Mihai Bianca Alexandra

Facultatea de Limbi si Literaturi Straine

Programul de Studii de Master:Anglo-American Intercultural Studies
Anul II, semestrul I
Varieties of English
Conf.Univ.Dr.Athu Cristina

Varieties of English

The periods in the history of English

The evolution of English in the fifteen hundred years of its existence in England has been
an unbroken one. Within this development, however, it is possible to recognize three main
periods. Like all in history, the periods of the English language are matters of convenience and
the dividing lines between them purely arbitrary. There is no break in the process of continuous
transition. But within each of the periods it is possible to recognize certain broad characteristics
and certain special developments that take place.

1. The period from 450 to 1150 is known as Old English. It is sometimes described as the period
of full inflections, since during most of this period the endings of the noun, the adjective, and the
verb are preserved more or less unimpaired.

2. From 1150 to 1500 the language is known as Middle English. (Some of the developments
which distinguish Middle English begin as early as the tenth century, but a consideration of the
matter as a whole justifies the date 1150 as the general line of demarcation.) During this period
the inflections, which had begun to break down towards the end of the Old English period,
become greatly reduced, and it is consequently known as the period of leveled inflections.

3. The language since 1500 is called Modern English. By the time we reach this stage in the
development a large part of the original inflectional system has disappeared entirely and we
therefore speak of it as the period of lost inflections. The progressive decay of inflections is only
one of the developments which mark the evolution of English and its various stages.
 A. Introduction to Old English. Origin and Position of English. General
Characteristics of Old English

Language is associated with writing and calls up a picture of the printed page. We get an
impression that language is something uniform and relatively fixed. However, writing is only a
conventional device for recording sounds and language is primarily speech. The Latin of Cicero
or the French of Voltaire is the product of centuries of development and language as long as it is
in actual use is in a constant state of change.
We are dealing with the development of separate languages. Even if the differentiation
has gone too far, it is usually possible to recognize a sufficient number of features which the
resulting languages still retain in common to indicate that at one time they were one. For
instance, it is easy to perceive the close kinship between English and German. (milch=milk,
brot=bread, fleisch=flesh, wasser=water)These words have obviously diverged from a
common form. In the same way a connection between English and Latin is indicated by such
correspondences as (pater=father, frāter=brother), although the difference in the initial
consonants tends somewhat to obscure this relationship.
The most important discovery that led to this hypothesis was the recognition that
Sanskrit, a language of ancient India, was one of the languages of the group. The extensive
literature of India, reaching back further than that of any of the European languages, preserves
features of the common language much older than most of those of Greek or Latin or German. It
is easier, for example, to see the resemblance between the English word brother and the Sanskrit
bhrātar-, than between brother and frāter.
The first people in England about whose language we have definite knowledge are the
Celts. It used to be assumed that the coming of the Celts to England coincided with the
introduction of bronze into the island.
After the Roman conquest in A.D. 43, there followed a period of Romanization of the
province and among other evidence of Romanization one must include the use of the Latin
language. A great number of inscriptions have been found, all of them in Latin. The majority
of these proceed no doubt from the military and official class and being in the nature of public

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records, were therefore in the official language.
In 449 began the invasion of Britain by certain Germanic tribes, the founders of the
English nation. For more than a hundred years bands of conquerors and settlers migrated from
their continental homes in the region of Denmark and the Low Countries and established
themselves in the south and east of the island, gradually extending the area which they
occupied until it included all but the highlands in the west and north.

B. Introducing Middle English

Middle English (ME) is the term used to describe the varieties of English spoken and
written from about 1100 to about 1500. ME differed from OE in terms of its status and function.
German philologists distinguished among three periods in the history of the English Language:
Old English, Middle English, New/Modern English. Middle English as a transition period
between Old and Modern English.
There are distinctions in every aspect of grammar between OE and ME. In order to
simplify matters, we can say that two features particularly distinguish Middle from OE:
-a much simpler system of inflections (Middle English is also called the period of leveled
inflections) GRAMMAR: passage from a highly inflected language to a more analytic one
-an increasingly more “mixed” vocabulary. VOCABULARY: involved the loss of a
large part of the Old English word-stock and the addition of thousands of words from French and
Latin

Factors that contribute to the Reestablishment of English:

- Changing conditions after 1200. The loss of Normandy
- The French used in England was a regional variety
- The 14th century. The Hundred Years’ War
- The 14th century. The Plague Epidemics
The General Adoption of English: English in schools, English in the Parliament

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 C. Modern English

The English language of today is the language which has resulted from this fusion.
Perhaps the two most salient characteristics of Present-Day English are its highly analytic
grammar and its immense lexicon. When speakers imitate a word from a foreign language and at
least partly adapt it in sound or grammar to their native speech ways, the process is known as
borrowing, and the word thus borrowed is a loanword.
Main languages influence the English vocabulary:

 Scandinavian (intimate borrowings): anger, bag, thrive, awkward, gasp, link

 French (cultural, intimate borrowings): Food and Eating: dinner, supper, taste,
broil, fry, plate, goblet, serve, beverage, sauce, salad, gravy / Fashion: fashion,
dress, garment, coat, cloak, pantaloons, bonnet, boots, serge, cotton, satin,
fur, button, ribbon, baste, embroider, pleat, gusset, jewel, pearl, bracelet
 Latin (cultural borrowings): Because Latin was the official language of the
Church, a number of religious terms came directly into English from Latin, such
as apocalypse, dirge, limbo, purgatory, and remit

