الأحد، 7 فبراير 2016

The colonization and English development

wrote by : Meray Mahmoud
last update : 13/11/2014



The Colonization and English Development

        Nowadays English has been spoken by  2000 thousand people in hundreds of countries (Seargeant,8). However, before English became an international language, it was only spoken by the Britain in England  only. Yet after the French left England, it become a powerful country with a powerful army. It started to colonize other countries. Colonization means is to take other county by force.  That made the opportunity to English to spread in different countries. All in all, English spread in those countries in different ways on different motivates such as economic, social and political . This essay will discuss  the pattern of colonization based on geographical location, the linguistic consequences of colonization and the development of the varieties, and third is categories of language speaker according to Kachru.


            First, After England became an independent country and English became their first language in England, they used it in everything. They needed materials to make their factories work and to end the Unemployed so they colonized other countries to take their goods and make an end to their economic, social and political problems. Colonization means a powerful country that invaded  another country by power and made their people live there (Leith, Philip, 103_105). All in all, those countries did not colonized in the same way but basically with three different patterns and they are displacement that mean that country sent a huge number of people to the country that they wanted to colonize and take their land by force, they made communities that speak their native language. so,  they removed their original language and the original people of those countries and displaced their native language. Then people used it as their native language or speak the language as a mother tongue. Best example of displacement is when Britain wanted to colonize USA. They took a lot of people from Britain, Scotland, and Ireland and send them to America to live and work there because there was a lot of unemployed and inflation combine that created a huge number of vagrants (105,116_122). Subjection is the second way of colonization and it mean  sending a  group of people to different areas not too far from each other making a small communities and control those countries, the best example for that when Britain did in south Africa which made the English language as a second language there. They also took slaves from there and brought them to Jamaica, Caribbean and America to work there and take the goods they make then sending them back to Britain. The last way that Britain used to colonize countries is   replacement. Replacement happened when England brought small number of people from different places that talk different languages like the people in Jamaica and West Africa and live in one country or area, so there was a communication problem because of those slaves was speaking different languages like African and English, so they invited a new language called pidgins that could be used to communicate. Pidgins is a language created of West African slave language and English language and spoken as a invented language for communication so they took vocabulary from English and used the West African grammar, this language had no native speaker. After few generations this language became spoken as a mother tongue and native language by people who lived there and the name became Creoles.



     Second point is the linguistic consequences of colonization. The pattern of colonization played a main role in linguistic consequences like in displacement the language consequence was  a native and mother tongue  language like USA when people who represented the Britain and went to North America to displace their original language with English, subjection as second language like Ghana also pidgins and creoles in  Jamaican and Caribbean. The last linguistic happen in pidgins and creoles which happen in Jamaica and the Crabbing when the British brought the slaves there and they did not have a common language to communicate with so they made a new language made of the vocabulary in English and African language grammar. Other linguistic consequences are five stages putted by Edgar Schneider. First stage is foundation it happened when English come to the area for the first time by the people who has been sent by Britain. So they were speaking different language so they feel that they are a different group. According to that the communication, it became limited on the interpreter and the high class people. Second stage is Exonormative stabilization in this stage English is made up from different dialect of English and they get rid of other  dialect, this process called dialect levelling, like what happened in American they made it when they made the American English. Moreover, English expanded and became spoken in different varieties like administration, education and legal system. Third stage is called Nativisation it is the most important stage because in this stage,  the original people they got rid of their old language and culture and became to see that English is an important and powerful  language and they started to use it as a native language, it also became  their culture and identity. Moreover, they did not stop on using it but they improved it and after that providing it like America and Australia. The fourth stage is Endonormative stabilization which also mean internal variation which promotes their own language and to be independent from Britain. Fifth, differentiation is the last stage in linguistic consequences. The different variety of English has been found and there are different dialects of the varieties  spoken in the territory. (Leith&Philip,2008,1070-111). Other linguistic consequence is substrate that mean language was effected by English like Hiberno-English which happened between the English language and the Irish.


