Intercultural Communication Course Notes

Intercultural Communication ANB1019/ANB1019L
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Course Outline
This course explores theoretical approaches and practical applications in the study of
communication between people of countries in which English is the mother tongue. It
examines the nature and development of the communicative styles and practices of these
cultural groups, and their impact on interpersonal communication within and between the
groups.

Course Objective
The objective of this course is to give you an appreciation of the different accents and
dialects, and the diversity of cultures of the English-speaking world, with a focus on Great
Britain, Ireland, the United States of America, Australia, South Africa, Canada and New
Zealand. The course will cover various linguistic and cultural aspects of these major
representative English-speaking countries, with the aim of giving you the opportunity to
learn more about the people, language, history, way of life, music and film, environment,
and places of interest of the English-speaking world. The purpose of this is to enhance your
intercultural communication skills, an appreciation of which can be promoted by an
understanding of the linguistic and cultural differences within and between these countries.

Course Structure
The course comprises 1 x 45-minute lecture and 1 x 45-minute seminar per week over 14
weeks.
Course Content
The 14 weeks have been arranged as follows.

ANB 1019 ANB 1019L
Week Week Topic
1. 1 Introduction to the Course
2. 1 English and Intercultural Communication
3. 2 Dialects and Accents in the English-speaking World
4. 2 Cultural Diversity in the English-speaking World
5-6. 3 British English and Culture
7. 3 Irish English and Culture
8-9. 4 American English and Culture
10-11. 4 Australian English and Culture
12-13. South African English and Culture
14. 5 Oral Presentations

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Course Assessment
There is no final exam for the lecture. For the lecture and seminar you will be required
present a paper and give it as an oral presentation to the class. This will be in the form of a
15-20-minute oral presentation on your nominated topic. You are to select one of the
countries covered in the course and give a presentation on your chosen topic, with
particular reference to the linguistic and cultural aspects of that country (see the list below).
This presentation will form 100% of your assessment.

Countries:
Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Ireland
United States of America
Australia
South Africa

Topics:
A Significant Event or Person in the History of...
War or Civil Unrest in...
Monarchy or Legal System in...
Holidays and Festivals in...
Famous Landmarks in...
The English Language in...
Education or Economy in...
Sport and Recreation in...
Media or Politics in...
Literature or Religion in
Music or Film in...
Flora and Fauna in...

Reading Resources
Bowe, H. & Martin, K. (2007). Communication Across Cultures: Mutual Understanding in a
Global World. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

Piller, I. (2011). Intercultural Communication: A Critical Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press.

Wakelin, M. (2008). Discovering English Dialects. Oxford: Shire Publishing.

Wolfram W. & Schilling-Estes, N. (2005). American English: Dialects and Variation. Hoboken,
New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell.

N.B. Excerpts from other books and journal articles, and references to other resources and
internet sites will also be provided.

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ANB 1019 Week 1
ANB 1019L Week 1

Introduction to the Course

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Lecture - Introduction: Intercultural Communication
Introduction
The study of intercultural issues is by no means a new area. People have interacted with
others from different cultures throughout our history in wars, religious journeys and
exchange of goods. They have also been well aware of the difficulties these encounters may
cause. Even though the history of intercultural contact is long, it has never before reached
the magnitude of todays world. Earlier it was only people in certain professions or status
that had the contact to the foreign cultures. Nowadays even the most isolated and marginal
groups of people have the opportunity to interact with people all over the world.
Intercultural interaction has become a reality of everyday life for almost everyone. The
growth of interdependence of people and cultures in the global society of the twenty-first
century has forced us to pay even more attention to intercultural issues.
There are several reasons for the development of the world into a global village of
today. The development of technology has enabled a constant flow of information and ideas
across boundaries. Communication is faster and more available than ever. Also the
development of transportation has increased face-to-face contact with people from
different cultural backgrounds immensely. These developments, in turn, have affected the
world economy. The business world is becoming more international and interrelated and
international economies face a true interdependence. Widespread population migrations
have changed the demographics of several nations and new intercultural identities and
communities have been born. Cultural diversity and multiculturalism are the realities of
working and domestic life everywhere. In the process of migration and general
internationalisation the idea of a national identity has changed. International alliances and
subcultures inside the nations have caused a de-emphasis on the nation-state.
In order to live and function in this multicultural environment as effectively and
meaningfully as possible, people must be competent in intercultural communication.
Intercultural education has been brought up in many countries since the 60s. Previously,
however, these educational programs have mainly concentrated on acculturating
immigrants and other minorities into the majority population of a nation. With the new
technology in communication and education we can now go further than this. The goal is to
make the intercultural learning interactive so that both parties teach and learn from each
other. Located almost at the opposite sides of the world, Finland and South Africa are very
interesting partners in intercultural terms.
Communication
The term communication can be defined in many ways. Myron W. Lustig and Jolene Koester
(1996:29) defined communication as a symbolic process in which people create shared
meanings. A symbol in this definition refers to a word, action or object that represents a
meaning. Meaning, then, is a perception, thought or feeling experienced and communicated
by a person. Meaning can be a personal experience which cannot be shared with others as
such but needs to be interpreted as a message. A message, in turn, is a set of symbols used
to create shared meanings. (Lustig and Koester, 1996:29). For example, the words in this
text are symbols that form the message that is communicated. Symbolical interpretations
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are often attached to certain behaviour. For example, blushing can be interpreted as a
feeling of embarrassment, at least in some cultures.
In communication, everything is based on an interpretive processing. Communication
is not always intentional. In fact we send messages unconsciously all the time. Still people
around us interpret and give meaning to these symbolic behaviours of ours. For example,
we may not give the choice of clothes for a normal day much thought but people who meet
us that particular day might interpret our outfit as a clear message of our personality. There
are no guarantees that two people will interpret the same message in the same way. It is
quite the opposite. This is especially true for intercultural encounters.
Communication is a dynamic process. It changes, moves and develops all the time. All
the communication situations are unique in nature and the process can be seen as a
sequence of distinct but interrelated steps (Lustig and Koester, 1996:30). Finally,
communication involves shared meanings. This means that as people experience the world
and everyday activities, they create and share meanings with other people and groups.
Communication is interpretive in nature and people actively attempt to understand and
organize their experiences in the world.
According to Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter (1991:8) communication is a
dynamic transactional behaviour-affecting process in which people behave intentionally in
order to induce or elicit a particular response from another person. In addition to the
previous definition, they add the proponents of a channel, through which the
communication takes place; a responder, who observe the communicative behaviour;
encoding and decoding, i.e. the processes of producing and interpreting information; and
feedback, which refers to the information available to a source that permits him or her to
make qualitative judgements about communication effectiveness. As Samovar and Porter
put it communication is complete only when the intended behaviour is observed by the
intended receiver and that person responds to and is affected by the behaviour. Thus their
definition is largely based on intentional communication. This is only to show that there are
several ways to define and understand communication.

Intercultural communication
Intercultural communication refers to the communication between people from different
cultures. According to Samovar and Porter (10:1991) intercultural communication occurs
whenever a message is produced by a member of one culture for consumption by a member
of another culture. Because of cultural differences in these kinds of contacts, the potential
for misunderstanding and disagreement is great. To reduce this risk, it is important to study
intercultural communication.
The relationship between culture and language has been studied for many decades,
but scholars from different disciplines still have not reached consensus on the degree to
which culture and language are related to each other. The first argument is that language
determines our culture. This approach comes from the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis which
claims that language not only transmits but also shapes our thinking, beliefs, and attitudes.
In other words, language is a guide to culture. Other scholars argue that language merely
reflects, rather than shapes, our thinking, beliefs, and attitudes. Despite these differences in
approaches, all scholars still agree that a close relationship exists between language and
culture.
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Verbal Communication (VC)
Language is one of the most important differences between many cultures, and one of the
greatest barriers. Differences in language make intercultural interactions difficult. Even if a
person is fluent in a language, severe mistakes can still occur. Linguistic conventions may
cause significant misunderstandings related, for instance, to speech acts, interaction
management, lexicon and politeness forms. As Argyle (1991:34) says visitors to another
culture should be aware of the impression they are creating by the speech style which they
use. A person can indicate a positive or negative attitude to another by shifting towards a
more similar or less similar speech style as the respondent, using e.g. a different accent or
dialect. This can happen unconsciously.
Argyle (1991:34) further explains how most cultures have a number of forms of polite
usage of language, which can be misleading. For instance, Americans ask questions which
are in fact orders or requests (Would you like to?). In all the cultures there are special
features of language, certain words or types of conversation, which are considered
appropriate for certain situations, e.g. introducing people to one another or asking someone
for a favour. There are differences in the amount of directness/indirectness one chooses
and in the structure of conversations. The usual question-answer speech sequence is not
used in all cultures and, for example, negations (the word no) are not used in some Asian
countries. In any case, language fluency is a necessary condition in order to make
intercultural communication function.

Non-Verbal Communication (NVC)
In addition to verbal language there are great differences in cultural norms and practices of
nonverbal behaviour. Nonverbal communication refers to all intentional and unintentional
stimuli between communicating parties, other than spoken word. These nonverbal
processes are sometimes accounted for as much as 70% of the communication. Successful
interaction in intercultural settings requires not only the understanding of verbal messages
but of nonverbal messages as well. Characteristic to nonverbal communication is that it is
less systematised than verbal communication; it is culture-bound and ambiguous.
Nonverbal communication, sometimes called paralanguage, can be divided into three
categories: kinesics, proxemics, and prosodics. Kinesics refers to the body movements in
communication. It has also been called body language. The four most common body
activities are facial expressions, eye contact, hand gestures, and touch. Severe
misunderstandings can occur if one does not know the rules of, for example, touching
others or level of eye contact in another culture. Proxemics refers to the study of how we
use social (interpersonal) and personal (intrapersonal) space in communication process. This
space can generally mean the distance one uses when communicating or the distance
between interactants in communication situations. Prosodics comprises all the sounds we
produce with our voices that are not words. These include accent (emphasis, stress, pitch
prominence), intonation (tune, melody, pitch contour, pitch duration) and rhythm (speed,
duration, pause, tempo).

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Bibliography:
Argyle, Michael (1991) Intercultural Communication. In Larry A. Samovar and Richard E.
Porter: Intercultural Communication: A Reader. Wadsworth, Inc., CA, USA.
Lustig, M. W. and Koester, J. (1996) Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication
Across Cultures. HarperCollins College Publishers. NY, USA.
Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter (1991) Basic Principles of Intercultural
Communication. In Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter: Intercultural
Communication: A Reader. Wadsworth, Inc., CA, USA.

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The Process
of
Interpersonal Communication

E
N
C
O
D
I
N
G
D
E
C
O
D
I
N
G
Context
Context
Message
Receiver Sender
Behaviour Channel
Verbal
Non
Verbal
Acoustic
Optical
Media
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Verbal/
Vocal
Non-Verbal/
Vocal
Non-Verbal/
Non-Vocal
Lexicon Prosodics
Proxemics Kinesics
Acoustic
Channel
Optical
Channel
Paraverbal
Channel
Auditory Non-Lexical Visual
Paralinguistic Behaviour

Diagram of Verbal Interaction

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Seminar - Discussion Questions

What do you know about Englishspeaking countries?
Have you ever lived or worked in another culture?
What were some of the difficulties you experienced?
What do the terms: global village, cultural diversity, multiculturalism
and internationalisation mean?
What is your definition of communication?
What makes communication successful?
How important is non-verbal language in speaking Hungarian or English?

