Frankish", but this name was actually applied to all Western
Europeans during the late Byzantine Period
The Douglas Harper Etymology Dictionary states that the term Lingua Franca (as the name of
the particular language) was first recorded in English during the 1670s, [8] although an even
earlier example of the use of Lingua Franca in English is attested from 1632, where it is also
referred to as "Bastard Spanish".
As recently as the late 20th century, the use of the generic term was restricted by some to
mean only hybrid languages that are used as vehicular languages (owing to its original
meaning), but nowadays it refers to any vehicular language.

Examples
The use of lingua francas has existed since antiquity. Latin and Koine Greek were the lingua
francas of the Roman andHellenistic empires; Akkadian, and then Aramaic, remained the
common languages of a large part of Western Asia through several earlier empires.
[11]

Examples of lingua francas remain numerous, and exist on every continent. The most

obvious example as of the early 21st century is English. There are many other lingua francas
centralized on particular regions, such
asFrench, Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, and Swahili.
In certain countries the lingua franca is also used as the national language; e.g., Urdu is the
lingua franca of Pakistan, as well as the national language. Indonesian has the same function
in Indonesia; even though Javanese has more native speakers, Indonesian is the sole official
language and spoken (often as a second language) throughout the country.
Finally, the only documented, widespread lingua franca that happened to be a sign language
is Plains Sign Talk which was spoken across much of the North American continent and used
as a second language across many indigenous National boundaries. Alongside, or possibly a
derivation of, Plains Sign Talk existed Plateau Sign Language which is now extinct. Inuit Sign
Language could be a similar case in the Arctic amongst Inuit to communicate across oral
language boundaries, but little research is there.

Lingua franca
Linguistics
Written by: Salikoko Sangol Mufwene

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Lingua franca, ( Italian: Frankish language) language used as a means of communication between
populations speaking vernaculars that are not mutually intelligible. The term was first used during the
Middle Ages to describe a French- and Italian-based jargon, or pidgin, that was developed by Crusaders
and traders in the eastern Mediterranean and characterized by the invariant forms of its nouns, verbs,
and adjectives. These changes have been interpreted as simplifications of the Romance languages.
Because they bring together very diverse groups of people, many empires and major trade entrepts
have had lingua francas. If pidgins have sometimes been defined, less informatively, as lingua francas, it
is because they evolved from varieties that had served as trade languages. Aramaic played this role in
Southwest Asia from as early as the 7th century

BC

to approximately AD 650. Classical Latin was the

dominant lingua franca of European scholars until the 18th century, while a less prestigious variety of
Latin served as that of the Hanseatic League (13th15th centuries), especially in its bookkeeping.
During the era of European exploration in the 15th18th centuries, Portuguese served as a diplomatic
and trade language in coastal Africa and in Asian coastal areas from the Indian Ocean to Japan. In
Southeast Asia, meanwhile, Malay was already serving as an important lingua franca; it had been
adopted by Arab and Chinese traders in the region well before the Europeans arrived. Later both the
Dutch and the British used Malay for communication with the peoples resident in the region.
Modern lingua francas may or may not be officially designated as such: the United Nations employs six
official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish); international air traffic
control uses English as a common language; and some multilingual Asian and African countries have
unofficial lingua francas that facilitate interethnic or interregional communication. Such languages may be
erstwhile pidgins, as with Lingala in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Nigerian and Cameroon
pidgins, or Hiri Motu and Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea; they may also be non-pidginized varieties such
as Swahili in East Africa or Hausa in West Africa.

lingua franca
(frngk)
n. pl. lingua francas (-kz) also linguae francae (frngk, frns)

1. A medium of communication between peoples of different languages.

Lengua vehicular
(Redirigido desde Lingua franca)

Lengua franca redirige aqu. Para descendientes del franco, la lengua que fue hablada por
los francos, vase Lenguas francas.
Lingua franca redirige aqu. Para el pidgin mediterrneo que dio origen al trmino,
vase Sabir.
Una lengua vehicular1 o lengua franca2 (tambin en latn medieval e italiano lingua franca),
es un idioma adoptado de forma tcita para un entendimiento comn entre personas que no
tienen la misma lengua materna. La aceptacin puede deberse a mutuo acuerdo o a
cuestiones polticas, econmicas, etc. Es importante distinguir propiamente la
expresin lengua franca de las de lengua oficial, lengua clsica, o lengua diplomtica, con los
que comparte el uso como interlingua entre hablantes de diferentes lenguas maternas
(frecuentemente por acuerdo o conveniencia ms que por imposicin legal).
En algunos contextos lengua vehicular se refiere slo a la lengua predeterminada o preferida
de uso en un determinado mbito, cuando existen diferentes lenguas posibles. Mientras
que lengua franca casi siempre responde a una situacin donde muchas personas de
manera informal y por conveniencia adoptan una lengua para la comunicacin aun cuando no
exista una norma jurdica preferente que as lo indique.
En particular, una caracterstica notoria de una lengua franca es el ser lengua de propsito
general, usada en contextos hablados para la comunicacin entre diversos grupos o
nacionalidades (eso las diferencia de las lenguas clsicas que suelen usarse en el registro
escrito, las lenguas diplomticas que tienen un mbito restringido o las lengua oficiales cuyo
uso est respaldado legalmente).

Historia
Origen del trmino
Lengua vehicular es un trmino lingstico neutro que se refiere al rol que juega una lengua
en un determinado contexto; 1lengua franca se refiere histricamente a una lengua hbrida, sin
hablantes nativos, resultado del contacto entre hablantes de distintas lenguas, y que
encuentran puntos comunes para entenderse. 2 El uso reciente de lengua franca para referirse
pormetonimia a las grandes lenguas vehiculares ha difuminado esta diferencia. 3
Lengua franca (del latn tardo lingua franca) se llam originalmente a la lengua tudesca
(frncico) (en alemn teutsch) hablada en tiempo de Carlomagno. Luego se llam as al latn y
ms recientemente al sabir, una lengua con elementos lxicos del francs, italiano, espaol,
rabe, turco y algunas ms, usada en la cuenca Mediterrnea, particularmente su parte
oriental y en el norte de frica para entenderse los habitantes de estos pases con los
europeos en sus relaciones comerciales.
Existen asimismo idiomas con caractersticas muy parecidas a las lenguas anteriores, pero
creados con el propsito de convertirse en lingua franca de consenso entre hablantes sin el
mismo idioma materno, como es el caso del esperanto, delido o interlingua.

Lenguas francas en Europa[editar]

En el Mediterrneo oriental, durante una parte de la Antigedad, se us el griego
koin como lingua franca, si bien otras lenguas autctonas continuaron siendo usadas en esos
territorios. En Europa occidental, por el contrario, la romanizacin hizo que el latn fuera la
lengua materna de la mayor parte de la poblacin.
Histricamente, la lengua ms usada como segunda lengua en Europa fue hasta el siglo XIV
el latn, aunque esta lengua funcion bsicamente como lengua clsica en el registro escrito y
como lengua de propsito particular para propsitos particulares, adems de como lengua
"oficial" de la iglesia catlica. De hecho este uso se mantiene ya que nominalmente ellatn
eclesistico sigue siendo la lengua oficial del Vaticano. En usos particulares, el latn sigue
siendo usado de manera limitada en Derecho (se sigue empleando hoy en da), en Medicina y
en la clasificacin biolgica (hongos, bacterias, plantas y animales, con su nombre cientfico).
El latn tuvo un uso tan extendido que fue conocido como la lengua vulgar (del vulgo, del
pueblo). Por esta razn, a la traduccin que Jernimo de Estridn hizo al latn de la Biblia en
el siglo V se la conoce como Vulgata.
Tambin han sido lenguas francas el ruso en los pases soviticos, el alemn en el centro de
Europa. El portugus, elespaol y el francs en sus respectivos imperios
Desde el Renacimiento hasta finales del siglo XIX se llam lingua franca a una lengua
empleada por los marineros y mercaderes del Mediterrneo. Era una lengua popular y
hablada, de la que hoy se conservan muy pocos textos. Era una mezcla principalmente de
italiano, rabe y griego, aunque tena palabras de los orgenes ms diversos. Los capitanes de
los barcos, diplomticos, etc. no solan hablar en lingua franca por el desprestigio social, y se
entendan entre ellos en francs y en ingls principalmente. A finales del siglo XIX cae
definitivamente en desuso y es sustituida por el ingls en la marina, por la importancia que
tena el Imperio Britnico, aunque los diplomticos de carrera prefirieron seguir usando el
francs.
El francs4 fue la lengua franca de la aristocracia europea del siglo XVII hasta finales del siglo
XIX, coincidiendo con el surgimiento de Francia como potencia europea dominante tras el fin
de la Guerra de los Treinta Aos y sus primeros signos de debilidad econmica como potencia
colonial, en la postrimeras del siglo XIX (as, los nios de las principales familias reales de
Europa fueron criados en francs y los aristcratas rusos se escriban con frecuencia en
francs). Ms tarde, la influencia de este idioma fue extendindose con la colonizacin
del imperio francs, hasta el continente asitico y americano. Todava se utiliza en la
diplomacia internacional y en los principales organismos internacionales.
Tambin han existido lenguas francas en Oriente y el norte de frica para que los habitantes
de esos pases se pudieran entender con los europeos en sus relaciones comerciales.

Lenguas francas en Oriente Medio y Lejano oriente

En los primeros Estados de Mesopotamia y Oriente Medio, aproximadamente entre los
siglos XX a. C. y XV a. C., el idioma akkadio fue ampliamente usado en las relaciones
diplomticas, mientras que el sumerio fue estudiado por un perodo similar como lengua de
cultura en ciertas reas del conocimiento. Posteriormente el arameo reemplaz a ambas
lenguas como segunda lengua en la zona, desde el imperio aquemnida hasta la expansin
musulmana.
En el Lejano Oriente, el snscrito fue una segunda lengua importante tanto en India como en
el sudeste asitico e Indonesia. Tambin el hindi o hindustan en el subcontinente indio. Ms al
norte, el chino clsico fue una segunda lengua estudiada por los eruditos
de Vietnam, Corea y Japn como segunda lengua. El chino mandarn o el rabe actan como
lenguas francas en grandes zonas de este continente.

Lenguas francas en Amrica

En Amrica del Norte se us una lengua de seas como medio de comunicacin intergrupal
entre los pueblos de las grandes praderas principalmente. En Mesoamrica, poco antes de la
llegada de los europeos y durante un tiempo tras la llegada de estos, el nhuatl se utiliz
ampliamente como lengua vehicular. Y en Suramrica el quechua se expandi bsicamente
como segunda lengua de entendimiento en el imperio inca, ya que la lengua original de los
primeros incas parece haber sido elpuquina[cita requerida], que la conservaron en un contexto
reducido para usar en la esfera pblica el quechua clsico.En el mandato del virrey Toledo se
consideraron lenguas generales, en uso legal, en el extenssimo virreinato del Per: el
quechua, el aimara, el puquina y el mochica5
Durante la colonizacin de Brasil, la escasez de mujeres europeas motiv que muchos
portugueses desposaran a mujeres autctonas, cuya lengua era el tup. El resultado es que,
hasta principios del siglo XVIII, la lengua predominante fue la lngua geral, que era
bsicamente una variante de tup con abundante intromisin del portugus. A partir del siglo
XVIII, hubo un intento consciente para dar exclusividad al portugus, aunque la lngua
geral fue la lengua vehicular predominante en muchas reas del Amazonas hasta casi el siglo
XX.

