World Englishes are emerging localized or indigenized varieties of English, especially varieties that have developed in territories influenced by the United Kingdom or the United States. The study of World Englishes consists of identifying varieties of English used in diverse sociolinguistic contexts globally and analyzing how sociolinguistic histories, multicultural backgrounds and contexts of function influence the use of English in different regions of the world.
The issue of World Englishes was first raised in 1978 to examine concepts of regional Englishes globally. Pragmatic factors such as appropriateness, comprehensibility and interpretability justified the use of English as an international and intra-national language. In 1988, at a Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, the International Committee of the Study of World Englishes (ICWE) was formed. In 1992, the ICWE formally launched the International Association for World Englishes (IAWE) at a conference of "World Englishes Today", at the University of Illinois, USA.International Association of World Englishes , Retrieved on 18 November 2010. There are two academic journals devoted to the study of this topic, titled English World-Wide (since 1980) and World Englishes (since 1982). There are a number of published handbooks and textbooks on the subject.
Currently, there are approximately 75 territories where English is spoken either as a first language (L1) or as an unofficial or institutionalized second language (L2) in fields such as government, law, and education. It is difficult to establish the total number of Englishes in the world, as new varieties of English are constantly being developed and discovered.Crystal, D. (2007). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
World English vs. World Englishes vs. Global Englishes The notions of World English and World Englishes are far from similar, although the terms are often mistakenly used interchangeably. World English refers to the English language as a lingua franca used in business, trade, diplomacy and other spheres of global activity, while World Englishes refers to the different varieties of English and English-based creoles developed in different regions of the world. Alternatively, the term Global Englishes has been used by scholars in the field to emphasize the more recent spread of English due to globalization, which has resulted in increased usage of English as a lingua franca.Galloway, N. & Rose, H. (2015). Introducing Global Englishes. Arbingdon, UK: Routledge
Historical context
History of English
English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought by Germanic invaders into Britain. Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. Eventually, one of these dialects, Late West Saxon, came to dominate.Baugh, A. C. and Cable. T. (1993). A History of the English Language. Routledge.
The original Old English was then influenced by two further waves of invasion: the first by speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic language family, who conquered and colonized parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries; the second by the Norman Conquest of England in the 11th century, by invaders who spoke Old Norman and ultimately developed a Norman variety called Anglo-Norman. For two centuries after the Norman Conquest, French became the language of everyday life among the upper classes in England. Although the language of the masses remained English, the bilingual character of England in this period was thus formed.
During the Middle English period, France and England experienced a process of separation. This period of conflicting interests and feelings of resentment was later termed the Hundred Years' War. By the beginning of the 14th century, English had regained universal use and become the principal tongue of all England, but not without having undergone significant change.
During the Renaissance, patriotic feelings regarding English brought about the recognition of English as the national language of England. The language was advocated as acceptable for learned and literary use. With the Great Vowel Shift, the language in this period matured to a standard and differed significantly from the Middle English period, becoming recognizably "modern".Stockwell, R. (2002). "How much shifting actually occurred in the historical English vowel shift?", Minkova, Donka; Stockwell, Robert. Studies in the History of the English Language: A Millennial Perspective. Mouton de Gruyter.
By the 18th century, three main forces were driving the direction of the English language: (1) to reduce the language to rule and effect a standard of correct usage; (2) to refine the language by removing supposed defects and introducing certain improvements; and (3) to fix English permanently in the desired form. This desire for system and regularity in the language contrasted with the individualism and spirit of independence characterized by the previous age.
By the 19th century, the expansion of the British Empire, as well as global trade, had led to the spread of English around the world. The rising importance of some of England's larger colonies and former colonies, such as the rapidly developing United States, enhanced the value of the English varieties spoken in these regions, encouraging the belief, among the local populations, that their distinct varieties of English should be granted equal standing with the standard of Great Britain.
Global spread of English First dispersal: English is transported to the New World The first diaspora involved relatively large-scale migrations of mother-tongue English speakers from England, Scotland and Ireland predominantly to North America and the Caribbean, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Over time, their own English dialects developed into modern American, Canadian, West Indian, South African, Australian, and New Zealand Englishes. In contrast to the English of Great Britain, the varieties spoken in modern North America and Caribbean, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand have been modified in response to the changed and changing sociolinguistic contexts of the migrants, for example being in contact with indigenous Native American, Khoisan and Bantu, Aboriginal or Maori populations in the colonies.Jenkins, Jennifer. (2003). World Englishes: A Resource Book for Students. London and New York: Routledge.
Second dispersal: English is transported to Asia and Africa The second diaspora was the result of the colonization of Asia and Africa, which led to the development of 'New Englishes', the second-language varieties of English. In colonial Africa, the history of English is distinct between West and East Africa. English in West Africa began with trade, particularly the slave trade. English soon gained official status in what are today Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon, and some of the pidgin and creoles which developed from English contact, including Krio (Sierra Leone) and Cameroon Pidgin, have large numbers of speakers now.
As for East Africa, extensive British settlements were established in what are now Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, where English became a crucial language of the government, education and the law. From the early 1960s, the six countries achieved independence in succession; but English remained the official language and had large numbers of second language speakers in Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi (along with Chewa).
English was formally introduced to the sub-continent of South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan) during the second half of the eighteenth century. In India, English was given status through the implementation of Macaulay 'Minute' of 1835, which proposed the introduction of an English educational system in India. Over time, the process of 'Indianization' led to the development of a distinctive national character of English in the Indian sub-continent.
British influence in South-East Asia and the South Pacific began in the late eighteenth century, involving primarily the territories now known as Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Papua New Guinea, also a British protectorate, exemplified the English-based pidgin - Tok Pisin.
The US came late in South-East Asia but their influence spread quickly as their reforms on education in the Philippines progressed in their less than half a century colonization of the islands. English has been taught since the US period and is one of the official languages of the Philippines. Ever since English became the official language, a localized variety gradually emerged - Philippine English. Lately, linguist Wilkinson Daniel Wong Gonzales argued that this variety has in itself more varieties, suggesting that the Philippines move towards Philippine Englishes paradigm to progress further in Schneider's dynamic model after gathering evidences of such happening.
Nowadays, English is also learnt in other countries in neighboring areas, most notably in Taiwan, Japan and Korea.
Classification of Englishes The spread of English around the world is often discussed in terms of three distinct groups of users, where English is used respectively as:
a native language (ENL); the primary language of the majority population of a country, such as in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. a second language (ESL); an additional language for intranational as well as international communication in communities that are multilingual, such as in India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Singapore. Most of these Englishes developed as a result of imperial expansion that brought the language to various parts of the world. a foreign language (EFL); used almost exclusively for international communication, such as in Japan.
Kachru's Three Circles of English The most influential model of the spread of English is Braj Kachru's model of World Englishes. In this model the diffusion of English is captured in terms of three concentric circles of the language: the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle.Kachru, B. (1992). The Other Tongue: English across cultures. University of Illinois Press.
The Inner Circle refers to English as it originally took shape and was spread across the world in the first diaspora. In this transplantation of English, speakers from England carried the language to Australia, New Zealand, and North America. The Inner Circle thus represents the traditional historical and sociolinguistic bases of English in regions where it is now used as a primary language: the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and anglophone Canada. English is the native language or mother tongue of most people in these countries. The total number of English speakers in the inner circle is as high as 380 million, of whom some 120 million are outside the United States.