Video Clips
David Crystal Which English?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XT04EO5RSU&feature=related

Amy Walker - 21 English Accents
www.21accents.com

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ANB 1019 Week 2
ANB 1019L Week 1

English and Intercultural
Communication

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Lecture - English and Intercultural Communication
Abstract
The paper gives an overview of the factors, changes and trends that may have an
impact on the status of the English language as lingua franca nowadays and in
the near future. It presents the new phenomena and concepts of 'functional
native' and 'Global English' together with the change they bring about in the
practice of language teaching, and gives an account of those areas where English
continues to play a leading role (e.g. international business as dominated by
multinational companies, the Internet, the international market of higher
education). The potential rivals of English are also listed together with the brief
characterisation of their competitive edge. The paper comes to the conclusion
that they are not likely to jeopardize the status of English as lingua franca
although it will certainly fulfil this role in a multicultural/multilingual
environment.

Nowadays, English fulfils the role that Latin had in the Middle Ages it is a world language
or lingua franca, and as such, it is the main medium in intercultural communication. It is not
likely that this position will be jeopardized in 40-50 years by other great languages in the
world such as Spanish, Chinese or Arabic, which are becoming more and more important
nowadays due to various reasons. However, the status of English is changing as the world is
changing and becoming multicultural around us. The paper strives to give an overview of
these changes and trends.
1. Classification of speakers of English, the concept of functional native, the
emergence of Global English
In the traditional approach (e.g. Crystal 1995:107), the role of English as a world language
was illustrated with three concentric circles, where the innermost circle included native
speakers of the language (those speaking English as the first language, (e.g. the inhabitants
of Great Britain, the USA, Australia, etc.). In the middle circle, those were put who speak
English as their Second Language (the inhabitants of former English colonies). In the
outmost circle, there were those speaking English as a Foreign Language (here belong e.g.
China, Russia, but also Slovakia or Hungary).
As David Graddol points out in his study commissioned by the British Council (Graddol
2006:110), in our present, globalised world, the borderlines between these three traditional
categories is increasingly disappearing: irrespective of their birthplace and nationality, those
around 500 million people belong to the innermost circle who speak English with native-like
competence. They are regarded to be functional natives. Instead of having two distinct
outer circles, other speakers of the language are put on a scale according to their level of
competence.
2. Important developments in the field of language teaching
It is also a new phenomenon that worldwide, English is more common now in
communication acts where neither of the partners is a native speaker. This has led to a
significant change in language teaching: the objective is no longer to enable the student to
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attain native-like competence but rather to make her/him able to communicate fluently,
understand the other speaker (who is most likely not a native speaker her/himself, either)
and make her/himself understood. This involves the students acquisition of a Lingua Franca
Core (Graddol 2006:87).

It is another change in language teaching following from the aforementioned
phenomenon that for a teacher, it is no longer necessarily an advantage if s/he is a native
speaker by birth. In a given case, a non-native (functional native) teacher may stand just as
good or an even better chance to get a job because, for example, s/he may help the
students better to understand the differences between their mother tongue and English in
order to eliminate the interference of the two languages as this problem is familiar to the
teacher from her/his own experience as a learner.
Global English, that is, the variety of English used by two speakers non-native by birth is
now the subject of research, as well: the Vienna-Oxford Corpus of International English
(VOICE) has been compiled in a project based on the cooperation of the two universities,
and its version 1.0 is now available online free for research purposes. It is a fascinating
research topic with important consequences for language teaching to explore the
differences between Global English and the most prestigious and most widely taught
varieties of the language (Standard British English, General American).
Recognizing the role played by English in international communication, the
educational systems of the different countries have started teaching it at an ever younger
age. In China, for example, English is compulsory from the 3rd class of elementary school. In
comparison, as statistics reveal, in Hungary, children start with the first foreign language at
the age of 10 or 12. (It can be mentioned that there have been plans to make English
compulsory in secondary schools but these have still remained plans). However, there are
an increasing number of bilingual elementary schools and academic grammar schools in our
country, where students study certain subjects in the given foreign language, which is most
often English. This also indicates that from a foreign language, English is increasingly
becoming a basic skill.
In higher education, language knowledge (practically, the knowledge of English) is
more and more a prerequisite of not just earning a degree but that of gaining admission, as
well. In this respect, there is still work to do in Hungary: according to the statistics that can
be read on website www.fisz.hu, in 2008, at the University of Miskolc, 1,600 out of 2,100
graduates (76%) could get their degrees as they possessed the necessary language
proficiency certificates. (With the exception of Budapest institutions, similar rates can be
found for other universities and colleges in the provinces, as well).
It is also a relatively new phenomenon that traditional language examination systems
are losing importance. The English language plays a key role in the labour market and
employers are less and less satisfied with some document rather, they themselves test the
applicants language proficiency in real life situations.
3. Areas displaying the decisive role of the English language
English steadily remains the dominant language in international business. This is well
illustrated by examples like that of e-on, which is a joint venture company playing an
important role in the Hungarian energy sector. Although it is originally a German company,
the language of internal communication is English. Similarly, English is the language of the
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widespread outsourcing activities of multinational companies. This means that these
companies shift certain operations to countries (e.g. book-keeping, data processing, the
operation of customer service call centres) where human labour is cheap. At present, the
most attractive outsourcing country in the world is India, followed by China. As a matter of
fact, these two countries belong to the BRIC group (the acronym is formed from the names
of Brazil, Russia, India and China), the members of which will be among the top 10
economies in the world in 2050 according to the forecast of Goldman Sachs Group.
East Central European countries are likewise important target countries in
outsourcing. While in the 2005 ranking list of outsourcing target countries by A. T. Kearney
Services Location Index, Hungary was the 19th in the world (from among ECE countries, the
Czech Republic was the 7th, Bulgaria the 15th, Slovakia the 16th and Poland the 17th),
according to the 2007 report, due to an increase in labour costs, Hungary dropped to the
24th position, Bulgaria was the best (9th), Slovakia the 12th, Estonia the 15th, the Czech
Republic the 16th, Latvia the 17th and Poland occupied the 18th place.
In international business life, migration also strengthens the dominance of English as
workforce primarily moves to countries where a certain level of English knowledge is
necessary for taking a job. An example is Malaysia, which made it a requirement for every
foreign employee in 2003 to have a basic level knowledge of English. Mexicans working in
the US are estimated to send about 18 billion USD home every year (Graddol 2006:38).
English is the basic language of the Internet and electronic communication, too. While
in 2000, 51.3% of the Internet users were native speakers of English, by 2005, this number
had been reduced to 32%. As regards content, in 1998, 85% of the websites were in the
English language. Although this rate is steadily decreasing, it still exceeds the number of
native English speaker users considerably (Graddol 2006: 44).
The role played by the English language in the media can well be illustrated by
referring to global CNN, BBC Worldwide, Associated Press or Reuters. It is likewise revealing
that such competitors of the English speaking media as the Arabic Al-Jazeera or Al-Arabiya,
Russia Today or Deutsche Welle also broadcast in the English language. The leading role of
the English language is unquestionable in higher education, as well. Nowadays, there is
global competition among higher education institutions. According to the 2008 international
ranking list of universities compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the first three places
were occupied by American universities: Harvard, Stanford and the University of California,
Berkeley (in this order). As a matter of fact, there were 8 American and 2 British (Oxford,
Cambridge) universities among the first ten institutions in the list. The non-Anglo-Saxon
institution ranking highest in the list was Tokyo University with its 19th place. The list is
compiled on the basis of the following factors: 10-10 % of the score is given for alumni
winning Nobel prizes or awards of international professional organisations and for the
achievement per person. 20-20% is given for lecturers winning Nobel prizes or awards of
international professional organisations, for citation, for publications in renowned
international journals and for appearances in the Citation Index. This means that most of
the student and teacher mobility characteristic of our age is directed towards universities in
the English speaking countries, which owe their high ranking to their high professional
standards in addition to their sophisticated marketing.
Furthermore, a lot is revealed about the role of the English language in higher
education by the fact that in 2003-04, there were about 1,500 masters programmes
running in the English language in non-English speaking countries worldwide (Graddol 2006:
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74). Furthermore, it is a well-known fact that English is one of the working languages of the
European Union. The objective of the language policy of the European Union is that every
citizen should know three community languages, two of which would be the persons
mother tongue and English (if the two are different).
4. Potential rivals
In the foreseeable future, the English language will have to face the challenge of several
potential rivals both on the regional and global levels. Languages gaining importance due to
demographic reasons are the following: Spanish (because of the fact that the most rapidly
growing ethnic group in the US is the Chicano-Caribbean population, and a fact showing the
growing role of the Spanish language is that in 2005, in Brazil, an act was passed that
required every secondary school to offer Spanish as an alternative of English), the
demographically fastest growing Arabic and Chinese. The importance of the latter is
underlined by the aforementioned forecast, according to which, in 2050, China is expected
to be one of the leading (and most probably, the first) economies in the world. In addition,
Chinese is the language with the largest number of native speakers. The Chinese
government also strives to help the spread of the Chinese language with the establishment
of Confucius Institutes, the first of which was opened in Seoul, South Korea. According to
forecasts, in 2010, 100 million people worldwide will study Chinese as a foreign language
(Graddol 2006:62-63).
On a regional European level such traditionally significant European languages as
French, German, Russian or Italian can be regarded to be the rivals of English.
5. Conclusion
On the basis of the aforementioned, it can be stated that despite the challenges it faces, the
role of English as a world language will not be endangered in the near future as its
hegemony cannot be questioned in the fields dealt with although it will have to fulfil its role
in a multilingual and multicultural environment.
Judit Szabn Papp
References:
CRYSTAL, D. (1995). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge: CUP.

GRADDOL, D. (2006). English Next. British Council.

http://www.eurydice.org
http://www.fisz.hu
http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki
http://www.atkearney.com

Judit Szabn Papp
Department of English Language and Linguistics
University of Miskolc, Hungary

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Seminar - Discussion Questions
What do you understand about the term functional natives?
In the diagram: The Three Circles of English, it correct to say that
Hungary belongs in the outer circle?
What is your view on the change of focus on English Language Teaching
to focus more on communicative competence (competence in speaking
and listening) rather than on native-like competence?
Given this change in focus, is a functional native English teacher more
able to teach English in his/her country, that a native English speaker?
Now that Global English would seem to be the target language of most
countries, especially in Europe and Asia, how do you think the education
system in Hungary should be implementing English Language Learning in
the schools?
How do you think colleges and universities should prepare their
graduates, given that employers themselves are testing prospective
employees English skills, rather than relying on a document from a
college or university that states his/her competence in English?
What is your opinion on English being superseded by another language
as the Lingua Franca of the world?

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ANB 1019 Week 3
ANB 1019L Week 2

Dialects and Accents in the
English-Speaking World

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Lecture Regional Variation
Of all the sociolinguistic and stylistic factors which promote variety in language use, the one
which people most commonly enquire about is geographical origin. The fact that speech, in
particular, can convey such a clear answer to the question 'Where are you from?' exercises a
peculiar fascination, and the terms dialect and accent are a normal part of everyday
vocabulary. We readily notice regional differences in the way people talk, and although we
may be unable to describe these differences other than in the most vague and
impressionistic terms ('guttural', 'musical', 'lilting'), we have no difficulty in responding to
them intuitively, laughing at dialect jokes, enjoying dialect literature and folklore, and
appreciating the point of dialect parodies.
At the same time - and this is the paradox of dialect study - we find it easy to make
harshly critical judgments about ways of speaking which we perceive as alien. These
attitudes are usually subconscious, of course, but it evidently does not take much to bring
them to the surface. Differences of opinion between people of different dialect backgrounds
can quickly lead to mutual mockery of each other's speech, and one has to be particularly
thick-skinned for this mockery not to hurt. Moreover, disparagement of regional speech
readily transmutes into disparagement of the speakers, and newspapers occasionally report
disturbing or even catastrophic consequences.
Such matters have attracted a great deal of academic study, especially by
sociolinguists, but there is still little popular awareness of the problems. The study of
regional linguistic variation has thus more to offer than purely descriptive interest. The
more we know about regional variation and change in the use of English, the more we will
come to appreciate the striking individuality of each of the varieties which we call dialects,
and the less we are likely to adopt demeaning stereotypes about people from other parts of
the country, or of the world. An essential first step is to replace the notion that a regional
variety is 'only a dialect', because it lacks the prestige of the standard language, with the
realisation that every dialect is a source of great linguistic complexity and potential. It is not
easy to persuade ourselves that a dialect or accent which we dislike or detest is a variety of
the English language which deserves much respect, and has just as much right to exist, as
the variety we speak ourselves. But this is the breakthrough demanded by a genuinely
democratic dialectology.

