Prestige in English

Hello everybody!

As promised I'm going to talk about prestige in language. It is a fact that some varieties of English are more prestigious than others. When talking about prestige, you cannot leave out a sociolect. This is explained in the image below:

When you say that some forms of language are more prestigious, that also means that there are lesser forms. When talking about England, most people will think that Upper Crust RP is the most prestigious form of a language, but that is not necessarily true. The variety that is most appropriate depends on the situation you find yourself in. RP might be seen as denigrating when talking to family members, and talking your own dialect might seem like you lack respect when talking to your boss. Therefore it is really important to change your language to the person you are talking with, in order to prevent awkward situations.

A while ago you were seen as a lesser human being when you could not speak proper English. This meant that 'incorrect English' was seen as a broken variation. There was a debate, for example, in the US two decades ago. A school was using African American vernacular English in order to teach, they had decided that it would be better for their students. The school defended it was not a lesser variety, but only a different variety from the BBC one.

In order to contemplate a variety, you have to consider phonetics. It is a very important aspect to take into account, as well as syntax, vocabulary... Nowadays linguists also say that one of the main features of language is 'change'. The idea that we have to clean, correct and polish linguistic variation is not as important anymore. Next to change, contact with other languages is also very important. Contact between geographic regions is one of the key elements, very often there is even an overlapping of regional  and social varieties.

When we go back to the 1970s, adding prestige to a variety was seen as a very posh, correct and even bastard way of speaking.

One good example of prestige, is 'h-dropping'. It used to be used by the upper class and nobility of the country, but also by the lower class. Everything changed with the arrival of the public school system, which only the upper class could attend. They decided to stop dropping the h. This meant that only the upper class stopped doing that since the lower class did not have the possibilities of going to school. That is how it is still seen as a feature of a variety spoken by someone of a lower class.

In conclusion, today there are still varieties that are more prestigious than others, but it is also important to adjust your language to the situation you are in and to the people you are talking with. It is, therefore, important to be able to speak your dialect and a standard form of a language. That way you can switch comfortably between both varieties, which will give you a lot of advantages in your future life. You should never let go of your dialect, because that is part of who you are, and it is what you grew up with. But being able to speak in a standard variety is a great advantage when it comes to your professional life. It means that everyone will be able to understand you perfectly and that you will have no difficulties in talking with other people.

Thank you so much for reading and talk soon.

x Evelien x

Sources:

http://image.slidesharecdn.com/languageculture-120708161253-phpapp02/95/language-culture-33-728.jpg?cb=1341764109

The Tree Model

Hello everybody!

Today I'm going to talk a bit more about the 'Tree Model of Languages'.
But before that, I need to explain the '3-Group Model'. This model states that there are three different groups of speakers, namely English as a native language, English as a second language and English as a foreign language. In order to divide all of the English speakers into these groups, we have to take their proficiency into account. There are, however, several reasons why this model has not been accepted. First of all, the difference between English as a native language and English as a second language. In India, for example, the citizens are bilingual, so what is their place in this model? Does that mean that they are considerd to have English as their second language, or as their native language?
You can also say that this model does not apply to contemporary English anymore, but more to earlier phases of English. When you are a non- standard native speaker of English, you might feel very anxious to use English depending on the context. You might not feel comfortable with your level of proficiency. Or, in another case, someone from India who has English as his second language might  think of himself as proficient in English, but on the other hand he might feel very anxious when forced to use the language.

This brings us to the Tree model by Streven.
The Tree Model says that every languages comes from a single parent language, anologous to the biological evolution. It is explained perfectly in the picture below. The tree shows the evolution of languages.

There are, however, a lot of limitations to this model. In the tree model of English, they take British English and American English as the two main branches, but what do they mean by these two varieties? There is a standard variety of British English, but even the Standard is only a variety. So the model is obsolete, because it does not contemplate varieties.
So, how can we take the different varieties into account? It is better to use a Banyan tree, instead of an oak tree. A Banyan tree cannot prosper on its own and needs the seeds of other trees to develop. It is the same case with languages: languages are always in contact with each other and take features from one another. This means that some varieties survive and that some do not. 

If you exchange the oak tree for the banyan tree, the model makes a lot more sense and is more correct. Still, it is not the best model out there. Nevertheless, it is still importante since it was one of the first models to bring the evolution of languages into account.

Thanks for reading!
See you soon!
x Evelien x



Sources:
http://www.sssscomic.com/comicpages/196.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/03/10/18/32120A8000000578-3486215-A_new_threat_is_facing_the_iconic_oak_tree_stock_image_Experts_h-a-118_1457633960069.jpg
http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000Uee9ebQg_hI/s/1000/banyan-tree-0001.jpg

What is English?

Hello everybody!

What is English? This may sound as a stupid question, because the answer to that is that English is a language. But there is a lot more to English than only the fact that it is a language.

English is an Anglo- Saxon language, but why do we insist on calling it that? It has influences from French and Scandinavian. It is also a product of ages, which changed a lot over the years and eventually it became a hybrid language. Nevertheless, English has a lot of influences from French, Greek and Latin, but it is still a Germanic language.

English is also a lingua franca.

