An Introduction to International Varieties of English Laurie Bauer Edinburgh University Press 01 pages i-viii prelims 6/8/02 1:25 pm Page i An Introduction to International Varieties of English Laurie Bauer Edinburgh University Press 01 pages i-viii prelims 6/8/02 1:25 pm Page ii © Laurie Bauer, 2002 Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Janson by Norman Tilley Graphics and printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 7486 1337 (hardback) ISBN 7486 1338 (paperback) The right of Laurie Bauer to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Disclaimer: Some images in the original version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook 01 pages i-viii prelims 6/8/02 1:25 pm Page iii Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations and conventions used in the text To readers v vi vii Background notions 1.1 Accent, dialect, language and variety 1.2 Home and colony 1.3 Colonial lag 1.4 Dialect mixing Exercises Recommendations for reading 11 12 English becomes a world language 2.1 The spread of English 2.2 Models of English 2.3 English in Scotland and Ireland Exercises Recommendations for reading 13 13 19 25 28 29 Vocabulary 3.1 Borrowing 3.2 Coining 3.3 The results Exercises Recommendations for reading 32 33 40 42 44 45 Grammar 4.1 Morphology 4.2 Syntax 4.3 Discussion Exercises Recommendations for reading 46 46 48 58 59 60 01 pages i-viii prelims iv 6/8/02 1:25 pm Page iv INTERNATIONAL VARIETIES OF ENGLISH Spelling 5.1 Lexical distributional differences 5.2 Variation in the system 5.3 Conclusion Exercises Recommendations for reading Pronunciation 6.1 Describing varieties of English 6.2 Input varieties 6.3 Influences from contact languages 6.4 Influences from other colonies 6.5 Influences from later immigrants 6.6 Influences from world English 6.7 Differences between varieties Exercises Recommendations for reading The revenge of the colonised 7.1 Vocabulary 7.2 Grammar 7.3 Pronunciation 7.4 Conclusion Exercises Recommendations for reading Becoming independent 8.1 British Englishes 8.2 North American Englishes 8.3 Southern hemisphere Englishes 8.4 Discussion 8.5 The break-up of English? Exercises Recommendations for reading Standards in the colonies 9.1 Moving away from the standard in vocabulary 9.2 Moving away from the standard in grammar 9.3 Moving away from the standard in pronunciation 9.4 Discussion Exercises Recommendations for reading Discussion of the exercises References Index 61 62 62 66 67 68 69 69 71 73 74 75 75 76 82 83 84 86 86 88 90 91 92 93 95 97 98 99 100 102 103 104 104 105 108 110 112 112 113 127 133 01 pages i-viii prelims 6/8/02 1:25 pm Page v Acknowledgements Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this book previously published elsewhere Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity Cambridge University Press and Tom McArthur for Figure 2.4 on p 22, from McArthur (1987) Contact, for the text published on 27 February 1992 reproduced on p 103 Max Niemeyer Verlag GmbH for Figure 2.3 on p 21, from Görlach (1990a) The New Zealand Listener, for the letter to the editor of 12 March 1983 reproduced on p 102 Professor D Throsby for the text from The Sydney Morning Herald of August 1999 reproduced on p 67 Times Newspapers Limited for Eleanor Mills’s Column, The Sunday Times, January 2001 © Times Newspapers Limited 2001, reproduced on p 90 The author would like to thank Carolin Biewer for searching corpora for data for Chapter 5, and the following people who have commented on earlier drafts: Winifred Bauer, Derek Britton, Jack Chambers, Vivian de Klerk, Manfred Görlach, Edgar Schneider None of them is responsible for any errors of fact or interpretation v 01 pages i-viii prelims 6/8/02 1:25 pm Page vi Abbreviations and conventions used in the text /…/ […]  * Aus CDN GA NAm NZ RP SA enclose a phonemic transcription enclose a phonetic transcription, where the actual sounds made are the focus of attention enclose an orthographic representation; enclose URLs small capitals indicate lexical sets, see section 6.1 not a grammatical sentence/construction Australia(n) Canada/Canadian General American, see section 6.1 North American New Zealand Received Pronunciation, see section 1.1 South Africa(n) Transcription systems for RP and GA are those used in the companion volume, McMahon (2002) vi 01 pages i-viii prelims 6/8/02 1:25 pm Page vii To readers The title of this book, International Varieties of English, requires some comment It might be expected that this would refer to varieties of English which are used internationally, but this is not its normal field of use Instead, it is a well-established label for varieties of English which are used nationally in different places in the world Although ‘national varieties of English’ might be a more transparent term, this widely accepted though slightly peculiar use of ‘international varieties’ is maintained in this book While most books on international varieties of English take each variety in turn and discuss the vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation which is special to that variety, this book aims to seek out