Accents and Dialects
A systematic distinction is drawn between regional accent and regional dialect:

A regional accent refers to features of pronunciation which convey information about a
person's geographical origin.
Examples:
bath ('short a') vs bath ('long a')
hold vs old (dropping the aitch')
thanks vs fanks ('no th')

A regional dialect refers to features of grammar and vocabulary which convey information
about a person's geographical origin.

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Examples:
They real good vs They are really good
ls it ready you are? vs Are You ready?
Ill visit in the fall vs Ill visit in the autumn

What would we find if we collected samples of the English language in use all over the world
on the same day, talking about the same range of topics? With variations in time-scale and
content reduced, would regional variety differences stand out immediately? Would we see
clearly the linguistic differences between Britain and the USA, Australia and Canada, South
Asia and South East Asia, or between any other locations where the language holds a
prestigious place?
We would certainly find more regional differentiation if we carried out this exercise
based on the spoken language, using radio broadcasts and 'vox pop' interviews. We would
then hear immediately the many phonological differences which identify regional variety,
both segmental and prosodic. We would be much more likely to encounter distinctive
grammar, especially in the more informal varieties of local speech. And there would be a
marked increase in the amount of local vocabulary - again, especially in more informal
contexts. Such an exercise leaves us with the overriding impression of limited but intriguing
diversity and above all of the unifying power of the standard language.

American and British English
The differences between regional varieties dramatically increase. In the case of American
and British English, the variation is considerable, but there are no accurate estimates for the
number of points of contrast, for two chief reasons. Recent decades have seen a major
increase in the amount of influence the two models have had on each other, especially
American on British. The influence of US films and television has led to a considerable
passive understanding of much American English vocabulary in Britain, and some of this has
turned into active use, especially among younger people. The reverse pattern is less
obvious, but British films and TV programmes are seen sufficiently often in the USA to mean
that a growth in awareness of UK vocabulary should not be discounted.
What were originally fairly clear patterns of lexical differentiation have been obscured
by borrowing on a worldwide scale. The regional dialect surveys of both countries, several of
which have only recently begun to publish their findings, are bringing to light huge amounts
of lexical distinctiveness. Few of these forms have any literary background or enough
breadth of use to warrant their inclusion in general dictionaries, but they do form an
important part of the regional pattern, and several of them are retained in educated usage
at local level as markers of group identity.
Nonetheless, when we take into account local festivals and folklore, abbreviations,
localities, institutional differences (e.g. politics, banking, legal systems, armed forces, sports,
honours), local fauna and flora, and everyday slang, the stock of regional differences is likely
to be extremely large. In a casual collection made by the author, in 1970s, based solely on
available dictionaries and literary works, 5,000 differences were found very easily, and it
became apparent that the project was too large for such an informal treatment. A 1992
dictionary by David Grote has some 6,500 entries, and deals only with British English for
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American readers. These totals, it must be appreciated, arise because we are dealing not
only with different words, but also different senses of words.

UK chips (= US (French) fries) is not the same as US chips (= UK crisps) - though American
influence has brought both (French) fries and (potato) chips to Britain.

Source: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. 2
nd
Edition. Cambridge
University Press. 2010 (p.306).

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Seminar
Video Clips
Hugh Laurie and Ellen on You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYmrg3owTRE

Hugh Laurie and Helen Merren
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP65V4AoFyA&feature=related

Audio Clips
American and English Accents: International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA)
http://www.dialectsarchive.com

Common Words in American and British English
American British
apartment Flat
argument Row
baby carriage Pram
band-aid Plaster
bathroom loo or WC
can Tin
chopped beef Mince
cookie Biscuit
corn Maize
diaper Nappy
elevator Lift
eraser Rubber
flashlight Torch
fries Chips
gas Petrol
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guy bloke, chap
highway motorway
hood (car) bonnet
jello jelly
jelly jam
kerosene paraffin
lawyer solicitor
license plate number plate
line queue
mail post
motor home caravan
movie theater cinema
muffler silencer
napkin serviette
nothing nought
overpass flyover
pacifier dummy
pants trousers
parking lot car park
period full stop
pharmacist chemist
potato chips crisps
rent hire
sausage banger
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sidewalk pavement
soccer Football
sweater Jumper
trash can Bin
truck Lorry
trunk (car) Boot
vacation Holiday
windshield (car) Windscreen
zip code postal code

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ANB 1019 Week 4
ANB 1019L Week 2

Cultural Diversity in the
English-Speaking World

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Lecture - Cultural Diversity in the English-Speaking World
Weaving a Web of Linguistic Diversity
Newspaper article by David Crystal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2001/jan/25/tefl.guardianweekly

English: A Historical Summary
Indo-European Languages
http://www.krysstal.com/english.html

Timeline of the History of the English Language
Source: http://www.danshort.com/ie/timeline.htm

The Globalization of English
Article by Neville Hobson
http://www.webpronews.com/the-globalization-of-english-2005-03

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Weaving the Web of Linguistic Diversity
The World Wide Web is an eclectic medium, holding a mirror up to our linguistic nature. Not
only does it offer a home to all linguistic styles within a language; it offers a home to all
languages - once their communities have a functioning computer technology. And its
increasingly multilingual character has been the most notable change since it started out as
a totally English medium.
For many people the language of the internet is English. "World, Wide, Web: three English
words" was the headline of a piece by Michael Specter in the New York Times a few years
ago. The article went on to comment: "If you want to take full advantage of the internet
there is only one real way to do it: learn English." Specter did acknowledge the arrival of
other languages: "As the Web grows, the number of people on it who speak French, say, or
Russian will become more varied and that variety will be expressed on the Web. That is why
it is a fundamentally democratic technology. But it won't necessarily happen soon."
The evidence is growing that this conclusion was wrong. With the internet's globalisation
the presence of other languages has steadily risen. By the mid-90s a widely quoted figure
was that about 80% of the Net was in English - a figure supported by the first big study of
language distribution on the internet, carried out in 1997 by Babel, a joint initiative of the
Internet Society and Alis Technologies. This showed English well ahead, but with several
other languages - notably German, Japanese, French and Spanish - entering the ring.
Since then the estimates for English have been falling, with some commentators predicting
that before long the Web (and the internet as a whole) will be predominantly non-English,
as communications infrastructure develops in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. A
Global Reach survey has estimated that people with internet access in non-English-speaking
countries increased from 7m to 136m between 1995 and 2000. In 1998 the total number of
new non-English websites passed the number of new English websites.
At a conference on search engine strategies last April, Alta Vista was predicting that by next
year less than half of the Web would be in English. English-language author David Graddol
has predicted an even lower figure in due course, 40%. In parts of the world the local
language is already dominant. According to the Japanese internet author Yoshi Mikami, 90%
of Web pages in Japan are now in Japanese.
The Web is increasingly reflecting the distribution of language presence in the real world,
and many sites provide the evidence. They range from individual businesses doing their best
to present a multilingual identity to big sites collecting data on many languages. Under the
first heading we encounter such newspapers as the Belgian daily Le Soir, which is
represented by six languages - French, Dutch, English, German, Italian and Spanish. Under
the latter heading we find such sites as the University of Oregon Font Archive, providing 112
fonts in its archives for more than 40 languages.
A World Language Resources site lists products for 728 languages. An African resource list
covers several local languages; Yoruba, for example, is illustrated by some 5,000 words,
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along with proverbs, naming patterns and greetings. Another site deals with 87 European
minority languages. Some sites are small in content, but extensive in range: one gives the
Lord's Prayer in nearly 500 languages. Nobody has yet worked out just how many languages
have obtained a modicum of presence on the Web. I have found more than 1,000. It is not
difficult to find evidence of a Net presence for the vast majority of the more frequently used
languages, and for a large number of minority languages too. I would guess that about a
quarter of the world's languages have some sort of internet presence.
In all these examples we are encountering language presence in a real sense. These are not
sites that only analyse or talk about languages; they allow us to see languages as they are. In
many cases, the total Web presence, in terms of number of pages, is small. The crucial point
is that the languages are out there, even if represented by only a sprinkling of sites. It is the
ideal medium for minority languages, given the relative cheapness and ease of creating a
Web page, compared with the costs of print, TV or radio.
However, developing a significant cyber-presence is not easy. Until a critical mass of
internet penetration in a country builds up, and a corresponding mass of content exists in
the local language, the motivation to switch from English-language sites will be limited to
those for whom issues of identity outweigh issues of information. The future is also
dependent on the levels of English-speaking ability in individual countries, and the further
growth in those levels. There are also practical problems, though a great deal has been done
since the mid-90s to address them. First, the Ascii character set still fails to adequately
support the array of letter shapes in Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, Korean and the many other
languages in the world that do not use the Latin alphabet. The Unicode coding system, the
alternative to Ascii, allows more than 65,000 characters; but the implementation of this
system is still in its infancy. The Web consortium has an internationalisation activity looking
specifically at different alphabets, so that operating systems can support a page in any
alphabet.
The future looks good for Web multilingualism. As Ned Thomas commented last year in an
editorial for Contact, the bulletin of the European Bureau of Lesser Used Languages: "It is
not the case . . . that all languages will be marginalised on the Net by English. On the
contrary, there will be a great demand for multilingual websites, for multilingual data
retrieval, for machine translation, for voice recognition systems to be multilingual."
And Tyler Chambers, the creator of various Web language projects, agrees: "The future of
the internet is even more multilingualism and cross-cultural exploration and understanding
than we've already seen." I agree. The Web offers a World Wide Welcome for global
linguistic diversity.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2001/jan/25/tefl.guardianweekly

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English: A Historical Summary

Source: http://www.krysstal.com/english.html
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Timeline of the History of the English Language

