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An English-Speaking World

by Don L. F. Nilsenand Alleen Pace Nilsen

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• “Standard English may be the standard by which people’s language in English-speaking countries is measured, but it’s important to recognize that it’s simply one among many kinds of English.”

(Smith & Wilhelm 48)

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Rhyming Slang

• When Jeff Wilhelm was in Tasmania, Australia, he asked why Larry, the curriculum director was absent.

• He was told, “That old bag a fruit did the frog and toad to Steak and Kidney!”

• In Australian rhyming slang– Bag a fruit man in the suit boss– Frog and toad hit the road took a trip– Steak and Kidney Sydney

– (Smith & Wilhelm 48)

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English, ESL or EFL is Spoken by about ½ of the People in the

World (about 2 Billion People) (McCrum 24/50)

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English as a Global Language¾ of the world’s mail

½ of the world’s technical & scientific journals

½ of all newspapers

80 % of the information in computers

All international air pilots

All international sea captains

Many movies, songs, and much business

½ of European business deals

7 of the largest TV broadcasters (CBS, NBC, ABC, BBC, CBC, CNN, C-Span)

TV televangelism of Christianity

…are in the English language.

(McCrum 10)

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Varieties of Global English, each with its Own Peculiar Flavor

• Deutschlish

• Franglish (la langue du Coca-Cola)

• Indian English

• Japlish (man-shon vs. mai-homu, basaburo, aisu-kurimu, mai-com [my computer])

• Russlish

• Spanglish (McCrum 10, 38-39)

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La Langue du Coca-Cola

• In France, – hot money capitaux fébariles– Jumbo jet gros porteur– Fast food prêt-à-manger

• In Quebec, Canada, Loi 101 : – English billboards, posters and storefronts are

banned. Many students are not allowed to attend English-language schools. (McCrum 39-40)

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Competing Global Languages

• Arabic

• Russian (before the breakup of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe)

• Mandarin Chinese

• Spanish

• French

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Education Act of 1870: RP

• Cockney (Cock’s Egg)

• RP (Received Pronunciation)

• Posh (Portside Out Starboard Home)

• (McCrum 13-21)

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World War II (McCrum 23)

• GI Bases in England, Italy, France, Germany

• GI Language was vivid, profane & abbreviated:

Black Market

Blitz

Flak

Nylons

Pin-Up

R & R

Snafu

Yank

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Pin-Ups and Yank Magazine

• Every issue of Yank Magazine featured a pin-up to remind soldiers of the girls back home.

• A pin-up of Rita Hayworth is said to have been taped to Fat Boy, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

• Compare this with the movie Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

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Atomic-Bomb Words (McCrum 24)

Atomic Holocaust

Chain Reaction (cf. Vonnegut’s “Ice Nine”)

Fallout

Fireball

Fission

Fusion

Mushroom Cloud

Test Site

(NOTE: The possibility of nuclear proliferation was one of the causes of Postmodernism & Deconstructionism)

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Coca-Colonialism (McCrum 24)

Budweiser

Coca Cola

Gillette

Kellogg’s Cornflakes

Kellogg’s Rice

Krispies

(“Snap Crackle and

Pop” has to be

translated into

various languages)

Kodak

Maxwell House Coffee

Schlitz

Lucky Strike

Marlboro

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Korean and Vietnam Wars (McCrum 25-26)

Korean:

Brainwashing

Chopper

(Helicopter)

Vietnam:

Defoliate

Domino

Theory

Escalation

Firefight

Friendly Fire

Hawks &

Doves

Vietnam:

Moratorium

Napalm

Pacification

Search and

Destroy

The Silent

Majority (ct.

the Vocal

Minority)

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David Ofgor, Attaché to the US Embassy in Phnom Penh:

• Talking to journalists:

• “You always write it’s bombing, bombing, bombing. It’s not bombing. It’s air support.” (McCrum 27)

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Regional Dialects (McCrum 27-29)

Franklin D. Roosevelt (Eastern Money)

Harry Truman (Twangy Missouran)

Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon & Gerald Ford (American Midwest)

Lyndon Johnson (Southern)

Ronald Reagan & Dan Rather (Network Standard)

Kennedy Family (New England)

George W. Bush (Texas)

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Valley-Girl/Surfer-Dude:

Bitchin

Dude

For sure

Goady

Rad

To the max

Totally

Tubular

Gay Speech:

Gay

Out of the closet

Queer

Queen

Women’s Speech:

Ms.

Letter carrier

JOKE: Mannheim Germany Personheim

Gerpersony

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Silicon Valley Words (California) (McCrum 30)

Artificial Intelligence

CD (Compact Disk)

DVD (Digital Video

Disk)

Data Processing

Disk(ette)

Flash Drive

Hacker

Input

Interface

Jump Drive

Modem

On-Line

ROM (Read-Only

Memory)

Software, Hardware, Wetware

Word Processor

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British vs. American Global English

• bird, bobby, bonnet, boot, drawing pins, flat, lift, lorry, mate, nappy, petrol, pram, sweets, torch, trunk call

• girl, cop, hood, trunk, thumb tacks, apartment, elevator, truck, buddy, diaper, gas, stroller, candy, flashlight, long-distance call

• colour/color, theater/theatre, tyre/tire

• advertisement, laboratory, secretary

(McCrum 32)

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!Disadvantages of English as a Global Language

• /š/ shoe, sugar, issue, mansion, mission, nation, suspicion, ocean, conscious, chaperon, schist, fuchsia, pshaw (spelled 13 ways)

• <sh> <ch> <ph> <th> <gh>

• Full, reduced, zero grades of consonants

• Long, Short, -r, schwa, and zero grades of vowels

• 15 different vowel phonemes

• <c> <g> <q> <s> (/s/ /š/ /z/ /ž/) <x> (McCrum 42)

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!!Advantages of English as a Global Language

• Natural Gender, not Grammatical Gender

• Simplified Word Endings resulting in greater flexibility (N V, etc.)

• Teeming Vocabulary (80 % is not Anglo-Saxon) but rather: Arabic, Celtic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Scandinavian, Spanish, etc.

(McCrum 43)

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Works Cited

McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil. The Story of English. New York, NY: Penguin, 1986. (source of map citations)

McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil. The Story of English: Third Revised Edition. New York, NY: Penguin, 2003. (source of text citations)

Smith, Michael W., and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. Getting It Right: Fresh Approaches to Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Correctness. New York, NY: Scholastic, 2007