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English Language Complex 5

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English Language Complex 5

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azan000012310
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English Language Complex (ELC)

English language complex chiefly captures the idea that English is a dynamic, evolving, and
intricate language shaped by its diverse historical roots, global reach, and linguistic irregularities.
A. Diverse Origins:

English has a complex history, borrowing vocabulary, grammar, and structures from various
languages, including Latin, Greek, French, Old Norse, and others. This blending of linguistic
influences over time has made the language rich but complicated.

B. Multiple Varieties:

English is spoken differently across the world, resulting in various dialects and accents, such as
British English, American English, Indian English, and Australian English. These varieties,
known collectively as "World Englishes," contribute to the complexity as each has its own
spelling, pronunciation, idioms, and cultural influences.

C. Evolving Nature:

English is constantly evolving. New words and phrases enter the language frequently, especially
through technological innovations, global communication, and cultural exchange. As a result, the
language is fluid, adding to its complexity.

D. Inconsistencies in Rules:

English spelling and grammar can be inconsistent and challenging to master. For instance,
irregular verbs, silent letters, and unpredictable pronunciations (e.g., "though" vs. "through")
make it a language that often defies simple rules.

E. Global Influence:

English is used in international business, science, technology, and popular culture. Its widespread
influence means it adapts to various contexts, often leading to regional hybrid forms (like
Hinglish, Singlish, etc.).
The terms most often used to describe the varieties we are interested
in are ‘New Englishes’ or ‘World Englishes’. It has become customary
to use the plural form ‘Englishes’ to stress the diversity to be found in
the language today, and to stress that English no longer has one single
base of authority, prestige and normativity. There are at least four
books bearing the main title New Englishes: Pride (1982); Platt, Weber
and Ho (1984); Foley (1988) on Singaporean English and Bamgbose,
Banjo and Thomas (1997) on West African English. The pluricentrism
is also captured in the eye-catching book title The English Languages
(MacArthur 1998). Yet, as we shall see, neither ‘New Englishes’ nor
‘World Englishes’ is an entirely satisfactory term. Kachru (1983a)
pointed out that the ‘New English’ of India was actually older than
English in Australia, which is not generally considered ‘New’ -- since it
is to a large extent a continuation of the norms of nineteenth-century
first-language (henceforth L1) working-class British English. The second
term ‘World English’ runs the risk of being over-general, since British
English is not generally studied within this paradigm. Yet one might
quibble that it is a ‘World English’ too (from a commonsense notion
of the word ‘world’, anyway). The term is often cited as parallel to the
term ‘World Music’, which covers ‘non-Western’ musical forms. In all
of these terms there is a problem of perspective that is difficult to
overcome. It is therefore necessary to find a cover term for all varieties
of English: the one we will settle for is ‘English Language Complex’
(henceforth ELC), suggested by McArthur (2003a:56). The ELC may be
said to comprise all subtypes distinguishable according to some combination
of their history, status, form and functions. The following list
of subtypes, which takes a largely historical point of departure, will
be fleshed out in the rest of this chapter:

(a) Metropolitan standards: The term metropolitan (literally ‘mother


city/city-state’) is an old one, going back to ancient Greece, denoting
the relation between a state and its colonies. For the ELC the
term would have once been applicable only to standard English
of England. However, it is uncontroversial today, long after US
independence and its subsequent espousal of distinctly American
English norms, to acknowledge the existence of at least two
metropolitan standard varieties, whose formal models are those
provided by the radio and television networks based largely in
London and US cities like Washington, Los Angeles and (for CNN)
Atlanta.
(b) Colonial standards: The colonial history of English has made it an
important language in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South
Africa and Northern and Southern Rhodesia (now Zambia and
Zimbabwe). A fairly large number of English speakers formed
an influential group of speakers in the early history of these
‘Dominion’ territories. The varieties spoken there are referred
to in historical dialectology as ‘extraterritorial’ Englishes. It is
possible to speak of ‘colonial standards’ since informal and
(to a lesser extent) formal varieties have arisen in these territories
that may be considered ‘standard’. These standards
were, until recently, not fully accepted within the territories,
since the metropolitan standards exerted a counter-influence.
Today the colonial standards are much more prominent as
British influence recedes.

(c) Regional dialects: These are the varieties that may be distinguished
on the basis of regional variation within metropolis and colony.
A rule of thumb is that the older the settlement of English speakers,
the firmer the regional differentiation within the language.
Thus English dialects of the UK and USA are clearly definable
in regional terms; this is less true of Australia, New Zealand,
Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

(d) Social dialects: Identifiable varieties within a region along the lines
of class and ethnicity may occur. In London there is the difference
between Cockney of the working classes, Received pronunciation
(RP) of the upper-middle class and the intermediate
‘Estuary English’ (Rosewarne 1994). In Australia linguists identify
Broad, General and Cultivated varieties (Mitchell and Delbridge
1965); the first is the most localized, while showing numerous
traces of its origins in British working-class dialects; the third
is historically oriented towards RP, while the second mediates
between these two poles. Amongst ethnolects (or ethnic dialects)
Black English (also known as African American English) is identifiable
as a distinct linguistic variety in the USA (though it has
some regional variation too).