Source:
http://www.da
nshort.com/ie/t
imeline.htm

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The 30 Most Spoken Languages in the World
Pos Language Family Script(s) Used
Speakers
(Millions)
Where Spoken (Major)
1 Mandarin Sino-Tibetan Chinese Characters 1151 China, Malaysia, Taiwan
2 English Indo-European Latin 1000 USA, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand
3 Spanish Indo-European Latin 500 Mexico, Central and South America, Spain
4 Hindi Indo-European Devanagari 490 North and Central India
5 Russian Indo-European Cyrillic 277 Russia, Central Asia
6 Arabic Afro-Asiatic Arabic 255 Middle East, Arabia, North Africa
7 Portuguese Indo-European Latin 240 Brazil, Portugal, Southern Africa
8 Bengali Indo-European Bengali 215 Bangladesh, Eastern India
9 French Indo-European Latin 200 France, Canada, West Africa, Central Africa
10 Malay, Indonesian Malayo-Polynesian Latin 175 Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore
11 German Indo-European Latin 166 Germany, Austria, Central Europe
12 Japanese Altaic Chinese Characters and 2 Japanese Alphabets 132 Japan
13 Farsi (Persian) Indo-European Nastaliq 110 Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia
14 Urdu Indo-European Nastaliq 104 Pakistan, India
15 Punjabi Indo-European Gurumukhi 103 Pakistan, India
16 Wu Sino-Tibetan Chinese Characters 90 China
17 Vietnamese Austroasiatic Based on Latin 86 Vietnam, China
18 Javanese Malayo-Polynesian Javanese 85 Indonesia
19 Tamil Dravidian Tamil 78 Southern India, Sri Lanka, Malyasia
20 Korean Altaic Hangul 78 Korean Peninsula
21 Turkish Altaic Latin 75 Turkey, Central Asia
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22 Telugu Dravidian Telugu 74 Southern India
23 Marathi Indo-European Devanagari 72 Western India
24 Italian Indo-European Latin 62 Italy, Central Europe
25 Thai Sino-Tibetan Thai 60 Thailand, Laos
26 Burmese Sino-Tibetan Burmese 56 Myanmar
27 Cantonese Sino-Tibetan Chinese Characters 55 Southern China
28 Kannada Dravidian Kannada 47 Southern India
29 Gujarati Indo-European Gujarati 46 Western India, Kenya
30 Polish Indo-European Latin 46 Poland, Central Europe
1997, 2010 Krysstal
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Lecture by Rupert
Herington - Around the World in English: English as a global Language:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEPoIqg_xVU
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ANB 1019 Weeks 5-6
ANB 1019L Week 3

British English and Culture

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Lecture British Culture

Overview

Geography
The "United Kingdom" consists of
England, Wales, Scotland,
Northern Ireland and some small
islands around the mainland.
"Great Britain" is only England,
Scotland and Wales.
Population
Britain's population has changed
rapidly since the 1970s, when
people from the West Indies,
India, Pakistan, Africa, and China
began moving into the UK.
England:
Area: 129,720 square km
(50,085 square miles)
Population: 51 million
Capital city: London
Major industries:
Banking and finance,
steel, transport-
equipment, oil and gas,
tourism
Weather: England's
climate is mild and damp.
Temperatures inland don't
get much below freezing
in winter (December to
February), or much above
30C (86F) in summer
(June to August). The
north is the coldest area;
London, the south-east
and the West Country are
the warmest. Rainfall is
greatest in hilly areas and
in the West Country. You
can expect cloudy weather
and light drizzle in any
part of England at any time.
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Scotland:
Area: 78,772 sq. km (30,414 sq. mi)
Population: 5.1 million
Capital city: Edinburgh
Language: English, Gaelic
Major industries: Banking and finance, steel, transport equipment, oil and gas,
whisky, tourism
Weather: There are wide variations in climate over small distances, and a
sunny day will often as not be followed by a rainy one. The Highlands can
have extreme weather at any time. The east coast tends to be cool and dry,
with winter temperatures rarely dropping below freezing (but watch out for
chilling winds off the North Sea). The west coast is milder and wetter, with
average summer highs of 19C (66F). May and June are the driest months;
July and August the warmest.
Wales:
Area: 20,764 sq. km (8017 sq. mi)
Capital city: Cardiff
Language: Welsh, English
Major industries: Agriculture and forestry, manufacturing, tourism
Weather: Wales suffers from an excess of rainfall, with water falling from the
sky all year round. Westerly and south-westerly winds can also make life
pretty miserable. The closeness of the mountains to the coast means that you
can encounter very different climatic conditions within short distances.
Temperatures in Cardiff get up to 20C (68F) at the height of summer
(August), but rarely drop below freezing even in the depths of winter
(January).
Northern Ireland:
Area: 14,139 sq. km
Capital city: Belfast
Language: English, Irish
Major industries: Computer software, information technology, food products,
brewing, textiles, clothing, pharmaceuticals, tourism.
Weather: The temperature only drops below freezing intermittently during the
winter, and snow is scarce. Summers aren't very hot, rarely hitting 30 C (86
F), but they're comfortable and it stays light until around 11pm. Whatever the
time of year, be prepared for rain because Ireland is wet. The heaviest rain
usually falls where the scenery is best, such as around Derry, which can be
drizzle bound on as many as 270 days of the year.

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Language
Although English is the universal language of Great Britain there are other languages
such as Welsh, which is spoken by about a quarter of Welsh people. Scotland also
has its own language with about 60,000 speakers of the Scottish language known as
Gaelic. The relatively small size of the UK often leads people to assume that the
language spoken is the same, however first time visitors to the UK are often
surprised to find that they have difficulty in understanding the accents and dialects of
certain regions. Even within the country of England alone there is great diversity of
dialect, both regionally and socially. Accents are clues to where people were born
and where they grew up. Although some people may change the way they speak
during their lifetimes, most people carry at least some trace of their accent and
dialect origins throughout their lives. It is common in Britain for people who display
particularly strong accents to be labelled by terms such as "Geordie", "Cockney",
"Jock" or "Scouse." All of these identify a specific regional accent, most of which are
recognizable to many of the people in the country.
Cockney accent = London
Geordie accent = Newcastle
Jock accent = Scotland
Scouse accent = Liverpool
There are many other names for different accents from different areas.
Accents are often characterized by British speakers themselves as either "posh" or
"common" accents.

Social Class
Britain can be divided up into areas, but in the 1940's and 1950's (and before) it
could also be divided up by social class (and to some extent still can be today). The
phrases used are normally "Working Class", "Middle Class" and "Upper Class".
These classes were to divide people up by the type of work that they did and by their
income. Middle class is also sometimes divided up into "Lower Middle Class" and
"Upper Middle Class". In the early 1900's about 60% of people were "Working Class"
and over 30% "Middle Class", with less than 10% in the Upper Class category, also
referred to as the "Aristocracy". A typical middle class person may be a doctor or a
teacher, whilst working class are factory workers. Manual workers are also known as
"Blue collar" workers, whilst office staff are known as "White Collar" workers. Class
can also be decided upon which newspaper a person reads or what type of
television programmes that they watch. Class can also be determined by what type
of education a person has.
Race
The UK is made up of people from many different races. It is not now a "white"
country. A majority of immigrants arrived in the UK in the last 40 years. People from
countries who used to be part of the British Empire were allowed to move to the UK
to live. Immigrants bring many cultures into the UK, and also many other foods. The
most common foods in the UK are now Indian Curry and Chinese food. British music
has benefited from immigrants, with many black artists becoming very popular. Many
immigrants bring different religions into the UK - there is now a large Muslim
community in the UK. However, the mix of races can cause some problems; some
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white people do not like the growing number of ethnic minorities in the UK. Some
cities have higher populations of ethnic minorities than others. London has over 30%
of the population from non-white groups. It is now illegal to discriminate between
black and white people, or anyone from another race in the UK.
British Politics
In British politics there are elections about every 4 years. The elections are to decide
which of the political parties ("political parties" = "political groups") will be allowed to
form a government and run the country. The three main political parties are:
"Labour", "Conservative" and "Liberal Democrat". The UK has a "Prime Minister", but
no President. The building where politics takes place is called "The Houses of
Parliament". This is a place which is made up of 2 "houses": "The House of
Commons" and "The House of Lords". The House of Commons is where the
government debate issues with the other political parties. It is made up of Members
of Parliament (MP's) from all political parties who are voted for in local elections
around the UK. The House of Lords is traditionally made up of "Lords" who received
the title from their father or were given the title for achievements. The House of Lords
is now changing so that it is made up of many other people, not just people who
inherited the title from their father. When the House of Commons wants to make or
change a law they will give a draft version to the House of Lords, which then debates
the issue further, and if the members agree with the proposal from the House of
Commons then the law will be passed.

The Royal Family
Queen Elizabeth II is Head of State of the UK
and 15 other Commonwealth realms. The
elder daughter of King George VI and Queen
Elizabeth, she was born in 1926 and became
Queen at the age of 25, and has reigned
through more than five decades of enormous
social change and development. The Queen
is married to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
and has four children and eight grandchildren.
Her Diamond Jubilee took place in 2012,
marking 60 years of The Queens reign.
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Seminar The Variation in British Accents and Dialects

Beatles: I Wanna Hold Your Hand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iim6s8Ea_bE

Evolving English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmS3feBGu0c

British Accents and Dialects of the British Isles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu9q_vedO7w

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ANB 1019 Week 7
ANB 1019L Week 3

Irish English and Culture

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Lecture

Ireland country profile
Ireland, which is often called the Irish Republic to distinguish it
from British Northern Ireland, emerged from the conflict that
marked its birth as an independent state to become one of
Europe's economic success stories in the final decade of the
twentieth century.
Long under English or British rule, Ireland lost half its
population in the decades following the Great Potato Famine
of the 1840s, becoming a nation of emigrants. After World
War I, independence from the United Kingdom was only achieved at the price of civil war and
partition. After the country joined the European Community in 1973, it was transformed from a
largely agricultural society into a modern, high-technology economy.
OVERVIEW
For centuries British dominion in Ireland gave rise to unrest which finally erupted into violence
with the Easter Rising of 1916, when independence was proclaimed. The rising was crushed and
many of its leaders executed, but the campaign for independence carried on through a bloody
Anglo-Irish War of 1919-1921.
It was in 1922 that 26 counties of Ireland gained independence from London following
negotiations which led to the other six counties, part of the province of Ulster, remaining in the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Partition was followed by a year of civil
war.
Relations between Dublin and London remained strained for many years afterwards. Northern
Ireland saw decades of violent conflict between those campaigning for a united Ireland and those
wishing to stay in the United Kingdom.
In an unprecedented and concerted effort to resolve the situation, the Irish and UK
governments worked closely together in negotiations which led to the Good Friday Agreement on
the future of Northern Ireland in 1998.

Boom to bust
Ireland's economy began to grow rapidly in the 1990s, fuelled
by foreign investment. This attracted a wave of incomers to a
country where, traditionally, mass emigration had been the
norm. The boom that earned Ireland the nickname of "Celtic
Tiger" faltered when the country fell into recession in the wake
of the global financial crisis of 2008.
The property boom had been fuelled by massive lending
from the banks, and when this collapsed - and lenders were unable to repay - the Irish banking

A booming economy transformed
Dublin in the 1990s

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system was plunged into crisis. The Irish economy underwent one of the deepest recessions in
the eurozone, with its economy shrinking by 10% in 2009. In November 2010, Ireland and the EU
agreed a financial rescue package for the republic worth 85bn Euros, ending weeks of
speculation about a bail-out.

Irish English
This essay is made up of two parts. In the first part we will be looking at the type of English
spoken in Belfast. The things that we will look at are some history of Belfast English and the
difference between Belfast English and standard English. The facts are taken from the book
Belfast English and Standard English Dialectal variation and Parameter Setting by Alison
Henry. In the second part we will be looking at Irish English in general. These facts are taken
from the book Real English the grammar of English dialects in the British Isles by James and
Lesley Milroy.

