Varieties of English

• English is a worldwide language. Between 1.5 billion and

2 billion people across the planet speak English. Between
375,000 and 400,000 people are native English speakers.
In view of these statistics, many consider the English
language to be a world language. Since the English
language has become so widespread, it is no surprise
that different varieties of English have arisen.
 What is a variety?
• A variety of a language is a form that differs from
another forms of the language systematically and
coherently. Variety is a wider concept than style of prose
or style of language.
 TYPES OF VARIATION
• LANGUAGE USER
Regional Variation
Social Variation

• LANGUAGE USE
Medium
Attitude
Field of Discourse
 Regional variation
• It is caused mainly by the geographical dispersion.
People go to different territories which creates distinctions
among the use of the language. This is how has
appeared the different languages.
 Social variation
There are some factors involved here: education,
socioeconomic group, ethnic group, and differences related
to age and gender.
 Medium
• It refers to how an expression is being addressed.
• It can be Spoken or Written.
• Here the speaker when using the written way of
communication, has to use a lot of expressions or signs to
be understood by the reader. The speaker has to
reformulate their sentences into the clearer and more
effective way.
 ATTITUDE

• We use a distinctive attitude to the different situation in

which we are involved. We could be formal (stiff, cold,
polite, impersonal) or informal (relaxed, warm, casual,
friendly).
 FIELD OF DISCOURSE
• Field may be analyzed in terms of the social setting and
the communicative purpose in which the text is produced.
• A speaker has repertory of varieties where lexical items
are used such as:
• Medicine, Law, Education, Business aspects,
Technology, Engineering, etc.
• World Englishes (WE) stands for the localized varieties of English as they
are used or spoken in certain areas.

• The famous “Three Concentric Circles of Asian Englishes” attributed to Braj

Kachru presents the three circles:

• Inner Circle with ENL (English as Native Language)

• Outer Circle with ESL (English as Second Language)
• Expanding Circle with EFL (English as Foreign Language) member
countries.
THREE CONCENTRIC CIRCLES
• The Inner Circle presents the countries where English is the primary
language and is used in daily life and government institutions.

• The Outer Circle includes countries that have British colonial ties, and
English is widely used in social life or in the government sector. Most of the
countries that belong to this circle are former colonies of the British Empire.
The use of English in these countries is English as a second language.

• Finally, the Expanding Circle includes countries that introduce English as a

foreign language in education, mainly for the purpose of communicating in
English with the Inner and Outer Circles.
 How many variations of the English language are
there?

• Specifically, there are 160 distinct English dialects

throughout the world. There are a large array of different
accents within primarily English speaking countries, like
the US and England, and there are a large array of
foreign English accents.
 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH : AN OVERVIEW

The Filipino uses English as a:

• vehicle of communication across distinct linguistic and cultural
groups ,
• nativized medium for articulating local within and across the
archipelago;
• language of creativity
• Ianguage that has developed its own subvariety indicating
penetration at an levels;
 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH

Definition

deep hard to understand

Blow out Treating someone with a snack or

meal
motel A hotel used for premarital or
extramarital affairs
Balikbayan box Box where Filipinos returning from
abroad put all their shoppings
Amboy A Filipino perceived to be too pro-
American
 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH EXAMPLES
• Extentions of Meaning and Generalization

 blow-out- It is a lavish feast but to a Filipino this means treating others to a

snack or a meal.
 brown-out- It is actually a period of reduced voltage of electricity causing
subnormal illumination but Fipinos use brown-out to mean temporary
stoppage of electric current rather than its actual term blackout.
 prep school- means a preparatory school to college but to the Filipino this
means preparatory school to elementary.
 salvage- It means " to save," but to the Filipino this means "to kill someone in
cold blood"
 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH EXAMPLES
 Colgate- It is another brand name for a toothpaste product. Other brands of
toothpaste products are Cose-up, Beam, Happy..
 Pampers- It is a brand name for a product of disposable diapers.
 Xerox- It is another brand name of a photocopier machine yet all
photocopiers, regardless of brand names, are called xerox by a Filipino who
also uses Xerox as a verb to mean "to photocopy."
 high-blood - It is used to describe enraged or stressed individuals.
 bold- It is used to associate pornography where in fact in means bravery or
being courageous.
 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH EXAMPLES
Shift in form of classes
• faculty
• researches -research studies
• furnitures
• advices
• equipments
• informations
• fill up
• cope up with- cope with
• based from -based on
• across from- across
 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH EXAMPLES

• ARCHAIC OR OBSOLETE USAGE

expire which means to die,

inscribe which simply means to enter the name of
(someone) on a list,
recompense to reward or punish,
forfend to avert or prevent something unpleasant
 verily to express certainty.
 PHILIPPINE ENGLISH EXAMPLES

PHILIPPINE ENGLISH LEXICON THROUGH COINAGE

• TY
• cel
• aircon
• ballpen
• DH
• TYL
• SLR
• pickpocketer
• boardmate
• batchmate
• shiftee
• book binder
• sembreak (semestral break)
• mani-pedi (manicure-pedicure)
• unli for unlimited
 CONCLUSION
• The above-mentioned examples attest the growing vocabulary of the
language and at the same time the Filipinos’ competence in building new
words. Coming from the lexical viewpoint, it is argued that English in the
Philippines is not deteriorating as others claim. It is growing as a distinct ESL
variety because it is kept vibrant by neologisms as well as borrowings from
other languages. The lexical formations and expansions found do not
suggest erroneous segments of PhilE but convey the variety’s linguistic
progress.