Lenguas francas en frica

El suajili, con apenas 15 millones de hablantes nativos pero de uso cotidiano para
aproximadamente 90 millones de personas, es la lengua de comunicacin entre los pases
ribereos del Ocano ndico y la regin de los Grades Lagos, siendo oficial
en Tanzania, Kenia, Uganda y Repblica Democrtica del Congo, as como en la Unin
Africana (junto con el ingls, elfrancs, el rabe, el espaol y el portugus).

Actualidad
Actualmente, el ingls es la lengua que se presenta con mayor frecuencia como segunda
lengua entre los hablantes multilinges, y en la prctica sirve de lingua franca global, tras el
final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial en septiembre de 1945. Esto se debe a factores
socioecnomicos y geopolticos, tanto por la influencia histrica de los pases anglosajones
como por el hecho de que el ingls, especialmente desde el siglo XX, ha sido la principal
lengua de los negocios y de la publicacin de trabajos cientficos. Eso ha contribuido a que
exista una mayor cantidad de informacin recientemente publicada (fsica y digitalmente) en
este idioma que en cualquier otro.
Igualmente, algunos pases promueven el aprendizaje de sus lenguas nacionales en el
extranjero, bien sea para promocionar su cultura y relaciones econmicas (comercio, turismo,
eventual migracin laboral, etc.), o bien por las posibilidades y aficiones de las personas por
aprender una nueva lengua. Ello ha permitido que existan numerosos hablantes no nativos de
una lengua distinta al ingls, aunque globalmente no est tan extendida. Lo hacen mediante
recursos varios, tales como instituciones educativas dedicadas a la enseanza de la lengua
(de iniciativa estatal, privada o mixta), promoviendo el turismo acadmico (que implica el
traslado temporal de estudiantes al pas con el fin de aprender la lengua nativa, a travs de
una institucin de enseanza y la vida cotidiana), mediante comunidades que viven en el
extranjero con un fuerte arraigo con el pas del que proviene la lengua a ensear, y tambin
gracias a las nuevas tecnologas (Internet, cursos de enseanza multimedia en CD, DVD,
etc.). Con excepcin de hablantes nativos de lenguas muy extendidas como el ingls, la
diversidad de recursos ha posibilitado que muchas personas elijan aprender una segunda o
ms lenguas por aficin o como valor aadido en su formacin educativa.

Lenguas auxiliares[editar]
Especialmente desde el siglo XIX se sinti la necesidad de una lengua internacional comn no
impuesta. Tena que ser ms fcil que las lenguas tnicas, con una cultura internacional sin
filtros y que acabara con los privilegios que gozan los hablantes nativos de las lenguas
mayoritarias, evitando as desprestigiar las minoritarias. Esta forma de pensar basada en lo
ideal y en mejorar la comunicacin entre hablantes de lenguas y culturas diferentes llev a
decenas de eruditos a crearlenguas construidas. En general, estas lenguas auxiliares
planificadas con pretensiones de servir como segunda lengua, franca e internacional no han
tenido al menos todava el xito masivo que se esperaba en la prctica.
Uno de los ejemplos con mayor popularidad es el caso del esperanto. El aprendizaje de este
idioma ha sido recomendado en diversas ocasiones por la Unesco.
Desde 1999 se estima que el esperanto cuenta con dos millones de hablantes como lengua
extranjera y miles de hablantes nativos que, por diversos motivos tienen esta lengua
como lengua materna y son siempre bilinges o polglotas. Hoy en da este idioma contina
sumando miles de hablantes, sobre todo gracias a la popularizacin de internet que parece
haber dejado la difcil estimacin obsoleta. Otros ejemplos menos exitosos de lenguas
artificiales son el volapk, la interlingua, elido, etc.

British Accents

Wikimedia

The United Kingdom is probably the most dialect-obsessed nation in the world. With countless accents
shaped by thousands of years of history, there are few English-speaking nations with as many varieties of
language in such a small space.
(NOTE: This page uses the International Phonetic Alphabet(IPA). For information about this notation, please visit my page
ofIPA Resources.)

Here is a list of the most important types of British English. While this is not a complete list by any
means, it will give you an overview of the accents and dialects most often discussed on this site and
elsewhere.

Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation is the closest to a standard accent that has ever existed in the UK. Although it
originally derives from London English, it is non-regional. Youve probably heard this accent countless
times in Jane Austen adaptations, Merchant Ivory films, and Oscar Wilde plays. It emerged from the
18th- and 19th-Century aristocracy, and has remained the gold standard ever since.
Features:

Non-rhoticity, meaning the r at the ends of words isnt prounounced (mother sounds like

muhthuh).
Trap-bath split, meaning that certain a words, like bath, cant, and dance are pronounced with
the broad-a in father. (This differs from most American accents, in which these words are

pronounced with the short-a in cat.

The vowels tend to be a bit more conservative than other accents in Southern England, which
have undergone significant vowel shifting over the past century.

Speech Samples:

Actress Dame Judi Dench

Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher

Author Christopher Hitchens

Cockney
Cockney is probably the second most famous British accent. It originated in the East End of London, but
shares many features with and influences other dialects in that region.
Features:

Raised vowel in words like trap and cat so these sounds like trep and cet.

Non-rhoticity: see explanation above under Received Pronunciation, above.

Trap-bath split: see explanation above under Received Pronunciation.
London vowel shift: The vowel sounds are shifted around so that Cockney day sounds is
pronounced IPA d (close to American die) and Cockney buy verges near IPA b(close to

American boy).
Glottal Stopping: the letter t is pronounced with the back of the throat (glottis) in between

vowels; hence better becomes IPA be? (sounds to outsiders like beuh).
L-vocalization: The l at the end of words often becomes a vowel sound Hence pal can seem to

sound like pow. (Ive seen this rendered in IPA as /w/, /o,/ and //.)
Th-Fronting: The th in words like think or this is pronounced with a more forward consonant
depending on the word: thing becomes fing, this becomes dis, and motherbecomes muhvah.

Speech Samples:

Actor Ray Winstone

Heavy metal rocker Steve Harri

Estuary English (Southeast British)

Estuary is an accent derived from London English which has achieved a status slightlysimilar to General
American in the US. Features of the accent can be heard around Southeast England, East Anglia, and
perhaps further afield. It is arguably creeping into the Midlands and North.
Features:

Similar to Cockney, but in general Estuary speakers do not front th words or raise the vowel

in trap. There are few hard-and-fast rules, however.

Glottal stoppingof t and l-vocalization (see above) are markers of this accent, but there is some
debate about their frequency.

Speech Samples:

Comedian Russell Brand

Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay

Comedian Ricky Gervais

West Country (Southwest British)

West Country refers to a large swath of accents heard in the South of England, starting about fifty miles
West of London and extending to the Welsh border.
Features:

Rhoticity, meaning that the letter r is pronounced after vowels. So, for example, whereas
somebody from London would pronounce mother as muthah, somebody from Bristol would say

mutherrr. (i.e. the way people pronounce the word in America or Ireland).
Otherwise, this is a huge dialect area, so theres tons of variation.

Speech Samples:

Comedian Stephen Merchant

Archaeologist Phil Harding (from Wiltshire)

Comedian Justin Lee Collins (Another Bristol Accent) (also from Bristol)

Midlands English
Midlands English is one of the more stigmatized of Englishes. Technically, this can be divided into East
Midlands and West Midlands, but I wont get into the differences between the two just now. The most
famous of these dialects is Brummie (Birmingham English).
Features:

The foot-strut merger, meaning that the syllable in foot and could is pronounced with the same

syllable as strut and fudge. (IPA ).

A system of vowels otherwise vaguely reminiscent of Australian accents, with

short i in kitsometimes verging toward IPA kit (keet) and extremely open loose dipthongs.
A variety of unusual vocabulary: some East Midlands dialects still feature a variant of the word
thou!

Speech samples:

Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath

Northern England English

These are the accents and dialect spoken north of the midlands, in cities like Manchester, Leeds, and
Liverpool. Related accents also found in rural Yorkshire, although there are some unique dialect features
there that I wont get into now.
Features:

The foot-stut merger: (see the Midlands description above).

Non-rhoticity, except in some rural areas.

The dipthong in words like kite and ride is lengthened so that kite can become something like
IPA ka:t (i.e. it sounds a bit like kaaaait)

Unique vocab includes use of the word mam to mean mother, similar to Irish English.

Speech Samples:

Bernard Sumner, of New Order

Actor/comedian Craig Charles

Singer Joe Cocker

Geordie
Geordie usually refers to both the people and dialect of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, in Northeast England. The
word may also refer to accents and dialects in Northeast England in general. I would classify this as a
separate region from the rest of Northern England because its so radically different from the language
spoken in nearby cities.
Features

The foot-stut merger(see the Midlands description above).

Non-rhoticity (in the cities at least)

The /ai/ dipthong in kite is raised to IPA , so it sounds a bit more like American or Standard
British kate.
The /au/ dipthong in about is pronounced IPA u: (that is, oo) in strong dialects.
Hence bout can sound like boot.

Speech Samples:

Singer Cheryl Cole

This video gives a good idea of the classic Geordie accent

Welsh English
This refers to the accents and dialects spoken in the country of Wales. The speech of this region is heavily
influenced by the Welsh language, which remained more widely spoken in modern times than the other
Celtic languages.
Features:

Usually non-rhotic.
English is generally modelled after Received Pronunciation or related accents, but with many

holdovers from the Welsh language.

Syllables tend to be very evenly stressed, and the prosody of the accent is often very musical.
The letter r is often trilled or tapped.
Some dialect words imported from the Welsh language.

Speech Samples:

Singer Tom Jones

Actor Rhys Ifans

Rocker Gruff Rhy (Cardiff Accent)

Scottish English
This is the broad definition used to describe English as it is spoken in the country of Scotland. Note
that Scottish English is different than Scots, a language derived from Northumbrian Old English that is
spoken in Scotland as well. That being said, Scots has a strong influence on how English in Scotland is
spoken.
Features:

Rhotic, with trilled or tapped rs.

Glottal stopping of the letter t when in between vowels (similar to Cockney and related accents).
Monopthongal pronounciations of the /ei/ and /ou/ dipthongs, so that that face becomes
IPA fe:s and goat becomes IPA go:t.

Speech Samples:

Actor Peter Mullan (Glasgow)

Actor Ewen Bremner (Edinburgh)

Conclusion
This list is woefully incomplete. I cant count the smaller dialect areas that arent covered here (East
Anglia, Urban Cardiff, Cornish English, Northumberland, etc.) However, Ive attempted to list the
accents and dialects youll see referenced the most on this blog and elsewhere.

Received Pronunciation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article
contains IPA phonetic
symbols. Without
proper rendering support, you
may see question marks,
boxes, or other
symbols instead
ofUnicode characters.

