Types of variation
across “new Englishes”
Sources
C.M. Millward, A bography of the English language, 2nd
ed (Thomson, 1996).
J. Jenkins, World Englishes: a resource book for students
(London and NY: Routledge, 2003).
Main levels on which new Englishes differ from those of the
“inner circle”
- pronunciation
- grammar
- vocabulary/idiom
- discourse
style
Some shared characteristics result from “interference” of
- indigenous
languages
- learning
process
- use of
English in more “formal” or “institutional” settings, e.g. education,
administration
Pronunciation
- stress-timing
or syllable-timing?
- vowel
sounds
- consonant
sounds:
- esp.
interdental fricatives /θ/ and /đ/
- word-final
consonants
- replaced
with glottal stop
- devoiced
Grammar
- noun
pluralization
- not
marked
- non-count
nouns pluralized, e.g. our furnitures
- articles:
unidiomatic use; in/definite system might be replaced with non-/specific
system
- Everyone
has car
- I’m
not on scholarship
- verbs:
overgeneralization of the progressive to stative verbs
- She is
knowing her science very well
- prepositions:
“unidiomatic” use
- Her
name cropped in the conversation
- I’m
going to voice out my opinion
- word
order
- questions:
lack of inversion, invariable tag questions
Vocabulary
- indigenous
languages: borrowings
- indigenous
languages: transliterations of idioms, metaphors
- English
words: locally coined words / expressions (e.g. new compounds, clippings;
new meanings)
Discourse style
- may
seem more formal in character
- e.g.
extension of could, would: felt to be more tentative, more
polite
- “translations”
of indigenous culture
- e.g.
expressions of thanks, greetings and leavetakings
When a regional variety has developed, as we’ve seen, the
continuum from the “acrolect” to the “basilect” may reflect
- education
of speaker
- speech
situation
- subject
- audience
- relationship
audience speaker / subject / audience
Representative “New
English”: Mesolectal Indian English in Ezekiel’s “The Patriot”
Why is English in India?
- British
colonization: C17th, seriously since C19th
- teaching
of English
- C18th
missionaries
- C19th
official policy of training local civil servants in English
- three
universities in 1857: Calcutta, Madras, what was then Bombay
- early
C20th: English official language
- independence
in 1947: Hindi official, English “associate official”
- was
supposed to be replaced after 15 years, but that didn’t happen
Where is it used?
- education
- institutions
- moving
into friendship domain for non-Hindi migrants?
Preferred variety (1991 study)
- American
2%
- BBC
24%
- AIR/TV
(supposedly devoid of regional): 27%
- ordinary
Indian 47%
Ezekiel
Biography
- born
1924
- family
orthodox Jewish, native language Marathi spoken by Jews in Bombay
- highly
educated:
- parents
teachers
- father
professor, mother school principal
- school:
Bombay English medium
- university:
top MA in English
- lived
in England: studied philosophy at Birkbeck
- journalist,
academic
- 1952:
worked way home as a deck scrubber
- worked
as editor, broadcaster, university teacher
- poet
- this
is not very representative: one of some dramatic monologues in Very
Indian Poems in Indian English
- other
speakers: retired professor, civil servant
Debates over effect of this representation
- realistic
representation of real m/c Indians and their concerns
- status-conscious
- English-loving
- having
“English” as a vehicle really foregrounds what’s essentially Indian
- makes
Indian English acceptable vehicle for literature?
- elitist
snobbery?
- mocks,
parodies its subject
- too
slight for satire
- rules
out compassion, empathy
- ridicules
views expressed
- e.g.
that Gandhism, passive resistance is a panacea for all problems of life
End of poem
- an
invitation to visit again
- thematic
turn to “closeness”
- one
critic argues that this is a kind of reversal; brings us closer to the
speaker and encourages more empathy
Pronunciation
- uses
standard spelling: no evidence for pronunciation in writing
Grammar
- noun
plural
- fashion
and foreign thing
- articles
- missing
- in
newspaper
- reading
Times of India
- where
you wouldn’t expect them
- Lend
me the ears
- for
the drunkards only
- tasting
the wine
- overgeneralization
of the progressive
- I
am standing for peace and non-violence
- I
am simply not understanding
- Some
are having funny habits
- word
order
- no
inversion/do-support in questions
- What
you think of prospects of world peace?
- You
are going?
- tag
question
- All
men are brothers, no?
Vocabulary
- borrowing
- goonda
(“petty criminal”)
- lassi
- new
compounds
- student
unrest fellow
- goonda
fellow
Discourse style
- elevated:
“Friends, Romans, Countrymen”
- mixed:
with “100% correct”
R. Parthasarathy: “What is your good name, please?”
-another dramatic monologue
-representation of a conversation between a man and his
neighbour of fifteen years ago whom he encounters on his way to market
-uneasiness in the rhetoric
-speaker lacks the good education
that would have got him a good job and a good and timely marriage
-failed
his matriculation exam: “I am Matric fail”
-doesn’t
have a foreign education: “He is foreign-returned from UK”
-conscious of his English compared
to Madrasi: “How I make out? All Madrasis talking English language wonderfully”
-has an inferior job:
“Self-employed” vs “You are in service, isn’t it?” and the foreign-returned
fellow who “is officer in State Bank”
-married
late: “only last year”
-and
not as well as he might have: “inter-caste”
-and is not well off: “cost of
living is going up and up everyday” and he can’t afford sugar (though he
shouldn’t be using it because he’s diabetic)
-dramatic monologue dramatizes importance of education and
of English