Belfast English
English speakers in Belfast are largely monolingual, and there is no community of native
Irish speakers in the area. However some parents choose to send their children to Irish-
medium schools to learn Irish. For most Belfast English speakers, Irish is learnt as a subject
in secondary school, if at all. Since there are few bilingual speakers, any Irish influences are
almost certainly derived from historical contact between the two languages.
(The weather report in Irish: You Tube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsBv1ukVp9U&NR=1)
The English spoken in this area sprang up when English and Scottish settlers came to Ireland
in the seventeenth century. The plantation of settlers was in such big scale that they held
the economic and political power, and since they spoke English, this was the language that
gradually took over. The use of Irish in the Belfast area had died out by the end of the
seventeenth century.
Rural Ulster speech consists of two main dialects, namely Ulster Scots, which is closely
related to Scottish English, and the Central or Mid-Ulster dialect, which has more influences
from Irish. Many people from other areas have moved to Belfast in search for work, so their
dialects cannot really be said to belong to either of these two groups.
The Red Hand Flag: This was a civil flag for
Northern Ireland, but the status of this was
abolished when the Belfast Stormont
assembly was closed down in 1973.
Thereafter, the Union Flag was made official
for all purposes in Northern Ireland.
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Belfast English can be considered to be conservative compared to standard English. It is said
that they speak English as it was spoken in Shakespearean times. Some of the constructions
of Irish English were used in earlier forms of standard English. For example the use of for to
with infinitives, where standard English today only uses to:
It wouldn't do for to say that.
They seem for to be late.
This usage has a long history in English and not just in vernacular varieties. It is not only
found in a number of present day dialects, but also in earlier forms of the literary language.
Belfast is known to be a divided society with little contact between the Protestant and
Catholic communities, despite this there are no clear differences either phonological or
grammatical between their English. It is not possible to determine which community a
person belongs to simply by how they speak English. Belfast English is a variety that has little
status and is not officially recognised. Both Protestant and Catholic schools teach their
children standard English, which is seen as the "correct" English. To be able to use standard
syntax is seen as a mark of education whilst local syntax thus is seen as lack of education.
In the book Belfast English and Standard English Dialectal variation and Parameter Setting,
Henry talks about how subject-verb agreement is optional in Belfast English. In standard
English the -s ending only occur with third person singular objects, whilst in Belfast English it
is possible for a plural subject noun phrase to occur with a verb showing the -s ending. This
is a phenomenon that has been pointed out in a number of sociolinguistic studies and it is
known as "singular concord". For example, Policansky 1976, Milroy 1981 and Finlay 1988.
The eggs is/are cracked.
The machines works/work well.
It should be noted that while it is possible to use a singular verb when the subject is plural it
is not possible to use a plural verb with a singular subject.
Inversion is possible in embedded questions:
I wonder did they go.
She asked had anybody called.
Belfast English has relative clauses where relativised element is a subject, and where the
relative pronoun is not phonetically realised:
I have a sister lives in Dublin.
There are people don't read books.
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Certain finite subordinate clauses occur with null subjects:
They were lucky got away.
You were as well took the job when you were offered it.

Irish English
We will now look at the non-standard grammatical characteristics of English usage in
Ireland. By non-standard I mean the features that do not correspond to the Standard English
norms. They are not talked about in dictionaries and grammar books. An example of this is
the singular and plural in second-person pronouns. In Standard English it is the same in both
singular and plural; we can say you to one or more than one person. In some dialects,
especially those spoken in Ireland and some others with Irish connections, we find the
vernacular form youse:
Standard English Irish English
person sing. plur. person sing. plur.
1st. I we 1st. I we
2nd. you you 2nd. you youse
3rd. he/she/it they 3rd. he/she/it they
This illustrates the differences that can exist between vernacular and standard forms of
English. The table is taken from the book Real English the grammar of English dialects in the
British Isles by James and Lesley Milroy. An example:
Did youse kids hear that? (Irish English)
Did you kids hear that? (Standard English)
The majority of the population in Ireland speak some form of non-standard English as a first
language. The linguistic features vary from region to region: someone from Dublin will
obviously speak differently from a native of Belfast. Despite this, the dialects of Ireland do
share a number of linguistic features which separates them from dialects spoken elsewhere.
The Tri-colour Flag: The design of the Irish flag was
created by a group known as the Young Irelanders.
While visiting Paris during "l' annee des barricades"
they were inspired by the French tri-colour. The Irish
tri-colour was first used at the Ballingarry Rising (Co.
Tipperary) in 1848. The green colour represents the
native Irish; the orange represents the orangemen
(the colonists) and white symbolizes peace between
the two communities.
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The type of English spoken in Ireland is sometimes said to be a mixture of the language of
Shakespeare and the Irish of the Gaelic earls. This assumption can in a sense be true.
Modern Irish English does bear the marks of two major historical events. First we have the
various types of English and Scots who were brought to Ireland during the English and
Scottish colonisation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.. Secondly there is an early
hybrid jargon which arose as a result of the contact between the Irish and English languages.
The linguistic impact of the contact between Irish and English is most clearly seen in those
areas where Irish is still spoken as a mother tongue or where it has survived until recently.
A well-known feature of Irish English is a construction of be after and an ing-participle, as in:
She's after selling the boat
Which is a hot-news` perfect, that is, an event that has taken place in the very recent past.
A translation of the sentence might be She has just sold the boat`. The construction is
almost certainly a direct borrowing from Irish:
T s tres an bd a dhol
Be she after the boat selling
As mentioned in the previous section on Belfast English, the schools teach their children
Standard English. The local dialects are seen as lack of education. This is a very sad thing,
because if the local dialect is repeatedly looked on as something bad, then people will stop
using it and it will die out. If we then look on how many people actually use the standard
form in their everyday life, we find that they are not many.
Irish English differs in many ways from Standard English: in grammar, pronunciation and
vocabulary. But it is also a fact that Irish English differs from place to place. As I said before,
a person from Dublin will speak differently from a person from Belfast. There are different
dialects and accents, and all languages change with time. We borrow words from other
languages to our own and words that already exist are changed in pronunciation or in the
field of usage, and some words are simply abandoned and forgotten.

Adapted from:
http://www.eng.umu.se/city/sofia/Linguistics/irish_english.htm

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Seminar
International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA)
http://web.ku.edu/~idea/

Ireland 12
Northern Ireland 2

Ireland 12 - Text
25 Years old; Date of Birth 15.7.1983, male, Irish, PhD student. Born and raised in Limerick
Ireland, moved to Dublin for Undergraduate degree, and then to Edinburgh for
postgraduate study.
Erm some I would like to think its perfectly neutral, but others have said, errmm,
otherwise errmmm not hugely indicative of Limerick I imagine, ermm more termed a
Culchie West, west Coast accent Culchies , sort of country bumpkin over here, is that the,
the the turn of phrase. Yeah, so err, when I was up in Dublin the the Jackeens, would be city
slickers, would, errr, errr, not really understand a word I say. So, I also tend to speak quite
fast, so even my mother and my father give out to me for speaking quickly, so. Ive slowed it
right down here for you but.
<speaks in Gaelic>
Translation: My name is Eoghan Maguire, I'm from Limerick. I'm over here in Edinburgh
studying Engineering. It was Mireille's birthday yesterday, she is 25 years old... well, I don't
have a clue what else to say really...
Sample recorded, speech transcribed, and notes written by helen ashton on (April 24, 2009).

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Northern Ireland 2 Text
White male, 20, born and raised in Ballywalter, Northern Ireland--located on the east coast
near Belfast.
Okay, once upon a time, I went on a holiday from hell in Gran Canaria, which is off the coast
of uh, uh ea--of West Africa and went with my best friend from school and his family, and
we stayed in these apartment complexes and the first night went down to the town you
know first time away, on holiday, without my parents, my friend and I had our own
apartment so, like free from their parents as well, went down to the town had a great time
there was like people in the streets offering uh, you know, "come to our place, free tequila
shots, come to our place, free peach schnapps" you know, and it was just like so many lights
and people and sound that was fair noise, it was great so it was. So it went uh, went out to
like loads of bars, got loads of free shots everywhere, and as the night wore on, you know, it
got more and more happy and...more and more legless and it was just..yeah, it was an
experience so it was, my friend was even worse um, so I had to carry him around all the bars
and stuff, ah, but then, on the way home, it was about 3' o-clock, had a great night so I had,
and we're just staggering back to the uh hotel, and we could have taken one route, which
uh, went along the road, windy road up the hill, uh, to our hotel, uh, but we chose, (laughs)
in our nave innocence, to go through the uh, the park in the middle of the town, the very
dimly-light park in the middle of the town, it was a shortcut to get to our hotel. So we're
walking along, so we are and uh..uh, my friend looks over his shoulder and uh, he says uh,
"walk a bit faster" and I turn around and see like this group of 4 guys walking behind us like
they're still a fair distance away, and I said okay, I know--I know, and my friend, he's pretty--
pretty drunk at this point so I'm like carrying him most of the way y'know, and then all of a
sudden we hear this running from behind and we look 'round, and we see this guy from the
group of 4, and hits my friend in the back of the head and kicks him to the ground before,
my friend didn't have a chance, couldn't react in time uh, so then my friend was on the
ground and then, the guy kicked him, came for me I managed--I had more time to react, so I
blocked and I hit him back, and then ran, y'know being the good friend that I am (laughs) I
mean I hoped that my friend was up and running with me, but looked back and he was still
lying feebly on the ground uh, see what is it, as I said, pretty drunk uh at this point--the
three people were around, they were swarming around my friend, and I though from a
distance that they were kicking him and stuff, but they weren't they were just standing over
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him holding him down, and then the guy I hit, had run after me part of the way and I ran
back and said "leave him alone, leave him alone!" and then the friend says, "no your money
first" y'know in this horrible sneezy, Spanish accent. Yeah, so uh, I tried to give him a few
notes, and then he just grabbed the whole wallet and took it all ,so I just dropped the wallet
and ran off and then he ran past my friend and the three guys standing over my friend, then
they ran off as well and I went back to my friend and like--he was okay, he was just like, had
a--had some bruises on the side where he fell over like it didn't harm him at all really uh,
they'd taken his money as well, so stagger back to the uh, hotel and um, yeah, it was
horrible so it was, so that was the first night we were there, and because the safe in our
room uh was broken and it wasn't going to get fixed the next day, we had all our money on
us, and we got all of it stolen, so we had to rely on the generosity of my friend's parents, and
then traveler's checks, stuff like that, kinda got spoiled the rest of the holiday.
Unscripted Speech Transcribed by Faith Harvey 21 March 2008, with emendations by
Charles Heale, 5, April, 2008.

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ANB 1019 Weeks 8-9
ANB 1019L Week 4

American English and Culture

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Lecture American Culture
The History of American English
The history of American English can be divided into the colonial (1607-1776), the national
(1776-1898), and the international (1898-present) periods. During nearly four hundred years
of use in North America, the English language changed in small ways in pronunciation and
grammar but extensively in vocabulary and in the attitude of its speakers.

English settlements along the Atlantic Coast during the seventeenth century provided the
foundation for English as a permanent language in the New World. But the English of the
American colonies was bound to become distinct from that of the motherland. When
people do not talk with one another, they begin to talk differently. The Atlantic Ocean
served as an effective barrier to oral communication between the colonists and those who
stayed in England, ensuring that their speech would evolve in different directions.

Americans also came into contact with Amerindians of several linguistic stocks, as well as
French and Dutch speakers. They had to talk in new ways to communicate with their new
neighbours. Moreover, the settlers had come from various districts and social groups of
England, so there was a homogenizing effect: those in a given colony came to talk more like
one another and less like any particular community in England. All these influences
combined to make American English a distinct variety of the language.

Despite such changes, the norm of usage in the colonies remained that of the motherland
until the American Revolution. Thereafter American English was no longer a colonial variety
of the English of London but had entered its national period. Political independence was
soon followed by cultural independence, of which a notable Founding Father was Noah
Webster. As a schoolmaster, Webster recognized that the new nation needed a sense of
linguistic identity. Accordingly he set out to provide dictionaries and textbooks for recording
and teaching American English with American models. The need Webster sought to fill was
twofold: to help Americans realize they should no longer look to England for a standard of
usage and to foster a reasonable degree of uniformity in American English. To those ends,
Webster's dictionary, reader, grammar, and blue-backed speller were major forces for
institutionalizing what he called Federal English.