Received Pronunciation (/rsivd prnnsien/; RP) is the accent ofStandard English in

the United Kingdom, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other
European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms. [1] RP is defined
in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary as "the standard accent of English as spoken in
the south of England",[2] although it can be heard from native speakers throughout England and
Wales.[3][4] Peter Trudgill estimated in 1974 that 3% of people in Britain were RP speakers.[5]
Although nothing intrinsic about RP marks it as superior to any other variety, sociolinguistic
factors have given RP particularprestige in parts of Britain.[6] It has thus been seen as the
accent of those with power, money, and influence, though it has in recent times been perceived
negatively by some as associated with undeserved privilege. [7][8] Since the 1960s, a greater
permissiveness towards regional English varieties has taken hold in education. [9]
The study of RP is concerned exclusively with pronunciation, whereas "Standard English", "the
Queen's English", "Oxford English", and "BBC English" are also concerned with matters such
as grammar, vocabulary and style. An individual using RP will typically speak Standard English,
although the reverse is not necessarily true (e.g. the standard language may be pronounced
with a regional accent, such as a Yorkshire accent; but it is very unlikely that someone
speaking RP would use it to speak the Yorkshire dialect).
Contents
[hide]

1History
1.1Alternative names

2Usage
2.1In dictionaries

3Status

4Phonology
o

4.1Consonants

4.2Vowels

4.2.1Long and short vowels

4.2.2Diphthongs and triphthongs

4.2.3BATH vowel

4.2.4Alternative notation

4.3Historical variation

4.4Comparison with other varieties of English

5Spoken specimen

6Notable speakers

7See also

8Notes and references

9Bibliography

10External links

History[edit]
The introduction of the term 'Received Pronunciation' is usually credited to Daniel Jones. In the
first edition of the English Pronouncing Dictionary (1917), he named the accent "Public School
Pronunciation", but for the second edition in 1926, he wrote, "In what follows I call it Received
Pronunciation (abbreviation RP), for want of a better term." [10] However, the term had actually
been used much earlier by Alexander Ellis in 1869[11] and P. S. Du Ponceau in 1818[12] (the term
used by Henry C. K. Wyld in 1927 was "received standard"[13]). According to Fowler's Modern
English Usage (1965), the correct term is "'the Received Pronunciation'. The word 'received'
conveys its original meaning of 'accepted' or 'approved', as in 'receivedwisdom'."[14]
RP is often believed to be based on the accents of southern England, but it actually has most
in common with the Early Modern English dialects of the East Midlands. This was the most
populated and most prosperous area of England during the 14th and 15th centuries. By the
end of the 15th century, "Standard English" was established in the City of London. [15] A mixture
of London speech with elements from East Midlands, Middlesex, and Essex became what is

now known as Received Pronunciation. [16] By the 1970s, an estimated 3% of British people
were RP speakers.[5]

Alternative names[edit]
Some linguists have used the term "RP" while expressing reservations about its suitability.[17][18]
[19]
The Cambridge-publishedEnglish Pronouncing Dictionary (aimed at those learning English
as a foreign language) uses the phrase "BBC Pronunciation" on the basis that the name
"Received Pronunciation" is "archaic" and that BBC news presenters no longer suggest high
social class and privilege to their listeners.[20] Other writers have also used the name "BBC
Pronunciation".[21][22] The phonetician Jack Windsor Lewis frequently criticises the name
"Received Pronunciation" in his blog: he has called it "invidious", [23] a "ridiculously archaic,
parochial and question-begging term"[24] and noted that American scholars find the term "quite
curious".[25] He used the term "General British" (to parallel "General American") in his 1970s
publication of A Concise Pronouncing Dictionary of American and British English and in
subsequent publications.[26] Beverley Collins and Inger Mees use the term "Non-Regional
Pronunciation" for what is often otherwise called RP, and reserve the term "Received
Pronunciation" for the "upper-class speech of the twentieth century". [27] Received Pronunciation
has sometimes been called "Oxford English", as it used to be the accent of most members of
the University of Oxford. The Handbook of the International Phonetic Association uses the
name "Standard Southern British". Page 4 reads:
Standard Southern British (where 'Standard' should not be taken as implying a value judgment
of 'correctness') is the modern equivalent of what has been called 'Received Pronunciation'
('RP'). It is an accent of the south east of England which operates as a prestige norm there and
(to varying degrees) in other parts of the British Isles and beyond. [28]

Usage[edit]
Faced with the difficulty of defining RP, many writers have tried to distinguish between different
sub-varieties. Gimson (1980)proposed Conservative, General, and Advanced; Conservative
RP refers to a traditional accent associated with older speakers with certain social
backgrounds; General RP is often considered neutral regarding age, occupation or lifestyle of
the speaker; and Advanced RP refers to speech of a younger generation of speakers. [29] Later
editions (e.g. Gimson 2008) use General, Refined and Regional. Wells (1982) refers to
"mainstream RP" and "U-RP"; he suggests that Gimson's categories of Conservative and
Advanced RP referred to the U-RP of the old and young respectively. However, Wells stated,
"It is difficult to separate stereotype from reality" with U-RP.[30] Writing on his blog in February
2013, Wells wrote, "If only a very small percentage of English people speak RP, as Trudgill et
al claim, then the percentage speaking U-RP is vanishingly small" and "If I were redoing it
today, I think Id drop all mention of U-RP".[31]
The modern style of RP is an accent often taught to non-native speakers learning British
English.[32] Non-RP Britons abroad may modify their pronunciation to something closer to
Received Pronunciation to be better understood by people unfamiliar with the diversity of
British accents. They may also modify their vocabulary and grammar to be closer to those
of Standard English for the same reason. RP is used as the standard for English in most books
on general phonology and phonetics, and is represented in the pronunciation schemes of most
dictionaries published in the United Kingdom.

In dictionaries[edit]
Most English dictionaries published in Britain (including the Oxford English Dictionary) now
give phonetically transcribed RP pronunciations for all words. Pronunciation dictionaries are a
special class of dictionary giving a wide range of possible pronunciations; British pronunciation

dictionaries are all based on RP, though not necessarily using that name. Daniel Jones
transcribed RP pronunciations of a large number of words and names in his English
Pronouncing Dictionary.[33] This is still being published by Cambridge University Press,[34] and is
now edited by Peter Roach, the accent having been renamed "BBC Pronunciation". Two other
pronunciation dictionaries are in common use: the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary,
[35]
compiled by John C Wells, using the name Received Pronunciation, and the Oxford
Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English,[36]compiled by Clive Upton. This represents an
accent named BR which is based on RP, but is claimed to be representative of a wider group of
speakers. An earlier pronunciation dictionary by J. Windsor Lewis gives both British and
American pronunciations, using the term General British (GB) for the former and General
American (GA) for the latter.[37]

Status[edit]
Traditionally, Received Pronunciation was the "everyday speech in the families of Southern
English persons whose men-folk [had] been educated at the great public boardingschools"[38] and which conveyed no information about that speaker's region of origin before
attending the school.
It is the business of educated people to speak so that no-one may be able to tell in what county
their childhood was passed.
A. Burrell, Recitation. A Handbook for Teachers in Public Elementary School, 1891
In the 19th century, some British prime ministers still spoke with some regional features, such
as William Ewart Gladstone.[39]From the 1970s onwards, attitudes towards Received
Pronunciation have been changing slowly. The BBC's use of Yorkshire-born Wilfred
Pickles during the Second World War (to distinguish BBC broadcasts from German
propaganda) is an earlier example of the use of non-RP accents,[40] but even then Pickles
modified his speech towards RP when reading the news. [41]
Although admired in some circles, RP is disliked in others. It is common in parts of Britain to
regard it as a south-eastern English accent rather than a non-regional one and as a symbol of
the south-east's political power in Britain. [8] A 2007 survey found that residents of Scotland and
Northern Ireland tend to dislike RP.[42] It is shunned by some with left-wing political views, who
may be proud of having an accent more typical of the working classes.[43] The British
band Chumbawambarecorded a song entitled "R.I.P. RP", which is part of their album The Boy
Bands Have Won.

Phonology[edit]
Consonants[edit]
Consonant phonemes[44]

PostLabia Denta Alveola

Palata
Glotta
alveola
Velar
l
l
r
l
l
r

Nasal

Stop

p b

Affricate

Fricative

Approxim
ant

Nasals and liquids (/m/, /n/, //, /r/, /l/) may be syllabic in unstressed syllables.[45] While the IPA
symbol [] is phonetically correct for the consonant in 'row', 'arrow' in many accents of
American and British English, most published work on Received Pronunciation represents this
phoneme as /r/.
Voiceless plosives (/p/, /t/, /k/, /t/) are aspirated at the beginning of a syllable, unless a
completely unstressed vowel follows. (For example, the /p/ is aspirated in "impasse", with
primary stress on "-passe", but not "compass", where "-pass" has no stress.) Aspiration does
not occur when /s/ precedes in the same syllable, as in "spot" or "stop". When
a sonorant /l/, /r/, /w/, or/j/ follows, this aspiration is indicated by partial devoicing of the
sonorant.[46] /r/ is a fricative when devoiced.[45]
Syllable final /p/, /t/, /t/, and /k/ may be either preceded by a glottal stop (glottal reinforcement)
or, in the case of /t/, fully replaced by a glottal stop, especially before a syllabic nasal
(bitten [bnn ]).[46][47] The glottal stop may be realised as creaky voice; thus, an alternative
phonetic transcription of attempt [temt] could be [temmmt].[45]
As in other varieties of English, voiced plosives (/b/, /d/, //, /d/) are partly or even fully
devoiced at utterance boundaries or adjacent to voiceless consonants. The voicing distinction
between voiced and voiceless sounds is reinforced by a number of other differences, with the
result that the two of consonants can clearly be distinguished even in the presence of
devoicing of voiced sounds:
1. Aspiration of voiceless consonants syllable-initially.
2. Glottal reinforcement of voiceless consonants syllable-finally.
3. Lengthening of vowels before voiced consonants.
As a result, some authors prefer to use the terms "fortis" and "lenis" in place of "voiceless" and
"voiced". However, the latter are traditional and in more frequent usage.
The voiced dental fricative (//) is more often a weak dental plosive; the sequence /n/ is often
realised as [nn nn] (a long dental nasal).[48][49][50] /l/ has velarised allophone ([]) in the syllable
rhyme.[51] /h/ becomes voiced ([]) between voicedsounds.[52][53]

Vowels[edit]

Monophthongs of RP. FromRoach (2004, p. 242)

Ranges for RP and GA weak vowels. From Wells (2008, p. XXV)

Allophones of some RP monophthongs, from Collins & Mees (2003:92, 95 and 101). The red ones occur
before dark /l/,[54] and the blue one occurs before velars.[55]

