English as an
International/Global Language
English
enjoys the status of an international language at present. The spread of
English was influenced by many factors such as colonization, immigration to
America, and the growth of population. Outside England, English is used as the
first language in countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia and New
Zealand and as the chief medium of communication in India and South
Africa.
The
foreign learners of English confront two obstacles. In countries outside
England, English is being taught by non-native speakers of English. The first
difficulty is that though good textbooks are available for English Language
Teaching, Spoken English of
the foreign learner suffers from lack of exposure to the basic tunes and
stress patterns of English.
The
second difficulty has to do with the striking discrepancy between the sound and symbol in
English. To overcome this problem, many eminent writers and grammarians like Ormulum (thirteenth
century), Chester Herald (sixteenth century), and Dr.
Johnson (eighteenth century) have
suggested Spelling Reforms. In the twentieth
century, the Simplified Spelling Society of Skeat, Daniel Jones and Ripman, and the Society for Pure
English of Robert Bridges and Fowler, both
in England,
have focussed their attention on this problem. In the US, the Simplified
Spelling Board and Webster’s American Spelling Book deserve
mention. Professor Zachrisson, the Swedish
linguist presented a new idea called Anglic
[A New Agreed
Simplified English Spelling] at the World English Conference of
1930. He suggested spelling reforms on phonetic lines. Bernard Shaw too was in favour of a modified alphabet
with 40- 50 letters. Shaw’s followers have rendered his Androcles
and the Lion in Phonetica,
a system proposed by Shaw.
To
simplify the complexity of English, the concept of Basic English was mooted [suggested something for
discussion] by C.K. Ogden. It proposed a
world language with a fundamental vocabulary of about 850 motor words thought
to be necessary for basic communication. Basic English was tried out in
China and other countries of the world in the 1940s. This consciously developed
framework but lacked the naturalness and spontaneity of a living language.
British
and American English
Among the many varieties of English spoken outside
England, the American variety is the most prominent. It differs from the
British variety in its choice of vocabulary, structure and intonation.
Lexical [vocabulary
of a language] differences between the two varieties are due to
cultural and geographical factors.
American
|
British
|
gas
|
petrol
|
rates
|
taxes
|
baggage
|
luggage
|
fall
|
autumn
|
faucet
|
tap
|
American vocabulary also has new
coinages like water gap, backwood, carpetbag, hoodlum, top-secret and long-distance
call.
At the syntactic
or structural level, the differences are subtle. While in British English,
the use of the verb do is confined to habitual action, in
American English, it is used in a general sense.
e.g.
I don’t have money
This sentence in British English means I
generally don’t have money. In American English, it can refer to
the present situation. If the reference is to the present context, the British
variety would prefer I haven’t any money.
Americans
tend to use secondary stress in polysyllabic words. In words like secretary
and dictionary, the secondary stress is heard in penultimate (the next to the last) syllable
in American pronunciation.
The typical
American speech is marked by a drawl and a nasal twang (sharp, vibrating sound). The intonation pattern (the rise and fall in the pitch of voice) of the
two varieties also differs.
British: Are well? you 
well?
you
American: Are
New Englishes
Postcolonial
Englishes with localised characteristics have emerged from the residue of the
Anglo-American political empires. The intermixture of English with the local
languages has resulted in exotic hybrid among which are Carribean English,
Indian English, various forms of African English and Singapore English known as
Singlish.
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