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Whats New? The Effect of Hip-Hop Culture on Everyday English
By Emmett G. Price III

Expressions coined by urban youth have made their way into mainstream English via the so-
called hip-hop generation. Emmett G. Price III, PhD, is an assistant professor of Music and
African American Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the
author of Hip Hop Culture (ABC-CLIO, 2006) and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Popular
Music Studies. He is also executive editor of the forthcoming three-volume Encyclopedia of
African American Music (Greenwood Press, 2008).
Language is the product of society. As a society changes, so does its language. One of
the greatest signs of a changing language is the rapid expansion of its lexicons. Over the past
30 years, American dictionaries have grown at unprecedented levels. Words attesting to the
rich contribution of global cultures to American culture, words created for scientific use,
words recognizing technological advances, and, of course, words representing
contemporary culture have expanded the English language. Yet, it is this last category that
has altered the English language more rapidly than any other influence.
These changes are sparked by words created by youth and young adults who feel
empowered to codify and label their own realities with new expressions: words that
represent the new ponderings, new searches, new desires, and new ideas (even if the ideas
really are not so new). In The Hip Hop Generation, Bakari Kitwana establishes the birth years
of 1965-1984 as the criterion for admission into the hip-hop generation. It is obvious that
Kitwana's closing year of 1984 is not wide enough, as we have witnessed the emergence of
multiple hip-hop generations, each birthing new additions and approaches to the English
language.
Hip-Hop Culture
During the 1960s and 1970s as the streets of New York City erupted in violence, social
decay, and economic demise young, multiethnic, inner-city kids devised their own
solution to the traumatic challenges that they continually faced. Unifying the preexisting
elements of rapping, graffiti, dancing, and deejaying (a method of using sound equipment
and records to create totally new sounds and combinations from those originally recorded
scratching, rapid repeats of segments, remixes, etc.), these diverse youth created an
alternative to the hopelessness found in their neighborhoods.
During the mid-1970s, this local phenomenon was ignored by mainstream America;
yet by the 1980s, not only did hip-hop culture have a national presence, it was sought
globally. Movies such as Wild Style, Style Wars, and, later, Beat Street and Breakin' allowed
international audiences to experience the many facets of hip-hop culture, including the
unique approach to speaking and writing English. By the 1990s, print and broadcast media
and even video games were dominated by the presence and effect of hip-hop culture.
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Corporations such as Burger King, Coca-Cola, America Online (AOL), Nike, and Reebok
launched advertising and marketing campaigns featuring hip-hop culture, responding to the
popular/hip image of these elements and, at the same time, helping integrate them into the
broader culture. Amidst the dancing, fashion, and numerous musical elements, what quickly
struck the ears of many were the new rules for speaking, reading, and writing English.
Hip-Hop Language
Popular culture in the United States has had a unique effect on everyday English for many
generations. African-American music, in many ways, has played a demonstrative role in this
evolution. From the days prior to the emergence of the spirituals and the blues, African-
American music has informed its listeners (early on, mostly black) of the current events and
liberation strategies, using alternative language understood only by those within the cultural
network.
Through the years, many of the words and phrases became integrated and used by
outside communities who had figured out the context and definitions of these words. This
process of cultural adaptation happened in many of the ethnic communities and enclaves
within America, yet it was African-American music, containing much of this language, that
informed much of American mainstream culture.
The language of hip-hop culture is an extension of past and recent vernacular. Words
like "hot" (1920s), "swing" (1930s), "hip" (1940s), "cool" (1950s), "soul" (1960s), "chill"
(1970s), and "smooth" (1980s) have been redefined and usurped into hip-hop language.
Hip-hop language is the next generation's answer to the age-old question What's new?

The Impact of Hip-Hop Culture
The greatest impact of hip-hop culture is perhaps its ability to bring people of all different
beliefs, cultures, races, and ethnicities together as a medium for young (and now middle-
aged) people to express themselves in a self-determined manner, both individually and
collectively. Hip-hop culture has influenced not only American English, but numerous
languages around the world. Multicultural nations have vibrant hip-hop communities who
have had to figure out what to do with these new words and phrases. From German Hip-
Hop to Australian Hip-Hop to Pinoy Rap (Philippines) to Azeri Rap (Azerbaijan) to Rap
Nigerien (Niger), hip-hop has had its effect on the languages of these nations and cultures.
Whether it is the addition of the phrase "bling-bling" to the Oxford English Dictionary
in 2003 or the inclusion of the term "crunk" in the 2007 volume of the Merriam-Webster
Collegiate Dictionary, hip-hop culture is changing the nature, the sound, and the rules of the
English language. Words such as "hood" (short for neighborhood), "crib" (which translates
as place of residence), and "whip" (meaning car) have become commonplace within
everyday conversation. Phrases such as "what's up" (hello), "peace out" (good-bye), and the
extremely popular "chill out" (relax) are frequently used in television shows, movies, and
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even commercials for Fortune 500 corporations. American English is a living organism, and
with vibrant mechanisms such as hip-hop culture and the rapid growth of technology, who's
to say what we will be saying or writing in the next 30 years. Whether the United States is a
"Hip-Hop Nation," as declared on the cover of the February 5, 1999, issue of Time magazine,
or not, it is clearly evident that English has been greatly influenced by hip-hop culture.
Source:
http://themoffspot.weebly.com/uploads/5/2/4/1/5241858/hip-hop_culture__english.pdf

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Seminar

American English Idioms
http://www.idiomsite.com/

American Idol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7OFl3TJSUk&feature=fvwrel

EMINEM Live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxPdaFglD4c

Sound Comparisons
http://soundcomparisons.com/

21 Accents
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UgpfSp2t6k

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American English Idioms

A Bird In The Hand Is Worth Two In The Bush:
Having something that is certain is much better than taking a risk for more, because chances are you
might lose everything.

A Blessing In Disguise:
Something good that isn't recognized at first.

A Chip On Your Shoulder:
Being upset for something that happened in the past.

A Dime A Dozen:
Anything that is common and easy to get.

A Doubting Thomas:
A sceptic who needs physical or personal evidence in order to believe something.

A Drop in the Bucket:
A very small part of something big or whole.

A Fool And His Money Are Easily Parted:
It's easy for a foolish person to lose his/her money.

A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand:
Everyone involved must unify and function together or it will not work out.

A Leopard Can't Change His Spots:
You cannot change who you are.

A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned:
By not spending money, you are saving money (little by little).
A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned:
By not spending money, you are saving money (little by little).

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words:
A visual presentation is far more descriptive than words.

A Piece of Cake:
A task that can be accomplished very easily.

A Slap on the Wrist:
A very mild punishment.

A Taste Of Your Own Medicine:
When you are mistreated the same way you mistreat others.

A Toss-Up:
A result that is still unclear and can go either way.

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Actions Speak Louder Than Words:
It's better to actually do something than just talk about it.

Add Fuel To The Fire:
Whenever something is done to make a bad situation even worse than it is.

Against The Clock:
Rushed and short on time.

All Bark And No Bite:
When someone is threatening and/or aggressive but not willing to engage in a fight.

All Greek to me:
Meaningless and incomprehensible like someone who cannot read, speak, or understand any of the
Greek language would be.

All In The Same Boat:
When everyone is facing the same challenges.

An Arm And A Leg:
Very expensive. A large amount of money.

An Axe To Grind:
To have a dispute with someone.

Apple of My Eye:
Someone who is cherished above all others.

As High As A Kite:
Anything that is high up in the sky.

At The Drop Of A Hat:
Willing to do something immediately.

Back Seat Driver:
People who criticize from the sidelines, much like someone giving unwanted advice from the back
seat of a vehicle to the driver.

Back To Square One:
Having to start all over again.

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ANB 1019 Weeks 10-11
ANB 1019L Week 4

Australian English and Culture

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Lecture Australian Culture
Australia: An Overview

Flag Description
Blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant
and a large seven-pointed star in the lower hoist-side quadrant
known as the Commonwealth Star, representing the federation
of the colonies of Australia in 1901; the star depicts one point
for each of the six original states and one representing all of
Australia's internal and external territories; the remaining half is
a representation of the Southern Cross constellation in white
with one small five-pointed star and four larger, seven-pointed stars.

Historical Background
It is believed that the first settlers of Australia reached the continent some 65,000 years ago. The
first settlers of Australia, ancestors of today's Aborigines, came from Asia by way of New Guinea.
Over 750,000 Aborigines occupied the Australian continent before the arrival of the first white
ancestry in 1788.
No formal territorial claims were made until 1770, when Capt. James Cook took possession in
the name of Great Britain. Six colonies were created in the late 18th and 19th centuries; they
federated and became the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The new country took advantage of
its natural resources to rapidly develop its agricultural and manufacturing industries and to make a
major contribution to the British effort in World Wars I and II.
Before the United Kingdom made its claim to Australia in 1788, there were several European
explores that searched for the Unknown Southern Land. In the late 1500's several Spanish and
Portuguese explorers set sail for the undiscovered continent thought to exist south of Asia.
However, all of their voyages ended with the discovery of New Guinea, an island located north of
today's Australia. In 1606, a Spanish explorer named Luis Vaez de Torres proved the previous
explorers findings to be incorrect as he sailed around the land of New Guinea establishing it as an
island rather than the vast continent that everyone was in search of. Throughout the remainder of
the 1600's and early 1700's there would be several attempts at finding this mysterious southern
land. During this time, Dutch explorer, Abel Janszoon Tasman would stumble upon the island which
is today called Tasmania in his honour. However, it was not until 1770 that James Cook of the British
Navy became the first European to sight a explore the east coast of Australia's New South Wales.
Several years would go by before Britain would come to occupy the land of Australia. With
the end of the Revolutionary War and the United States independence from Great Britain in 1783,
the British needed to find a new place to transport the countries overflow of convicts. In 1786,
Britain decided to establish prison colonies on the coast of New South Wales. On January 18, 1788,
a group of 570 male and 160 female convicts arrived on Australia's east coast in a place that is now
known as the city of Sydney. This marks the first white settlement of the vast continent of Australia.

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Land Facts
In land area, Australia is 7, 682,300 square kilometres. It is the sixth largest nation after Russia,
Canada, China, the United States of America and Brazil. It has, however, a relatively small population
(approximately 22 million.). Australia is the only nation to govern an entire continent and its outlying
islands. The mainland is the largest island and the smallest, flattest continent on Earth. It lies
between 10 and 39 South latitude. The highest point on the mainland, Mount Kosciuszko, is only
2228 metres. Apart from Antarctica, Australia is the driest continent.
Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth. Its interior has one of the lowest rainfalls
in the world and about three-quarters of the land is arid or semi-arid. Its fertile areas are well-
watered, however, and these are used very effectively to help feed the world. Sheep and cattle
graze in dry country, but care must be taken with the soil. Some grazing land became desert when
the long cycles that influence rainfall in Australia turned to drought.
The Australian federation consists of six States: New South Wales, Queensland, South
Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia, and two Territories: the Australian Capital
Territory and the Northern Territory. The largest State, Western Australia, is about the same size as
Western Europe.

Economy

Australia has had one of the most outstanding economies of the world in recent years. As a high-
growth, low-inflation, low interest rate economy, it is more vibrant than ever before. There is an
efficient government sector, a flexible labour market and a very competitive business sector.
With its abundant physical resources, Australia has enjoyed a high standard of living since the
nineteenth century. It has made a comparatively large investment in social infrastructure, including
education, training, health and transport. The Australian workforce has seen many improvements
over the last decade, leading to the surge in productivity in the 1990s. The complex and centralised
award based industrial relations system has given way to a more decentralised one with many
employees working under workplace agreements tailored to meet enterprise needs.