Monophthongs

Front

Central

Back

lon
short long short
g

Clo
se

long

short

Mid

Ope
n

listen

Examples of short
vowels: // in kit, mirror and rabbit, // in put, /e/ in dress and merry, // instrut and curry, // in
trap and marry, // in lot and orange, // in ago and sofa.
Examples of long
vowels: /i/ in fleece, /u/ in goose, // in nurse and furry, // in north,force and thought, // i
n father, bath and start.
Long and short vowels[edit]
RP's long vowels are slightly diphthongised, especially the high vowels /i/ and /u/, which are
often narrowly transcribed in phonetic literature as diphthongs [i] and [u].[56]
"Long" and "short" are relative to each other. Because of phonological process affecting vowel
length, short vowels in one context can be longer than long vowels in another context. [45] For
example, the long vowel /i/ in 'reach' /rit/ (which ends with a voiceless consonant) may be
shorter than the short vowel // in the word 'ridge' /rd/ (which ends with a voiced consonant).
Wiik,[57] cited in Gimson,[58] published durations of English vowels with a mean value of 17.2
csec. for short vowels before voiced consonants but a mean value of 16.5 csec for long vowels
preceding voiceless consonants.
Conversely, the short vowel // becomes longer if it is followed by a voiced consonant.
Thus,bat is pronounced [bt] and bad is [bd]. In natural speech, the
plosives /t/ and /d/ may be unreleased utterance-finally, and voiced consonants partly or
completely devoiced (as in[bb db ]); thus distinction between these words would rest mostly on
vowel length and the presence or absence of glottal reinforcement. [47]
In addition to such length distinctions, unstressed vowels are both shorter and more
centralised than stressed ones. In unstressed syllables occurring before vowels and in final
position, contrasts between long and short high vowels are neutralised and
short [i] and [u]occur (e.g. happy [hpi], throughout [uat]).[59] The neutralisation is
common throughout many English dialects, though the phonetic realisation of e.g. [i] rather
than [] (a phenomenon called happy-tensing) is not as universal.
Unstressed vowels vary in quality:

/i/ (as in HAPPY) ranges from close front [i] to close-mid retracted front [ee ];[60]

/u/ (as in INFLUENCE) ranges from close advanced back [uu ] to close-mid retracted
central [e ];[60] according to the phonetician Jane Setter, the typical pronunciation of this
vowel is a weakly rounded, mid-centralized close back unrounded vowel, transcribed in the
IPA as [uuu ] or simply [u ];[61]

// (as in COMMA) ranges from close-mid central [] to open-mid central [].[60]

Diphthongs and triphthongs[edit]

Diphthongs of RP. FromRoach (2004, p. 242)

Diphthong

Example

Closing

/e/ (

listen)

/be/

bay

/a/ (

listen)

/ba/

buy

// (

listen)

/b/

boy

// (
listen)

/a/

/b/ beau

/ba/ bough

Centring

//

/b/

beer

/e/

/be/ bear

//

/b/ boor

(formerly /
/b/
/)

boar

The centring diphthongs are gradually being eliminated in RP. The vowel // (as in "door",
"boar") had largely merged with // by the Second World War, and the vowel // (as in "poor",
"tour") has more recently merged with // as well among most speakers,[62] although the
sound // is still found in conservative speakers (and this is still the only pronunciation given
in the OED). See poorpour merger. The remaining two centring glides // /e/ are
increasingly pronounced as long monophthongs[] [], although without merging with any
existing vowels.[46]
The diphthong // is pronounced by some RP speakers in a noticeably different way when it
occurs before /l/, if that consonant is syllable-final and not followed by a vowel (the context in
which /l/ is pronounced as a "dark l"). The realization of // in this case begins with a more
back, rounded and sometimes more open vowel quality; it may be transcribed as [] or [ ]. It
is likely that the backness of the diphthong onset is the result of allophonic variation caused by
the raising of the back of the tongue for the /l/. If the speaker has "l-vocalization" the /l/ is
realized as a back rounded vowel, which again is likely to cause backing and rounding in a
preceding vowel as coarticulation effects. This phenomenon has been discussed in several
blogs by John C Wells.[63][64][65] It is possible, according to Wells, that a speaker with the [] or
[] pronunciation may pronounce the words 'holy' and 'wholly' with different realizations of //
(the former having [] and the latter [] or []), thus creating a phonological distinction
(the whollyholy split). In the recording included in this article the phrase 'fold his cloak'
contains examples of the // diphthong in the two different contexts. The onset of the pre-/l/
diphthong in 'fold' is slightly more back and rounded than that in 'cloak', though the allophonic
transcription does not at present indicate this.
RP also possesses the triphthongs /a/ as in tire, /a/ as in tower, // as in lower, /e/ as
in layer and // as in loyal. There are different possible realisations of these items: in slow,
careful speech they may be pronounced as a two-syllable triphthong with three distinct vowel
qualities in succession, or as a monosyllabic triphthong. In more casual speech the middle
vowel may be considerably reduced, by a process known as smoothing, and in an extreme
form of this process the triphthong may even be reduced to a single vowel, though this is rare,
and almost never found in the case of //.[66] In such a case the difference
between /a/, /a/, and // in tower, tire, and tar may be neutralised with all three units
realised as [] or []. This type of smoothing is known as the towertire, towertar and tire
tar mergers.
Triphthongs[47]

As two
syllables

Triphtho
ng

Loss of midelement

Further
simplified as

Exampl
e

[a.]

[a]

[a]

[a]

tire

[.]

[]

[]

[]

tower

[.]

[]

[]

[]

lower

[e.]

[e]

[]

[]

layer

[.]

[]

[]

loyal

BATH vowel[edit]
See also: Phonological history of English short A Trapbath split in Received Pronunciation
There are differing opinions as regards whether // in the BATH lexical set can be considered
RP. The pronunciations with //are invariably accepted as RP.[67] The English Pronouncing
Dictionary does not admit // in BATH words and the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary lists
them with a marker of non-RP status.[68] John Wells wrote in a blog entry on 16 March 2012
that, when growing up in the north of England, he used // in "bath" and "glass", and
considers this the only acceptable phoneme in RP.[69] Others have argued that // is too
categorical in the north of England to be excluded. Clive Upton believes that // in these words
must be considered within RP and has called the opposing view "south-centric".
[70]
Upton'sOxford Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English gives both variants
for BATH words. A. F. Gupta's survey of mostly middle-class students found that // was used
by almost everyone who was from clearly north of the isogloss for BATH words. She wrote,
"There is no justification for the claims by Wells and Mugglestone that this is a sociolinguistic
variable in the north, though it is a sociolinguistic variable on the areas on the border [the
isogloss between north and south]".[71] In a study of speech in West Yorkshire, K. M. Petyt wrote
that "the amount of // usage is too low to correlate meaningfully with the usual factors",
having found only two speakers (both having attended boarding schools in the south) who
consistently used //.[72]
Jack Windsor Lewis has noted that the Oxford Dictionary's position has changed several times
on whether to include short //within its prescribed pronunciation. [73] The BBC Pronouncing
Dictionary of British Names uses only //, but its author, Graham Pointon, has stated on his
blog that he finds both variants to be acceptable in place names. [74]
Some research has concluded that many people in the North of England have a dislike of
the // vowel in BATH words. A. F. Gupta wrote, "Many of the northerners were noticeably
hostile to /rs/, describing it as 'comical', 'snobbish', 'pompous' or even 'for morons'." [71] On
the subject, K. M. Petyt wrote that several respondents "positively said that they did not prefer
the long-vowel form or that they really detested it or even that it was incorrect". [75] Mark
Newbrook has assigned this phenomenon the name "conscious rejection", and has cited
the BATH vowel as "the main instance of conscious rejection of RP" in his research in
West Wirral.[76]

Alternative notation[edit]
Not all reference sources use the same system of transcription. In particular:

// as in trap is also written /a/.[77]

/e/ as in dress is also written //.[77][78]

// as in cup is also written //.[77]

// as in foot is also written //.[77]

// as in nurse is also written //.[77]

/a/ as in price is also written //.[77]

/a/ as in mouse is also written //[77]

/e/ as in square is also written //, and is also sometimes treated as a long
monophthong //.[77]

/e/ as in face is also written //.[77]

// as in near is also written //.[77]

// before /l/ in a closed syllable as in goal is also written //.[77]

/u/ as in goose is also written //.[77]

Most of these variants are used in the transcription devised by Clive Upton for the Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary (1993) and now used in many other Oxford University
Press dictionaries.
The linguist Geoff Lindsey has argued that the system of transcription for RP has become
outdated and has proposed a new system as a replacement. [79][80]

Historical variation[edit]
Like all accents, RP has changed with time. For example, sound recordings and films from the
first half of the 20th century demonstrate that it was usual for speakers of RP to pronounce
the // sound, as in land, with a vowel close to [], so that landwould sound similar to a
present-day pronunciation of lend. RP is sometimes known as the Queen's English, but
recordings show that even Queen Elizabeth II has changed her pronunciation over the past 50
years, no longer using an []-like vowel in words like land.[81]

A comparison of the formant values of /i u/ for older (black) and younger (light blue) RP
speakers. From de Jong et al. (2007, p. 1814)

Some changes in RP during the 20th century include:

Words such as cloth, gone, off, often were pronounced with // instead of //, so
that often sounded close to orphan (See lotcloth split). The Queen still uses the older
pronunciations,[82] but it is rare to hear them on the BBC any more.
There was a distinction between horse and hoarse with an extra
diphthong // appearing in words like hoarse, force, and pour.[83]

Any final y on a word is now represented as an /i/ a symbol to cover either the
traditional // or the more modern /i/, the latter of which has been common in the south of
England for some time.[84]

Before the Second World War, the vowel of cup was a back vowel close
to cardinal [] but has since shifted forward to a central position so that [] is more
accurate; phonetic transcription of this vowel as is common partly for historical
reasons.[85]

In the 1960s the transcription // started to be used for the "GOAT" vowel instead
of Daniel Jones's /o/, reflecting a change in pronunciation since the beginning of the
century.[86]

The change in RP may be observed in the home of "BBC English". The BBC accent of the
1950s is distinctly different from today's: a news report from the 1950s is recognisable as such,
and a mock-1950s BBC voice is used for comic effect in programmes wishing to satirise 1950s
social attitudes such as the Harry Enfield Show and its "Mr. Cholmondley-Warner" sketches.
More recently, in speakers born between 1981 and 1993, the vowel // shifted up
approaching [] in quality.[87] The vowels //and /u/ have undergone fronting and reduction in
the amount of lip-rounding[88] (phonetically, this can be transcribed [u ] and[u], respectively),
while // has become more open [a].[89][90][91]

Comparison with other varieties of English[edit]

Like most other varieties of English outside Northern England, RP has undergone
the footstrut split: pairs like put/putt are pronounced differently.[92]

RP is a non-rhotic accent, so /r/ does not occur unless followed immediately by a

vowel. Pairs such as father/farther,pawn/porn, caught/court and formally/formerly are
homophones.[93]

RP has undergone the winewhine merger so the sequence /hw/ is not present except
among those who have acquired this distinction as the result of speech training.
[94]
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, based in London, still teaches these two sounds as
distinct phonemes. They are also distinct from one another in most of Scotland and
Ireland, in the northeast of England, and in the southeastern United States. [94]

Unlike many other varieties of English language in England, there is no h-dropping in

words like head or horse.[95]

Unlike most Southern Hemisphere English accents, RP has not undergone the weakvowel merger, meaning that pairs such as Lenin/Lennon are distinct.[96]

Unlike most North American accents of English, RP has not undergone the Mary
marrymerry, nearermirror, or hurryfurry mergers: all these words are distinct from each
other.[97]

Unlike many North American accents, RP has not undergone the father-bother or cot
caught mergers.