For the present overview the varieties of English in the modern world are divided into
four geographical groups as follows:

1) Britain- England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland

2) America- United States, Canada, African American Vernacular English, The
Caribbean

The main feature is what is called Canadian Raising by which is meant that the
diphthongs /ai, au/ are pronounced as /qi, qu/ before voiceless consonants and /ai, au/ before
voiced ones, e.g. knife /nqif/ : knives /naivz/; house /hqus/ : houses /hauziz/. /æ/ is raised
somewhat to /e/ (as in AmE.); /o/ is unrounded to /</: stop /st<p/.
The sounds of the English which formed the base for African American Vernacular English
have been reduced, particularly the phonotactics have been affected with consonant clusters
being simplified (desk F dess; master F massa, with r-dropping in syllable-final position).

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 3) Africa- West Africa, South Africa, East Africa

Afrikaans (mixtures of Afrikaans and English are not uncommon and termed
‘Anglikaans’) Phonology Retraction of first element with the diphthongs /ei/ and /ou/, e.g. may
/mqi/, go /gqu/

4) Asia, Pacific- India and South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, The Pacific
islands region

British English: Christmas, kangaroo, food, idiot, Well done!

Australian English: Chrissie, roo, tucker, dill, Good on ya!

Dialects are speech varieties which differ in phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax
and vocabulary. There are 2 types of dialects:
-Social dialects- they are identified purely on social criteria, social class of speaker, education,
age
-Regional dialects- as the name indicates, they are identified on the base of geographical area

For instance, most English learners have come across spelling differences between
different regional varieties of English:

British English : colour, catalogue, centre, analyse, to practise, tyre, fulfill, honour
American English : color, catalog, center, analyze, to practice, tire, fulfill, honor

Vocabulary differences are also very common between dialects. In some

examples, words in British English are compared with their equivalents in Australian English.

British English: Christmas, kangaroo, food, idiot, Well done!

Australian English: Chrissie, roo, tucker, dill, Good on ya!

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The differences between American and British English

 Phonology

1) Presence of (retroflex) syllable-final /r/ (in General American). This /r/ may be absent in
the South and conservative varieties in the North East.
2) Raising, lengthening and frequent nasalisation of /æ/ is very common
distribution of /æ/ and /<:/ is different from British English: e.g. cancel, dance, advance all have
/æ/ in American English.
3) Lowering of /o/ to /a/ as in pot /pat/.
4) Flapping of /t,d/ to /4/, e.g. writer /rai4qr/.
5) Alveolar /l/ in syllable-final position, e.g. ill [il]
6) Not so much diphthongisation of mid long vowels as in RP, e.g. home is pronounced /houm/
and not /hqum/
7) Partial retention of /w/ where RP has /w/, e.g. which /wit$/
8) Many cases of varying word stress compared with British English: AE- /address vs. BE-
ad/dress

 Morphology and syntax

The differences between American and British English are not so often a question of
presence or not of a certain feature as one of statistical frequency; the following characteristics
should be understood in this light.

1) Increased use of adjectives for adverbs. He’s awful tall. That’s real funny. I near finished
it.
2) Strong verb forms which are either a) archaic or b) false generalisations from other strong
verbs. do - done - done; get - got - gotten; see - seen - seen; bring - brang - brung (non-standard
in the United States).
3) Use of do is widespread in American English for questions and negative sentences. Did he
have a chance to do it? (Had he a chance to do it?) Have you enough money? No, I don’t (No, I
haven’t) He hasn’t a driving licence, sure he doesn’t? (, hasn’t he?) Did he use to smoke (Used

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he to smoke?)
4) Suppression of verb leaving a) a preposition The cat wants in. She wants off. b) a past
participle He ordered him replaced. They wanted a conference held.
5) Large number of phrasal verbs in American English: hold off (= restrain); figure out (=
understand); check out (= leave); get through (= finish); count in (= include); stop by (= visit
briefly).
6) Differences among prepositions: aside from (= besides); in back of (= behind); for (=
after), e.g The school was named for him. on (= in), e.g I live on George Street. in (= into), e.g.
He ran in the kitchen. than (= from), e.g. She is different than her sister. through (= from ... to)
Monday through Friday.
7) Lack of prepositions with expressions of time: I met him (on) Tuesday. I wrote (to) her
last week.
8) Pronominal usage: American English allows ‘he’ after ‘one’ which is not found in British
English: One never does what he should. One always deceives himself.

The Infiltration of the British word stock by Americanisms:

movie/film; mailman/postman; mental/insane; can/tin; garbage/rubbish; window
shade/blind; gas/petrol; mad/angry; raise/rise; filling station/garage; pitcher/jug;
elevator/lift; reel/spool; trailer/caravan; I guess/I think; truck/lorry; lumber/timber;
installment buying/hire purchase; chips/crisps; French fries/chips.

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Bibliography:

1. Blake, Norman (ed.). 1992. The Cambridge History of the English Language. Volume II:
1066-1476. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2. Culpeper, Jonathan. 2005. History of English. London: Routledge.
3. Nevalainen, Tertu. 2006. An Introduction to Early Modern English.
Edinburgh:Edinburgh University Press.
4. Hogg, Richard (ed.). 1992. The Cambridge History of the English Language. Volume I:
The Beginnings to 1066. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5. https://www.uni-due.de/ELE/VarietiesOfEnglish.pdf accessed link on 05.01.2019