Immigration

Australia's culturally diverse society includes its Indigenous peoples and settlers from countries all
around the world. Immigration is an important feature of Australian society. Since 1945, over six
million people from 200 countries have come to Australia as new settlers. Migrants have made a
major contribution to shaping modern Australia. People born overseas make up almost one quarter
of the total population. The federal government sets immigration intake numbers on a yearly basis

Population
22,600,537 (27 March 2011)
one birth every 1 minute and 44 seconds,
one death every 3 minutes and 44 seconds ,
a net gain of one international migration every 2 minute and 47 seconds , leading to
an overall total population increase of one person every 1 minute and 30 seconds .

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Religions
Anglican 26.1%, Roman Catholic 26%, other Christian 24.3%, non-Christian 11%, other 12.6%.
Australian English

The origin of Australian English
The anglophone Australia and New Zealand are two of the youngest nations in the world. The first
Europeans who took their residence in Australia came over 220 years ago. They did not come
because they wanted to. Australia was founded as a penal colony.
They were eventually followed by voluntary immigrants. Until now, Australians with British
ancestor are the predominant part of the population. Among them, the area where a nowadays
Australian most probably can find their ancestors is the region around London. The second
important group of immigrants were Irish, mainly responsible for the huge number of Catholics in
Australia compared with Britain.
Australian pronunciation is more or less the Cockney one of the last 18th century, having
developed independently ever since -it missed the RP-contact arising in Britain in the 19th century-,
but conservatively -like most exported languages are. It has also been influenced by the Irish
element. Indeed, Australian English is different from any accent existing in England.

Australianisms
Most of the Australian specialties in vocabulary derive from English local dialects. "On the other
hand, in recent years the influence of American English has been apparent... Thus we find American
truck, elevator, and freeway alongside British petrol, boot (of a car) and tap." (Crystal, 1988: 240).
Few aboriginal words were borrowed, though a third of the place names is taken from their
languages, with in increasing number in our days (Bhr, 1974: 274). A short excerpt from Aussie
vocabulary (including slang words, which are more accepted than in Mother England; Bhr, 1974;
Crystal, 1988; Baker, 1978):

Australian English British English
this arvo this afternoon
footpath pavement
weekender holiday cottage
sheila Girl
lolly sweet
drongo fool
paddock field
singlet vest
Aussie Australian
cobber mate
dinkum honest
shanty pub
chromo prostitute
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broke for in need of
fed with tired of
chunder vomit

Educated and Broad Australian
Regional variation is practically absent in Australia. However, in opposition to the situation in
America, Australian English knows a great social range of different speeches. We can distinguish
Educated Australian from Broad Australian.

Pronunciation
The vowel system of Broad Australian is very similar to Cockney. Educated Australian is close to RP.

The main peculiarity that makes an Australian be recognized as such is the particular intonation
pattern (Wells, 1982b: 604). As a whole, the accent is marked by a pronunciation reminding of
southern English, but with a "nasal twang" ("Australian twang", described as being slightly different
from New England twang) and a "drawl" as in America. In fact, the broadest dialect is defined by the
longest vowels.

History of Australian English
It is believed that Australian English begins at the same time of first settlement in New South Wales
in 1778. It is known that Australian words emerged in the historical dictionary of the English
language in Australia in 1898. There are certain distinctive features of Australian vocabulary in this
version. There is some evidence to suggest that the linguistic situation at the end of the nineteenth
century was much simpler than it is now. This is due to new influences on the vocabulary, and later,
the vocabulary and pronunciation of Australian English had become distinctively different from any
model that British English could supply. The words that are commonly used in the Australian
language nowadays come from different sources and situations. They are adopted into this language
for different reasons. The main two reasons are: the immigration of English people and the
accepting of local Aborigines language.

The Australian Language
There are 267 languages in Australia (many being Aboriginal languages.) Of those, 234 are living
languages, 2 are second languages without mother tongue speakers, and 31 are extinct. The
Australian English language is the most common and has a formal style as well as a colloquial style.
Australia still has a formal style in writing while it sustains an informal style in speaking. In the
history of the Australian English language, the language has its own background when compared to
American English. Australian English is younger than American and its history is different and less
complex. There has been no Australian Declaration of Independence like in America. However,
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Australian English has not moved as far from British English as American had in the period. In the
greater part of Australia, the vocabulary is still Standard English.
The English language in Australia is distinguished. Australian English is a bit different from
other countries that use English as an everyday speech. Australians have their own styles and
characters in using the language, vocabulary, pronunciation and accent. In addition, they have their
own slang words when they speak in their groups, and women and men also have their language as
well. Though Australians speak English, they have their own special words and phrases called Strine.
Australian Strine consists of words and phrases which have different meanings from other English
(like American or British English). It also consists of words that the Australians have either made up
themselves, or they have borrowed from Aborigine words or from slang used by early settlers.
Like most cultures, Australia has its own share of slang words, metaphors, and phrases that
distinguish its identity from other English speaking countries.

Slang
The slang in Australia developed from two situations from its past. The first is the discovery
of gold in 1851: this led to a change in social status and therefore a change in the nature of
popular speech. For instance, the word digger was used to represent someone who
searched for gold. Then, it was transferred to the Australian soldier in the First World War.
Now, it has been shortened to Dig and it still retains a military application today. Another
gold digging word is fossick which was used to represent something when we searched
for it. It too has gone through many changes and has been used in the phrase fossick it up
or we fossick around and fossicking is still a common, useful term to represent
searching. There were many other influences on Australian slang including: the Boer War,
the Second World War, the convict days, and the nomad life. In general, the country of
Australia has always been a working-class nation and its slang has expanded particularly at
times when men were thrown together in large numbers to complete a task or job. As a
result, Australian slang tends to be very masculine with ironic humour.

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Australian Words and Definitions

acca
Australian abbreviation of academic

arvo
afternoon

Australia
Latin for southern land

avago
have a go

bananalander
native of Queensland

bandicoot
some Australian mammals having long
pointed heads and bearing some
resemblance to their Indian namesake

barbie
barbeque pit

barracking
cheering for your team

battler
one who fights the odds, hangs in

bickies
bucks, money

billabong
an Australian waterhole

billy
tin can for boiling water

bitumen
asphalt paving

bloke
a guy
blue
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a blunder or quarrel

bodgie
a male youth that is distinguished by his
conformity to certain fashions of dress and
larrakin behaviour. (old fashioned term)

bogan
a person that you just don't bother with

boomerang
crescent shaped wooden implement used
for hunting, recreation and warfare

bush
rural area

bush tucker
wild edibles

crook
sick, broken down, or useless

coolibah
it is the term for any of the several
eucalyptus trees
cordie
is a term for an army cadet from the
Royal Military College Duntroon in
Canberra

cossie:
short for bathing costume, i.e., bathing suit

didgeridoo
a wind instrument, long, wooden, tubular
and produces a low pitch sound

dingbat
a weirdo; someone eccentric
dole
on welfare
drongo
dimwit

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drum
latest news on something

dummyspit
temper tantrum

dummy
pacifier, binky

dunny
an outhouse

durry
an Australian term for cigarette

fair dinkum
honest

fair go
fair chance

footy
name for Australian National Football

furphy
a rumour, false news

galah
used to refer to a fool or an idiot

g'day
good day

geek
a person who is socially inept, boringly
conventional

gilgai
describes a terrain of low relief on a plain
of heavy clay soil

greenie
conservation activist

grog
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an alcoholic drink, usually beer

hoon
fool, or idiot

jackeroo
stockhand

jumbuck
an Australian word for sheep

koori
it came to mean Aboriginal people

kylie
female personal name such as Kylie
Minogue

lairy
flashily dressed, showy

larrikin
rascal

lollies
candies

mate
buddy

mob
any group of people, not necessarily a
gang

moomba
the name of a carnival held annually in
Melbourne

nong
a fool or simpleton

ocker
describes a rough and uncultivated
Australian man
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on the
wallaby
a person who journeys through the
country, especially in search of seasonal
work

Oz
Australia, the land down under

Queenslander
a person who is native to or is a resident
of Queensland

ringer
an outstanding performer

ripper
terrific

rogaining
a sport where you have to visit many
checkpoints going cross-country in a
certain amount of time

screamer
a person who has a low tolerance of
alcohol

sealed road
blacktop road

shout
a round of drinks

smoke-o
tea or smoke break

sticky beak
a nosy person

swag
possessions carried by a traveller in the
bush

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true blue
faithful, staunch and unwavering in one's
faith, principles, etc. and a person who is
extremely loyal

whinge
to complain, whine, or gripe

widgie
a female bodgie (old fashioned term)

wowser
officious moralist, killjoy

yakker
hard work

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Seminar

Australia: The Land Downunder
PowerPoint Presentation

Song: Waltzing Matilda

Song: Treaty by Yothu Yindi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7cbkxn4G8U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcIrU3ofTEQ&feature=related

Song: Love is in the Air by John Paul Young from the movie Strictly Ballroom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNC0kIzM1Fo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ0tKl1kAwM

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Waltzing Matilda
(Australias best known song)
This song is a legend written by Banjo (Andrew) Patterson. It later became a song.
It was sung by soldiers heading for battlefield, and at celebrations and sporting events.

"One day a squatter (big land owner) came upon a swagman (one who carried his swag in
depression times) cooking a stolen jumbuck (sheep) under a coolibah (eucalyptus) tree.
Fearing arrest, he jumped into a billabong, probably drowning by accident.
His ghost has been waltzing ever since."
matilda: knapsack; tucker bag: for carrying food;
billy: for boiling water; billabong: river or waterhole

Once a Jolly swagman camped by a billa-bong
Under the shade of a coo-li-bah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled,
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
chorus:
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled

Down came a jumbuck to drink at that billabong
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee,
And he sang as he stowed that jumpbuck in his tucker bag

Up rode the Squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred
Down came the troopers, one, two, three,
Whose that jolly jumbuck you've got in ya tucker-bag?

Up jumped the Swagman and sprang into the billabong
You'll never catch me alive said he,
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.

Advance Australia Fair
(Australian National Anthem)
Australians let us all rejoice, for we are young and free,
Weve golden soil and wealth for toil; our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in natures gifts of beauty rich and rare,
In historys page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
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Advance Australia Fair.
Treaty
Yothu Yindi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7cbkxn4G8U

History
Treaty was composed by Yothu Yindi in collaboration with Paul Kelly and Midnight Oil to protest the failure of the
Australian Government to honour the Prime Ministers promise to Indigenous Australians at the Barunga Festival. The song
was remixed in Melbourne by Filthy Lucre in 1991 and rapidly climbed the Australian charts as did the album on which it
was released, Tribal Voice (1992).
Treaty is also innovative in its incorporation of an historic djatpangarri song item. djatpangarri is a style music and dance
that was pioneered by young men at Yirrkala in the late 1930s and was performed there for popular entertainment until
the early 1970s. For local Yol\u audiences, Treaty has reintroduced the young to a fun form of song and dance that their
parents and grandparents enjoyed in their youths while the song reminds older listeners a time before the advent of
mining on the Gove Peninsula. On Tribal Voice (1992), Treaty is preceded by another historic djatpangarri item, Gapu
[Water], which shares a similar melodic structure.

