English Colonial to Postcolonial Dick Leith U210A Chapter 5

Introduction Focus: The Colonial Experience the expansion of English and how it became the first language or one of the languages of communities outside England. The Colonial Experience Colonial expansion of England beyond British Isles began in the 16th century.

Colonization Motives: Forms of colonial activity: economic social: getting rid of unwanted members: Political Forms of colonial activity: Settlement by first language speakers of English displaced pre-colonial population (as in America and Australia). Maintaining pre-colonial population (Nigeria) in subjection and teach some of them English. Replacing pre-colonial population (as in Caribbean Islands) by new labor from elsewhere. Result: creation of pidgins and creoles.

Linguistic consequences of colonization Different varieties of English appeared worldwide. English came into contact with different languages English being privileged as the language of power social, political, and economic privileges.

Linguistic consequences of colonization Dialect Leveling and Focusing: Diverse varieties of English of the colonists nonstandard tend to erode. Focusing agencies: Language of education the variety of most powerful social group. Nationalists: Seeking independent political and cultural identities Opposing the dialect leveling Asking for identification and codification of a local variety of English, the attempt of Noah Webster in America.

Linguistic consequences of colonization Creation of new varieties: Linguistic substrate: local population incorporate many linguistic features from their 1st language into the new, imposed language. a new variety of English emerges and becomes the TL of new generation: Indian English, Hiberno-English, etc. English pidgins and creoles

Linguistic consequences of colonization The development of English pidgins and creoles: Long-term slave trade a context of language contact which led to the formation of English pidgins and creoles. Pidgin: A simplified form of speech: a mixture of two or more languages, has a simple grammar and vocabulary, used for communication between groups speaking different languages. Creole: pidgin develops into a full language, and acquired by children as a their first language. Decreolization: contact with the standard English (lexifier language) leads to decreolization where a Creole is progressively assimilated to a near-standard language. (acrolect): such as standard Jamaican English.