English as a Global Language by Don L. F. Nilsen and Alleen Pace Nilsen 1 2 International Road Signs: 3 But there are still problems! 4 English, ESL or EFL is Spoken by about ½ of the People in the World ( about 2 Billion People) (McCrum 24/50) 5 English as a Global Language • • • • • • • • • ¾ 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 (McCrum 10) 6 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 (McNeal 10, 38-39) 7 La Langue du Coca-Cola • In France, – hot money capitaux fébariles – Jumbo jet gros porteur – Fast food prêt-à-manger • In Canada, Loi 101 : – English billboards, posters and storefronts are banned. Many students are not allowed to attend English-language schools. (McCrum 39-40) 8 Competing Global Languages • Arabic • Russian (before the breakup of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe) • Mandarin • Spanish • French 9 Education Act of 1870: RP • Cockney (Cock’s Egg) • RP (Received Pronunciation) • Posh (Portside Out Starboard Home) • (McCrum 13-21) 10 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 11 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. 12 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) 13 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 14 Korean and Vietnam Wars (McCrum 2526) 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) 15 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) 16 Regional Dialects (McCrum 2729) • 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) 17 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 18 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 19 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) 20 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) 21 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) 22 *21 Accents by Amy Walker: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UgpfSp2t6k *American Dialect Society: http://americandialect.org/ *Global Engrish: http://www.funnyordie.com/lists/71bd760bbe/31-brilliant-examples-of-engrish-fails *Lost Baggage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvo9-UA1HD8 *Yankee-Dixie Quiz: http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/yankee_dixie_quiz.html 23
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