This means that the language is used by a lot of people as a way to communicate with people who have a different native tongue. Because of that, English is changing very quickly. English as a lingua franca (ELF) speakers put emphasis on getting the message across to their communication partner, which means that it is often not done in a correct way. Here is an example of a typical ELF situation: a Spanish student asking a local for the way in England.

Thirdly, English is a global language.

It is the second most spoken language in the world, after Mandarine. English, however, is widespread. It is the most important language worldwide, because next to the fact that it is the language used for international communication, it is also the language of business and knowledge.

Lastly, English is also the official language in multiple countries.

English is the only official language in, for example, the United Kingdom, Australia and The United States of America. Though the case of America is a peculiar one. It is nowhere stated that English is actually the official language, that is why there is now a legislation process in most states to make it the official language. There are also a lot of countries where English is one of the official languages, like Canada. And lastly, a lot of people in other countries have it as a second language or foreign language.

In conclusion, English is still a very important language, but since languages are always changing, this might not always be the case. Learning English is definitely an advantage: when you can understand and speak the language, a lot of doors open. It also means that you can communicate with more people and read more books or articles, which help to broaden your horizons.

See you soon!

x Evelien x

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_as_a_lingua_franca

http://www.clasesinglesbogota.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/GlobalLanguageinBogota.png

https://www.altalang.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/english-lingua-franca.jpg

http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/International-Mother-Language-Day-1.jpg

http://learningenglishwithmaria.weebly.com/uploads/5/8/4/7/58474713/3901559.jpg?669

http://grammar.about.com/od/e/g/englishlanguageterm.htm

Standard English

Hello everybody!

Today I'm going to talk about 'Standard English'.

Every country, where English is the official language, has another standard of English, these varieties are similar in the core. There are differences in pronunciation, vocabulary and sometimes in grammar, but it is nothing too significant.

This basically means that there is not one standard of English, but that there are multiple. When studying English, mostly RP and North American English are used as the norm.

Nevertheless, there are quite some differences between North American English and RP. The differences are not that big, but they can sometimes be confusing as to what is the American variant and what is the British one. You cannot use both of the variants at the same time. This is shown in the images below: the image on the left gives examples of different vocabulary and the one on the right of different spelling. Normally, native speakers know both possibilities and can therefore understand each other perfectly.

Next to the these varieties, there are also smaller varieties that depend on where you live and what your background is. It is a good thing to have multiple dialects in your backpack, so that you can use different ones according to the situation you are in.

When someone is talking about 'Standard English', they often mean 'Standard Written English', because it is easier to standardise the written language than the spoken language. A language changes all the time when we speak, and it is much easier to introduce new words or grammar rules to it. That is why slang changes from generation to generation.

I've been explaining some things about standard languages, but how do they actually come to be standard ones? Some languages start out as pidgin or creole languages. They were first investigated by linguistics in the 1960s. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, "a pidgin language is a language that is formed from a mixture of several languages when speakers of different languages need to talk to each other." It has no native speakers, but it is a contact language and it is mostly used in the oral form. Creole, on the other hand, is a normal language in almost every way. A lot of the times, a creole is developed from a pidgin language, but not always. It is possible that creoles just spring up out of nowhere. It is the first language of a new generation of speakers. They have written expressions and they evolve, next to that they also have their own literature and often have a translation of the 'Bible'.

There are different points of view when talking about pidgins and creoles. There are two different sides, namely prescriptivists and descriptivists. Prescritivists say that the standard is the rule, descriptivists, on the other hand, say that each variety is acceptable. The former talks about errors and the latter about features, what is the difference between the two?

When you follow prescriptivism, it means that everything that is different from the standard, is an error. There is only one correct language. Descriptivists talk about features, which means that each variety has its own features. So, it does not mean that the variety is wrong or less good than the standard, it just means that it is different. Nowadays, grammars tend to describe the language instead of prescribing it.

In conclusion, there is no such thing as 'Standard English'. Each country has its own standard, and students of English can just choose the standard they want to follow. It is, however, true that some varieties have more prestige than others, but that is for another post.

Thanks for reading and see you soon!

x Evelien x

Sources:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pidgin

http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/british-american-english-differences-language-9__880.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/f2/eb/32/f2eb322a4be2e0515d1d7ff0b6058c7d.jpg

The Process of Standardization

Hello everybody!

Today I am going to tell you a bit more about the process of standardization. It takes a long time for a language to become the standard.

There are four stages in this process, namely: selection, acceptance, elaboration and codification. These stages have different names, but we will stick to these.

1. Selection

In a language there are a lot of varieties, namely regional varieties, social varieties and so on. Therefore it seems normal that in orde to develop a standard language, one should pick one of these varieties as the standard language.

2. Acceptance

In this phase, the chosen variety has to be accepted by the community, which is done through institutions, agencies and authorities. Some of these authorities are media, schools, politics etc. It is basically the phase that makes sure the chosen variety becomes the standard for the community and that the rest are dialects of that standard.

3. Elaboration

It is possible that the chosen variety does not have every fuction needed, if that is the case, the language needs to be further elaborated.

4. Codification

In the last phase all of the grammar rules need to be written down in a grammar book, a dictionary needs to be made, so that the language has reference books.

Sources:

https://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elltankw/history/Standardisation/B.htm

http://localdap.blogspot.com.es/2013/06/language-standardization.html