ENGLISH 121 An English Speaking World 090605 Topics

ENGLISH 121 “An English Speaking World” 09/06/05 Topics: --Number of English speakers --Perception of Dialect Types --Spread of English

Distribution of languages in the world (6, 912 living languages )

World and Country Population (July 2005 est. ) World 6, 446, 131, 400 Top 15 Countries: 1. China 1, 306, 313, 812 2. India 1, 080, 264, 388 3. European Union 456, 953, 258 4. United States 295, 734, 134 5. Indonesia 241, 973, 879 6. Brazil 186, 112, 794 7. Pakistan 162, 419, 946 8. Bangladesh 144, 319, 628 9. Russia 143, 420, 309 10. Nigeria 128, 765, 768 11. Japan 127, 417, 244 12. Mexico 106, 202, 903 13. Philippines 87, 857, 473 14. Vietnam 83, 535, 576 15. Germany 82, 431, 390 http: //www. cia. gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2119 rank. html

The Ten Most Common Languages in the World Ethnologue Volume I: Languages of the World ( 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. , 14 th ed. (2000). ) Mandarin Chinese 874, 000 Hindi (India) 366, 000 English 341, 000 Spanish 322 -358, 000 Bengali (India and Bangladesh) 207, 000 Portuguese 176, 000 Russian 167, 000 Japanese 125, 000 German (standard) 100, 000 Korean 78, 000

Countries in Which English Is an Official Language (red areas)

Distribution of native English speakers by region (1997) http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/English_Language The number of mother-tongue English speakers in the world 326, 652, 000. 67% of these live in the United States.

Facts of English (Ethnologue Volume I: Languages of the World, 14 th ed. (2000). ) English is far more world wide in its distribution than all other spoken languages. ► It is an official language in 52 countries. ► 1/4 to 1/3 of the people in the world understand speak English to some degree. ► English is the dominant language in electronic communication. About 75% of the world's mail, telexes, and cables are in English. ► Approximately 60% of the world's radio programs are in English. ► About 90% of all Internet traffic is in English. ►

Who uses English? ►First Language Users ►Second language users ►Foreign language users ►Internet users 1. 9 billion speakers (including nearly 350 million native speakers)

Who speaks the best English? The Queen's English Test

1. Which is the correct spelling? a. Coleur b. Coulor c. Color d. Colour 2. Which is the correct spelling? a. Realize b. Realyse c. Realice d. Realise

3. The standard abbreviation for 'Mathematics' is. . . a. Math b. Maths c. Math's d. Mathes 4. If a person breaks into your house and steals from you, you have been. . . a. Burgled b. Burgaled c. Burglarized d. Burglared

5. The chemical symbol "Al" refers to which element? a. Astatine b. Aluminum c. Arsenic d. Aluminium 6. A car runs on. . . a. Gasoline b. Oil c. Petrol d. Kerosene

Answers 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. b d b a d c

Compare A. “a little bit of bread with a bit of butter on it” B. "a li'le bi' of breab wiv a bi' of bu'er on i' ► What qualities would you associate with A and B?

What does this tell you? English Education Act of 1870 and dialect leveling from above. Receive Pronunciation (RP) associated with money, power, and education

BBC News Story Wednesday, 20 December, 2000 http: //news. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1080228. stm The researchers compared recordings from the 1950 s and the 1980 s with the standard accent of southern Britain, as spoken by female BBC broadcasters. ► Writing in the scientific journal Nature, the team stated that the Queen's pronunciation of vowel sounds has slowly shifted over the years "towards one that is characteristic of speakers who are younger and/or lower in the social hierarchy". ► In the Queen's Christmas broadcasts of the 1950 s, for example, the word "had" almost rhymed with "bed". But 30 years later "had" migrated halfway to the standard southern English pronunciation, which rhymes with "bad". ►

A shift in prestigious dialects in Britain A change from “below”

What about the U. S. A. ? ► What do you consider “Standard English”? ► Who speaks it? ► Do you want to speak it? Always? ► Has Standard English changed over time?

Dialects in the U. S. A.

Perceptions of Dialects in the U. S. A. Hand-drawn map of a Michigan respondent’s idea of the dialect areas of the US

Perceptions of dialects (cont’d. ) Mean scores of the rankings for ‘pleasant English’ by Auburn University (Alabama) students (‘ 1’ = ‘least pleasant English’; ‘ 10’ = most pleasant English)

Review: Examples of Dialect change/perception 1. Concept of “prestige” (overt; covert) a. Change from “above” b. Change from “below” 2. Perceptions often based on where you live 3. People associate personality traits based on speech. Quite often, these perceptions are wrong.

Or…more seriously… Thomas Purnell, William Idsardi and John Baugh. 1999. Perceptual and Phonetic Experiments on American English Dialect Identification. Journal of Social Psychology. http: //www. stanford. edu/~jbaugh/baugh. fft

Global English

English in other languages Japanese faitingu supiritto (fighting spirit) guddobai (goodbye) Ecuador travoltarse (to be a swinger) Any other examples?

Other words in English Algonquian, including Abnaki, Cree, Micmac, Ojibway, Narragansett, Shawnee: caucus, chipmunk, hickory, manitou, moccasin, moose, muskrat, opossum, papoose, pecan, persimmon, pow-wow, rac(c)oon, skunk, squash, squaw, succotash, toboggan, tomahawk, wigwam, woodchuck.

Arabic, through European languages: admiral, albatross, alchemy, alcohol, alcove, algebra, almanac, apricot, arsenal, assassin, aubergine, azimuth, bedouin, cipher, gazelle, genie, ghoul, giraffe, hazard, jasmine, lemon, magazine, mohair, monsoon, saffron, sash, scarlet, sequin, sherbet, sofa, syrup, talisman, tariff, zero

Thursday ► Homework #1 Due—Questions? ► First movie ► Hand out paper response ► Any questions?