RP does not have yod-dropping after /n/, /t/, /d/, /z/ and // and has only variable yoddropping after /s/ and /l/. Hence, for
example, new, tune, dune, resume and enthusiasm are
pronounced /nju/, /tjun/, /djun/, /rzjum/ and /njuzizm/rather
than /nu/, /tun/, /dun/, /rzum/ and /nuzizm/. This contrasts with many East
Anglian and East Midlandvarieties of English language in England and with many forms
of American English, including General American. In words such as pursuit and evolution,
both pronunciations (with and without /j/) are heard in RP. There are, however, several
words where a yod has been lost with the passage of time: for example, the
word suit originally had a yod in RP but this is now extremely rare.

The flapped variant of /t/ and /d/ (as in much of the West Country, Ulster, most North
American varieties including General American, Australian English, and the Cape
Coloured dialect of South Africa) is not used very often. In traditional RP [] is
an allophone of /r/ (it is used intervocalically, after /, / and sometimes even after /b, /).[98]
[99]

Spoken specimen[edit]
The Journal of the International Phonetic Association regularly publishes "Illustrations of the
IPA" which present an outline of the phonetics of a particular language or accent. It is usual to
base the description on a recording of the traditional story of the North Wind and the Sun.
There is an IPA illustration of British English (Received Pronunciation). [100] The audio recording
on which the transcriptions are based may be heard here
Specimen of Received Pronunciation

The speaker (female) is described as having been born in 1953, and educated at Oxford
University. To accompany the recording there are three transcriptions: orthographic, phonemic
and allophonic.

Transcriptions

Notable speakers[edit]
John C. Wells, a notable British phonetician, has identified the following people as RP
speakers:

The British Royal Family[101][102]

David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom[103]

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London[104]

Rowan Williams, Former Archbishop of Canterbury[101]

David Attenborough, broadcaster and naturalist[105]

Rupert Everett, actor[104]

Chris Huhne, former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change [106]

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury[

English overseas possessions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"English Empire" redirects here. For the colonial empire of Great Britain and the United
Kingdom, see British Empire. For the "empire" of the Plantagenets, see Angevin Empire.

English overseas possessions in 1700

The English overseas possessions comprised a variety of overseas territories that were
colonized, conquered, or otherwise acquired by the former Kingdom of England during the
centuries before the Acts of Union between England and the Kingdom of Scotland. In 1707
these created the Kingdom of Great Britain, when the many English possessions became the
foundation of the British Empire.
The first English overseas settlements were established in Ireland, quickly followed by North
America, Bermuda, and the West Indies, and by trading posts called "factories" in the East
Indies, such as Bantam, and in the Indian subcontinent, beginning with Surat. In 1639, a series
of English fortresses on the Indian coast was initiated with Fort St George. In 1661, the
marriage of King Charles II to Catherine of Braganza brought him as part of her dowry new
possessions which had been Portuguese, including Tangier in North Africa and Bombay in
India.
In North America, Newfoundland and Virginia were the first centres of English colonization. As
the 17th century wore on,Maine, Plymouth, New Hampshire, Salem, Massachusetts Bay, New
Scotland, Connecticut, New Haven, Maryland, andRhode Island and Providence were settled.
In 1664, New Netherland and New Sweden were taken from the Dutch, becomingNew
York, New Jersey, and parts of Delaware and Pennsylvania.

World Englishes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the classification of Englishes around the world. For Global English or
World English, see International English.

International Association for World Englishes

World Englishes is a term for emerging localized or indigenizedvarieties of English, especially

varieties that have developed in territories influenced by the United Kingdom or the United
States. The study of World Englishes consists of identifying varieties of English used in diverse
sociolinguistic contexts globally and analyzing how sociolinguistic histories, multicultural
backgrounds and contexts of function influence the use of English in different regions of the
world.
The issue of World Englishes was first raised in 1978 to examine concepts of regional
Englishes globally. Pragmatic factors such as appropriateness, comprehensibility and
interpretability justified the use of English as an international and intra-national language. In
1988, at a Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) conference
in Honolulu,Hawaii, the International Committee of the Study of World Englishes (ICWE) was
formed. In 1992, the ICWE formally launched the International Association for World Englishes
(IAWE) at a conference of "World Englishes Today", at theUniversity of Illinois, USA.[1] There is
now an academic journal devoted to the study of this topic, titled World Englishes.[2]
Currently, there are approximately 75 territories where English is spoken either as a first
language (L1) or as an unofficial or institutionalized second language (L2) in fields such as

government, law and education. It is difficult to establish the total number of Englishes in the
world, as new varieties of English are constantly being developed and discovered. [3]

World English vs. World Englishes vs. Global

Englishes[edit]
The notions of World English and World Englishes are far from similar, although the terms are
often mistakenly[citation needed]used interchangeably. World English refers to the English language as
a lingua franca used in business, trade, diplomacy and other spheres of global activity,
while World Englishes refers to the different varieties of English and English-based
creolesdeveloped in different regions of the world. Alternatively, the term Global Englishes has
been used by scholars in the field to emphasise the more recent spread of English due to
globalization, which has resulted in increased usage of English as a lingua franca.[4][5]

Historical context[edit]
History of English[edit]
Main article: History of the English language
English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought
by Germanic invaders intoBritain. Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects,
reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. Eventually, one of these
dialects, Late West Saxon, came to dominate.[6]
The original Old English language was then influenced by two further waves of invasion: the
first by speakers of theScandinavian branch of the Germanic language family, who conquered
and colonized parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries; the second by the Normans in the
11th century, who spoke Old Norman and ultimately developed an English variety called AngloNorman. For two centuries after the Norman Conquest, French became the language of
everyday life among the upper classes in England. Although the language of the masses
remained English, the bilingual character of England in this period was thus formed. [6]
During the Middle English period, France and England experienced a process of separation.
This period of conflicting interests and feelings of resentment was later termed the Hundred
Years' War. By the beginning of the 14th century, English had regained universal use and
become the principal tongue of all England.[6]
During the Renaissance, patriotic feelings regarding English brought about the recognition of
English as the national language of England. The language was advocated as acceptable for
learned and literary use. With the Great Vowel Shift, the language in this period matured to a
standard and differed significantly from the Middle English period, becoming recognizably
"modern".[7]
By the 18th century, three main forces were driving the direction of the English language: (1) to
reduce the language to rule and effect a standard of correct usage; (2) to refine the language
by removing supposed defects and introducing certain improvements; and (3) to fix English
permanently in the desired form. This desire for system and regularity in the language
contrasted with the individualism and spirit of independence characterized by the previous age.
[6]

By the 19th century, the expansion of the British Empire, as well as global trade, had led to the
spread of English around the world. The rising importance of some of England's larger colonies
and former colonies, such as the rapidly developing United States, enhanced the value of the
English varieties spoken in these regions, encouraging the belief, among the local populations,

that their distinct varieties of English should be granted equal standing with the standard
of Great Britain.[6]

Global spread of English[edit]

The First dispersal
English is transported to the 'new world'
The first diaspora involved relatively large-scale migrations of mother-tongue English
speakers from England, Scotland andIreland predominantly to North America and
the Caribbean, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Over time, their own English
dialects developed into modern American, Canadian, West Indian, South African and
Australasian Englishes. In contrast to the English of Great Britain, the varieties spoken in
modern North America and Caribbean, South Africa and Australasia have been modified in
response to the changed and changing sociolinguistic contexts of the migrants, for
example being in contact with indigenous Native
American, Khoisan and Bantu, Aboriginal or Maori populations in the colonies.[8]
The Second dispersal
English is transported to Asia and Africa
The second diaspora was the result of the colonization of Asia and Africa, which led to
the development of 'New Englishes', the second-language varieties of English.
In colonial Africa, the history of English is distinct between West and East Africa.
English in West Africa began with trade. particularly the slave trade. English soon
gained official status in what are todayGambia, Sierra
Leone, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon, and some of the pidgin and creoles which
developed from English contact, including Krio (Sierra Leone) and Cameroon Pidgin,
have large numbers of speakers now.
As for East Africa, extensive British settlements were established in what are
now Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambiaand Zimbabwe, where English became
a crucial language of the government, education and the law. From the early 1960s,
the six countries achieved independence in succession; but English remained the
official language and had large numbers of second language speakers in Uganda,
Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi (along with Chewa).
English was formally introduced to the sub-continent of South
Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal andBhutan) during the second
half of the eighteenth century. In India, English was given status through the
implementation of Macaulay 'Minute' of 1835, which proposed the introduction of an
English educational system in India. [9] Over time, the process of 'Indianisation' led to
the development of a distinctive national character of English in the Indian subcontinent.
British influence in South-East Asia and the South Pacific began in the late eighteenth
century, involving primarily the territories now known as Singapore, Malaysia and Hong
Kong. Papua New Guinea, also a British protectorate, exemplified the Englishbased pidgin - Tok Pisin.
The Americans came late in South-East Asia but their influence spread like wildfire as
their reforms on education in thePhilippines progressed in their less than half a century
colonization of the islands. English has been taught since the American period and is
one of the official languages of the Philippines.
Nowadays, English is also learnt in other countries in neighbouring areas, most
notably in Taiwan, Japan and Korea, with the latter two having begun to consider the
possibility of making English their official second language. [8]

Classification of Englishes[edit]
The spread of English around the world is often discussed in terms of three distinct
groups of users, where English is used respectively as:[10]
1. a native language (ENL); the primary language of the majority population of a
country, such as in the United States, theUnited Kingdom and Australia.
2. a second language (ESL); an additional language for intranational as well
as international communication in communities that are multilingual, such as
in India, Nigeria, and Singapore. Most of these Englishes developed as a
result of imperial expansion that brought the language to various parts of the
world.
3. a foreign language (EFL); used almost exclusively for international
communication, such as in Japan.

Kachru's Three Circles of English[edit]

Braj Kachru's Three Circles of English.

