World Englishes

Bridget Green
Based on
http://www.slideshare.net/aidenyeh/world-englishes
WTUC
A lecture

 Listen.
 Ask questions.
 Take notes.
 Take a quiz using your notes.

Ready?
English is a global language.

What does that mean?

What are the top five languages?

Mandarin
Spanish

English Hindi
Russian
 But Mandarin is
In order… not considered a
global language.
Why not?

1 Mandarin
2 English
3 Hindi
4 Spanish
5 Russian

The estimated ranking of languages when second language

use is taken into account. (Based on Ostler, 2005)
 Did you know…?

English is spoken in countries

on all five continents.

www.mapsofworld.com
 Do you know…?

Worldwide what percentage of

people speak English?

One out of five!

20%
Source: English 2000 Facts and Figures by the British Council
 Did you know…?

More than one and a half billion people

are learning English worldwide.

1,500,000,000
Source: David Crystal ‘Why English: The Historical Context’
 Did you know…?

More than _________ of the 66 %

world’s scientists read in English.

Source: English 2000 Facts and Figures by the British Council

 Did you know…?

More than _________ 68 %

of websites
on the internet are in English.

Source: English 2000 Facts and Figures by the British Council

 Did you know…?

More than _________ of the 75 %

world’s mail is written in English.

Source: English 2000 Facts and Figures by the British Council

 Did you know…?

More than _________

80%
of the world’s
electronically stored information is written in
English.

Source: English 2000 Facts and Figures by the British Council

 Did you know…?

There are 350 million+ native

English speakers.

Source: English 2000 Facts and Figures by the British Council

 Did you know…?

There are more than 1 billion

non-native English speakers.

Source: David Crystal ‘Why English: The Historical Context’

 Compare:

native non-native
English speakers English speakers

350 million x 3 100 million+

1: 3
Source: David Crystal ‘Why English: The Historical Context’
 Where did it start?

Native English speakers come

from many countries…
New Zealand
UK
Australia
Ireland
South Africa
USA Canada
“The Inner Circle”
Source: Kachru 1992
 How many are there?

Distribution of Native English speakers

by country…
Ireland
New Zealand
South Africa
etc

Source: Wikipedia/David Crystal 1997

 And then what happened?
“The Outer Circle”

imperialism
a political system in which one country rules a lot
of other countries

Source: Kachru 1992

 And then what happened?
“The Outer Circle”

colonialism
when a powerful country rules a weaker one, and
establishes its own trade and society there

Source: Kachru 1992

 And then what happened?
“The Outer Circle”

Zambia
Nigeria Tanzania
Bangladesh Sri Lanka
Ghana
Singapore
India
The Philippines
Kenya
Malaysia Pakistan

Source: Kachru 1992

 The Outer Circle?

Zambia
Nigeria Tanzania
Bangladesh Srithe
Lanka
Ghana
English is used inside
Singapore
country as an official language.
India The Philippines
Kenya Pakistan
Malaysia

Source: Kachru 1992

 And then what happened?

“The Expanding Circle”

Zimbabwe
Nigeria Russia
China
Egypt
English is used by Taiwan
professionals
Indonesia
in some contexts.
Nepal

Israel Saudia Arabia

Japan Korea

Source: Kachru 1992

 The Expanding Circle?

pilots travel agents researchers

news media
scientists teachers
computer programmers etc.
Zimbabwe
Nigeria Russia
China
English is recognized as an
Taiwan
Egypt
English is used by
Indonesia
important
professionals ininternational
some contexts.
Nepal

Israel
language. Saudia Arabia
Japan Korea

Source: Kachru 1992

English has been exported…

English
 Japan:
aikido,
Africa:
banzai,
bonsai,
chimpanzee,
China:
Native trek,futon,
voodoo,
American: yam,haiku,
etc judo,
ketchup, kamikaze,
canoe,
chopsticks, sake,
chipmunk,
bonsai, samurai,
skunk,
yen, china, tofu, sushi,
squash,
tea, etc English shogun,
hurricane, Middle East:
tycoon,
avocado, typhoon,
cocoa, alcohol, apricot,
Zen, etc
chili, zero, assassin,
chocolate, giraffe, algebra,
etc etc
 Different varieties of English…

Dialect = a variety of a language distinguished

by pronunciation, grammar, and
vocabulary

Why do 1. group

dialects 2. time

develop? 3. isolation

Source: Answers.com
 Different varieties of English…
1. group
2. time
3. isolation

Dialects of English have

developed in all of the countries
that use English daily.
= inner and outer circle countries
Source: Answers.com
 Different varieties of English…

sound different.
Carribean English: He come wit me dat day.

New Zealand English: I hev a pine in my hid.

Indian English: I hate to pay the tex.

Source: Answers.com
Different varieties of English…

use different vocabulary.

Indian English: My head is paining.

African English: You are looking very fat.

Australian English: If he’s within cooee, we’ll find him.
Different varieties of English…

use different grammar.

Indian English: I am understanding about it.

Carribean English: Where _ dat bai?

British English: I’m fine. I needn’t go to _ hospital.
World Englishes
This is why we say

World Englishes.

It’s not one English.

It’s many different Englishes.
Language and dialect

 Languages:
English, German, Japanese, etc.
 Dialects:
South Asian English, British English,
South African English, American English,
etc.
 Different varieties of English…

Which English is correct?

British English because it was first?
American English because it has the most
‘native speakers?’

Source: Wikipedia.com
All!

No dialect is more ‘correct’

than any other.
 What’s the difference?

What’s the difference between a

language and a dialect?
A languageA islanguage
exactly the
is asame
dialect
as a dialect
with
but bigger
an army
and
and
stronger.
a navy.

HA!
Source: http://www.olestig.dk/scotland/weinreich.html
Why is this important?

 English is a world language and has

been for hundreds of years.
 Each isolated group, over time, develops
its own dialect.
 All dialects are ‘correct’.
 One dialect is not ‘better’
than another.
 Why learn about World Englishes?
(= expanding circle)

Non-native speakers use English to

1. get ‘international’ jobs and
2. speak to other non-native
speakers from other countries.
 English…

 is a tool.
 can be used in your home
country.
 can be used in other non-
native English-speaking
countries.
 Remember:

native It is highly likelynon-native

thatspeakers
English most of your future contact
English speakers1: 3
in English
will be with other non-native speakers.

Source: David Crystal ‘Why English: The Historical Context’

 World Englishes

A tool that you

can use for
the rest of
your life!