generalities which determine the ways in which English will diverge in different locations Accordingly, there are chapters dealing with matters such as vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation, but in each it is shown how the same fundamental principles apply to a number of different varieties with disparate outcomes So the question is not How they speak English in X? where ‘X’ is some Anglophone country, but rather Why have the varieties of English round the world turned out the way they have? Correspondingly, the exercises are designed to make students think about what it means to speak Australian or Falkland Islands English, what the historical influences on any given variety are, and how familiar notions such as ‘standard’ apply outside Britain or the USA I hope that this book will complement and be complemented by books which take a more traditional approach, and that this volume will be useful for courses which aim to consider the English language as used in a particular area or country as well as for courses which are intended to explore the linguistic principles underlying linguistic colonisation and globalisation Teachers and students alike are encouraged to go beyond the book by studying texts from various countries round the world, listening to speakers from these countries, and talking to them if at all possible That, after all, is the best way to get a feel for how different the international Englishes can be, and how much they have in common vii 01 pages i-viii prelims 6/8/02 1:25 pm Page viii Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language General Editor Heinz Giegerich, Professor of English Linguistics (University of Edinburgh) Editorial Board Laurie Bauer (University of Wellington) Derek Britton (University of Edinburgh) Olga Fischer (University of Amsterdam) Norman Macleod (University of Edinburgh) Donka Minkova (UCLA) Katie Wales (University of Leeds) Anthony Warner (University of York)      An Introduction to English Syntax Jim Miller An Introduction to English Phonology April McMahon An Introduction to English Morphology Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy An Introduction to Middle English Simon Horobin and Jeremy Smith An Introduction to Old English Richard Hogg viii 02 pages 001-136 6/8/02 1:26 pm Page 1 Background notions This book is about the characteristics of the English language as it is used in various countries around the world It is restricted, however, to those varieties of English spoken predominantly by native speakers of English This means we will consider the kinds of English spoken in Britain, the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Falkland Islands, but will have little to say about the varieties spoken in Nigeria, Jamaica, Singapore, Hong Kong or the Philippines This distinction will be spelt out in greater detail and justified further in section 2.2 and immediately below Here I merely draw attention to this self-imposed limitation, and make the point that this book does not attempt to provide in-depth coverage of English in all the countries in which it has a significant place To some extent, this limitation is a consequence of the introductory nature of this text The cases dealt with here are all the easy ones: they arise by putting speakers of different varieties of English together and letting a new variety emerge, influenced by surrounding languages in ways which will be explored in this book These relatively simple processes also apply in more complex situations, but other factors also play important roles there To deal with the situation in Nigeria or Singapore, we would need some understanding of the contact situation in which the varieties of English there developed, including the political and educational conditions In particular we would need to know about the principles affecting languages in contact, especially where the language we are interested in remains a minority one for a long period We would also have to know a lot more about the languages spoken in these areas at the time English was introduced – in both these cases, this means several languages If we wanted to look at pidgin and creole languages such as Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea or Krio in Sierra Leone we would need to know about the general principles which govern the process of simplification (producing pidgins) and the principles of reconstructing grammatical complexity (producing creoles) These are interesting issues, but not elementary ones ... Introduction to English Syntax Jim Miller An Introduction to English Phonology April McMahon An Introduction to English Morphology Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy An Introduction to Middle English Simon... Page INTERNATIONAL VARIETIES OF ENGLISH vowel in RP, South African English and New Zealand English (RP /lɑf/, /bɑθ/ and /kɑsl/) American English has retained gotten while it has changed to got... English Language General Editor Heinz Giegerich, Professor of English Linguistics (University of Edinburgh) Editorial Board Laurie Bauer (University of Wellington) Derek Britton (University of