The most influential model of the spread of English is Braj Kachru's model of World
Englishes. In this model the diffusion of English is captured in terms of three
Concentric Circles of the language: The Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the
Expanding Circle.[11]
The Inner Circle refers to English as it originally took shape and was spread across
the world in the first diaspora. In this transplantation of English, speakers from England
carried the language to Australia, New Zealand and North America. The Inner Circle
thus represents the traditional historical and sociolinguistic bases of English in regions
where it is now used as a primary language: the United Kingdom, the United
States, Australia, New Zealand,Ireland, anglophone Canada and South Africa, and
some of the Caribbean territories. English is the native language or mother tongue of
most people in these countries. The total number of English speakers in the inner
circle is as high as 380 million, of whom some 120 million are outside the United
States.
The Outer Circle of English was produced by the second diaspora of English, which
spread the language through imperial expansion by Great Britain in Asia and Africa. In
these regions, English is not the native tongue, but serves as a useful lingua

franca between ethnic and language groups. Higher education,

the legislature and judiciary, national commerce and so on may all be carried out
predominantly in English. This circle
includes India, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Tanzania,Kenya, nonAnglophone South Africa, the Philippines (colonized by the US) and others. The total
number of English speakers in the outer circle is estimated to range from 150 million to
300 million.[12]
Finally, the Expanding Circle encompasses countries where English plays no
historical or governmental role, but where it is nevertheless widely used as a medium
of international communication. This includes much of the rest of the world's population
not categorized above, including territories such as China, Russia, Japan, nonAnglophone Europe, South Korea,Egypt and Indonesia. The total in this expanding
circle is the most difficult to estimate, especially because English may be employed for
specific, limited purposes, usually in a business context. The estimates of these users
range from 100 million to one billion.
The inner circle (UK, US etc.) is 'norm-providing'; that means that English
language norms are developed in these countries. The outer circle (mainly New
Commonwealth countries) is 'norm-developing'. The expanding circle (which includes
much of the rest of the world) is 'norm-dependent', because it relies on the standards
set by native speakers in the inner circle.[13]

Schneider's Dynamic Model of Postcolonial Englishes [edit]

Main article: Schneider's Dynamic Model
Edgar Werner Schneider tries to avoid a purely geographical and historical approach
evident in the 'circles' models and incorporates sociolinguistic concepts pertaining to
acts of identity.[14] He outlines five characteristic stages in the spread of English:
Phase 1 - Foundation: This is the initial stage of the introduction of English to a new
territory over an extended period of time. Two linguistic processes are operative at this
stage: (a) language contact between English and indigenous languages; (b) contact
between different dialects of English of the settlers which eventually results in a new
stable dialect (see koin). At this stage, bilingualism is marginal. A few members of the
local populace may play an important role as interpreters, translators and guides.
Borrowings are limited to lexical items; with local place names and terms for local
fauna and flora being adopted by the English. [15]
Phase 2 - Exonormative stabilization: At this stage, the settler communities tend to
stabilize politically under British rule. English increases in prominence and though
the colloquial English is a colonial koin, the speakers look to England for their formal
norms. Local vocabulary continues to be adopted. Bilingualism increases amongst
the indigenous population through education and increased contacts with English
settlers. Knowledge of English becomes an asset, and a new
indigenous elitedevelops.[15]
Phase 3 - Nativisation: According to Schneider, this is the stage at which a transition
occurs as the English settler population starts to accept a new identity based on
present and local realities, rather than sole allegiance to their 'mother country'. By this
time, the indigenous strand has also stabilized an L2 system that is a synthesis of
substrate effects, interlanguage processes and features adopted from the
settlers' koin English. Neologisms stabilize as English is made to adapt to local
sociopolitical and cultural practices.[15]

Phase 4 - Endonormative stabilization: This stage is characterized by the gradual

acceptance of local norms, supported by a new locally rooted linguistic selfconfidence. By this time political events have made it clear that the settler and
indigenous strands are inextricably bound in a sense of nationhood independent of
Britain. Acceptance of local English(es) expresses this new identity. National
dictionaries are enthusiastically supported, at least for new lexis (and not always for
localized grammar).Literary creativity in local English begins to flourish.[16]
Phase 5 - Differentiation: At this stage there is a change in the dynamics
of identity as the young nation sees itself as less defined by its differences from
the former colonial power as a composite of subgroups defined on regional, social and
ethnic lines. Coupled with the simple effects of time in effecting language change (with
the aid of social differentiation) the new English koin starts to show greater
differentiation.[16]

Other Models of Classification[edit]

Strevens's World Map of English[edit]
The oldest map of the spread of English is Strevens's world map of English. His world
map, even predating that of Kachru's three circles, showed that since American
English became a separate variety from British English, all subsequent Englishes have
had affinities with either one or the other.[17]
McArthur's Circle of World English[edit]
McArthur's 'wheel model' has an idealized central variety called 'World Standard
English', which is best represented by 'written international English'. The next circle is
made of regional standards or standards that are emerging. Finally, the outer layer
consists of localized varieties which may have similarities with the regional standards
or emerging standards.
Although the model is neat, it raises several problems. Firstly, the three different types
of English - ENL, ESL and EFL, are conflated in the second circle. Secondly, the
multitude of Englishes in Europe are also missing in this layer. Finally, the outside layer
includes pidgins, creoles and L2 Englishes. Most scholars would argue that English
pidgins and creoles do not belong to one family: rather they have overlapping multiple
memberships.[18]
Grlach's Circle model of English[edit]
Manfred Grlach's and McArthur's models are reasonably similar. Both exclude
English varieties in Europe. As Grlach does not include EFLs at all, his model is more
consistent, though less comprehensive. Outside the circle are mixed varieties
(pidgins, creoles and mixed languages involving English), which are better categorized
as having partial membership.[19]
Modiano's model of English[edit]
In Modiano's model of English, the center consists of users of English as an
International Language, with a core set of features which are comprehensible to the
majority of native and competent non-native speakers of English. The second circle
consists of features which may become internationally common or may fall into
obscurity. Finally, the outer area consists of five groups (American English, British
English, other major varieties, local varieties, foreign varieties) each with features
peculiar to their own speech community and which are unlikely to be understood by
most members of the other four groups.[20]

Variations and varieties[edit]

Main article: List of dialects of the English language
The World Englishes paradigm is not static, and neither are rapidly changing realities
of language use worldwide. The use of English in the Outer and Expanding Circle
societies (refer to Kachru's Three Circles of English) continues its rapid spread,
while at the same time new patterns of language contact and variety differentiation
emerge. The different varieties range from English in the Inner circle societies such as
the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, to the Outer circle postcolonial societies of Asia and Africa. The World Englishes initiative, in recognizing and
describing the New Englishes of the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, has been partly
motivated by a consideration of the local linguistic factors and partly by a consideration
of the wider cultural and political contexts of language acquisition and use. This, in
turn, has involved the creative rewriting of discourses towards a recognition
of pluralism and multiple possibilities for scholarship. The notion of varieties in this
context is similarly dynamic, as new contexts, new realities, new discourses, and new
varieties continue to emerge.[21]
The terms language and dialect are not easily defined concepts. It is often suggested
that languages are autonomous, while dialects are heteronomous. It is also said that
dialects, in contrast with languages, are mutually intelligible, though this is not always
the case. Dialects are characteristically spoken, do not have a codified form and are
used only in certain domains.[22]In order to avoid the difficult dialect-language
distinction, linguists tend to prefer a more neutral term, variety, which covers both
concepts and is not clouded by popular usage. This term is generally used when
discussing World Englishes.

The Future of World Englishes[edit]

Two scenarios have been advanced about English's future status as the major world
language: it will ultimately fragment into a large number of mutually
unintelligible varieties (in effect, languages), or it will converge so that differences
across groups of speakers are largely eliminated.[8]

English as the language of 'others'[edit]

If English is, numerically speaking, the language of 'others', then the center of gravity
of the language is almost certain to shift in the direction of the 'others'. In the words
of Widdowson, there is likely to be a paradigm shift from one of language distribution
to one of language spread:[23]
"When we talk about the spread of English, then, it is not that the conventionally coded
forms and meanings are transmitted into different environments and different
surroundings, and taken up and used by different groups of people. It is not a matter of
the actual language being distributed but of the virtual language being spread and in
the process being variously actualized. The distribution of the actual language implies
adoption and conformity. The spread of virtual language implies adaptation and
nonconformity. The two processes are quite different."
In this new paradigm, English spreads and adapts according to the linguistic and
cultural preferences of its users in the Outer and Expanding circles (refer to Kachru's
Three Circles of English). However, if English is genuinely to become the language of
'others', then the 'others' have to be accorded or perhaps more likely, accord

themselves at least the same English language rights as those claimed by mothertongue speakers.[8][24]

Another world language?[edit]

The other potential shift in the linguistic center of gravity is that English could lose
its international role altogether, or, at best, come to share it with a number of equals.
Although this would not happen mainly as a result of native-speaker resistance to the
spread of non-native speaker Englishes and the consequent abandoning of English by
large numbers of non-native speakers, the latter could undoubtedly play a part. [8]
As evidence that English may eventually give way to another language (or languages)
as the world's lingua franca, David Crystal cites Internet data:[25]
"When the internet started it was of course 100 percent English because of where it
came from, but since the 1980s that status has started to fall away. By 1995, it was
down to about 80 per cent present of English on the internet, and the current figures
for 2001 are that it is hovering somewhere between 60 percent and 70 percent, with a
significant drop likely over the next four or five years."
On the other hand, there are at least 1500 languages present on the internet now and
that figure is likely to increase. Nevertheless, Crystal predicts that English will remain
the dominant presence.

International English
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the international standard of English. For classification of Englishes around
the world, see World Englishes.
International English is the concept of the English language as a global means of
communication in numerous dialects, and also the movement towards an international
standard for the language. It is also referred to as Global English, World English, Common
English, Continental English, General English, Engas (English as associate language),
or Globish.[1]Sometimes, these terms refer simply to the array of varieties of English spoken
throughout the world.
Sometimes, "international English" and the related terms above refer to a desired
standardisation, i.e. Standard English; however, there is no consensus on the path to this goal.
There have been many proposals for making International English more accessible to people
from different nationalities. Basic English is an example, but it failed to make progress. More
recently, there have been proposals for English as a lingua franca (ELF). It has also been
argued that International English is held back by its traditional spelling. There has been slow
progress in adopting alternate spellings.
Contents
[hide]

