English Language Varieties: A Comprehensive Analysis

Posted on Jan 3, 2025 in Social sciences

Varieties of English

1. Variation in Natural Language

  • Factors influencing variation:
    • Speaker status
    • Age
    • Sex (grammar and pronunciation differences)
    • Level of education
    • Social class
    • Ethnicity (e.g., African American Vernacular English)

Variation is a complex mixture, including personal factors. Even standard language has varieties.

2. Defining Language Boundaries

There is no clear-cut answer to whether different forms are the same or different languages.

  • Political factors play a role:
    • Danish and Swedish: mutually intelligible but considered different languages.
    • Dutch and German: mutually intelligible across the border, but classified differently based on territory.
    • Dialects of a single language may not always be mutually intelligible.

3. British English and American English

  • National standards are associated with the prestige variety used by educated people.
  • There are small differences between British and American English.
  • American English is increasingly influencing British English, leading to convergence rather than divergence.

4. English as a Second Language (ESL)

  • Countries like India, Nigeria, Ghana, and the Philippines use English as an additional language acquired at school.
  • Former colonies have retained English for official purposes due to pragmatic reasons.
  • English serves as a lingua franca in multilingual communities and for international communication.
  • In some cases, it is used for national parliaments, higher courts, central administrations, and higher education.

Attitudes towards standardization are divided:

  • For: nationalistic reasons.
  • Against: to encourage independent local varieties.

5. English as a Foreign Language (EFL)

Clear cases include Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands, Germany, and Japan, where there is no claim to local varieties.

Sometimes, the distinction between EFL and L2 is not clear, such as in Malaysia, where English is no longer official but still used for important functions.

Teaching English as a foreign language raises the question of which model to use: British or American?

  • Choices are influenced by historical and geographical reasons, particular education, and the teacher.

6. Colonial History and English

English as a native language (ENL) has been influenced by the independence of American and British colonies.

  • American English (1776) influenced Canadian English (1867), with Canadians exaggerating differences due to apprehension about their neighbors.
  • Australian English (1901) is more closely related to British English but has considerable American influence since World War II.
  • Canada and Australia, with long histories of independence, have sought linguistic separatism, including national dictionaries.
  • New Zealand, Ireland, and South Africa have not codified standards to the same level as British and American English.

In all L1 countries, the written standard is relatively similar, with minor variations in spelling, punctuation, and grammar, but more significant variation in vocabulary.

English Language Complex (World Englishes)

Classification Perspectives of Study

  • Historical linguistics: Germanic origins and separation into regional/social dialects.
  • Sociolinguistics: How English has spread through colonization.
  • Language contact: Similarities and differences among varieties.
  • Political studies: “Linguistic Imperialism” caused by dominance.
  • Applied linguistics: Role of English in modernization.
  • Cultural and literary studies: Impact of English on different cultures.
  • Other areas: Oral vs. written, area of knowledge, social situation.

The field of ELC Subtypes (historical point of view)

  1. Standards metropolitan: BrE (London), AmE (Washington, LA, CNN).
  2. Colonial standards: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
  3. Regional dialects: Older settlements have older differences.
  4. Social dialects: Ethnicity and social class.

Examples in London:

  • Cockney (working classes)
  • Received Pronunciation (upper-middle classes)
  • “Estuary English” (intermediate)
  • Black English (influenced by American English)

TODO: English as mother language or L1

  1. Pidgin Englishes: Rudimentary languages with no native speakers, created for communication, often from trade deals. E.g., West African English.
  2. Creole Englishes: Fully developed speech forms with mixed grammar and lexicon. E.g., Jamaican Creole.
  3. L2: Introduced English in the colonial era, used for face-to-face communication or via the education system. E.g., Kenya, Sri Lanka, Nigeria.
  4. EFL: Countries with no colonial influence, using English for international purposes. E.g., Europe, Japan, China.
  5. Immigrant Englishes: Originating as EFLs. E.g., Chicano English.
  6. Language-shift Englishes: English replaces the original language. E.g., Ireland.
  7. Jargon Englishes: Individual variation and instability. E.g., Tok Pisin.
  8. Hybrid Englishes: Bilingual mixed languages. E.g., Hinglish.

The Native Speaker Controversy

Traditionally:

  • Native speakers learn the language from birth without formal instruction.
  • Non-native speakers learn it as a second language after being initiated into their native language.

A child in multilingual societies may have several languages.

Parallelism:

  • Multilingual speakers switch languages according to the situation.
  • Monolingual speakers switch styles according to the situation.

There is no difference in grammatical issues.

A language is partly inherited and partly created by its speakers:

  1. Monolingual speakers do not have more authority than multilingual speakers.
  2. There is always a difference between ENL and ESL.