English: One Tongue, Many Voices

299 Pages·2006·3.507 MB·English

by  Jan Svartvik, Geoffrey Leech (auth.)

English
One Tongue, Many Voices
Jan Svartvik and Geoffrey Leech
Two internationally distinguished English language scholars tell the fascinating,
improbable saga of English in time and space. They trace the history of the lan-
guage from its obscure beginnings over 1500 years ago as a collection of dialects
spoken by marauding, illiterate tribes. They show how the geographical spread
of the language in its increasing diversity has made English into an international
language of unprecedented range and variety. They look at the present state of
English as a global language and the problems, pressures and uncertainties of its
future. They argue that, in spite of the amazing variety and plurality of English,
it remains a single language.
English – One Tongue, Many Voicestells its story with the help of maps, diagrams
and pictures. The text is interspersed with panels focusing on particular topics
of interest, and is followed by notes that give the sources of information, as well
as detailed references and indexes.
A book for students and their teachers, and for anyone who wants a broad and
authoritative introduction to the phenomenon of English worldwide.
Jan Svartvik, the distinguished Scandinavian scholar of English language, is
now Emeritus Professor at the University of Lund, Sweden. He is co-author of
Engelsk universitetsgrammatik (with Olof Sager, 1977) and Handbok i engelska
(with Rikard Svartvik, 2001), and author, co-author or editor of some 35 books
and 75 papers or articles on varied aspects of English linguistics, contrastive
grammar and nautical terminology. He is a Member of the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences, The Royal Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities
and Academia Europaea.
Geoffrey Leech has recently retired as Research Professor of Linguistics at
Lancaster University, UK. Author, co-author, or co-editor of 25 books and
100papers or articles on varied aspects of linguistics and the English language,
he is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Member of Academia Europaea. He
is co-author with Margaret Deuchar and Robert Hoogenraad of English Grammar
for Today: A New Introduction, now in its second edition.
Together with Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum, Jan Svartvik and
Geoffrey Leech co-authored the ‘Quirk grammars’: A Grammar of Contemporary
English (1972) and A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985).
They are co-authors of A Communicative Grammar of English, which went into its
third edition in 2002.
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English
One Tongue, Many Voices
Jan Svartvik
and
Geoffrey Leech
© Jan Svartvik and Geoffrey Leech 2006
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-1829-1
All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90
Tottenham Court Road,London W1T 4LP.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified
as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2006 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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Companies and representatives throughout the world.
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St.Martin’s Press,LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States,United Kingdom
and other countries.Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European
Union and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-4039-1830-7 ISBN 978-0-230-59616-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230596160
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Svartvik,Jan.
[Engelska.English]
English :one tongue,many voices / Jan Svartvik,Geoffrey Leech.
p.cm.
Rev.and updated ed.of:Engelska :öspråk,världsspråk,trendspråk.c1999.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1–4039–1829–5 (cloth)––ISBN 978-1–4039–1830–9 (pbk.)
1.English language–History.2.English language–Variation–English-
speaking countries.3.English language–Variation–Foreign countries.
4.Globalization.5.Communication,International.6.Culture and globalization.
I.Leech,Geoffrey N.II.Title.
PE1700.S83 2006
420.9––dc22 2006041002
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06
For Gunilla and Fanny
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Contents
List of Figures xi
Acknowledgements xiii
List of Abbreviations and Special Symbols xiv
Preface xv
1 English – the Working Tongue of the Global Village 1
English is spoken in circles 2
The Inner Circle 3
The Outer Circle 4
The Expanding Circle 5
Do we need a world language? 5
Why English? 6
One or two explanations 8
Part I History of an Island Language
2 The First 500 Years 13
Roman Britain 14
Ships are sighted with English in embryo on board 17
Christianity in the Isles 19
The Viking age 22
What was Old English like? 27
The Lord’s Prayer 27
Beowulf 30
Two translations into Modern English 32
3 1066 and All That 33
Middle English 36
An influx of French words 36
Grammatical endings disappear 39
Geoffrey Chaucer and William Caxton 40
4 Modern English in the Making 46
The Three ‘Rs’ – Renaissance, Reformation, Restoration 47
English and Latin 48
vii
viii Contents
The Elizabethan period 50
Shakespeare’s language 54
The King James Bible – a milestone in the history of English 58
Restoration and reaction 60
English gains a new domain – the language of science 63
‘Dictionary Johnson’ 64
The ‘End of History’? 65
Codification of the standard language 67
Part II The Spread of English around the World 69
5 English Goes to the New World 71
English takes root in America 72
The Pilgrim Fathers 75
The first Americanisms 76
Linguistic variety and uniformity in the United States 78
The American Revolution 82
The frontier moves further west 85
New Americans 89
English goes to Canada 90
Cartier and Canada 91
Loyalists’ influence 93
Canadian English 95
6 English Transplanted 98
Australia: the First Fleet 99
Kangaroo, koala, kookaburrabecome English 101
Australian English 104
New Zealand – Aotearoa 105
New Zealand English 108
English in Africa – the Inner Circle 110
English comes to South Africa 112
English in Africa – the Outer Circle 115
English in South Asia 117
‘The jewel in the crown’ 117
English in Southeast Asia 119
New Englishes 121
7 English Varieties in the British Isles 124
RP (Received Pronunciation) 125
Cockney 128
Estuary English 130
Contents ix
The North 132
The West Country 133
Vernacular grammar 134
English in Wales 135
English in Scotland 136
Scottish varieties 140
English in Ireland 144
8 American and British English 150
‘Divided by a common language’? 152
Americanisms and Americanization 157
Persistent transatlantic differences of vocabulary 159
American and British pronunciation: comparing GA with RP 163
American vs. British grammar 166
AAVE – Black English – Ebonics 169
9 From Caribbean English to Creole 174
Pidgins and creoles 176
Jamaican creole 179
Sranan 181
The life cycle of a creole 183
The Atlantic creoles and their characteristics 185
Tok Pisin 187
Part III A Changing Language in Changing Times
10 The Standard Language Today 191
Standard English – the written language 193
Vocabulary – combining the North Sea and the Mediterranean 197
A spectrum of usage – from speech to writing 199
Is spoken English grammatical? 203
11 Linguistic Change in Progress:
Back to the Inner Circle 206
Grammaticalization 206
Colloquialization 207
Liberalization? 209
Americanization 210
Is English becoming a more democratic language? 211
Is English becoming a non-sexist language? 215
Electronic English 219