1Historical context
2English as a global language

3English as a lingua franca in foreign language teaching

3.1Basic Global English

4Varying concepts
o

4.1Universality and flexibility

4.2Neutrality

4.3Opposition

4.4Appropriation theory

4.5Many Englishes

4.6Dual standard

5See also

6Notes

7References

Historical context[edit]
This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve
this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced
material may be challenged and removed.(December 2011)
See also: History of the English language
The modern concept of International English does not exist in isolation, but is the product of
centuries of development of theEnglish language.
The English language evolved in England, from a set of West Germanic dialects spoken by
the Angles and Saxons, who arrived from continental Europe in the 5th century. Those dialects
came to be known as Englisc (literally "Anglish"), the language today referred to as AngloSaxon or Old English (the language of the poem Beowulf). English is thus more closely related
to West Frisian than to any other modern language, although less than a quarter of the
vocabulary of Modern Englishis shared with West Frisian or other West Germanic languages
because of extensive borrowings from Norse, Norman, Latin, and other languages. It was
during the Viking invasions of the Anglo-Saxon period that Old English was influenced by
contact with Norse, a group of North Germanic dialects spoken by the Vikings, who came to
control a large region in the North of England known as the Danelaw. Vocabulary items
entering English from Norse (including the pronouns they, and them) are thus attributable to
the on-again-off-again Viking occupation of Northern England during the centuries prior to
the Norman Conquest (see, e.g., Canute the Great). Soon after the Norman Conquest of 1066,
the Englisc language ceased being a literary language (see, e.g., Ormulum) and was replaced
by Anglo-Norman as the written language of England. During the Norman Period, English
absorbed a significant component of French vocabulary (approximately one-third of the
vocabulary ofModern English). With this new vocabulary, additional vocabulary borrowed from
Latin (with Greek, another approximately one-third of Modern English vocabulary, though some
borrowings from Latin and Greek date from later periods), a simplified grammar, and use of the
orthographic conventions of French instead of Old English orthography, the language
became Middle English (the language of Chaucer). The "difficulty" of English as a written

language thus began in the High Middle Ages, when French orthographic conventions were
used to spell a language whose original, more suitable orthography had been forgotten after
centuries of nonuse. During the late medieval period, King Henry V of England (lived 1387
1422) ordered the use of the English of his day in proceedings before him and before the
government bureaucracies. That led to the development ofChancery English, a standardised
form used in the government bureaucracy. (The use of so-called Law French in English courts
continued through the Renaissance, however.)
The emergence of English as a language of Wales results from the incorporation of Wales into
England and also dates from approximately this time period. Soon afterward, the development
of printing by Caxton and others accelerated the development of a standardised form of
English. Following a change in vowel pronunciation that marks the transition of English from
the medieval to the Renaissance period, the language of the Chancery and Caxton
became Early Modern English (the language of Shakespeare's day) and with relatively
moderate changes eventually developed into the English language of today. Scots, as spoken
in the lowlands and along the east coast of Scotland, developed largely independent of Modern
English, and is based on the Northern dialects of Anglo-Saxon, particularly Northumbrian,
which also serve as the basis of Northern English dialects such as those
of Yorkshire and Newcastle upon Tyne. Northumbria was within the Danelaw and therefore
experienced greater influence from Norse than did the Southern dialects. As the political
influence of London grew, the Chancery version of the language developed into a written
standard across Great Britain, further progressing in the modern period as Scotland became
united with England as a result of the Acts of Union of 1707.
There have been two introductions of English to Ireland, a medieval introduction that led to the
development of the now-extinctYola dialect and a modern introduction in which Hibernian
English largely replaced Irish as the most widely spoken language during the 19th century,
following the Act of Union of 1800. Received Pronunciation (RP) is generally viewed as a 19thcentury development and is not reflected in North American English dialects, which are based
on 18th-century English.
The establishment of the first permanent English-speaking colony in North America in 1607
was a major step towards theglobalisation of the language. British English was only partially
standardised when the American colonies were established. Isolated from each other by the
Atlantic Ocean, the dialects in England and the colonies began evolving independently.
The British colonisation of Australia in 1788 brought the English language to Oceania. By the
19th century, the standardisation of British English was more settled than it had been in the
previous century, and this relatively well-established English was brought
to Africa, Asia and New Zealand. It developed both as the language of English-speaking
settlers from Britain and Ireland, and as the administrative language imposed on speakers of
other languages in the various parts of the British Empire. The first form can be seen in New
Zealand English, and the latter in Indian English. In Europe, English received a more central
role particularly since 1919, when the Treaty of Versailles was composed not only in French,
the common language of diplomacy at the time, but, under special request from American
president Woodrow Wilson, also in English - a major milestone in the globalisation of English.
The English-speaking regions of Canada and the Caribbean are caught between historical
connections with the UK and the Commonwealth and geographical and economic connections
with the U.S. In some things they tend to follow British standards, whereas in others, especially
commercial, they follow the U.S. standard.

English as a global language[edit]

See also: World Englishes

Braj Kachru divides the use of English into three concentric circles.
The inner circle is the traditional base of English and includes countries such as the United
Kingdom and Ireland and the anglophone populations of the former British colonies of
the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and various islands of
the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean.
In the outer circle are those countries where English has official or historical importance
("special significance"). This includes most of the countries of the Commonwealth of
Nations (the former British Empire), including populous countries such as India,Pakistan,
and Nigeria; and others, such as the Philippines, under the sphere of influence of Englishspeaking countries. Here English may serve as a useful lingua franca between ethnic and
language groups. Higher education, the legislature and judiciary, national commerce, and so
on, may all be carried out predominantly in English.
The expanding circle refers to those countries where English has no official role, but is
nonetheless important for certain functions, e.g. international business and tourism. By the
twenty-first century, the number of non-native English speakers has come to significantly
outnumber the number of native speakers by a factor of three, according to the British Council.
[2]
Darius Degher, a professor at Malm University in Sweden, uses the term decentered
English to describe this shift, along with attendant changes in what is considered to be
important to English users and learners.
Research on English as a lingua franca in the sense of "English in the Expanding Circle" is
comparatively recent. Linguists who have been active in this field are Jennifer Jenkins, Barbara
Seidlhofer, Christiane Meierkord and Joachim Grzega.

English as a lingua franca in foreign language

teaching[edit]
See also: English as a foreign or second language
English as an additional language (EAL) is usually based on the standards of either American
English or British English as well as incorporating foreign terms. English as an international
language (EIL) is EAL with emphasis on learning different major dialect forms; in particular, it
aims to equip students with the linguistic tools to communicate internationally.[citation needed]Roger
Nunn considers different types of competence in relation to the teaching of English as an
International Language, arguing that linguistic competence has yet to be adequately addressed
in recent considerations of EIL.[3]
Several models of "simplified English" have been suggested for teaching English as a foreign
language:

Basic English, developed by Charles Kay Ogden (and later also I. A. Richards) in the
1930s; a recent revival has been initiated by Bill Templer
Threshold Level English, developed by van Ek and Alexander

Globish, developed by Jean-Paul Nerrire

Basic Global English, developed by Joachim Grzega

Furthermore, Randolph Quirk and Gabriele Stein thought about a Nuclear English, which,
however, has never been fully developed.

With reference to the term "Globish", Robert McCrum has used this to mean "English as global
language". Jean-Paul Nerriere uses it for a constructed language.

Basic Global English[edit]

Basic Global English, or BGE, is a concept of global English initiated by German linguist
Joachim Grzega. It evolved from the idea of creating a type of English that can be learned
more easily than regular British or American English and that serves as a tool for successful
global communication. BGE is guided by creating "empathy and tolerance" between speakers
in a global context. This applies to the context of global communication, where different
speakers with different mother tongues come together. BGE aims to develop this competence
as quickly as possible.
English language teaching is almost always related to a corresponding culture, e. g. learners
will either deal with American English and therefore with American culture or British English
and therefore with British culture. Basic Global English is supposed to solve this problem by
creating one collective version of English. Additionally, it is a system that is suited for selfteaching as well as regular teaching.
BGE is based on 20 elementary grammar rules that provide a certain degree of variation. For
example, regular as well as irregular formed verbs are accepted. Pronunciation rules are not
as strict as in British or American English, so there is a certain degree of variation for the
learners. Exceptions that cannot be used are pronunciations that would be harmful to mutual
understanding and therefore minimize the success of communication.
Basic Global English is based on a 750-word vocabulary. Additionally, every learner has to
acquire the knowledge of 250 additional words. These words can be chosen freely, according
to the specific needs and interests of the learner.
BGE provides not only basic language skills, but also so called "Basic Politeness Strategies".
These include creating a positive atmosphere, accepting an offer with "Yes, please" or refusing
with "No, thank you", and small talk topics to choose and to avoid.
Basic Global English has been tested in two elementary schools in Germany. For the practical
test of BGE, 12 lessons were prepared in order to cover half of a school year. After the BGE
teaching, students were able to answer questions about themselves, their family, their hobbies
etc. Additionally they were able to form questions themselves about the same topics. Besides
that, they also learned the numbers from 1 to 31 and vocabulary including things in their school
bag and in their classroom. The students as well as the parents had a positive impression of
the project.

Varying concepts[edit]
Universality and flexibility[edit]
International English sometimes refers to English as it is actually being used and developed in
the world; as a language owned not just by native speakers, but by all those who come to use
it.
Basically, it covers the English language at large, often (but not always or necessarily) implicitly
seen as standard. It is certainly also commonly used in connection with the acquisition, use,
and study of English as the world's lingua franca ('TEIL: Teaching English as an International
Language'), and especially when the language is considered as a whole in contrast with British
English, American English, South African English, and the like. McArthur (2002, p. 444445)
It especially means English words and phrases generally understood throughout the Englishspeaking world as opposed to localisms. The importance of non-native English language skills

can be recognised behind the long-standing joke that the international language of science and
technology is broken English.

Neutrality[edit]
International English reaches towards cultural neutrality. This has a practical use:
What could be better than a type of English that saves you from having to re-edit publications
for individual regional markets! Teachers and learners of English as a second language also
find it an attractive idea both often concerned that their English should be neutral, without
American or British or Canadian or Australian coloring. Any regional variety of English has a
set of political, social and cultural connotations attached to it, even the so-called 'standard'
forms.[4]
According to this viewpoint, International English is a concept of English that minimises the
aspects defined by either the colonial imperialism of Victorian Britain or the cultural
imperialism of the 20th century United States. While British colonialismlaid the foundation for
English over much of the world, International English is a product of an emerging world culture,
very much attributable to the influence of the United States as well, but conceptually based on
a far greater degree of cross-talk and linguistic transculturation, which tends to mitigate both
U.S. influence and British colonial influence.
The development of International English often centres on academic and scientific
communities, where formal English usage is prevalent, and creative use of the language is at a
minimum. This formal International English allows entry into Western culture as a whole and
Western cultural values in general.

Opposition[edit]
The continued growth of the English language itself is seen by authors such as Alistair
Pennycook[5][page needed] as a kind ofcultural imperialism, whether it is English in one form or English
in two slightly different forms.
Robert Phillipson argues against the possibility of such neutrality in his Linguistic
Imperialism (1992).[clarification needed]Learners who wish to use purportedly correct English are in fact
faced with the dual standard of American English and British English, and other less known
standard Englishes (including Australian, Scottish and Canadian).
Edward Trimnell, author of Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One (2005)
argues that the international version of English is only adequate for communicating basic
ideas. For complex discussions and business/technical situations, English is not an adequate
communication tool for non-native speakers of the language. Trimnell also asserts that native
English-speakers have become "dependent on the language skills of others" by placing their
faith in international English.

Appropriation theory[edit]
There are also some who reject both linguistic imperialism and David Crystal's theory of the
neutrality of English. They argue that the phenomenon of the global spread of English is better
understood in the framework of appropriation (e.g. Spichtinger 2000), that is, English used for
local purposes around the world. Demonstrators in non-English speaking countries often use
signs in English to convey their demands to TV-audiences around the globe, for instance.
In English-language teaching Bobda shows how Cameroon has moved away from a monocultural, Anglo-centered way of teaching English and has gradually appropriated teaching
material to a Cameroonian context. Non-Western topics treated are, for instance, the rule of
Emirs, traditional medicine or polygamy (1997:225). Kramsch and Sullivan (1996) describe
how Western methodology and textbooks have been appropriated to suit local Vietnamese

culture. The Pakistani textbook "Primary Stage English" includes lessons such as "Pakistan My
Country", "Our Flag", or "Our Great Leader" (Malik 1993: 5,6,7) which might well sound
jingoistic to Western ears. Within the native culture, however, establishing a connection
between English Language Teaching (ELT), patriotism and Muslim faith is seen as one of the
aims of ELT, as the chairman of the Punjab Textbook Board openly states: "The board ... takes
care, through these books to inoculate in the students a love of the Islamic values and
awareness to guard the ideological frontiers of your [the students] home lands" (Punjab Text
Book Board 1997).