              Third, at 1607 the first wave from South England brought with them the slandered English to North America which colonized by pattern called displacement. It means to remove the original people with their original culture and language and they made the English language the official language in America. The motive behind that colonization was when the British Isles realized that the numbers of people raised and some of them lost their homes and they began to suffer from famine. Another problem was that, the British government had to face with political separation. Second waves was from north England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales but this time they came to America with different variety of English. “The first English speaking colony in Jamestown, Virginia followed by Plymouth Massachusetts in 1620” (Smith, 2008, 213). English became the native language in north America not just because of the role of the country were speak English or they were powerful and protected by the British army, but also because the original people realized the important of English as a power, prestige and fashion language so they started to learn it and speak it as a native language. According to that they removed their own identity and replaced it with another one. That made America become one of inner circle countries and as a norm providing the English language. After the second waves became with their new variety of English which made America had different dialects in it. First example is that Ocracoke island in North Carolina which spoke the Ocracoke dialect, it used unique grammatical, lexical and phonological forms, example of that grammatical they use were instead of was to represents a third person singular she weren’t there. Also, different in pronunciation like once they pronounce it ancet and sody instead of soda. Other dialect you can found in  America is the New York dialect has different pronunciation in sound /r/ identified as non-prevocalic. Important point is that the New Yorker used to hate their dialect because they see it as a low working class. Other dialect is the African American dialect and we can see different in grammar when they talk. They say she sick without putting the verb to be (is) and different in phonology skreet Indication of street (Smith, 2008, 218-219). After few generations the people that lived in America, their loyalty became to the country that they born in which is America and they wanted all the goods that they made and all the benefits that they make to go to them instead of Britain. Moreover, they wanted to protect their identity, and made it different from the British identity. That action named a national reaction and it happened in at the first time 1776 and it moved by Cancers over to ration parliamentary. It started to fight against the Britain. When Britain felt dangers from other countries to see North America as an example and started to fight agents it to avoid that, Britain suggested what is call self-government in 1867 also they made what call a commonwealth. Dr. Johnson’s made the first American dictionary and it was the first step of the American to have their own identity so they change in vocabulary, in grammar also they change pronunciation of the words. It is Important to mention the important role of DR Noah Webster  when he played an important role in reinforcement the American dialect. He also made a dictionary call American dictionary of English(Leith&Philip.2008,116-123, Smith,2008.213-219)




After become the English spoken by people around the world and people know how much important is English nowadays in communication and in businesses in general. Learning and speak English   increasingly rised so, Kachru made the three circles to identify those countries and see the pattern of acquisition and the functional allocation. First circle called the inner circle and it represents the people who speak the invented language and speak it as a native and mother tongue  language also they used it in all their functions.  Example of those countries is U.K, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Kachru also called a norm-providing because those countries who invented the language and made up the vocabulary and the grammar. The second circle Kachru called it the outer circles and it represents the countries which speak the language as a second language the reason behind the spread the language in those countries because of colonization. He also called them a norm developing because they are studying the English and developed it. English language used in education and literature. Is important to mention that English language did not replace the main language in those countries but it used alongside with it, examples of those countries are Bangladesh, Ghana, India and Philippines and example of language  like pidgins and creoles. The third and last circle is called the expanding and they are using and studying the language as a foreign language  and as an international language, it used there in education and for businesses it also use in tourism. Kachru called those countries a norm depending because when they studied English they depended on variety of English like Britain English or American English as it is without developing it, example of those countries like China, Egypt, Korea, and Russia. (seargeant.27_35)

      Conclusion, we could see that there were three different ways to colonize a country, they are displacement, subjection and replacement and those ways of colonizing effected on the linguistic consequences like as a native language or as a second language. example of displacement is north America which also an inner circle also it have been through allot to be independents from Britain, subjection second language outer circle like India and Malaysia, and expanding circle as an international language  like Egypt and Japan which depending on the three circles of Kachru.




the references :

        Seargeant & joan (2008) English in The World History, Diversity, Change This published by Routledge in association with The Open University.
        Graddol, D. (2006) English Next, London, The British Council. pages 34_35
        Crystal (1997, 2003) English as a global language. Second addition Cambridge University Press, published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York (PDF). Page 31, 72-78, 147-158 15/4/2015
        in North America’ in Hogg, R. and Denison, D. (eds) A History of the English Language, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
        Holm, J. (2000) An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. published by The Three Syndicate of The University of Cambridge.   Page 1-4, 16, 18-19
        Kachru et al. The Handbook of World Englishes. the  publishers JohnWiley & Sons copyright 291-299



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