Groups (a) to (d) are frequently labelled off as a special group, ‘mother
tongue’ or L1 English or English as a Native Language (ENL), or in
B. B. Kachru’s (1988) terminology, which we discuss later on, Inner Circle
members of the ELC outlined below:

(e) Pidgin Englishes: Pidgins are defined prototypically as rudimentary


languages that have no native speakers, though they may
subsequently gain in complexity. They arise from trade and
other -- largely colonial -- forms of contact. English-based pidgins
like West African pidgin English may be considered to belong
to the English family, since they are ‘lexified’ by English -- i.e.
English is the source of much of their vocabulary.
(f) Creole Englishes: Creoles are fully developed speech forms, which
show so much restructuring as to bear little resemblance grammatically
to their lexifiers. These languages are ‘mixed’ in the
sense that typically their grammars and lexicons come from different
sources -- see Singler and Kouwenberg (in press) for recent
debates over terminology in this field. Although a variety like
Jamaican Creole is structurally an independent language, it has
overlapping membership with the ELC in terms of its vocabulary
and the possibilities of being influenced by English, which is the
‘authorised’ language of the education system.

(g) English as a Second Language (ESL): Typically these are varieties that
arose in countries where English was introduced in the colonial
era in either face-to-face communication or (more usually) via
the education system of a country in which there is, or had once
been, a sizeable number of speakers of English. In ESL countries
like Kenya, Sri Lanka and Nigeria, English plays a key role in
education, government and education.

(h) English as a Foreign Language (EFL): This category typically refers


to the English used in countries in which its influence has been
external, rather than via a body of ‘settlers’. For EFL speakers
English plays a role for mainly inter-national rather than intranational
purposes. Whereas ESL countries produce literature in
English (and other languages), EFL countries typically do not use
English in creative writing. The trend towards globalisation in
economics, communication and culture has made EFL prominent
in places like China, Europe, Brazil, etc.

(i) Immigrant Englishes: In the context of migration to an English dominant


country, varieties of English which originate as EFLs
may retain some distinctiveness or may merge with the regional
English of their territory, depending on a host of social and
economic factors. Thus whilst English in Mexico is of the EFL
variety, Chicano English of the USA shows greater affinity with
general US English. However, Chicano English is still a distinct
variety amongst many speakers which we classify as an ‘immigrant
English’. Our main reason for differentiating ‘immigrant
English’ from ESL is in the degree of influence of metropolitan
English over the former, since it is readily available in the local
environment (we discuss this issue further below).
(j) Language-shift Englishes: These are varieties that develop when
English replaces the erstwhile primary language(s) of a community.
There is, nevertheless, frequently a sense of continuity with
the ancestral language(s) and culture(s) in the shifting community.
The difference between ‘language-shift English’ and ‘social
dialect’ is one of degree; the former can, in time, shade into a
social dialect. Essentially, a language-shift English has at some
crucial stage of its development involved adult and child L1 and
second-language (L2) speakers who formed one speech community.
A social dialect in contrast is typically conceived of as having
only L1 speakers. Thus Hiberno English is probably best classified
as a social dialect in most areas of Ireland today; not so long ago
it would have counted as a language-shift variety, with L1 and L2
speakers of the dialect closely interacting with each other.

(k) Jargon Englishes: Whereas a pidgin is a well-defined (if rudimentary)


variety, with norms that are tacitly agreed upon by its speakers,
a jargon is characterised by great individual variation and
instability (hence also described as a pre-pidgin).1 E.g. contact
between South Sea Islanders and Europeans in the nineteenth
century led to the formation of unstable jargons in many parts
of the Pacific. One of these developed into a stable, expanded
pidgin, Tok Pisin, which is now one of the official languages of
Papua New Guinea.

(l) Hybrid Englishes: Also called ‘bilingual mixed languages’, these are
versions of English which occur in code-mixing in many urban
centres where a local language comes into contact with English.
Although sometimes given derogatory names, like Hinglish for
the hybrid Hindi-English of north Indian cities, these hybrids
may have prestige amongst urban youth and the young at heart
in informal styles.

A sketch typology like the one we propose brings as much controversy


as clarity. Many issues raised in the characterisation of the ELC
are worthy of closer scrutiny and debate. For example:

Note:
The alternative sense of ‘jargon’ as the excessive use of technical terms does not
apply here.

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