Many Englishes[edit]
There are many difficult choices that have to be made if there is to be further standardisation of
English in the future. These include the choice over whether to adopt a current standard, or
move towards a more neutral, but artificial one. A true International English might supplant both
current American and British English as a variety of English for international communication,
leaving these as local dialects, or would rise from a merger of General American and standard
British English with admixture of other varieties of English and would generally replace all
these varieties of English.
We may, in due course, all need to be in control of two standard Englishesthe one which
gives us our national and local identity, and the other which puts us in touch with the rest of the
human race. In effect, we may all need to become bilingual in our own language. David
Crystal (1988: p. 265)
This is the situation long faced by many users of English who possess a "non-standard" dialect
of English as their birth tongue but have also learned to write (and perhaps also speak) a more
standard dialect. Many academics often publish material in journals requiring different varieties
of English and change style and spellings as necessary without great difficulty.
As far as spelling is concerned, the differences between American and British usage became
noticeable due to the first influential lexicographers (dictionary writers) on each side of the
Atlantic. Samuel Johnson's dictionary of 1755 greatly favoured Norman-influenced spellings
such as centre and colour; on the other hand, Noah Webster's first guide to American spelling,
published in 1783, preferred spellings like center and the Latinate color. The difference in
strategy and philosophy of Johnson and Webster are largely responsible for the main division
in English spelling that exists today. However, these differences are extremely minor. Spelling
is but a small part of the differences between dialects of English, and may not even reflect
dialect differences at all (except in phonetically spelled dialogue). International English refers to
much more than an agreed spelling pattern.

Dual standard[edit]
Two approaches to International English are the individualistic and inclusive approach and the
new dialect approach.
The individualistic approach gives control to individual authors to write and spell as they wish
(within purported standard conventions) and to accept the validity of differences. The Longman
Grammar of Spoken and Written English, published in 1999, is a descriptive study of both
American and British English in which each chapter follows individual spelling conventions
according to the preference of the main editor of that chapter.
The new dialect approach appears in The Cambridge Guide to English Usage (Peters, 2004)
which attempts to avoid any language bias and accordingly uses an idiosyncratic international
spelling system of mixed American and British forms (but tending to prefer the American
English spellings).

British and American terms

British and American English often spell the same word differently, for
example: labour/labor,enthrall/enthral, or centre/center. You can find out more about these
differences here.
There are also many cases in which the two varieties of English use different terms to describe the same
thing. Heres a list of various British words and expressions together with their Americanequivalents.
British English
American English
accommodation
accommodations
action replay
instant replay
aerofoil
airfoil
aeroplane
airplane
agony aunt
advice columnist
Allen key
Allen wrench
aluminium
aluminum
aniseed
anise
anticlockwise
counterclockwise
articulated lorry
tractor-trailer
asymmetric bars
uneven bars
aubergine
eggplant
baking tray
cookie sheet
bank holiday
legal holiday
beetroot
beet(s)
bill
check
biscuit
cookie; cracker
black economy
underground economy
blanket bath
sponge bath
blind
(window) shade
block of flats
apartment building
boiler suit
coveralls
bonnet (of a car)
hood
boob tube
tube top
boot (of a car)
trunk
bottom drawer
hope chest
bowls
lawn bowling
braces
suspenders
brawn (the food)
headcheese
breakdown van
tow truck
breeze block
cinder block
bridging loan
bridge loan
bumbag
fanny pack
candyfloss
cotton candy
car park
parking lot

casualty
catapult
central reservation
chemist
chips
cinema
cling film
common seal
consumer durables
cornflour
cos (lettuce)
cot
cot death
cotton bud
cotton wool
council estate
courgette
court card
crash barrier
crisps
crocodile clip
cross-ply
crotchet (music)
current account
danger money
demister (in a car)
dialling tone
diamante
double cream
draughts (game)
drawing pin
dressing gown
drink-driving
drinks cupboard
drinks party
driving licence
dual carriageway
dummy (for a baby)
dust sheet
dustbin
earth (electrical)
engaged (of a phone)
estate agent
estate car
ex-directory
faith school

emergency room
slingshot
median strip
drugstore
French fries
movie theater; the movies
plastic wrap
harbor seal
durable goods
cornstarch
Romaine
crib
crib death
cotton swab
absorbent cotton
(housing) project
zucchini
face card
guardrail
chips; potato chips
alligator clip
bias-ply
quarter note
checking account
hazard pay
defroster
dial tone
rhinestone
heavy cream
checkers
thumbtack
robe; bathrobe
drunk driving
liquor cabinet
cocktail party
drivers license
divided highway
pacifier
drop cloth
garbage can
ground
busy
real estate agent, realtor (trademark)
station wagon
unlisted
parochial school

financial year
fire brigade/service
first floor
fish finger
fitted carpet
flannel
flat
flexitime
flick knife
flyover
football
footway
fringe (hair)
full board (in hotels)
full stop (punctuation)
garden
gearing (finance)
gear lever
goods train
greaseproof paper
green fingers
grill (noun)
grill (verb)
ground floor
groundsman
hairslide
hatstand
hen night
hire purchase
hoarding
hob
holdall
holiday
holidaymaker
homely
hosepipe
in hospital
hot flush
housing estate
hundreds and thousands
ice lolly
icing sugar
indicator (on a car)
inside leg
jelly babies
Joe Bloggs

fiscal year
fire company/department
second floor
fish stick
wall-to-wall carpeting
washcloth
apartment
flextime
switchblade
overpass
soccer
sidewalk
bangs
American plan
period
yard; lawn
leverage
gearshift
freight train
wax paper/waxed paper
green thumb
broiler
broil
first floor
groundskeeper
barrette
hatrack
bachelorette party
installment plan
billboard
stovetop
carryall
vacation
vacationer
homey
(garden) hose
in the hospital
hot flash
housing development
sprinkles (for ice cream)
Popsicle (trademark)
confectioners sugar
turn signal
inseam
jelly beans
Joe Blow

Joe Public
jumble sale
jump lead
jumper
junior school
kennel
ladybird
a lettuce
level crossing
lift
lolly
lollipop lady (or man)
loo (toilet)
loose cover
lorry
loudhailer
low loader
lucky dip
luggage van
maize
mangetout
market garden
marshalling yard
maths
metalled road
milometer
minim (music)
mobile phone
monkey tricks
motorway
mum/mummy
nappy
needlecord
newsreader
noughts and crosses
number plate
off-licence
opencast mining
ordinary share
oven glove
paddling pool
paracetamol
parting (in hair)
patience
pavement
pay packet

John Q. Public
rummage sale
jumper cable
sweater
elementary school
doghouse
ladybug
a head of lettuce
grade crossing
elevator
Popsicle (trademark)
crossing guard
john
slipcover
truck
bullhorn
flatbed truck
grab bag
baggage car
corn
snow pea
truck farm
railroad yard
math
paved road
odometer
half note
cell phone
monkeyshines
expressway; highway
mom/mommy
diaper
pinwale
newscaster
tic-tac-toe
license plate
liquor store; package store
open-pit mining
common stock
oven mitt
wading pool
acetaminophen
part
solitaire
sidewalk
pay envelope

pedestrian crossing
peg
pelmet
petrol
physiotherapy
pinafore dress
plain chocolate
plain flour
polo neck
positive discrimination
postal vote
postbox
postcode
potato crisp
power point
pram
press stud
press-up
private soldier
public school
public transport
punchbag
pushchair
pylon
quantity surveyor
quaver (music)
queue
racing car
railway
real tennis
recorded delivery
registration plate
remould (tyre)
reverse the charges
reversing lights
right-angled triangle
ring road
room only
roundabout (at a fair)
roundabout (in road)
rowing boat
sailing boat
saloon (car)
sandpit
sandwich cake
sanitary towel

crosswalk
clothespin
valance
gas; gasoline
physical therapy
jumper
dark chocolate
all-purpose flour
turtleneck
reverse discrimination
absentee ballot
mailbox
zip code
potato chip
electrical outlet
baby carriage; stroller
snap
pushup
GI
private school
public transportation
punching bag
stroller
utility pole
estimator
eighth note
line
race car
railroad
court tennis
certified mail
license plate
retread
call collect
back-up lights
right triangle
beltway
European plan
carousel
traffic circle
rowboat
sailboat
sedan
sandbox
layer cake
sanitary napkin

self-raising flour
semibreve (music)
semitone (music)
share option
shopping trolley
show house/home
silencer (on a car)
silverside
skeleton in the cupboard
skimmed milk
skipping rope
skirting board
sledge
sleeper
sleeping partner
slowcoach
snakes and ladders
solicitor
soya/soya bean
splashback
spring onion
stag night
Stanley knife
starter
state school
storm in a teacup
surtitle
swede
sweet(s)
takeaway (food)
taxi rank
tea towel
terrace house
tick
ticket tout
tights
timber
titbit
toffee apple
touch wood
trade union
trading estate
trainers
tram
transport cafe
trolley

self-rising flour
whole note
half step
stock option
shopping cart
model home
muffler
rump roast
skeleton in the closet
skim milk
jump rope
baseboard
sled
railroad tie
silent partner
slowpoke
chutes and ladders
lawyer
soy/soybean
backsplash
green onion
bachelor party
utility knife
appetizer
public school
tempest in a teapot
supertitle
rutabaga
candy
takeout; to go
taxi stand
dish towel
row house
check mark
scalper
pantyhose
lumber
tidbit
candy apple
knock on wood
labor union
industrial park
sneakers
streetcar; cable car
truck stop
shopping cart

twelve-bore
unalike
underground
vacuum flask
verge (of a road)
vest
veterinary surgeon
wagon (on a train)
waistcoat
walking frame
wardrobe
water ice
weatherboard
white coffee
white spirit
wholemeal bread
windcheater
windscreen
wing (of a car)
worktop
Yale lock
zebra crossing
zed (letter Z)
zip

twelve-gauge
unlike
subway
thermos bottle
shoulder
undershirt
veterinarian
car
vest
walker
closet
Italian ice
clapboard
coffee with cream
mineral spirits
wholewheat bread
windbreaker
windshield
fender
countertop
cylinder lock
crosswalk
zee
zipper

What are the differences

between
British English and American
English?

This page has moved to

http://projectbritain.com/americanbritish.html

There are many British words which

are different to American words.
For example:

A lorry is a slimmer truck.

A lift is an elevator.

A fortnight is two weeks.

A chemist is a person who works in a drugstore.

A dual carriageway is a freeway.

Lisa and Sofia Efthymiou, an American mum and daughter,

have listed below a few of the differences between British and
American words.
Visit also our Glossary of British Words
We have arranged the words in categories to make viewing
easier for school work.

British and American Vocabulary

Clothes

Parts of a Car

At School

In and around the

House

On the Road

People