Lyrics
Well I heard it on the radio
And I saw it on the television
Back in 1988, all those talking politicians
Words are easy, words are cheap
Much cheaper than our priceless land
But promises can disappear
Just like writing in the sand

Treaty yeah treaty now treaty yeah treaty now

Nhima djatpangarri nhima walangwalang
Nhe djatpayatpa nhima gaya nhe
Matjini ... Yakarray
Nhe djatpa nhe walang gumurrt jararrk gutjuk

This land was never given up
This land was never bought and sold
The planting of the union jack
Never changed our law at all
Now two rivers run their course
Separated for so long
Im dreaming of a brighter day
When the waters will be one


Nhema gayakaya nhe gayanhe
Nhe gayanhe matjini walangwalang nheya
Nhimadjatpanhe walang
Gumurrtjararrk yawirriny
Nhe gaya nhe matjini
Gaya gaya nhe gaya nhe
Matjini walangwalang
Nhema djatpa nhe walang
Nhe gumurrtjarrk nhe ya

Promises disappear - priceless land - destiny
Well I heard it on the radio
And I saw it on the television
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But promises can be broken
Just like writing in the sand


Treaty yeah treaty ma treaty yeah treaty ma
Treaty yeah treaty ma treaty yeah treaty ma

Gumatj Lyrics

Translation

Nhima djatpangarri nhima walangwalang

You dance djatpangarri, thats better

Nhe djatpayatpa nhima gaya nhe marrtjini yakarray

Youre dancing, you improvise, you keep going, wow

Nhe djatpa nhe walang

You dance djatpangarri, thats good

Gumurr-djararrk Gutjuk

My dear paternal grandson

Nhima gayakaya nhe gaya nhe

You improvise, you improvise

Nhe gaya nhe marrtjini walangwalang nhe ya

You improvise, you keep going, youre better

Nhima djatpa nhe walang


Gumurr-djararrk yawirriny

My dear young men

Nhe gaya nhe marrtjini gaya nhe marrtjini

You improvise, you keep improvising, you keep going

Gayakaya nhe gaya nhe marrtjini walangwalang

Improvise, you improvise, you keep going, thats better

Nhima djatpa nhe walang


Gumurr-djararrk nhe y, e i, e i, e i i i, i i i, i i i, i i

You dear things, (terminal vocables)

Treaty ma

Treaty now

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Love is in the Air
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNC0kIzM1Fo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ0tKl1kAwM

1. Love is in the air,
everywhere I look around.
Love is in the air,
every sight and every sound.
And I dont know if Im being foolish,
dont know if Im being wise.
But its something that I must believe in,
and its there when I look in your eyes.

in the whisper of the trees.
Love is in the air,
in the thunder of the sea.
And I dont know if Im just dreaming,
dont know if I feel sane.
and its there when you call out my name.

Love is in the air, Love is in the air, oh, oh.

in the rising of the sun.
Love is in the air,
when the day is nearly done.
And I dont know if youre an illusion,
dont know if I see it true.
But youre something that I must believe in,
and youre there when I reach out for you.

everywhere I look around.
Love is in the air,
every sight and every sound.
And I dont know if Im being foolish,
dont know if Im being wise.
and its there when I look in your eyes.
Love is in the air, Love is in the air, oh, oh.
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ANB 1019 Weeks 12-13

South African English
and Culture

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Lecture South African Culture
South Africa: An Overview

Flag Description
two equal width horizontal bands of red (top) and blue
separated by a central green band which splits into a horizontal
Y, the arms of which end at the corners of the hoist side; the Y
embraces a black isosceles triangle from which the arms are
separated by narrow yellow bands; the red and blue bands are
separated from the green band and its arms by narrow white
stripes

Historical Background
People have inhabited southern Africa for thousands of years. Members of the Khoisan language
groups are the oldest surviving inhabitants of the land, but only a few are left in South Africa today--
and they are located in the western sections. Most of today's black South Africans belong to the
Bantu language group, which migrated south from central Africa, settling in the Transvaal region
sometime before AD 100. The Nguni, ancestors of the Zulu and Xhosa, occupied most of the eastern
coast by 1500. After the British seized the Cape of Good Hope area in 1806, many of the Dutch
settlers (the Boers) trekked north to found their own republics. The discovery of diamonds (1867)
and gold (1886) spurred wealth and immigration and intensified the subjugation of the native
inhabitants. The Boers resisted British encroachments, but were defeated in the Boer War (1899-
1902). The resulting Union of South Africa operated under a policy of apartheid - the separate
development of the races. The 1990s brought an end to apartheid politically and ushered in black
majority rule.

People
Prior to 1991, South African law divided the population into four major racial categories: Africans
(black), whites, coloureds, and Asians. Although this law has been abolished, many South Africans
still view themselves and each other according to these categories. Black Africans comprise about
80% of the population and are divided into a number of different ethnic groups. Whites comprise
just over 9% of the population. They are primarily descendants of Dutch, French, English, and
German settlers who began arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the late 17th century. Coloureds
are mixed-race people primarily descending from the earliest settlers and the indigenous peoples.
They comprise about 9% of the total population. Asians are descended from Indian workers brought
to South Africa in the mid-19th century to work on the sugar estates in Natal. They constitute about
2.7% of the population and are concentrated in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. Education is in
transition. Under the apartheid system schools were segregated, and the quantity and quality of
education varied significantly across racial groups. The laws governing this segregation have been
abolished. The long and arduous process of restructuring the country's educational system is
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ongoing. The challenge is to create a single, non-discriminatory, non-racial system that offers the
same standards of education to all people.
Economy
South Africa has a two-tiered economy; one rivalling other developed countries and the other with
only the most basic infrastructure. It therefore is a productive and industrialized economy that
exhibits many characteristics associated with developing countries, including a division of labour
between formal and informal sectors, and uneven distribution of wealth and income. The formal
sector, based on mining, manufacturing, services, and agriculture, is well developed. The transition
to a democratic, non-racial government, begun in early 1990, stimulated a debate on the direction of
economic policies to achieve sustained economic growth while at the same time redressing the
socioeconomic disparities created by apartheid. The Government of National Unity's initial blueprint
to address this problem was the Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP). The RDP was
designed to create programs to improve the standard of living for the majority of the population by
providing housing - a planned 1 million new homes in 5 years--basic services, education, and health
care. While a specific "ministry" for the RDP no longer exists, a number of government ministries and
offices are charged with supporting RDP programs and goals.

HIV/AIDS
South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV prevalence in the world, with 5.7 million HIV-
infected individuals. 18.1 % of the 15-49 year old population is infected, and in parts of the country
more than 35% of women of childbearing age are infected. Overall, 11.8% of the population is
infected. About 1,000 new infections occur each day, and approximately 350,000 AIDS-related
deaths occur annually. There are approximately 3.8 million children who have lost one or both
parents, and 1.6 million children were expected to have been orphaned by AIDS by 2008. The
marked rise in TB and HIV co-infection (with 50% co-infection rates) adds significantly to mortality in
this country. South Africa has 0.7% of the worlds population, 17% of the global HIV epidemic, and
28% of global HIV and TB co-infected people. It was expected that the epidemic could cost South
Africa as much as 17% in GDP growth by 2010, with the extraction industries, education, and health
among the sectors that would be severely affected. A 2007-2011 national strategic plan provides the
structure for a comprehensive response to HIV and AIDS, including a national rollout of antiretroviral
therapy. Overall, 30% of those who need it are currently on antiretroviral therapy.

Climate
Mostly semiarid; subtropical along east coast; sunny days, cool nights.

Population
49,900,530 (2010)

Ethnic groups
Black 79.4%; white 9.2%; coloured 8.7%; Asian (Indian) 2.7%.

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Religions
Christian 68% (includes most whites and Coloureds, about 60% of blacks and about 40% of Indians),
Muslim 2%, Hindu 1.5% (60% of Indians), indigenous beliefs and animist 28.5%.

Languages
11 official languages, including Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana,
Venda, Xhosa, Zulu.
South African English
English is generally understood across the country, being the language of business, politics
and the media, and the country's lingua franca. But it only ranks joint fifth out of 11 as a
home language.

English has been both a highly influential language in South Africa, and a language
influenced, in turn, by adaptation in the country's different communities. Estimates based
on the 1991 census suggest that some 45% of the population have a speaking knowledge of
English.

English was declared the official language of the Cape Colony in 1822 (replacing Dutch), and
the stated language policy of the government of the time was one of Anglicisation. On the
formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, which united the former Boer republics of
the Transvaal and Orange Free State with the Cape and Natal colonies, English was made
the official language together with Dutch, which was replaced by Afrikaans in 1925.

Today, English is the country's lingua franca, and the primary language of government,
business, and commerce. It is a compulsory subject in all schools, and the medium of
instruction in most schools and tertiary institutions.

According to the 2001 census, English is spoken as a home language by 8.2% of the
population (3 673 206 people) one in three of whom are not white. South Africa's Asian
people, most of whom are Indian in origin, are largely English-speaking, although many also
retain their languages of origin. There is also a significant group of Chinese South Africans,
also largely English-speaking but who also retain their languages of origin as well.

South African English is an established and unique dialect, with strong influences from
Afrikaans and the country's many African languages. As a home language, English is most
common in KwaZulu-Natal, where over a third (34.9%) of all English-speaking South Africans
are found, making up 13.6% of the provincial population. Another third (30%) of English
speakers live in Gauteng, where it is the language of 12.5% of the population, and 23.8% in
the Western Cape, where it is spoken by 19.3% of the population.

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Apartheid: An Overview
British granted South Africa independence in 1910, but gave power only to white
people. In 1948, the National Party gained office in an election where only white people
were allowed to vote. The party began a policy of racial segregation known as apartheid,
which means apartness.

The Population Registration Act classified the people as Bantu (black Africans), coloured
(people of mixed race), white (the descendants of the Boers and the British), and Asian
(Indian and Pakistani immigrants).

The Group Areas Act established separate sections for each race. Members of other
races were forbidden to live, work, or own land in areas belonging to other races. Pass
Laws required non-whites to carry a pass to prove they had permission to travel in
white areas.

The Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act created several small nations within South Africa
for black South Africans. All black South Africans, regardless of where they lived, were
made citizens of the homelands and thus were excluded from participating in the
governing of South Africa.

Other South African laws forbade most social contacts between races, authorized
segregated public facilities, established separate school systems with lower standards
for non-whites, and restricted each race to certain jobs.

More than eighty percent of South Africas land was set aside for its white residents,
despite the fact that they comprised less than ten percent of the population. South
Africas black majority had resisted apartheid for many years. They began rioting in
1976, when the South African government tried to force black children in the Soweto
township to learn Afrikaans, one of the languages of the white minority. The rioting
continued for the next fourteen years until the apartheid laws were repealed.

The world community made South Africa a pariah because of its racial policies. The
nation was forced to leave the Commonwealth, an alliance of former British colonies, in
1961. In 1985, both the United Kingdom and the United States imposed restrictions on
trade.

White South African yielded to world pressure and domestic violence in 1990 by
repealing most of the apartheid laws. Three years later, a new constitution gave people
of all races the right to vote, and the following year South Africans elected a black man,
Nelson Mandela, as president.
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Seminar

Whats Your English, South Africa?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOXpvsQzOdA

Dialects and Accents of South Africa
http://web.ku.edu/~idea/africa/southafrica/southafrica.htm

ESL In South Africa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsQOv2ollUo&feature=related

Poor Whites- South Africa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFj0HdW2iDs

South Africa: Forgotten Singles
http://www.rock.co.za/files/200_singles_index.htm

Soweto Gospel Choir
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT0jOKb9qcI&feature=related

Song: Yesu Azali Awa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wogzuwyyvAQ

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Yesu Azali Awa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wogzuwyyvAQ

Yesu azali awa
Yesu azali awa
Yesu azali awa na biso

Yesu azali awa
Yesu azali awa
Yesu azali awa na biso

Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia na Yesu

Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia na Yesu

Biso toko komo kuna
Biso toko komo kuna
Biso toko komo kuna na lola
Biso toko komo kuna
Biso toko komo kuna
Biso toko komo kuna na lola

Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia na Yesu

Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia na Yesu

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